TG Stealing

Stealing

Well, this is what you joined the guild for, for the most part anyway.

To start with, I'll take a look at shoplifting. This is the first sort of thing a newbie thief should try, since there are very little consequences should you fail. Once you've obtained the "shoplift" command, you should first try some easy items from a general shop. There are two around Filigree Street (one on Filigree itself and one in the Warriors' Guild) that spring to mind, so finding things to try on shouldn't be too hard. Start on simple light-weight things, small weapons and basic clothes are good for this. You'll need a relatively low bonus to succeed in stealing these. As your stealing skills increase, the better you'll become and you'll be able to steal more valuable and heavier items. If you want to TM stealing, then it's best to do this in a shop. If you find you sometime fail and succeed on an item, that's the item you'll want to keep trying for to TM. You'll TM when you steal something right on the edge of your ability. Light levels in the shop, and on yourself don't seem to affect shoplifting too much at all, but hiding helps.

The difficulty of the steal is dependant on where you shoplift, for example BP is harder to steal in than AM, and anywhere in the surroundings should also be difficult. Jewellery shops are more difficult than cutlery shops, magic shops have their own defences. More popular shops have more thieves in them stealing, which adds to the difficulty level. So you'll eventually learn which shops are more giving with their stock than others, depending on your skills, experience and stealing habits. Also, 'spamming' continuous shoplifts with the enter key will often increase the difficulty exponentially, so try and time where and when to shoplift.

Secondly, the "steal" command. This command allows you to steal carried items and money only. Quite a handy command if all you want to do is steal coins from a victim. Bear in mind that a victim will be watching his or her purse and won't take kindly if he spots you trying to steal his or her dollars! Be ready to run or fight if you fail.

The snatch command is also a very handy command, it offers more opportunities to simple stealing. The snatch command gives you the ability to grab an item from someone and run in a predetermined direction. This works on carried and held items, as well as money. If you find you can't steal an item from an NPC, then try snatch since the skill checks are different, although you can't use snatch while you're in combat, unlike steal and filch.

Finally, the hardest command of them all to get, filch. Filch allows you to steal anything on the outer layer of someone (anything you can see when you look/peek at them) and items in containers. This allows more options for the PK, who can filch healing potions which the victim thinks are safe, same applies for weapons in scabbards. Filch is indeed a very handy command, but it's very difficult to steal someone's worn items, so make sure you're ready to fight or run if you fail.

Case is a command which is too underused in the guild. Although it may be inaccurate due to low skills, you can use it to find out the skills of the victim roughly. If it says something along the lines of it'll be quite hard, then the opponent will have similar skills to you. If you totally fail the case and come out of hiding, then you'll know thier ot.pe is similar or more than your co.st.**, you can then compare that to your stealing. :)

Scope is similar to case, but works on shops. This will give you a rough idea on how hard something is to steal.

Wards

Wards. I don't know a single thief who doesn't hate them. 90% of PKs will have their valuable items warded and increasingly NPCs are making use of wards (though it's limited to priests only so far). There are 3 types of wards:

Sotto Voice : This gives the item a form of intelligence, that is to say, it knows it's been stolen and it will call out to its owner to save it. This gives the annoying effect of bringing you out of hiding, the item will inform the previous owner of its location.

Divine Guard/Sentinel: There are two new wards around now, they replaced major ward which had been around a long time, but there we go. These rituals are less lethal in their ways, but far far more interesting. These wards work by "impressing" rituals onto an item, with the intention of setting them off when you steal the item. So for example, a Hattian "impress"'s fumble onto their weapon, you steal it and then the impressed fumble on the weapon goes off, casting fumble on you and making you lose dex and your held items. There are various combinations of rituals and two variations of the ward, one which allows one ritual to be impressed, and one which allows up to three. Here is a link to a post Poyat made regarding these two wards, which provides more in depth information.

