RPGs that do stealing right.

[Tweed]

In most RPGs stealing means an instant death sentence that ends with you killing the entire local population, reloading the game, or both. It's too bad because stealing things can be loads of fun and it's often one of the best ways to get ahead and depending on the game, almost entirely necessary. So which RPGs get stealing right? Two of my favorites are both from PB. Risen had an interesting take on picking pockets by having you select an item in the mark's inventory while you had a conversation with them. Gothic 3 of all games also handled it in an interesting manner, not so much by letting you steal better, but by being able to lie better and swipe more stuff before the guards saw through your bullshit.

[SoLong]

I hate to keep beating the drum: BG3.

You're encouraged to distract the target by having someone else talk to them, lead them away from guards, the target knows they've been stolen from and searches for the thief...

It's a well done system overall. Even if it lends itself to save-scumming.

[wndrbr]

Underrail's pickpocket isn't all that great (in nutshell it's just another way to get access to items, like Mercantile), but at least it doesn't randomly lead to NPCs going hostile. If your stealing skill isn't high enough, you can't steal the item, and that's it.

It also gives you access to a bunch of unique items and oddities, as well as gives you an edge during the early sections of the game since you can rob guards for ammo.

[Oyster Sauce]

I hate to keep beating the drum: BG3.

You're encouraged to distract the target by having someone else talk to them, lead them away from guards, the target knows they've been stolen from and searches for the thief...

It's a well done system overall. Even if it lends itself to save-scumming.

Every NPC in the game can be robbed blind by having a party member stand in a corner, initiate dialogue and then stare blankly to lock the NPC in place for as long as you want. I wouldn't really call it a good system.
Do they know if you attacked them if you sneak up undetected and knock them out with a single non-lethal blow?

[Dead]

The problem with RPG stealing is there aren't appropriate consequences if you get caught

[Oyster Sauce]

The problem with RPG stealing is there aren't appropriate consequences if you get caught

Every game needs Gothic's "get knocked the fuck out and robbed" system

[Xenich]

I hate to keep beating the drum: BG3.

You're encouraged to distract the target by having someone else talk to them, lead them away from guards, the target knows they've been stolen from and searches for the thief...

It's a well done system overall. Even if it lends itself to save-scumming.

A little buggy at times, but I do agree it wasn't too bad on its implementation.

I hate the save-scumming crusades though. It is wasted effort to combat in a game where the software resides on the persons system and ultimately we are telling people they can't have a better turn out, which then brings up the point of... why have saves controlled by the player anyway? You can't stop people from doing this, they can cheat in so many ways that it is pointless to try and force a particular element as this. I hated Larians use of it (ie the RNG loot in D:OS) and it was brought about with reasoning from some people claiming "But players will save scum for better gear and then come back complaining the game is too easy, causing Larian to make it harder! "

I am all for options in initial game setup, after all this is what Ironman mode is, but the need to push it seems... a bit on the narcicist side.

[Tweed]

I do have to applaud Skyrim for one instance of reactivity, sometimes you'd steal an item of worth from somebody thinking you were in the clear only to be visited by hired thugs later on.

[Oyster Sauce]

I do have to applaud Skyrim for one instance of reactivity, sometimes you'd steal an item of worth from somebody thinking you were in the clear only to be visited by hired thugs later on.

This event can occur even if the Dragonborn employed stealth, or remained undetected throughout the incident in question. One of the thugs sent after the Dragonborn will carry a Contract signed by the offended party. Anyone can hire thugs—merchants, townsfolk, Jarls, town guards (who will sign the contract with "Whiterun Guard," for example) and even children or dogs (Garmr). In addition to children and dogs, Paarthurnax may send hired thugs after the Dragonborn should they steal from the Greybeards. It is also possible for Forsworn Briarhearts and bandits to send hired thugs if items are pickpocketed from them; the contract in these cases will be signed with the generic character's name. If the person who took out the contract is dead, the thugs will still appear. A hired thug may put out a contract if they have been successfully pickpocketed. Even the ghosts at the Abandoned Prison may hire thugs, in which case the contract will be signed "Ghost."

[Xenich]

I do have to applaud Skyrim for one instance of reactivity, sometimes you'd steal an item of worth from somebody thinking you were in the clear only to be visited by hired thugs later on.

How did they know though? If doesn't follow a logical consistency, that would bug the hell out of me as stealing anything would simply be a luck roll that you later find out failed after hours of play. If the player can not reasonably avoid such capture through some form of indication, then its just a gimmick and stealing becomes pointless I think.

[Tweed]

People in Skyrim are very protective of their property.

[Vergil]

I do have to applaud Skyrim for one instance of reactivity, sometimes you'd steal an item of worth from somebody thinking you were in the clear only to be visited by hired thugs later on.

Sometimes dead people you killed via stealth archery will hire thugs to attack you.

[Tweed]

I do have to applaud Skyrim for one instance of reactivity, sometimes you'd steal an item of worth from somebody thinking you were in the clear only to be visited by hired thugs later on.

Sometimes dead people you killed via stealth archery will hire thugs to attack you.

