How do I run an all-thief game?

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Make all characters blood related.

>>49877771
Do an oceans 11 thing. Pull off the ultimate heist

>>49877771
Have all your players role thieves.
It ain't rocket science.

Go for a classless system that works well with action movie tropes. plan a heist.

Gotta have a heist. What kind of setting, sci fi, fantasy, other?

Well, I guess it kinda depends on what system you're using, doesn't it?
Assuming you're running DnD or something similar, you'll probably want a bit of class variation. Allow your players to roll up non-Rogue classes with some obvious exceptions, like Paladins and then maybe trade off one of their usual class skills to give them some Sneak skill.

>>49877886
Fantasy. Can't decide if I want to go high or low though. I really don't want magic to trivialize things.

Step 1- Don't run it in D&D.

>>49877923

Read conan, play swords and sorcery but limit everyone to a thief.

>>49877923
If worse comes to worse you could use magic to create variations on standard heist traps. Magic detection grid instead of lasers, etc. Could even have a security company run entirely by wizards.

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>>49877771
thieve
pickpocket
scammer
burglar
robber

Together they're trying to make it out of a penal colony and back to civilization.

>>49877886 >>49877845
Shit son, It's heist movie time.

Could probably found their own mafia too if they get that far. Then it turns into backstabbing, horse-heading FUN.

I used to use AD&D and just tell everyone to pick a thief specialty and put most of their points into it so they'd be an especially effective team. Nowadays I would just use Blades in the Dark, that shit's awesome for "gang of fantasy thieves."

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Read blades in the dark
No idea if it's any good, but it's interesting at least

>>49878015
I've always wanted to do a campaign where an Ancient Good awakens and the party consists of a bunch of minor ne'erdowells and dickass thieves trying to make a dishonest living in a world braced for a mighty purge.

>>49878042

Having played it, I wouldn't go back. So much of the stuff I used to have to pull out of my butt on the spot is structured and gamified that it makes my job much easier.
If OP's gonna use something else, I'd suggest looking for stuff to steal.
I especially like how it lets players have some ability to retcon shit in the middle of executing their plans, because we used to have long drawn out arguments and interminable planning stages where every plan gets shot down, one after another, and it just goes on and on. Now they don't have to worry about it so much, and all that boring debate club shit is gone. That one part of the rules means they come up with a rough skeleton of how they want to go at it, and then we can just jump in and go, and I don't have to sit on my GM butt while they argue about shit.

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>>49877771
The current hero is a shit, so a master thief was hired to steal all the evil lord's evil general's courage and break them ahead of the hero's arrival.

He shanghai'd you into his scheme.

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>>49877771
You must read this.

>>49877771
Make sure the players all know that they're a team. That means honor among thieves, no backstabbing.

Nothing says only rogues can be thieves. You can have a fighter as the muscle, a conman bard, and a slick sorcerer alongside your typical pickpocket. Let them mix it up with any characters they have that fit instead of forcing them to all make sneaky stabby guys.

Be ready for them to decide to become pirates. It will happen if they have even the vaguest opportunity.

Personally I'd try for something inspired by Leverage.

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>>49877771
Start the players in a thieves guild, first day on the job. Or even start their own guild and try to establish themselves in a big city competing with other guilds for territory. Typical mafia movie stuff, protection rackets, heists, networks of informants and lookouts, betrayals and intrigue galore. You don't even have to use the Monster Manual.

As others have repeated, a motherfucking heist.

A heist of the greatest power in the known world. Like the crown jewels or some shit.

But here's the twist, each party member has their own secret goal in mind that they want to keep from the other players, and they dont all know that each has a secret goal.

One is actually supposed to assassinate the high king.
One is sent to steal the apothecary's book
One is to steal a very unassuming plain looking pendant from the queen's chambers
One is to deliver a message personally to the grand royal vizier (no leaving notes, it has to be in person)
One is to drug the king's appointed knight before a joust, but not kill him.

And this is all supposed to be happening on the same night as the grand heist they all have to work together to pull off.

>>49878021
>After some adventurers slew the local dragon, whatever was left of the hoard was shipped to the kingdom's reserve
>You are a small group of thieves, small time bandits who want to make it big with the heist of the century
>Unbeknownst to each other, each individual is hunting down a very specific item in the hoard that is worth millions in gold for a third party
>Together, they make a group named the Sinister [# of members + 1]

>>49878632
># of members + 1

Why the +1?

