D&D 5E Dealing with rogue solo burglaring in town

[Bloodcloud]

Hey guys, looking for an idea for my group's rogue. I think it's a fairly common problem so I figured it'd be good to discuss it here, see what other DMs do.

See, the party recently went to Sharn (one of Eberron biggest cities) and of course the group's Arcane trickster wanted to do some burglaring in the nice part of town. Now, that has happened in past games and it usually takes a lot of time with the other players not doing anything and really derail the action. So, I said i would design some kind of burglaring table and deal with it mostly offscreen with a roll to next session. He agreed. But now I got to design that...

So, anyone did this before? Any ressource or existing table? How do you deal with the rogue wanting to go solo stealing stuff?

 

[Li Shenron]

How do you deal with the rogue wanting to go solo stealing stuff?

Downtime activity, "practicing a profession".

And by the way if the player believes that he has to steal because he's a Rogue/Thief, give him "The Hobbit" as a XMas present.

 

[DeathMutant]

Surely the local thieves' guild(s) are not too happy about his "unauthorized crime?" Perhaps they would like a "word" with him and offer him a deal he cannot refuse. "Join us, split your take -- including what you have taken already -- or good luck finding a competent healer to rejoin your hands to your arms before your blood runs dry. Your choice. Decide now!" (then give him a chance to escape)

In my game, I strongly discourage players from "soloing" while the rest of the players sit idly by. In some games, like Shadowrun, I even ban some classes -- for PCs -- that work best when operating alone in attempt to prevent it. Rogues, however, are a key component of the D&D experience so I would not ban them, just discourage the player(s) from "splitting the party."

 

[iserith]

How do you deal with the rogue wanting to go solo stealing stuff?

It honestly never comes up. The party has shared goals of a pressing nature that tend to take precedence over solo burgling.

I would likely handle it as a function of downtime if it did come up, collaborating with the player to come up with a fun story to explain the rogue's gains or losses.

 

[Wuzzard]

I've seen this a few times with brand new players. They want to have fun, they understand the idea of role playing and want to try it out, but are not familiar enough with the game to know that its meant to be a team activity. Usually I just explain the later, but often the player still wants to push the boundary, and so I let them go for it, for about 10 minutes, just enough get themselves into a precarious position that they can barely escape with their life. That's usually all it takes.

 

[darjr]

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/ALPGv3_print.pdf

http://dndadventurersleague.org/downloads/


Look at the Zhentarim - Procure illicit goods section. Spend 2 downtime days to roll on the table or get some stolen goods. Instead of using contacts you could modify it to 'doing some burglarizing'.

 

[Morrus]

Oh man, this thread takes me back to my teens!

 

[bedir than]

How do you deal with the rogue wanting to go solo stealing stuff?

If the group is going to spend some time in the city that isn't related to the table-session I would grant them those days of downtime. If one,two, etc want to do things that aren't defined by downtime I would be willing to do a one-hour session for the thieving or such, or do an email/chat conversation that advances their character away from the table.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I like you idea of a burglar event/loot table - I'd go with that, or something like the Zhentarim table someone posted above

 

[garnuk]

I would roll on one of the treasure tables from the DMG that has the level of treasure you think is appropriate, and divine the result by 4 (average party size)