Stop, Thief!!

(White Dwarf #45)

This short article by Marcus L. Rowland unpacks the thief's toolkit.

What’s it about?

Marcus examines each item in the kit, discussing its weight, size, and potential use as an improvised weapon. He assigns the entire toolkit a weight of 12.4 lbs, filling a gap in AD&D rules, and categorizes specialized tools based on their use, such as burglary tools like crowbars and trap detection tools like hand drills.

The article offers some rules for having the right tool; it increases the thief skill by a d10%. In his example a noisy floor (-5% to move silent) is negated by a thief wearing oversocks (the thief in the example rolling >5 on his d10). Simple and useful enough for players to make the effort while not overpowered. Marcus mentions rolling 00 on a check involving tools indicates a tool breaks, imposing a -5% on future checks until the tool is replaced. 

Anything insightful?

• Thieves' tools are finally given weight - 12.4 lb!
• Useful if you want to get granular.
• Rules for handling the perfect tool for the job.

Should I share this with my players? 

Yes. Initially, the rules for the perfect tool felt confusing as I think they are poorly explained, but it 'clicked' on a second read. They give substance to thieves tools and are simple to implement. The article is concise, fleshes out the thief and deserves a place on the ‘best of’ list.