>>49878757
The Sinister Six has only five members.

>>49878757

Not that anon but it should be obvious. Generates buzz, a little mystery.

>>49877839
Then give them xp when they successfully steal from one another without getting caught. Let hilarity ensue.

>>49878757
It's a reference to The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, where the Sinister Six is a five-man band, and their leader, Boomerang, wants to keep it that way to fuck around with anyone they go up against.
It kinda works when the four (after they kick out Boomerang) get attacked by Luke Cage and Iron Fist (who were tipped off by Boomerang), who are on edge in case the other two members do a sneak attack (which kinda-sorta happens after Boomerang breaks out his partners (who he sold out (so they can trust him again (so that he can backstab them (again)))))

>>49877771
Play it like in Bastard Bonds.
Every criminal is deported to a penal colony and must find a way to survive, to escape or stave of a demonic invasion. They are branded for their crime and recognize the big fish from the little fish more easily like that.
And then they get buttfucked by a bara orc.

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>>49877771
>How do I run an all-thief game?
Silly and ridiculous heists.
ALL the heists

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>>49877771
Basically The Snatch or Oceans 11, also i'm really sorry for that aborted quint.

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>>49877771
Compton 1990. dundus stealing stereos

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>>49877771

Tell the players it is going to be a crime-themed game, and run it accordingly. Not everyone has to be a thief, but it helps if most of the party has some of the relevant thief skills.

I ran a 4th edition game set in Lankhmar. The players looked at the various combat rolls, and didn't overlap, but still stayed within the spirit of the game. We had a cleric, warlord, rogue, warlock, and fighter.

All I needed to run an all thief game was to inform my players, and run the game accordingly.

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>>49877771
One of them is an informant

>>49878042
>>49878121
I've GMed Blades before, this system is amazing for this type of game. Expanding your gang/criminal enterprise, doing scores, planning, retconning via stress etc. is all built into the system.

One of the fun mechanics is when you plan a score, you don't actually plan it in depth, you choose a type of plan and the detail for how you do it. So for instance you might say we're going to break into some mansion by the river by sneaking in, and you're going to do it by sneaking through a large sewer pipe that spills into the river. You roll an engagement roll depending on a number of factors, and that determines the situation you're placed in. Say you roll a 4 on your engagement roll. When your party arrives at the sewer entrance, you see that the grates have already been cut through, with a boat anchored right next to the pipe. Someone got here before you, and they're in there right now stealing your prize...

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>>49877771
Like this.

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>>49877771
Shadowrun

>>49879560
There's just a ton of mechanics that lend itself to a heist based game. The game is literally inspired by Thief: The Dark Project and Dishonored.

The basic flow of blades is: Gathering information/Planning: where you prep for your next score
Execution: where you execute said score
Payoff/Entanglements: when you've finished the score, and you have to deal with any fallout/entanglements as a result of your heat that you've gained from your cumulative scores.
Downtime, where players spend actions to do things specific to their characters or to prepare for future events, deal with heat, deal with their vice/stress etc.
Repeat.

As you can see, the entire structure of the game is built around scores. Definitely read it.

>>49878572
Sounds like Lair of the Fat Man seed from GURPS

Not a bad thing at all.
>>49878964
Holy shit, I haven't seen Lupin in ages. Thought I was getting to be the last goy to know about the precocious scamp.

>>49879430
What an artful pepe

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>>49878782
>Not counting Dredd Dormammu
Come on man.

>>49878895
>the nested parentheses of legend

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>>49879308
>Party of aspiring Bards robbing electronics stores so they can afford lutes
Fucking sign me up

>>49878895
>(who he sold out (so they can trust him again (so that he can backstab them (again)))))

This summaries how a good scum-and-villainy type game should go. If the players aren't too keen on backstabbing eachother, have NPC's that they can do it on/get traitored by.

>Master thieves perform world's greatest heist by undergoing mystical dimension-trotting adventure to steal actual metaphysical concepts such as wealth or power and become godlike beings at the end of it

Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2
Both are groups of rogues running a heist for good purposes.

Not everything evil can be defeated by a paladin.

>>49877771
Carefully.

>>49880077
Actually, might be fun to do a Robin Hood expy.

I mean you got your wily ranger, your brickhouse half-orc barb, your fat balding cleric with a drinking problem, the merry men have the makings of a decent party.