I forgot about that. Well, it was a nice idea.

[Nammu Archag]

Skyrim is just full of gimmicks like this lol

[Tweed]

They're kind of neat when they work, which isn't often. I loved getting inheritances from people who died that I never even met.

[rusty_shackleford]

I do have to applaud Skyrim for one instance of reactivity, sometimes you'd steal an item of worth from somebody thinking you were in the clear only to be visited by hired thugs later on.

Isn't this something carried over through TES since Daggerfall?

[Xenich]

People in Skyrim are very protective of their property.

Apparently BG3 is the same. I stole some things from a shop I entered never breaking stealth, took a couple of things, and made it to another building before I dropped stealth. I then walked out into the street near the shop and an NPC showed up saying "Property was stolen and you are the likely suspect". How in the hell would they even know? No failed rolls and nothing in visual perception, yet... somehow... I hate that crap.

[maidenhaver]

People in Skyrim are very protective of their property.

Apparently BG3 is the same. I stole some things from a shop I entered never breaking stealth, took a couple of things, and made it to another building before I dropped stealth. I then walked out into the street near the shop and an NPC showed up saying "Property was stolen and you are the likely suspect". How in the hell would they even know? No failed rolls and nothing in visual perception, yet... somehow... I hate that crap.

Are you black?

[Acrux]

In Link's Awakening you can steal from a shopkeeper and if you go back into the store he will attack you with fireballs.

[loregamer]

Skyrim

[Xenich]

People in Skyrim are very protective of their property.

Apparently BG3 is the same. I stole some things from a shop I entered never breaking stealth, took a couple of things, and made it to another building before I dropped stealth. I then walked out into the street near the shop and an NPC showed up saying "Property was stolen and you are the likely suspect". How in the hell would they even know? No failed rolls and nothing in visual perception, yet... somehow... I hate that crap.

Are you black?

Are you stupid?

[BobT]

In Link's Awakening you can steal from a shopkeeper and if you go back into the store he will attack you with fireballs.

He laser beams you to death, and then you get your character renamed to "Thief"

[Tweed]

In Link's Awakening you can steal from a shopkeeper and if you go back into the store he will attack you with fireballs.

That's just another example of the death sentence.

[rusty_shackleford]

rpg where you get your hand chopped off for stealing and have to replace it with a mounted blade

[Irenaeus]

The game I had most fun stealing were the two Fallouts. A series of rpg/adventure game hybrids that does stealing well is Quest for Glory.

[Tweed]

The game I had most fun stealing were the two Fallouts. A series of rpg/adventure game hybrids that does stealing well is Quest for Glory.

QfG is an interesting case because everything you can steal is pre-determined. You can't just pick pockets or snatch things off the shelves, you have a few targets in each game you can hit. Although I think you can actually pick pockets in Dragon Fire.

[Sranchammer]

It should be removed completely

[Rand]

The problem with RPG stealing is there aren't appropriate consequences if you get caught

Every game needs Gothic's "get knocked the fuck out and robbed" system

And then throw it all in an unlocked chest in your doorless shack in a crowded slum of a prison colony.
And NOBODY WILL TOUCH ANY OF IT, EVER!

[WhiteShark]

Shiren the Wanderer, a Japanese roguelike series, has an interesting way of doing it. If you leave a shop without paying for an item, it triggers the unbeatably high level shopkeep and an infinitely spawning hoard of dogs and guards to come after you, but if you manage to escape the zone, the spawns stop and you get away with it.

[Rand]

I do have to applaud Skyrim for one instance of reactivity, sometimes you'd steal an item of worth from somebody thinking you were in the clear only to be visited by hired thugs later on.

...an item of worth...

So I was in "The Cloud District" poking around in the lower levels of the Jarl's hold and I saw some veggies I wanted to take to make some food (I play on the difficulty that demands food in order to heal and resist cold and live and stuff).
I was about level 5 or so.
I decide to go see the Greybeards up on the mountain.
I go north around the Throat of the World mountain and it's all wilderness, because I hadn't figured out how to get to Ivarstead.
I kill some wolves and a big cat and I and my companion are overloaded because we'd hit some caves and camps along the way.
As I'm futzing around throwing shit on the ground and giving it to my follower, I see three guys coming along the trail.
Random encounter, I thought. Nope. Hired thugs, and the leader in VERY nice silver armor.
They attack after a bit of talking and, of course, we kill them after a bit of a tough fight.
Thanks for the armor and weapons upgrade assholes!

I find a note, and it's a hit request from an old bat from the Jarl's hall pissed off that I had stolen from her.

Bitch, the only things I stole in there were a half-dozen fucking VEGETABLES. And I cooked them immediately.
These three guys had a couple thousand Septims worth of armor and weapons, so they would have cost a lot to hire.
Second, I was in the middle of the wilderness and had been for a couple of days, so HOW THE FUCK DID THEY FIND ME?
(I mean, the game just spawned them nearby and locked them on me, but it makes no sense.)

Skyrim is good, but it's still Bethesda Jank where they didn't refine any system and retarded shit happens as a result.