Organic Games

SO WHAT'S THIS THIEF GAME ALL ABOUT ANYWAY?

Alright, time to get down to brass tacks.

When you sit down at the table to play a game of Thief, the first thing you do is get a character. You can take one that's been used before or you can start a new one. If you start a new character, you can give them a name if you like, and you give them a starting Skill of 1 and a Reputation of 0. Skill represents how good you are as a Thief, and your Reputation represents how wanted you are by the law. Both of these stats change a lot during the game.

Next, you pick a playing piece to represent your character on the board, it could be anything a couple inches high, and put it down on the location closest to where you are sitting: that's where you start. When it's your turn, you can move around the city by rolling the die.

The game takes place in a city that is made up of different locations, and each location is described on a card. You have common places like the Bank and the Depanneur, and then you also have wierdo places like Jim's Scientology Hut and Frank's Flying Saucer Factory. All of these locations were created in previous sessions by players just like you. None of them existed when the first game of Thief was played.

Each location has a Security score, which represents how difficult it is to break into that place, and also how much stuff you can take from it when you break in.

As the game is played, cards will be put under these locations. These cards, which you can't see until you Scope it out or try to break in, represent items and money and other loot that you will steal from the location in order to beef up your character or complete a mission. Dangerous cards like Security cards, which make it harder for you to break into the location, may also be in this pile.

So what is the point? How do I win the game?

Victory is achieved by getting Victory Points, which are gained by completing missions, or by buying them with money acquired in the game. At this point, we figure that 5 VPs is a good number to shoot for, and you can buy them at a cost of 1000 gold for 1 point. Missions are available from characters hidden around the city, and completing them usually involves stealing money from places or other characters, or creating new cards. Each mission is worth a certain number of VPs.

So there is more than one way to win the game: you can raise a lot of money, or you get VPs from different missions. Each player will approach the game with their own attitude and style.

So I'm in the City and I need to get money or a mission. How do I move around and do stuff?

Moving around is easy: just roll the dice and move around from place to adjacent place. At the beginning of every turn you draw a card, and sometimes this card will be an Event, which you have to follow right away; Events are large-scale happenings that usually affect all players. Most of the time you will draw an Option card, which you keep in your hand and play whenever it is appropriate. Some Options might help you with a break in, others may raise or lower your Skill or Reputation, others give you unusual opportunities. Option cards are always being added to the game too, so there's never a shortage of things to do.

These option cards are important: if you ever have no options, you are out of the game. They are like your health in other games, but in Thief, you play these cards to interact with the other players and the city. As you play, you must try to balance the Options you play with the amount of cards you have in your hand.

So I lose when I run out of Options. Are there other ways to lose?

Thieves always run the risk of getting arrested; this is where Reputation becomes important. If a player tries to break into a location and fails, they are Arrested, and they have to discard a number of cards from their hand equal to their Reputation. And since your Reputation goes up as you break into places, you can quickly overextend yourself. When your Reputation is higher than the number of cards you have, you run the risk of losing the game.

Reputation is also important when it comes to getting missions. The characters who are around the city are often people with power and respect and won't talk with just anyone. In order to talk with these people and get a mission from them, you need a high Reputation. So you also have to balance having enough Reputation to get good missions with the risk of being arrested.

You keep saying that new cards are created all the time? What do you mean?

Just that: during the course of the game, new cards are written, by the players, and added into the game. Certain cards allow you to create a new Option card and put it into your hand or into the deck, others allow you to create a new location or an item. There are also locations already in the city that you can visit to create any kind of new card. So if you have a strategy but don't have the cards to put it into action, that's not a problem, just make the card you need. It will help you out and it will stick around for all the games in the future too. If it's a good idea, it could change the whole dynamic of the game.

But why can't I just create a card that gives me 5 Victory Points and lets me win the game?

Because that's stupid and no fun. Thief is both a cooperative and a competitive game. It's fun to play and it can be fascinating to watch grow and develop. Winning the game is a goal, but it's not as satisfying as creating a story with the other players in the living city on the table in front of you. Besides, someone else will probably make a "You lose" card just as quickly as you create an "I win" card. Thief comes built in with many checks and balances that are effective in preventing situations that throw off the game.

When can I play?

Thief is still in development. I’m working on a solid rulebook, but it needs polish and fine tuning. If you want to help out, that would be great, as I need all the help I can get. You can find out when the next game will be by joining the Organic Games group on Facebook, or by checking www.organicgames.net, or by sending me an email at sam@organicgames.net. I’m always up for a game!