Religious wards can be avoided by sufficiently skilled thieves. The thieves' faith.items.scrolls skill is checked against the victim's when a warded item is stolen. If the victim passes, the ward (or wards) will be triggered. If the thief passes, the warded item will be stolen as normal while the religious wards simply fade away.

Sageroff's Sentry Summoning: a spell used by the Wizard Guild to combat stealing. It's a little imp which sits on the casters shoulder and hops about when he spots someone stealing. Apparently it's automatic with the spotting but does not stop the steal...

Crime and Punishment


Ankh Morpork

As you are probably aware, the twin cities of Ankh-Morpork have a rather sophisticated view on what can be defined as crime, with guilds being allowed to deal with anyone that violates one of their rules, in their own way. Important in this context are the regulations of the Thieves guild, who will beat some sense into anyone stealing on AM city grounds without being equipped with a Thieves guild licence. After being beaten up, the offenders will be left for death on the surface of the Ankh, often relieved of the burden of their possessions. Even thieves with a licence however are not free to do as they please: a quota system is in place, and players who fail to reach or happen to surpass their allowed quota, better hurry to pay their fines, lest they be found on the surface of the Ankh as well. In regards to murder and assault, the city's authorities can be quite strict as well, but only when a Watchman is a direct witness. In his case the offender will be arrested and jailed for an amount of time proportional to the number and gravity of the crimes. The Watch and certain other guilds will also punish a few other things they don't appreciate, but these are of lesser importance.

Surroundings

No punishments for theft are currently in place in any of the cities or towns surrounding AM and only the city of Sto Lat seems to uphold the laws regarding assault: when a royal guard sees you attack someone, he will immediately attack you.

Djelibeybi

The city of Djelibeybi offers many possibilities for punishment: it has a prison and stoning grounds, is surrounded by a vast desert that could provide a slow and painful death for unwary travellers and it is home to the infamous Djelibeybi croc pits. Current punishments are limited to being abandoned in the desert for theft (any form of theft, that is, from players and NPCs as well as shops) and being thrown into the crocodile pits for murdering a priest or a holy cat. Don't be surprised if the local high priest one day decides to punish other acts such as murder as well though, after all? he has many untapped punishment possibilities. Current research suggests that crimes in the Djelian harbour are as yet left unpunished.

Ramtops

The little villages in Lancre have a rather lax approach to crime: they ignore it. Only in the town of Ohulan Cutash, on the edge of the ramtop domains, a system regulating theft is in place: once caught at stealing, the local shopkeepers refuse to serve you (sell, list, browse and use their tools) and soldiers will insult and might eventually attack you on sight. To return to good standing, one has to serve a prison sentence (or escape, or have someone bail you out).

Genua

All crimes (murder and theft) will lead to an increase of your criminal rating, which you'll notice in the way law enforcers (from city guards to noble knights) and shopkeepers talk to you. When your criminal rating reaches a certain limit, shopkeepers will no longer serve you and some of them might even attack you. All law enforcers will also try to make your life hell (i.e. attack on sight) when you become one of the ten most wanted. Since a prison has recently been built, don't be surprised if they start using it soon. Certain figures (fences) in the underworld will refuse to deal with you, if you are not a criminal of some renown.

Counter Weight Continent

Carrying arms without a permit is regarded as a serious crime and will lead to confiscation. Theft is not punished at the moment, even though strong rumours persist They know and will punish you at an appropriate time. Assault is only punished when an Imperial guard is present, who will then proceed to chop you to pieces. Locals send notice to the powers that be when you murder an 'old' person, but no punishment here yet either.

Overview:
Ankh Morpork	Stealing: licence issues
	Assault: trouble when watchmen are present
Surroundings	Stealing: none
	Assault: Sto Lat royal guards will attack you when present
Ramtops	Stealing and assault: None
	OC: Shopkeepers refuse to serve known thieves
Djelibeybi	Stealing: Thrown in dessert
	Killing priests or cats: Croc pit
Genua	Wanted criminals get attacked on sight and don't get served by shopkeepers
Counterweight Continent	Assault: Imperial guards will attack you when present
	Theft: none