stealing

[meskin]

How would you practice stealing successfully? Is it possible? Please, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I was just wondering if it's possible to actually get good at stealing and live.

-meskin

[crymerci]

Think about it ICly.

Think about the object. Is it easy to grasp? Is it easily accessible or are you going to have to work hard for it? Is it likely to be missed right away?

Think about where or whom you are stealing from. Think about how hard it would really be to do. Are you stealing from a crippled old dwarf or from an alert, muscular elf? Are there guards, perhaps even guards specifically to protect against theft? Is it a crowded room or not, and will that work to your advantage or disadvantage?

Think about how you would do it..are you going to just stand there and stick your hand out and grab it or create a distraction or what? Think about what you're going to do if you get caught, and what you're going to do if you're not.

[Anonymous]

Why not join a clan of thieves and let them show you how it's done?

[rnix]

Well lets see you always could go and do that but now think of where you'd have to go to get to a group such as that. Now think of the risks invovled in even finding the persons to help you out! Now north and south are very different places, Governed but different people laws you'll haev to make up a name on the board so maybe you can ask somebody with a private message some questions- I could help you out maybe getting started with some tips. But most definitly read up before you do anything. Look at all the help files about Theives, burgulars, labyrinth all that good stuff:)

[gfair]

Think of some way that a person would sneak around naturally, perhaps not necessarily for thieving, but a game, or something she/he has always done.  Or perhaps there are a few VNPC/NPCs out looking for him/her, but it's a personal thing, definitely unlawful, and thus the character sneaks around a lot.

Sneaking is something you have to do discretely if you don't want everyone and their kank to know what you are/who you are.  Doing that is harder than you'd imagine.

[krelin]

Or you just embrace your sneakyness and who cares if everyone knows who/what you are...

Eventually, they won't see you anymore anyway.  

You will learn from your successes and failures in an invisible way just like
any skill. Its up to you how you play these off. You might be trying to
steal someone's sword botch the job and go to jail. In jail you might do
something like think over what you did and come up with new ways to
try and lift off swords from belts without them noticing.

Then when your free you go try or whatever, fail or suceed and then
reflect accordingly... and eventually you'll notice change.

Now of course dont just go robbing everyone to try and raise your skill.
This is considered twinkish and bad role-play. Do what you would do if you
were your character. Trying to survive? Then look for things worth value.
Trying to be an annoying brat that likes to steal people's belts to make
their pants fall down? then target belts.

Anyways, there is my advice. Good luck.

[Meskin]

Is doing something to get you jailed considered bad roleplay?
Do you lose your character in jail?

[Rindan]

Is doing something to get you jailed considered bad roleplay?
Do you lose your character in jail?

Of course it is not bad role play.  In Armageddon things generally work out realistically.  Do something to get the law on your ass, and you get thrown in jail.  If the offense is minor (pick pocketing and normal forms of theft) then you generally get a slap on the wrist.  If you do something very bad (murder or some how piss someone with power), then the authorities might execute you.

Generally, jail time is served in an OOCly convenient way.  Namely, you will not find yourself in jail for days and days.  Generally, will either find yourself in jail for a single game day (about an hour or so) and then be released, or you will serve your punishment in some other way.  That some other way might be a favor for the templerate, some sort of job, monetary compisation to the templerate, and if you mess up enough  you might just get death.  Whatever the case, you will never waste away in jail.

[Anonymous]

It is possible to become skilled at stealing even as a newbie.  (Or newbie to stealing).    Keep in mind, though, that as a thief every steal attempt puts your life at risk.   But the key to surviving and getting more skilled is to learn how to do lower the risks, how to deal with sticky situations, etc.    Especially as a brand newbie (which I was with my first thief character), you're trying to both use common sense and also understand how world (NPCs and PCs) reacts when you mess up.   And just like code-wise your character doesn't learn without making mistakes - as a player it's hard to know how to play a thief until you've screwed up a few times and been thrust into situations you didn't expect, etc.

And no - doing something to get you put in jail isn't indicative of bad roleplay at all.   And you don't (necessarily) lose your character if he/she is sent to jail.  (Read 'help jail').

[creeper386]

I'd like to include something. I'd found out that RPing things out tends to help things alot. At least on a RP level. Now it might be considered abuse in one way, but ussually when you do something someone doesn't like, and RP it out things go better, and sometimes amazingly well. This way, they don't get upset OOCily at you for trying to steal something as well as OOCily upset that you didn't give any RP AND ICily upset at the attempted theft. At least if you fail, and if you succeed people are less likely to be upset in a well RPed situation.

Fits for most things. You don't have to give yourself away with RP. Just set up the situation. I've never had the time on Arm because I've never really played a thief, but alot of fun mini plots can be devised from a theft, and don't result in the death of your character. Only on Arm I'd like to see templars not concern themselves as much in small petty things. It's hard to do something when a templar well help every Tom Dick or Harry just because something bad happened to them, but thats a side thing. Militia members are easier dealt with without causing problems but it's alot more difficult with templars.

Anyways, as it's been said, just be true to IC things. More often then not it's in the hands of the theif to set up realistic settings. And the whole hide all the time and never emote thing doesn't help things. I think sneak grabs like that really wouldn't be common. That blatant run by grabbings and more devious schemes are common. Not big scams. Just something more or less then the hide in an alcove and snag their pouch as they walk by move.

Creeper

[Carnage]

Players, from commoners to templars, are usually a lot willing to forgive someone who throws out emotes and plays out the situations rather than someone who just spams steal. Keep that in mind the next time before you type 'steal'.

[sancho]

- - When it comes to stealing, you should always decide on what kind of thief your thief will be. If you plan to play a thief who steals to stay alive, your character should probably pick and choose who s/he steals from. Choosing to go after easy prey and such. On the other hand, if you're playing a bolder thief (as I did with my only pickpocket), you should throw yourself at anyone with something to steal.

- - That's not to say you ought to rip off everyone under the sun. It is to say that your character ought to act as it would be normal for him/her to act. My character was an elf, and I've always had problems with how few elven thieves were bastards, so I felt I had to make up for them. I attempted to steal from NPCs that, in all likelihood, thieves have a 100% fail rate stealing from. Even though I know OOC I could never steal from said NPCs, my character was always getting better, so he was always more daring.

- - You'll know when you get good at stealing. Oh, you'll know. When that happens, you really need to know what they're like. My character started stealing from militia and the templarate (including that one that collects money for water). He didn't get anything too valuable, and he often just discarded what he stole. Sometimes I'd steal something cheap from a PC (that I could tell they didn't want stolen) and plant something crappy on them (rat heads, bloody weapons, scraps of old food) in exchange.

- - The point is, you should only try to learn to steal safely if your character would actually play it safe. Otherwise, throw yourself into deadly risks and enjoy the terribly satisfying feeling of victory. Regardless of which you do, the best way not to die is to always remember to turn NOSAVE on before stealing. Of course, don't forget to turn NOSAVE off later... heh...

- - As to emotes... well, I've said what I think about them. I actually emote quite a bit in regards to theft (even by my spartan standards)... but I would suggest you not get too caught up in complicated descriptions early on. My suggestion is, write out an emote alias before you attempt to steal, then post it during the theft delay. You should change this alias every time you steal. The reason for writing it in advance is that it makes the room echo of the emote appear at the proper time before the results.