How to handle a PC stealing from another PC

[atemu1234]

One of my players keeps stealing gold and items from his partymates. How should I, as DM, handle this, as it is ticking other players off?

[TheIronGolem]

This is an out-of-character issue. The answer to all out-of-character issues is the same: talk to the player who's doing it, and boot him from the game if he won't knock it off.

[bjoern]

One of my players keeps stealing gold and items from his partymates. How should I, as DM, handle this, as it is ticking other players off?

If talking out of character doesn't work. And you don't want to kick him out of the group, you could always concoct up some way to give him a curse for each thing he steals. Grant more xp to the other players or otherwise give him the hint that he is fighting an up hill battle and would be better off to play nice.

[draken50]

If you are unhappy with it, tell him.

If you have to ask him to leave, you have to ask him to leave. I've rarely seen a place where there's more games than players.

[Brookshw]

Is it a pvp game? Yes? Then let it play it's course. No? Then that needs to chill. Talk to the player about how it has a negative impact on a social game and that they're just hurting their fellow players. If talking doesn't help ask how much the game will benefit from the other players acting like twits towards that player?

Why's the player doing it anyway? Please don't tell me he has some bunk notion that "it's what my character would do". If it is, tell them to decide differently.

[Averis Vol]

PC's are big important movers and shakers as far as the multiverse is concerned. They're basically foretold to stop the blight of 'x' and return the world to peace, I think the last thing the gods want is players murdering each other over some gold. So to combat this, invoke he angels of triumph and tragedy. Triumph appears when they do something awe inspiringly good to shower the PC's with praise and gifts, and tragedy comes when they die to protect their gear and return it to the proper (cosmologically) owner, and chastise them when they do something that jeopardises the world.

Don't just make it a rule 0 thing, institute them as a game mechanic. I did it in my game, and the players actively try to do things exceptionally.

[Darkweave31]

How are the other characters not noticing a thief that keeps targeting them? I'd think that they'd have detected widespread theft in character by now...

But before PvP of any nature occurs all parties should be consenting (be it theft, or killing said thief). Otherwise you run the risk of hurt feelings.

[StoneCipher]

Give warning to the thief that if he continues, he will have to bear the burden of getting caught by the party and whatever form of punishment that they see fit. Try to situate an NPC catching the thief, if the PCs consistently cannot and have that NPC inform the PCs of the theft.

Or if anyone is particularly religious and being consistently stolen from. Have their god give them a little wake up nudge or a feeling as if they should look in a direction.

[loodwig]

if co-op, I'd say boot him outright. Stealing is decidedly not cooperative, and is akin to cheating. And who wants to play with a deliberate cheater, especially in a game where the rules are super complicated anyway.

If pseudo co-op, make him stealth with the DM to try to get away with it, and when he fails, permit the party to straight up murder him. Even a paladin would slice a thief in half, probably yelling traitor and "SMITE EVIL" in the process. As GM, I'd probably follow it up by saying, "you're stealing from your friends who protected you in battle. You're evil." Plus, it makes for great storytelling. I mean, the foil gets killed by the good guys is probably a trope, it's so common.

If PvP, let it play out. Players who discover "out of character" that they've been robbed should be aware only in character, just like if they "failed" a perception / spot check. I'd strongly advise to keep track of all party gear as GM, and make sure that no one is stealing more than they can. If players object, play a different game (like one of the aforementioned co-op variants).

[Nousos]

I assume part of the problem is the characters (not players) don't know who the thief is. So have his bag containing the stolen items be cut open mid fight or something, and they can deal with it in character. If its that they know he did and he won't stop, let them play it out in character.

If you really want to have an out of character solution, tell the player that its really starting to piss off players, and have him turn it from stealing to shenanigans by putting those stolen items in different players bags when they aren't looking. Then if they find out its him, he could do things like take the big stupid fighters gear, sneak ahead of the party camp at night, and slit a few goblin throats then arrange the armor on a scarecrow in the middle of the scene. Then when they all find the scene he could point out that the fighter really IS just the sum of his gear.

Edit- I personally think it would be funny if the kept stealing and made it obvious by his bulging oversized backpack of loot that he can barely carry.

[StoneCipher]

Truth be told, sundering bags of holding seems like a great strategy. Just imagine the burden of having your level 4 bag break mid fight and all of your collectibles spew out everywhere.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Character's should be able to notice that they're stuff is disappearing and one of the party members seems to have a mysterious source of income. Even if they don't noticed the latter one PC could suggest "everyone turn out your pockets and bags of holdings"

The party finds the thief, the character is stripped of all his loot and booted from the group. (or dies). The player rolls up a new character.

Here's a story from 2nd edition.

There was this thief who scouted ahead, and he'd pocket treasure from chests and what not when the party wasn't looking he did so by passing notes with the DM so we were even as players unaware of his deception.

Then one day the thief died... and we could not afford to have him raised. (this being 2nd edition it was quite pricy. The DM asked if we looted his corpse.

"No!" My character declared, "This was our honored comrade and friend, he should be buried with honors not plundered like our foes." The party agreed with my sentiment of not looting dead companions and seeing as how we didn't think he had anything of real value anyway we buried him. Turns out one of the last things he stole and kept secret from us was a very valuable gem, worth more then enough to have him raised from the dead.

[atemu1234]

"No!" My character declared, "This was our honored comrade and friend, he should be buried with honors not plundered like our foes." The party agreed with my sentiment of not looting dead companions and seeing as how we didn't think he had anything of real value anyway we buried him. Turns out one of the last things he stole and kept secret from us was a very valuable gem, worth more then enough to have him raised from the dead.

