Forty Thieves

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Forty Thieves Aladdin had it easy. Find the magic lamp, free the genie,and live like a prince for the rest of your life. Ali Babalearned the magic words and stole a king’s ransom fromother thieves. So much hard work ruined!

Not honest work, perhaps, but hard nonetheless. Your group of thieves, and the rest of the Forty, are in theserious profession of stealing whatever gold and jewelryyou can get your hands on.

Character Creation

Your character is one of the Forty. He (for all of the Fortyare male, or pretending to be so) is aided by his scores in the

following three blessings:

Acrobatics, his ability to vault barriers, scale walls, and leapfrom rooftop to rooftop.

Condence, his ability to talk his way past guards, impressfeisty princesses, and wait for the right moment to act.

Stealth, his ability to sneak through darkened rooms and staysilent in the face of surprise.

However, he is inhibited by his scores in three handicaps:

Greed, his irresistible attraction to wealth and beauty.Pride, his tendency towards anger and irrational actions,

especially when taunted.Sloth, his preference to take as little action as possible and

shirk his responsibilities.

Your thief can have any rating you like (from two to six) ineach of his blessings. However, you must match each blessing

with an equal rating in a handicap of your choice. The better athief he is, the more his love for vice comes out.

You begin each adventure poor, or become that way quickly.Between adventures you will spend all you have, save for a fewgems or coins, on good drink, ne food, and exotic entertainment.A thief’s wealth is transitory at best.



The Basic Rules

For each point your character has in a particular attribute, youroll one six-sided die. You are looking for sequences in the rolls,called chains.

A chain is a sequence of numbers, in order, one after the other.You may rearrange the dice as needed to create a chain. Chainsare rated in their length (the number of dice in the sequence), andin their height (the highest roll in the sequence).

A chain’s height is used to determine how quickly a thief cando something, while its length determines how well he can do it.Running for ve miles through the desert would require a longAcrobatics roll, while running from a crushing-wall trap would

require a tall roll instead.

For instance, if your thief’s Stealth is 4, you might roll 2, 4, 3,6 on your dice when trying to sneak past a harem guard. You canrearrange this to make a chain: 2, 3, 4, which has a length 3 anda height of 4. Chains cannot “wrap around” from 6 to 1. A rollwithout a chain has no Length or Height.

Duplicated numbers are only useful when you need to

make multiple chains; for instance, to tackle two guards at oncewithout aid from other thieves. A roll of 4, 5, 5 is two chains, eachof length 2 and height 5.

Players roll their characters’ blessings, so that their thievesmight accomplish great deeds of brigandry. The GM rolls thecharacters’ handicaps, so that the thieves misspend their effort ondangerous or foolish endeavors.

Tests of Skill

When a thief wants to do something that involves an elementof chance, as nearly all things do, his player makes a die roll. TheGM will set a minimum required length and/or height for this

roll, and any roll that meets or exceeds these minima indicatessuccess. A later page gives examples of minimum heights andlengths for various situations.

Obstacles can often be overcome in more than one way,even using the same attribute. For instance, a guard might bebefriended or fooled with Condence, fought or evaded withAcrobatics, backstabbed or snuck past with Stealth. However,some obstacles are immune to certain attributes.

Opposed rolls in Forty Thieves are used only when two thievesenter into a contest with each other. Even intelligent, interactiveobstacles like guards and sultans use set minima rather than anopposed roll. However, such obstacles often have a penalty forfailure, and require multiple rolls for success!

Hindering Rolls

On occasion, a thief will be lured into acts he may later

regret. When the GM sees an opportunity for such an action,he rolls one of the thief’s handicaps. Minimum lengths are givenon the Handicap Tables below. If the GM succeeds on this roll,the player must describe how the thief goes about giving in tohis temptation, which will probably get him in a lot of trouble.Failure on the roll allows the thief to pass up the temptation, if heso desires.



Handicap Table - GreedMin. Length Temptation

2 Stealing some apparently unguarded coins, jewelry, spices, or small pieces of artwork.

3 Breaking into the sultan’s palace to steala legendary jewel. Insisting on keeping adangerous treasure.

4 Making off with an inconveniently largetreasure, such as a statue or painting.

5 Risking an obvious trap for a single coin.

6 Stealing the bejeweled crown from the sultan’shead, while he holds court.

Handicap Table - PrideMin. Length Temptation

2 Showing off your abilities when given thechance. Jumping to the defense of yourcomrades immediately, regardless of reason(Sloth rolls can overrule this).

