How do you pick pockets in Classic Traveller?

[far-trader]

If you have arms, the chance of reaching into someones pocket is zero? Okie dokie. ROFLMAO :rofl:

Succeeding at picking pockets is a little more than just sticking your arm into someone's pocket

Yeah, sure, if all you want to do is stick you hand in some random person's pockets I'll just have you roll DEX, or even simply allow it, that's not hard at all...

Ref: You put your hand in the guard's pocket and he says "Sir, that is my pocket, not yours. Remove your hand immediately, get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head, and I won't be forced to hurt you."

 

[gloriousbattle]

He's not doing that; he's imposing a penalty to the die rolls if you act in a manner inconsistent with your stats.

Don't know quite what I think about that. There have certainly been noblemen in Earth's history who died for their belief in chivalry, and also those who consistently raised their middle finger in the air to all societal conventions. Edward VII couldn't have given a damn what anybody thought, and probably couldn't spell the word "shame."

 

[BlackBat242]

He's not doing that; he's imposing a penalty to the die rolls if you act in a manner inconsistent with your stats.

Don't know quite what I think about that. There have certainly been noblemen in Earth's history who died for their belief in chivalry, and also those who consistently raised their middle finger in the air to all societal conventions. Edward VII couldn't have given a damn what anybody thought, and probably couldn't spell the word "shame."

I repeat, Aramis... He is imposing a penalty to the die rolls if you act in a manner HE thinks is inconsistent with your stats.

Again, the Ref trying to role-play the character!



As gb pointed out, history is filled with members of the "Nobility" who acted "inconsistently with their social station"... and many of them lost no social status by their actions.

Many others did... and those are the ones that demonstrate the "consequences of actions" method that I advocate.

Many "Nobility" committed criminal acts, some making a second career of that... and as long as they weren't caught (and occasionally even if they were) there was no effect on their social status.

Thus, their social status did NOT act as a deterrent to criminal behavior... in many cases it assisted in the commission of, and the lack of detection of, and the escape from punishment for, those criminal acts.



The key here is whether the Ref applies coercion to how the player is playing his PC or whether he applies logical consequences to that role-playing.

 

[jawillroy]

He is imposing a penalty to the die rolls if you act in a manner HE thinks is inconsistent with your stats.

It's not the Ref trying to role-play the character. It's the ref making sure that the stats actually mean something and aren't just window dressing.

Now, if during character generation, the player established that his baron was actually a blackguard who'd lower himself to picking pockets or picking his nose in public or stealing children's underwear from drying-lines, and habitually did so, I might waive his penalty there... and have his reputation suffer in his social circles accordingly. TANSTAAFL. He might be a baron, but his class won't really look at him that way.

I'm not saying your noble can't stoop to trying to pick the odd pocket. But if he hasn't been doing it his whole life - and it's not likely he would be - he's not going to be very good at it. It just makes SENSE.

***

There's a philosophical shift in RPGs which occurred in the 90s, mainly, which has kept me from buying any modern games.

With the games of the late 70s and early 80s, you roll your dice, and you get your stats. That's your character: you have to try to play THAT character. You got a weakling with smarts? You don't go playing him like the incredible hulk. You got a moron with muscles? That ain't Stephen Bloody Hawking walking there with the Warhammer using a Volkswagen for a shield. Come the 90s, with point-buy and so on, you pretty much get to pick your character and min-max them to your heart's desire. And can I ever tell you how much that bores me.

CT's among the oldest of the old school. You play the character how it rolls up. If your character doesn't have a skill, and tries to use it, there are negative mods, and nobody complains: it is what it is.

If there's a skill that doesn't exist, the REF can make it up, or make up rules to adjudicate it - that make SENSE. And it makes sense that a street kid with no SOC is going to have a better shot at having picked up the street skills to fish a wallet if he needs to. The second son of the first lord of the Sector Admiralty isn't going to have that ability any more than the street kid is going to know which fork to pick up for the third of seven courses of a gala dinner.

 

[aramis]

It's not the Ref trying to role-play the character. It's the ref making sure that the stats actually mean something and aren't just window dressing.

Now, if during character generation, the player established that his baron was actually a blackguard who'd lower himself to picking pockets or picking his nose in public or stealing children's underwear from drying-lines, and habitually did so, I might waive his penalty there... and have his reputation suffer in his social circles accordingly. TANSTASFL. He might be a baron, but his class won't really look at him that way.

Well said!