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>>49880020
Hell, it goes deeper than that.
The first heist, Boomerang tricks the other three (Overdrive, Beetle, and Speed Demon (Shocker was part of the crew until he was left for dead in a car trunk by Boomerang (because he thought Shocker knew about his deal with Chameleon (which was to find and steal the (still living and cybernetic) head of Silvermane (a notorious kingpin) from Owl (a low-level gang leader who kinda looks like Wolverine but has a thing where he likes to eat rats like an owl) so that Chameleon (who disguised himself first as Hammerhead (another low-level crime boss) to get the Sinister Six to bail out Boomerang then as the Punisher (you know who he is) to remind Boomerang of the deal (to steal the head of Silvermane (so that Chameleon could become the leader of the New York Mafia))) could become the leader of the New York Mafia)(but it turns out Shocker didn't actually know)))) into going to the Owl's loot room the long way so that he could take the elevator straight there. Instead of the head of Silvermane (a notorious kingpin), Boomerang steals the legendary painting of Dr. Doom (without his mask and crying a single tear (because he was drunk when he had the painter do the painting)), and revealing that the head of Silvermane (a notorious kingpin) is a hoax (which it isn't (which is revealed when Shocker (who escapes the sinking car (I forgot how) and sees Silvermane (you should probably know he's a notorious kingpin by now) on an RC car (which he was put on by a little boy who found him (Silvermane) laying around after his (cybernetic (because he was growing old and wanted a new body so he could keep running NY)) (not the boy's you dingus) body was crushed by a trash compactor) wandering the junkyard they're in. Thinking quickly, Shocker takes Silvermane (an infamous emperortack) with him to his crummy apartment.
(1/?)

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>>49877771
The Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch is a must read on the subject.

The Thief series of games are worth cherry picking too. Included in the file is the fairly decent Thief RPG.

>>49877817
You wound me sir. Most of us are performers and tradesmen. except for trash like my cousin. Just got picked up for larceny. Gypsies are the niggers of the Rom community

>>49878371
Muh Niggah.

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>>49880948
After getting shat on (figuratively (he has no body to shit with)) by Silvermane for being the pussy he is, Shocker decides to take control of his life and become the new (notorious) kingpin of New York. Then, Hydro-Man (a retired supervillain who can turn his body into water) finds out about the head and decides to rat out Shocker to Hammerhead (Silvermane's old right-hand man who wants to be like the movie mob bosses but has severe attatchment issues with his old boss), who promptly goes to Shocker's house to kill him and take back the head.
MEANWHILE, after Boomerang backstabs his old team, he gets back to dating his new girlfriend (who he got after getting kicked out of the Sinister Six) and starts to feel his life getting on the up-and-up. Then Chameleon and his cronies break into his apartment (because Boomerang didn't get the head of Silvermane (which he thought was a myth (which it wasn't))) and promptly torture him. After revealing that the head of Silvermane is a myth (it's not), Chameleon decides that the painting of Dr. Doom (which was poorly hidden behind a romcom poster) is payment enough and leaves with it.
MEANWHILE, Beetle calls her (the old Beetle (who's a guy) reformed and became Mach VII (and is working on reforming Boomerang (who got arrested after committing a crime while on parole when the story started)(which doesn't work))) dad, Tombstone (who's a superpowered mob boss with the power of being pale) to save her, Overdrive, and Speed Demon from Owl (who is threatening to kill them by rats (which he eats) for stealing his painting (which they didn't know about)). He does save her in the nick of time and they go back to figure out how and why Boomerang backstabbed them (and how deep the backstabbing goes (pretty deep)).
(2/?)

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>>49881156
Beetle (who we discover was a lawyer until she decided to become a supervillain) and Overdrive (who has the power to pimp out vehicles (with nanomachines (which he got from Mr. Negative (another crime boss with the power of being in black-and-white)))) try to find out on their own, but are attacked by Mr. Negative's goons (because Overdrive owes Mr. Negative a debt for the powers). During their chase, Beetle starts getting the hots for Overdrive (because he drives fast cars), and the two hijack a school bus to make their escape.
MEANWHILE, Speed Demon decides to return Inspector (a dog he kidnapped (because a little girl called him stupid (because he said her dog's name (Inspector) was stupid) while he and Shocker were buying bird seed (actually diamonds in a bird seed bag) for Boomerang (who doesn't have a bird)) for the reward.
MEANWHILE, Boomerang confronts Chameleon and asks him (Chameleon) if he (Boomerang) could have the painting back. Chameleon mocks Boomerang and says no, then kicks him (Boomerang) out. As it turns out, it was all a ploy, and Boomerang was trying to bait Chameleon into shapeshifting his face into Boomerang's (because Boomerang told Owl that it was Chameleon disguised as Boomerang who stole the painting (which it wasn't), and Owl (who was using a camera hidden in Boomerang's mask) believed it once he saw Chameleon do the face-shift thing), which works. After he walks off smugly, Beetle and Overdrive (in the hijacked school bus (filled with kids and riddled with Japanese weapons (from Mr. Negative's goons))) pick up Boomerang, and later, Speed Demon. They decide to celebrate their reunion (after Boomerang lies to them (again) about the double-ploy (actually a triple-ploy)) with some beers. They then discuss the past events and their backstories.
(3/?)