3 Getting into a stght when someone insultsyou, your family, or your honor.

4 Getting into a sword ght over the same.Showing off your abilities when the opportunitymight be a trap.

5 Become offended to the point of violence whenanyone contradicts you.

6 Picking a ght with an angel sent by Allah toreprimand you for your misdeeds.

Handicap Table - SlothMin. Length Temptation

2 Allowing another competent thief a chance forglory that might be yours.

3 Allowing another thief to attempt somethingwhen you know he could not possibly succeed(and you could).

4 Sneaking off to debauch while you should beplundering or helping fellow thieves.

5 Inventing a fairy-tale scouting report instead ofactually scouting.

6 Stand idly by while another thief ghts for hislife.





Sample Obstacles

Below you can nd a number of sample obstacles that thievesmight face in their adventures. While the difculty levels arexed, the methods listed are merely suggestions. If inspiration

strikes, your GM is encouraged to accept alternate methods. Ifa particular attribute cannot be used to overcome an obstacle, itsimply will not be listed.

When facing multiple obstacles simultaneously (for instance,two guards), thieves must come up with two chains on their roll orface the failure penalty for one or both. However, facing severalchallenges in a row is not a problem. A character who defeats asoldier after two failed rolls, sneaks down the hallway, and facesanother soldier, does not die after a single failed roll.

Palace ServantCondence: Length 2 to fast-talk or befriendStealth: Length 2 to sneak pastFailure Penalty: screams, alerting guards

Typical GuardAcrobatics: Length 3 to knock outCondence: Length 3 to fast-talk or befriend

Stealth: Length 3 to backstabFailure Penalty: Kills or captures after 4 failures

Armed Soldier or Harem GuardAcrobatics: Length 4 to knock outCondence: Length 4 to fast-talk or befriendStealth: Length 3 to sneak pastFailure Penalty: Kills or captures after 3 failures

One of the Sultan’s Many WivesCondence: Length 3 to seduceStealth: Length 5 to sneak pastFailure Penalty: screams, alerting guards

Sultan’s Guard, or a Cave OgreAcrobatics: Length 5 to knock outCondence: Length 5 to fast-talk or befriendStealth: Length 4 to sneak pastFailure Penalty: Kills or captures after 2 failures

The Sultan, His Wife, or the Grand VizierAcrobatics: Length 2 to capture, if caught without guardsCondence: Length 6 to impressStealth: Length 5 to sneak past

Failure Penalty: Sends the guards after you

Spice MerchantAcrobatics: Length 2 to put in sleeper holdCondence: Length 4 to swindleStealth: Height 5 to palm jewelryFailure Penalty: Calls the guard

Lock: Chest or Private HomeAcrobatics: Length 3 to smash

Stealth: Length 2 to pickFailure Penalty: Cannot retry with same thief

Lock: Vault or Sultan’s BedchamberStealth: Length 5 to pickFailure Penalty: Cannot retry with same thief



Trap: Crushing WallsAcrobatics: Height 5 to dodgeStealth: Length 2 to notice beforehandFailure Penalty: Crushed to death

Trap: Poison DartsAcrobatics: Height 5 to dodgeStealth: Length 3 to plug holesFailure Penalty: Paralyzed by poison for a day

Trap: Deadly BladesAcrobatics: Height 5 to dodgeStealth: Length 2 to notice beforehandFailure Penalty: Lose a level of Acrobatics for a day

Trap: Drowning PitNote: must pass both Acrobatics and StealthAcrobatics: Length 3 to hold breath and swimStealth: Height 5 to nd the secret triggerFailure Penalty: Drowned to death

Evading the City GuardAcrobatics: Length 3 to leap across rooftopsCondence: Length 3 to nd sympathetic citizenStealth: Height 5 to slip into the shadowsFailure Penalty: Must ght

Entering the Palace by NightAcrobatics: Length 3 to scale the wallsCondence: Length 3 to bribe the servants

Stealth: Length 3 to nd a secret passageFailure Penalty: Must try a different method

Entering the Palace by DayCondence: Length 2 to beg entranceStealth: Length 2 to disguiseFailure Penalty: Thrown out

Return from Exile in the DesertAcrobatics: Length 5 to survive the burning sun

Condence: Length 3 to befriend a camelFailure Penalty: Die of thirst

Forty Thieves was written in 2006 by Colin Fredericks of ValentGames on a Macintosh. It uses the fonts Optima and Papyrus.All rights are reserved. Illustrations by J.D. Batten, 1893 (blackand white), and Edmund Dulac, 1907 (color). Both artists’works are in the public domain in the United States.

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Forty Thieves