"Attack, disengage, rinse, repeat. I think we've broken the game."
- Sneak Attack Sally
"I hate rogues. And goblins. But mostly rogues."
- Me
So… rogues. I forgot to add the names last time.
- Phil’s rogue is Nick the Quick.
- Harry’s is Sam the Stabby
- Sally’s is Abby the Eye Stabber
- Lou’s is Bob.
I made the mistake of mentioning my upcoming game to Jerry from accounting and he wasted a good chunk of my day regaling me with tales of his favorite rogue, Blot the Surprisingly Nimble, who was sadly eaten by an enchanted goat. Most of these tales involved picking locks as well as finding and disarming traps, which made him indispensable to the party.
Which seemed weird, to me, so I dug into that a bit once I’d gotten away from Jerry.
Turns out, once upon a time, in edition of Wizards and Weasels long past, rogues were thieves, and thieves had particular skills that no one else could do, or at least so much advantage at those skills that it made no sense for anyone else to try the lock, or check for traps. Thieves were, in fact, essential if you were raiding a dungeon, but not much use otherwise.
Somewhere along the way to the current rule set they became vaguely overpowered skirmishers.
But the days of the dungeon crawl are pretty much done, if the adventures published by Wizards and Weasels publisher, Mages of the Midlands, in the last few years are anything to go by. Player theatrics, capped off with multiple Persuasion rolls, seems to be the new lingua franca, which is why the 6th edition of the game is rumored to add the Hostage Negotiator and Therapist classes. So maybe it’s for the best. As it stands, with the old rules, I’d have an entire party that could pick locks, listen at doors, find traps, and die in a stand up fight.
Now I’ve got a group that can stab and run. Maybe, if they choreograph it right, they will truly be invincible.
I have my doubts.
