And odd sort of title on the heels of my post about thieves in play, I know. Suffice it to say that I’ve spent a goodly amount of time lately thinking about thieves in games. I’ve come to a much different understanding of how I view thieves overall, compared to all those years I used them at my table (or played them at somebody else’s table) where I worked around issues and tried to patch the class to make it better.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t have much use for the thief as it seems to be embodied in the old school systems. That is to say, I don’t care for the thief as low-life criminal. All that basic larceny with simple burglary, picking pockets in crowds, and general thuggery just doesn’t fit well with my preferences in fantasy fiction, whether in published stories or in game narratives.
That said, I still very much think there’s a place for characters who are sneaky, possibly underhanded, not who they appear to be, and otherwise not straightforward, upstanding citizens. Spies sent to gather information while disguised as a legitimate merchant, or sneaking into private quarters surruptitiously in search of letters and other information. Explorers intent on exploring tombs in search of treasures. Agents seeking wanted men or women (or the odd creature) to be brought to reckoning–not necessarily justice–for a fee. Those smuggling illicit goods through supposedly lawful lands.
It has to do with desired and expected roles in not just the setting, but also in expected play over the life of a campaign. What purposes does such a character class serve over the course of play? Well, I imagine thieves allow a party to access places it otherwise wouldn’t, and access places the party wouldn’t even know about if it weren’t for the thief character. They can do quick scouting in ruins and tunnels and cities and such to gain some intel on what’s going on. They have contacts in the criminal underworld they can access for more information. And, of course, spying during domain play.
Now, none of that actually included simple burglary just to steal a handful of coins and a couple of pieces of jewelry from a merchant. A spy snooping in a noble’s estate isn’t on a jaunt to simply steal some baubles, they’re there to find information tying the noble to an enemy political movement. Their activity has greater purpose and weight than simple larceny.
So, what I want to do is package thieves up as treasure hunters, bounty hunters, spies, special envoys, smugglers removing slaves from bondage, and similar. They can still possess some of the classic thief abilities–if not most–and yet they aren’t simply common criminals. Expect the materials I publish to have a different take on sneaky characters because of this.