Have you ever tolerated a thieving party member?

Thieving from the party that is. Well, not directly from anybody (yet), but, well, here’s the tale.

One of my fairly new players is running a magic-user/thief named Lily. A few games ago when the character was started, the party was on the way into the Night Below setting. Lily and another new player character were tied up and about to be added to stew for a hearty Gnoll feast. The party slew the gnolls and took on these new party members.

Lily is a child of the streets with a tragic family background. She is a thief and a prostitute who learned some magic from a “boyfriend” to help her get by. Lily is not a great fighter, and the most she usually helps out is by throwing the occasional dagger at an enemy during combat. There is a single classed MU in the group a little higher level than Lily, so Lily is sort of outshone in both combat and magic-use.

But she really loves move silent, hide, and pick pockets. She will use her abilities each time she is near a treasure stash, and she is more often than not the first to the treasure area (while others still slug it out with the monsters) and she usually nabs a small item or two for herself. Mostly gems and jewels, but once a decent magic item too.

Last night Lily was on fire, getting to the biggest treasure pile in the campaign so far while the others were in combat (but a couple of wary characters trying to catch glimpses of her movements while they fought). With some lucky rolls on hide and pick pockets (I was using that to see how slick she was with grabbing a couple of small gem boxes), she got some more good stuff.

Already suspicious of her (and sort of catching her red handed in a previous game), the female drow of the group used detect lie and threats of strong arm tactics. Lily handed over the gems she just took, but that did not satisfy a couple of the characters. The two other female characters took her aside for a strip search, finding a couple of other suspicious items. Lily managed to “kiester” her small magic item and they didn’t find it.

Lily does not tell them what they want to hear – that she is sorry and is just used to stealing to get by. She is unabashed and comes off with a fairly nihilistic attitude. “It is what it is.”

She is still in the party, but I’m not sure this would be the common outcome in other games. So, what would your party do about Lily once she had her say?

Treasure appraisal – how do you handle it?

OK, in a nutshell, the characters in my games generally need to have magic items identified – for the most part. There is often some clue with certain items. Protection necklaces and rings often are in the shape of a shield. And it is safe to assume that a potion with little feather bits floating around will be feather fall or levitation or something similar.

If a player uses the item a bit, like fighting with a magic weapon, they will usually find out on their own what it does (I assume a seasoned fighter can tell the difference between a normal sword and a plus 2 one after a few rounds of combat).

But I never really bother with making the characters take gems and jewelry to town to get appraised. I just tell them the worth (which, if I feel like it, I can have vary depending on what part of the lands you are in – certain gems may be worth a lot less to dwarves than they are to humans) and that is that. It’s just easier, and doesn’t seem to detract from the game. The players sure don’t seem to mind.

I guess I may be robbing them of certain role-playing opportunities, but really, there are better things to do in the big city than spending an afternoon haggling in a jewelry shop.

So how do you handle this?