What options are there for someone who wants to play a thief or similar sneaky-type in AW?
What options are there for someone who wants to play a thief or similar sneaky-type in AW?
What options are there for someone who wants to play a thief or similar sneaky-type in AW?
You could probably play a sneaky type character with most of the playbooks. It feel it depends more on how you play your character rather than what playbook you choose.
Pick someone with a high cool, as most sneaking is probably act under fire. Other than that, what Chris said 🙂
Battlebabe for stealth-mode thievery, since you start with +3 cool. Skinner for the more fast-talker sort where you just charm your way in and out.
Sneaky brainer – I sneak up to you and do creepy stuff
Sneaky Angel- Narco stabs
Sneaky gun lugger- scary shit right there
Sneaky battle babe- they die. No questions
Sneaky hard holder- nobody fucks with their territory because you never know where they are
Sneaky Chopper- why wouldn’t you want a gang of ninja bikers
Sneaky skinner- so many ways to drive a person to madness
Sneaky hocus- yeah, cause a cult isn’t already fucked up enough without their leader being a creepy fuck who shows up out of no where
Creepy savyhead- some one sent us up the bomb. All the bomb.
Sneaky quarentines- black ops is apparently still a thing
Sneaky faceless- every horror movie ever.
How do you play a Sneaky character in AW? However the fuck you want to.
Sneaky Child Things – because you’ll follow your mother’s heartbeat anywhere. And you’ll be the master of disguise.
David Rothfeder that isy favorite reply ever in a thread
Pierre M This is basically the first thing that came to mind. The whole going into and coming out of the maelstrom wherever you want plus the whole “you have tunnels into all other pc private spaces” thing is pure sneaky creepy. (The Child Thing is going to be the first playbook I play when the book comes out…)
I think I’ve decided the sneaky skinner is my favorite. The slow melodic vibrations of a violin’s strings echo throughout the shell of this once great city. The song is slow and sad, resonating with your empty heart. You must find this performer and shower them with all the riches you have in payment for this fleeting moment where you feel understood. You search the rubble and dust for this esquisite being, but to no availe. The song bounces through the endless concrete maze, beconning you you into dead end after dead end. After what feels like hours you fall to the ground exhausted, tears streaming from your face. The song ended long ago, but it still is trapped in your mind. You will find no peace until you find its beautiful source…..then a guy pops up behind you with grenades and a flame thrower and burns everything to the ground. I guess sneaky the gun lugger is also pretty cool.
Okay, first, I should say that there’s a reason there doesn’t seem to be much mechanical support for this, and that’s that the rules are telling you what kind of world this is. There’s a reason “seize by force” is a basic move and “seize by guile” isn’t.
So, this is an uphill battle. But there are options.
Whatever you are, you want the highest Cool you can get. There will definitely be acting under fire. This leans towards Battlebabe, but Battlebabes are built to impress, so they have to be seen.
You also probably want Sharp, for “how are you vulnerable to me” and “what’s my best way in”.
One path would be Gunlugger. Pick the sniper rifle as your fuck-off big gun, a silencer as one of your serious guns, and infinite knives as your backup. Pick the Sharp +2 array. (Sorry, you’re going to be ugly.) Pick “battle-hardened” so you can use your hard instead of cool, and “fuck this shit” so you can get out of trouble after you’ve snuck in.
You’re still built for a fight, but always on your terms.
The Driver is the other Cool/Sharp playbook, and has “eye on the door” for a FtS equivalent, but with low Hard I don’t think you could reliably win fights without your vehicle.
Oh, and you could grab “mercurial” from the Child-Thing with a “move from another playbook” advance for disguises.
I think there is a divide of interpretations of the question here. On one side there are people who are answering this with ways to capitalize on stealth and to ensure success at it. That’s fine, your just trying to make your character awesome. For me though that’s not the point. If you want a stealthy character, describe them as such. Do stealthy things, most of the time your mc shouldn’t even make you roll for it. When it gets to a time where you should and you fail, cool. Getting caught is one of the most interesting things that can happen to a stealthy character. In otherwords, to do a thing, do it.
Describing your your character the way you envision them is important, but having mechanical support (a) clearly defines the types of things you can narrate without being challenged, and (b) channels the fiction around the outcomes of your descriptions in interesting and appropriate ways.
I think it’s especially telling that you quote “to do it, do it” in support of your “system doesn’t matter” approach.
“To do it, do it” precisely does not mean “just say things the way you want them to be”.
In the book, “To do it, do it” means exactly the opposite of that. “To do it (alter the fiction), do it (engage the mechanics).” Or vice versa.
And that goes to your assertion that “most of the time your MC shouldn’t even make you roll for it”. If you’re describing yourself acting cool despite the possibility of deadly consequences, they are required to make you roll for it. It’s what honesty and the fiction demand.
If someone came to you and asked “How do I play the leader of a cult?”, you wouldn’t say “Eh, just describe your character as having a cult”, would you?
You could totally do that, but the Hocus has tons of mechanical support for doing that and so is clearly the best choice for someone who wants to play that kind of character. The answer is “use the Hocus playbook”.
“How do I play a thief?” is the same question with a less obvious answer.
Hmm. How would I play a sneak-thief in AW. Hmm. I’d go with a Battle-babe with infinite knives. I’d choose the body that most fit my idea of sneak-thief. Then I’d choose “eye on the door” to get out safe and “things speak” to get a sense of what might be of value. That’s what I’d do. The Gunlugger path Russell Williams posted above is good too.
ETA: OH! I forgot about my most recent character, who totally fits the bill. Savvyhead, Spooky intense, Bonefeel, Things Speak as my first advance, Charismatic as my second. People just do not see me when I don’t want them to, and when I want them to, they won’t notice I’m holding whatever it was they were keeping aside.