Crime & Stealth¶

"There's three ways to take a thing that isn't yours. Quiet, loud, and stupid. The quiet way you practice. The loud way you survive. The stupid way is doing either one in front of a guard."

Crime in Ghelmyon is a real system, not a flavour menu. Every lift, every shakedown, every shadow you duck into rolls against the world: who's watching, how hot the street already is, and - increasingly - who you're stealing from. This is the reference for taking what isn't yours and living with it.

At a glance¶


Sneaky theft	`steal <npc>` / `pickpocket <npc>`
Confrontational	`rob <npc>` (aliases: `mug`, `hold up`, `burgle`)
Go unseen	`hide`, then `sneak <direction>`
Resolution	A d100 skill check - roll over the threshold to succeed
Who notices	Guards, witnesses, and a per-location "crime heat" memory
It follows you	Bounty, notoriety, and wanted posters
Hard limits	No crime in safe areas, on guards, or on essential NPCs

The two ways to take¶

Quiet - `steal` / `pickpocket`¶

Lifting a purse or palming an item off an NPC who never knows you were there. The check is your sneak-thievery against their alertness, modified by the time of day and how crowded the room is. Lift gold and it reads as a pickpocketing; lift a carried item and it's a heavier theft that's more likely to alert shopkeepers.

Success: you walk away with the goods and nobody the wiser.
Failure with no witnesses: a quiet miss - you didn't get it, but nobody saw.
Failure with witnesses: they react. A shopkeeper shouts; a guard draws.

Loud - `rob`¶

Confrontation. You step up, you make a demand, you take what they hand over. Robbery uses Intimidation backed by Strength against the target's Strength - bigger risk, bigger haul.

Success: 30–60% of their gold (50–80% on a critical) plus a chance at an item.
Failure: the target turns hostile and fights back.
Fumble: any disguise you're wearing is blown, guards are alerted, and a bounty lands on your head.

Either way, the victim turns hostile and their trust in you is gutted. Robbery is never a secret.

Who's watching¶

Three systems decide whether you get away with it:

Guards. A guard at the scene means a sneaky theft is caught on sight, and a robbery target who is a guard just attacks you. Guards near the spot make every roll harder.
Witnesses. Any awake, present NPC can witness a crime. Some go hostile, some merely raise the alarm - and every witness remembers your face, which feeds notoriety and gossip.
Crime heat. Each location accumulates heat as crimes happen there. A hot street is a harder street - hit the same shop twice in an hour and the second job is far riskier than the first.

Modifiers you can play around¶

Situation	Effect
Night	Easier - darkness is cover
Wilderness	Easier - few witnesses
Market	Harder - crowds have eyes
Near a guard post	Harder
High crime heat	Harder - the street is already watching

Going unseen - hide & sneak¶

Before you act, you can disappear. hide is a free action - it costs you no time and doesn't advance the world. But it only works if no one is actively watching: an awake NPC sharing the room will see you try. Sleeping, distracted, or turned-away NPCs don't count.

A failed hide is silent - your boots scrape gravel, but nobody heard. No bounty, no alarm.
Once hidden, sneak <direction> moves you while staying in the shadows. If someone's watching the way out, you can't slip past; if the room is clear, you go.

Stealth stacks with theft: a successful hide makes the lift that follows much easier, and lets you cross a watched room to reach the mark.

Stealing from someone who trusts you¶

This is the part most games skip. The consequences of a property crime scale with your relationship to the person you wrong.

A stranger or enemy - baseline. Rob a bandit who already hates you and the town guard barely shrugs; you may even earn a nod from their enemies.
A friend - it cuts deeper. The reputation fallout roughly doubles, and the game marks it as a betrayal - because it is.
Family - worse still. The fallout roughly triples, and word gets out: a scandal sheet records that you were seen lifting from your own blood. People remember.

The lesson is diegetic, not punitive: the world treats who you betrayed as seriously as what you took. A clean career thief learns to work strangers and leave the people who'd vouch for them alone.

When it follows you home¶

Crime doesn't end when you leave the room.

Bounty. Serious crimes post a price in the local town. Carry a bounty and some doors close - and some people won't deal with you at all.
Notoriety. Witnesses spread your description. The more faces that saw you, the more your name precedes you.
Wanted posters. Check wanted to see who the authorities are hunting - including, sometimes, you. (Bounty-hunting the other names on that board is a living in itself; see the bounty system.)

What you can't do¶

The engine refuses outright in a few cases - these aren't failed rolls, they're hard "no"s:

Safe areas - no crime in places flagged safe (temples, your own home, certain sanctioned spots).
Essential NPCs - quest-givers and trainers can't be robbed; the story needs them alive and talking.
Guards - rob one and you've started a fight, not a robbery.
In combat - finish the fight first.
The dead - use search body instead.