I like this story, personally.

[Milodiah]

If the amount of funds stolen got up to a sufficiently high amount, you could always drop hints like "If only the fighter could have afforded to bump up to the next class of armor/weapon in the last town, and the wizard could have paid for those new spells, then this encounter wouldn't be as hard and murderous as it is right now."

I've actually seen a greedy character hoard some magic items he actually didn't have a good use for without the other players' knowledge, only for there to be a TPK for exactly the above reason.

[Ehcks]

I was once very stupid, and decided to steal from a party member. Fortunately, I was very stupid, and what I stole was a Rod of Wonder.

I had already asked if I could borrow it, but was told no. So, as a rogue, I thought I could try stealing it. And I did. I took the Rod and snuck off behind the party. I didn't know how to use or or what it could do, either as a character or even as a player, so I tried using it at myself.

The fireball immediately notified my group that I was up to no good.

I gave it back, apologized repeatedly, and I never stole anything from anyone ever again.

[jiriku]

Since you are the DM, this is actually really easy. Just say to the player "the other players don't like it when you steal from them, so I've decided we're not going to do that any more."

It's great if you can diplomatically explain why you're making this change, get him on board with it, and have things proceed smoothly thereafter. By all means, try to get his buy-in. However, you don't actually need his approval or consent to change your game in this way. If at some later time his character tries to steal from one of the other PCs, you just say "No, you guys aren't stealing from each other any more". As the DM, YOU DEFINE THE REALITY OF THE GAME WORLD, and if you say he can't steal, then that's that.

[Pan151]

I say you make sure that the other players get every chance they deserve to spot the theft attempts, but you otherwise don't intervene unless it becomes an actual problem.

I don't buy into the whole notion of "stealing from other players is an out-of-character issue" or "these where the chosen ones by the prophecy to save the world and eradicate evil and restore peace and other extremely cliche things so no PvP is allowed". Player characters are no different than everyone else - if the PCs are stupid enough to just let someone rob them dry, so be it. If they however have no means to protect themselves from a trained thief, you might want to remedy that by giving them a few security measures - a shop offering magic bags with an alarm spell built in would do nicely.

[BWR]

This is an OOC problem and should be dealth OOG. Tell the player to knock it off because it isn't cool. If s/he tries to argue (any bull**** reasoning like "I'm just playing my character" or "it's a laugh") say that it's ruining everybody's fun except his and games are supposed to be fun for everyone. If this doesn't work, you should warn the player that this will get him kicked from the group the next time he tries it.
In game punishments like forcing his character to refrain from stealing, allowing the other PCs to catch him in the act, magically rewarding other PCs with even more treasure or making what he steals cursed or have it stolen from him; all these are generally bad ideas.

There are some people who will learn more from in game punishments because they feel that in game actions (like stealing from other PCs) are separate from real world actions and punishing them IRL (like kicking them from the group) is an overreaction to a minor thing, and this can sour otherwise decent friendships. Mostly, the people I've come across in this category were young teen guys who like murderhoboing and "I'm not evil, I'm CN". Sometimes, in game punishments are needed, to let them see that if their characters act however they please, the game world will retaliate. Once they learn this, they are better players.
In general, talking to them out of game is the best option.

[Psyren]

Keep a squirt bottle at the table. Every time he does it, let him have it :smalltongue:

(Or you could do the mature talk-to-him thing. Yeah, probably go with that.)

[bjoern]

Keep a squirt bottle at the table. Every time he does it, let him have it :smalltongue:

(Or you could do the mature talk-to-him thing. Yeah, probably go with that.)

That's hilarious lol.

[Segev]

Definitely do talk to him, IRL person to IRL person, first. Ask him why he's doing it, and explain that it's harming the other players' enjoyment of the game. Ask him what he expects to happen if his PC is caught doing it, and how he'd feel if the party wizard just dominated his character every day so he could boss his thief around.

All of this is meant to get him thinking about things he may not have, not to get him off track and into excusing continuing the behavior. If he doesn't seem to want to stop, talk to the whole group together, him included. Let them lay out their problems with it, and how they feel about it out of game. Don't let people raise their voices; moderate the discussion. Discuss whether this kind of PvP is something they do want to introduce, and add that if they do, the PCs are free to deal with such treachery however they see fit, IC.

If they do NOT want to have this kind of PvP as a group, those who cannot live with it should find a different game to play. This isn't cruelty or bullying; it's refusing to allow a minority to harm the enjoyment of the majority.

[bjoern]

it's refusing to allow a minority to harm the enjoyment of the majority.

In b4 "that's discrimination" or "what about equal opportunity?"

[Psyren]

Even if a majority wants PvP, the game (both 3.5.and PF) is very poorly designed for it. There are 3rd-party products out there to help you staple it on but you will most likely have to implement some tweaks and houserules.

[lytokk]

I've actually always expected this from the theif type characters, to a degree. In my games we've always kept ingame theft to small things, a blanket, a few gold pieces here or there. Most often the rogue pockets a few gold after opening a treasure chest while making sure there's no more traps. Usually harmless things. I did only have to step in one time when the rogue tried to steal the fighters sword. She got a little pouty when I told her that she doesn't get to, but got over it.

[jiriku]

Player characters are no different than everyone else - if the PCs are stupid enough to just let someone rob them dry, so be it.

The attitude of "if you can't protect yourself from my attempt to steal from you then I am justified in stealing from you" is quite evil, however, and has no place in a gathering of friends who are getting together to enjoy each other's company and have a fun evening.