Isn’t D&D role playing basically? I am sure that I am missing something here. How would stealing work? You are all sitting around the table and your characters are resting. Then one guys says, “when he isn’t looking I steal Malchor’s magic ring” from his cloak pocket."
Sounds anecdotal. You would think someone would intervene.
Stealing works something like that. Another popular method is for the Thief, er, I mean Rogue, to “scout ahead” and loot a bunch of treasure while the other characters aren’t looking. It’s just widely viewed as a jerk move since we’re all playing a game to have fun.
If it’s really a case of role playing, like the PC comes across some object his character has been yearning for in game for quite a while, that’s different. But most often, stealing from the party is just done for the lulz. It’s just trolling in game form.
Would he tell the GM(?) secretly that he did that? Otherwise everyone would know and then they could say “we pummel GreenElf until we get the ring back”. If so then Malchor doesn’t find out until he looks for it to use against a dragon and the it’s like “you can’t find it in your belongings”.
Clearly that’s a dick move in both the game and real life. If I was in charge I’d be all “a blue wolf just showed up and ripped your fucking arm off”.
In real world play, things like this are usually handled by passing a written note to the DM.
Of course, in real world play if the party’s thief passes a written note to the DM everyone else in the party will check their possessions.
It seems like shit like that would be self correcting. They could just leave him behind for the rest of the adventure. Of all of the games in the world, D&D is probably the one where a jerk move receives the quickest justice.
I’m not sure I understand what you mean.
In any role-playing game, both “letter of the rules” and “jerk move” are going to be highly dependent on the people you’re playing with. I’m probably terribly out of date, but it used to be unheard of for a table to run with exactly the published rules, no more nor less. And role players tend to be very quirky people whose expectations may vary wildly.
That’s a good point. I am probably thinking about this more than I should but if someone is pretending to be a character who is a dickhead who likes to stir up shit, even though the real human is a kind and honest person, it wouldn’t be a jerk move for them to do things that are in character and self consistent. The jerk move would be to act against type or certainly to do something just to screw things up and ruin the fun.
Not much different than the Dope actually. People have been banned for just consistently acting like a jerk even though no specific rules were broken.
A simple example that illustrates the points is any Dragonlance game. The few times we tried, someone, normally the party goof or shit-stirrer (playerwise) would insist on making a goddamned Kender. And then they’d constantly steal from the party, with the endless whines of “I’m just playing my character!” as the refrain. To the point that I don’t think any games in that setting lasted much more than 3ish sessions.
Note - people who repeatedly uses that defense “I’m just playing my character” after deliberately creating a chaotic neutral anything, is almost certainly a jerk. 95+% I’d say. 
But again legal, and in the case of Kender, it’s freaking built into their damn race!
For instance, always pulling out a pretend gun during your improv class:
I think the usual rule is that either everyone is Kender or no one is.
The groups I played with had a rule that every player character had to have an abiding reason for trusting at least one other player character. And the reverse–each one had to be trusted by another (not necessarily the same one).
Or just an immature teenager. We’ve all been that age.
I’m pretty sure that my friend who used to play a kender wouldn’t touch that with a collapsible-11-foot-pole, any more.
Applicable to this instance, if not this thread, Michigan got its revenge on Ohio State the following season when it defeated OSU and knocked it out of the Rose Bowl, Big 10 conference championship and National Championship consideration.
Yeah, it can be done once in a while legit.
Well, since their characters were there, that’d be metagaming. However, now the players know that Bob is a dick.
Do you know what “sandbagging” means in Poker?
Slow play - Wikipedia(also%20called%20sandbagging,a%20form%20of%20slow%20playing.
So usually legal, but generally considered a dick move.
Psst! Post #114. I also mentioned angle-shooting.
I’ve been playing poker for years and have honestly never seen anyone object to someone slowplaying a big hand. It’s standard strategy.
Your post 114 described slow rolling - slow rolling isn’t slow playing, those are different things. Slow playing is strategically representing a strong hand as being weak. Slow rolling is specifically taking a lot of time on the river when you are acting last, or are showing your hand, and you know you will be showing the best hand - in other words, making your opponent think they have won when you know they have not.
I am not talking about slow ply so much.
Sandbagging is a check then raise. Yes, that is a type of “slow play” but it is one sort and that is disputed.
That is specifically a check-raise and, again, I’ve never heard of anyone suggesting it’s unsportsmanlike, it’s a pretty standard and common move.
Have you ever watched the Pro Poker Tour? This tactic happens All The Time.