Stealing Carried/Used Items

[Gidoza]

I wanted to clarify something about the Thief's ability to steal, because I get the feeling we may have been playing incorrectly with it all this time.

The ability essentially says that a Thief can steal a small item that is carried by another player. Now, all items on the player board are "carried," but some are "carried" but not "used." Is there a distinction here for the Thief's steal?

To put it simply, it would realistically make no sense for me to steal someone's Armor while the person is wearing it, meaning that I'd have the option of stealing things that are either A. unequipped weapons/armor, or B. potions and the like. Is this correct?

(The question came up when all of us observed that Thieves run away with the game too often...as soon as someone is about to win, any Thief that's around steals as much stuff as he wants - potentially from everyone - and the worst that happens to him is that he goes down to Level 1. With lucky rolls, a Thief can totally disarm every other player in the game, and if none of us have Annihilation/Lose Your Class cards on us, there's nothing whatsoever we can do about it. This seems a tad on the strong side.)

[MunchkinMan]

The only Item a Thief can't steal is a Big Item. It doesn't matter a small Item's state on the table, just that it's in play on the table (i.e., carried).

For what it's worth, one-shot Items that have been chucked into a combat are off limits for the theft ability.

[Gidoza]

Wow, that does seem pretty silly. And yeah, I realize that you can't steal items that are already used as one-shots in combat.

[Blazinjsin]

Mental note: if there's a thief in play, people should hold on to things to make them lose their class at some point

[Gidoza]

I agree and I use that as a strategy - however, I think it's a bit silly that "lose a class" cards ought only to be reserved for Thieves, as if there were no other class in the game! That very fact should say something about its power.

[Clipper]

If you think of the Theft as a mugging, stealing something the victim is using doesn't sound quite so absurd. Thieves don't have to be stealthy. . .

[tremorlaine]

While I agree that Thieves are the most disruptive Classes in the game, I don't think they are necessarily overpowered. Among all the Classes in the game the Thief is the only one (that I know of) that can directly affect other players at any time as long as he has the Discards to power his ability. That means a Thief on a rampage can pretty much bring the flow of the game to a halt. Usually that is at the expense of giving him no chance at all to win.

Thankfully we have had only had 2 instances of a player doing that. Both time is did foster negative feelings and a want to no longer play with that person. Munchkin is supposed to be a game of messing with people not having people not like you. If I am ever in a game with a person who isn't trying their hardest to win then I tend to not want to invite them over.

[Gidoza]

My point is that with some of the lucky rolls that I personally get with Thief (and I DO get lucky rolls), it is precisely the Thief that ends up being the one who has the ONLY chance to win! My opponents have nothing - I've stolen everything - and only lost 1 or 2 levels out of it at times, because I can just recycle items that I have just stolen. It would be a different matter if I could only discard cards from my hand, then it would have a limit. As for your point about people not trying their hardest to win...that's exactly what I'm doing/others are doing, which is why we steal, which is why the opponents have no items, which is why the thieves win. This is my experience, anyways. Curse cards/annihilation are used on Thieves at the first opportunity, but the proportion of lose class/annihilation cards to Thief cards is such that this is usually far too late.

And, it doesn't matter how you describe the situation: You simply *cannot* rationalize a "mugging" of a person's armor while that person is wearing it! If a thief can steal something that I'm literally wearing, that ought to take two cards or two level's worth, since I wouldn't waste my time just whacking him: if he's not stealthy, I grab him and beat him to a pulp, take all his items, then he can tell me about "Thievery."

[tremorlaine]

Wow, then you and your friends are getting some very lucky rolls. It is a 50/50 chance to Steal an item so if you can strip a person while only losing 1 or 2 levels then you are beating the odds. In both games I was a participant that the Thief went on a stealing spree he ended up Level 1 with no Items. We also had nothing but at least we were Level 8/9.

Personally I will tend not to steal after Level 5 unless I have a Loaded Die or the Item I am trying to steal is a game changer like the Magnificent Hat.

[Gidoza]

Well, we usually go nuts as a Thief against any player that is Level 9 and has good items. The game then slows down. Sometimes the Thief gets unlucky, but it seems like a lucky Thief more often than not.