>>49877836

This. It's basically what Lies of Locke Lamora is anyways.

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>>49881405
After making a getaway from Hercules (Overdrive's favorite superhero), the group return to their hideout and decide to break into Chameleon's place so they can get the painting back. They, alongside the bunch of washed-up supervillains Boomerang met during his (court-ordered) rehab, break in. Overdrive and Beetle get the painting, meanwhile Boomerang nabs something else (which we find out is a shapeshifting serum), and the group make their getaway. The four go to their (other) hideout and decide what to do next. Shocker (who escaped with Silvermane's head) is there already, hiding in the restroom and listening to the group talking. Silvermane goads Shocker into revealing himself, which he does (explosively). Shocker tries to get the team to actually work together, but with the head of Silvermane, the crew decides to backstab him and get rich off the head. They bury him alive and go to the agreed-upon location to meet Hammerhead and trade the head. However it turns out everyone except Boomerang (who isn't really there (because he used the serum to turn Mach VII into Boomerang while he (the real Boomerang) disguises himself as a baseball player for a team his girlfriend (Actually Black Cat (who has the real Dr. Doom painting)) loves to prove that he is still a good baseball player (he used to be one until a losing streak ended his career and turned him to a life of crime)(which it turns out he isn't after all these years).
MEANWHILE, at the deal, it's revealed that Overdrive sold the group out to Mr. Negative, Beetle sold them out to her dad, and Speed Demon sold them out to Chameleon, and a big mob fight breaks out. Suddenly The Punisher (who heard about the deal) appears and is about to kill the criminals until Shocker (who got out of the grave due to butt-dialing Hydro-Man) drives out of nowhere and punches him. Silvermane (whose face is painted like a member of KISS) decides to name him the new mob boss.
(4/5)

>>49881618
Speed Demon makes his getaway, while Beetle and Overdrive make their escape together with the (fake) Dr. Doom painting. Mach VII, who Owl (who caught Boomerang (Mach VII)) mistook for Boomerang, ends up getting beaten up. It is then revealed that Owl actually knew of the ploy and is watching Boomerang (disguised as another pitcher) fail his lifetime dream of having a perfect game and returns to the life of crime, paintingless, girlfriendless, and probably friendless.
(5/5)

>>49878042
>>49878121
>>49879560
>>49879691
Sounds neat. Is it quick enough for a oneshot, or would I need to commit to a longer game?

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>>49877771

Make all characters black/mexican.

>>49881790
You could easily run it as a one shot. The longer term mechanics wouldn't come into play, but that's fine. Setting up characters and the gang in blades is pretty easy. I forgot to mention the gang itself has its own character sheet in blades, it's pretty cool.

A one shot of blades would basically be a full phase from planning>score>entanglements>downtime.

>>49881988
Got a PDF you can share?

>>49882259

Not him, but I've seen it posted in the PDF share threads.

>>49882259
http://www.4shared.com/postDownload/_9JEwjQPba/Blades_in_the_Dark_-_Quickstar.html

>>49877771
This picture (And the other versions of it, because I know of at least two), always reminds me of my earliest actual campaign.

Back in the early 90s, my friends and I took turns running adventures with a motley crew of thieves, brigands, and rapists as our characters.

I always imagined this was a perfect scene from that campaign.

Ah, what good times were those....

