Yoink!
"Listen to me. Wealth is the only reality. And the only way to obtain wealth is to take it away from somebody else."
-- Avon, Blake's 7, episode 2 - "Spacefall"
Adventuring. A chance of glory, to do the right thing and overcome evil, perhaps earning one's place in the history books.
Alternatively, it's all about the money. Adventurers, technically, deal in a lot of very dodgy merchandise. Some of it's gleaned from the bodies of dead people, although in many cases they're often the ones responsible for bestowing that happy condition on said dead people in the first place. If you look at it, the adventurers pretty much thieve their way through their entire careers. Helping themselves to a dragon's hoard? That's handling stolen goods. Raided a temple to get the gems from the eye of the statue of the Great God Agadoo? Breaking and entering, followed by taking without owner's consent... the charges rack up quite easily. Short of cash? Who hasn't tried a bit of pocket-picking action in their time?
Sure, the new edition might have sanitised things a bit. Thieves are called rogues now, and with edition 3.5 the Pick Pockets skill was renamed Sleight of Hand -- but who do WOTC think they're fooling? Seriously? Theft is theft. Still, if your characters are going to do it, they might as well do it properly.
Well, there's thieving and then there's thieving...
In this article, we're going to look at four different approaches to the whole issue of twocking stuff. You see, there are so many different methods of nicking other people's property that unless you're a criminal mastermind with an Intelligence score of 26, chances are you're not going to master every thieving ability going. You'll have to specialise -- and if you're not a rogue, then you'll really have to specialise. We'll also look at the ethics of theft, and a few tips for role-playing effective thieves.
The first thing to bear in mind is the whole question of stealing from the rest of your adventuring party. Sure, it's good practice, but should you do it? The short answer to this question is 'maybe'. If you help yourself to all the cleric's money just before he starts making magic items, then you'll have shot yourself in the foot. Similarly, if your actions deprive the characters of the chance to stock up on ammunition and other essentials, then it's going to have serious repercussions. I've seen adventuring parties quite happily slaughter their own members when stuff goes missing. Make sure you know you can get away with it before trying anything as cowardly and venal as stealing from your comrades. It can cause a lot of tension in an out-of-character context as well as in the in-character world. Do you want that on your plate? Really? Do you feel like walking home as well? This sort of thing only works if the rest of the players are happy with the idea of someone completely untrustworthy in their party, and if the whole experience is made fun for the whole group.
The four kinds of thieving I'll address are pocket-picking, robbery with violence, burglary and fraud. Although there is a bit of overlap between some of the categories, there is enough difference between them to merit separate classification.