Thief vs Thief

[satanswolf0304]

So, the situation arose in my game that two thieves were stealing from each other at the same time. Is it a battle of who can throw cards faster, or is there an orderly way to resolve this? Wondering due to there only being one die and one stealing the cards the other had just discarded to steal.

[Andrew Hackard]

The theft is not triggered until a card is actually discarded. Once the card is discarded, it can’t be stolen by another thief. However, you also can’t discard a card (to “queue up” a theft attempt) that a thief is trying to steal at that moment.

In your situation, I would require each thief to name the target of the theft attempt when the card is discarded, and I would require them to fully complete one attempt (by rolling the die and either stealing a card or losing a level) before beginning another one. If, in that slight delay, another thief declares a theft attempt and discards a card, that new theft attempt takes precedence.

Eventually, the dueling thieves will run out of cards or will and the rest of you can get on with the game. Also note that nothing in the rules says that thieving stops play for everyone else, so while they’re busy picking each other’s pockets, the rest of you should feel quite free to carry on with the game.