>>49878243
>steal all the evil lord's evil general's courage
So, a con game then?

each session is a different score. starting with petty shit, knocking off supply wagons and shit, leading up to the penultimate heist, maybe robbing some gigantic dwarven bank or a semi-magical offshore gnomish casino.

to ground the players give them an opportunity to found a base, give them some mysterious "mr. x" type character that lets them know about shit and nudges them in the right direction

just start coming up with missions, and the story will write itself. eventually they'll fuck up and piss off the wrong person, who maybe hires some kinda anton chigurh type figure who ruthlessly hunts the party down. or he could be some kinda grizzled city guard captain who needs to prove he's more than a corrupt drunk.

i dunno that's just what comes to mind

>>49882375
Many thanks, anon.

>>49880948
All of these parentheses are giving me coding ptsd

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>>49877771

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>>49880948
>>49881156
>>49881405
>>49881618
>>49881706
Now I wanna read this

>>49877886
Cyberpunk. Heists are much more fun when you have to disable the security systems by hacking into them neurally, disable the augmented guards, and escape from the orbital resort in a stolen spaceship.

>>49877771
Only let players roll up thieves or rogues or whatever and base a campaign on what those types of characters are capable of and a goal they could and should logically support.

So don't have your characters hack through 20 Orcs, if they want to fight Orcs give them a subtle option and try to nudge them towards the subtle option. If the Orc warlord has the Sword of Analrape forged for King Analrape IV which is worth a ton of money instead of running into his camp and killing the entire tribe they might have three guys stage a distraction, a fourth guy steals the sword, and a fifth guy pins the blame on the human sex slave he has been keeping by stowing the scabbard under her bed.

Bam only a handful of Orcs (and one unfortunate human girl) die and the party gets a nifty sword to sell to the highest bidder.

>>49883083

Anon, I'm gonna need you to write that fuzzy logic algorithm Davis mentioned, in LISP, and have it ready to run by ((next (week)).)

>>49883073
np, blades is a good system, basically designed with all its mechanics for exactly what you are looking for. much better than trying to use a system like pathfinder or dnd to do something its just not designed to do.

>>49877771
https://youtu.be/LgHm3Ct0Zh0
is a good example

>>49877771
Let's assume you somehow want to play this in D&D. A thief is not a rogue, there can be many kinds of thief. In fact, all you really need is the "criminal" background for a stealth focus.

A fighter or a barbarian can be your everyday bandit, who chooses force to mug the unaware in dark alleys, and then slips away into the night.

A ranger can be a highwayman, stalking through the wilderness and ambushing trade caravans.

A rogue is of course most suited to being what we traditionally associate with a thief, so they fill the catburglar niche.

A bard would usually not work alone as their charismatic nature tends to drift them towards 'bait and switch' theft. You know, the thing that happens in large European cities to fool dumb tourists? Someone speaks to you to ask your for directions or offer you trinkets you don't want to buy or tell you how handsome you look, only for his/her partner (the real thief) to pick your pockets?

Wizards and sorcerers... they have spells. Use your imagination.

Clerics are ____Jews____

It reminds me the French game Nightprowler that was a thief game. PC's are all rogues ranging from pickpockets, to burglars, con artists, robbers, assassins, spies, highwaymen and spadassins. There are tons of rogue classes to choose from which is basically ok. The guys who want to fight will choose spadassins and duelists, the guys who want to play a smooth talker will choose the con artists or the spy, etc.

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>>49885769
>spadassin
>combination of spada (sword) and assassin
This is brilliant. Why doesn't English have a word for this? Googling it mostly links to French and Italian things.

>>49885805
Because you English are a bunch of cunters, but don't have enough assassins going around to risk mixing them up without separate names for each specialization.
It's a miracle you have swordsMEN already.

Btw, why does English have a word for poisoner, while Italian does not? Because in Italy everybody knows how to get and use some poison!

>>49886878
What about "avvelenatore", you huge faggot? It took me like two minutes of googling to find poisoner in Italian. There's even a movie called "Il manuale del giovane avvelenatore" (the young poisoner's handbook).

Funnily, in French the word poisoner is very rare. But the female version is rather common.

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>>49886878
Here's the English cover of the movie previously mentioned.

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>>49878964

>>49881059
>>49878371

my niggas

So mad the fourth book isn't out yet.

>>49881405
>Beetle (who we discover was a lawyer until she decided to become a supervillain)
Just like her dad, even though he thought she'd be better off as a (Crooked as fuck) Lawyer.

Also she didn't inherit his Albinism, was it not genetic albinism?

steal from the poor give to the rich

>>49877771
Play old school D&D, where pulling off the heist is how you get most of your XP