The Art of Deception - Classic Cons
The old rogue slurped his ale noisily, complaining to the bartender, "The thieves these days, they've lost the art of it all. Like a bloody bunch of bandit half-orcs: Their idea of an elegant theft is a rich victim bashed neatly on the head, so his fancy clothes don't get scuffed so much and can be fenced more dear." The young bartender raised his eyebrows, a little wary but curious about what the wizened old coot had to say. "Now, in my day, the thief we all looked up to was one whose only weapons were his wits and a steady, speedy hand. It would be hours before his victim even knew'd he was robbed, and then he couldn't be sure who done it. "There was this one guy, Willie—Cool Willie, they called him, 'cause he never lost his cool. He know'd ALL the scams . . . "
Since day one, there have been people eager to get a free ride, to swindle others out of anything they can. These people, it has been observed, are typically the best targets for the swindler. After all, how likely are you to report a con man, when the reason he succeeded was that you thought you were taking advantage of him? Playing off other peoples' greed is the key to a successful swindling career, on whatever scale it is performed.
An astute swindler is always on the lookout for opportunities for a good racket. Some of these situations and scams have been nearly immortalized, and are classics: Not only does it seem everyone knows them, but everyone still uses them—and they still work. An excellent book filled with real-life anecdotes of classic cons is The Compleat Swindler, by Ralph Hancock with Henry Chafetz (New York: Macmillan, 1968).
What follows is a sampling of scams for the novice pigeon plucker.
Short-Change Swindles
On the simple level, you have the short-change swindle. This is something you do to merchants—or merchants do to you! Through fast-talk, distraction and sleight-of-hand, you trick them into giving you as change more money than you paid them.
"How much d'I owe ya?" asked the old rogue, upon finishing ale and tale.
"Four coppers," said the bartender.
The rogue fished in his pockets. "Hmm," he said. "All I have is this gold piece. Have ya got change?"
"Believe I do," said the bartender, taking the gold coin and putting out an electrum coin, four silvers, and six coppers in change.
"Say, why don't you get me a slab of cheese for the road?" asked the rogue, sliding over two coppers for it.
While the bartender retrieved the cheese from beneath the counter, the rogue opened his pouch to put the remaining coppers inside. "Well look here! Guess I had a silver after all!" he declared. He moved his hand toward the others, palming his new-found silver and hiding the electrum beneath the other coins, while appearing just to set the new silver coin with the rest. "Say," he tells the bartender. "I'd be hatin' to take all yer change like that. Why dontcha gimme an electrum for these five silvers?"
"Sure," said the bartender, handing him an electrum. The old rogue turned toward the door. "Wait!" said the bartender. "Ye left an electrum coin here with the silver!"
"So I did! Thank you. Honesty's a difficult quality to find these days! Well, to keep you with enough change, why don't I just give you this silver"—he then produced the coin he had palmed—"and you give me back the gold piece?"
"All right," said the bartender. "Have a nice day, then!"
As he walked down the street from the tavern, five silvers richer, the old rogue permitted himself a grin and a little skip of delight. All these years, and Cool Willie hadn't lost his touch.
Gambling
Gambling is a finer racket. Gambling is irresistible to many people, and the swindler loves to take advantage of this weakness. Every sort of gambling—dice, coin-matching, the shell game, races and gladiatorial contests (the fantasy equivalent of modern organized sports)—presents an opportunity for the swindler to make a load of silver. A swindler needs gambling proficiency to work any of the following scams, and any other character who makes a gambling proficiency check will probably be wise to the swindler's tricks.
Dice Games: Dice-throwing developed in ancient times, and has remained popular since (even into RPGs). An astute gambler understands the odds of winning in any dice game, such as craps, and a skilled swindler knows how to rig the game in his favor. Loaded dice (with imperceptibly rounded faces, or weighted pips, and so forth) are one way, but the true master can even throw dice so that they will land as he wishes. To do this trick, a swindler must make a successful pick pockets roll, at -40%, for each die.
Coin Matching: Coin matching is a simple, age-old game, appearing in various forms since the days of the pharaohs, and is simple to run a scam around.
The favorite variation for two swindlers working a sucker is "odd man wins"; Three coins are tossed, or revealed simultaneously (like the rock-paper-scissors game). If two are heads or tails, and the other is the opposite, the holder of the odd coin wins. If all three are the same, no one wins.
To set this up as a scam, there should be two swindlers. One plays the steerer, gaining the confidence of the pigeon, while the other pretends to be a foolish stranger. The steerer conspires with the real target, ostensibly to swindle the money of the stranger, his true partner. In the course of the game, the steerer winds up with all the money.
Of course, he's not able simply to share it with the pigeon, since they've supposedly just pulled a fast one on the foolish stranger. They have instead agreed beforehand to meet somewhere and share the spoils. Of course, the steerer never shows up to share and the would-be con artist is left penniless. Furthermore, since he was duped on account of his own greed, trying to do what was done to him, he'll probably swallow his chagrin and never report the incident to the local authorities!
The Shell Game: The shell game is another age-old classic. The swindler sets up at some event, like a circus, fair, or even a busy street corner. He has a single pea and three shells, which he rearranges. It is a test of observation, he says: Anyone who can identify which shell covers the pea, after they've been shifted around, will win whatever he bet. If he guesses wrong, he loses his money.
Someone takes on the challenge, and wins! Of course, this is an accomplice of the shell man (known as a "capper"). The crowd thinks the swindler is playing honestly. Then a real target places his bet. He, too, will win. The swindler will nurse the target's self-confidence to raise the stakes, and then (mysteriously!) the victim's powers of observation will decline, and he'll fail to spot the right shell! This of course is done through sleight-of-hand. (To do it unnoticed, the thief needs to make a successful pick pockets roll.)
Quackery
Quackery is the realm of the mountebank, the seller of "snake oil" and all manner of exotic potions, unguents and charms, each supposed to be a medical wonder, but usually worthless (if not actually dangerous to its user). Even in a world where magic is real, quacks can make brisk profits from those who cannot tell a real potion from fake.
Forgery and Counterfeiting
Forgery may also be a swindler's calling, including counterfeiting. Interestingly, forgery was not a serious crime in the middle ages; barter took precedence above coinage or credit notes, and it's hard to counterfeit a bushel of wheat or forge livestock.
As the Renaissance came, however, and banking developed, so did the forger's art—and the punishments became serious. As late as the first half of the 19th century in England, men and women were hanged for the crime of forging one-pound notes.
The value of forgery, therefore, and the risks involved, will depend on the nature of commerce and trade in your campaign.
Jewelry Swindles
For the well-trained rogue, jewelry swindles can be both the most lucrative and the easiest, because it is so difficult for the untrained eye to identify or to judge the value of a precious stone. Besides dealing in paste and glass fakes, jewelry swindlers may pass off a lesser stone as something more valuable (e.g., quartz for diamond), or pay someone (especially naive but treasure-laden adventurers) for a diamond as if it were quartz. A nimble-fingered rogue may also replace fake jewels for real ones, and the owner may never know the difference!
Sly NPC jewel swindlers are a great way for DMs to relieve characters lacking Gem Cutting proficiency of their cash and jewels (provided they don't spew out at the start, "The dragon's treasure includes 12 opals at 1,000 gp each").
Robbing the Robbers
Thieves as a class are people who enjoy toeing the line when it comes to risk-taking. Some renegade thieves take it a step further, often a step too far, and dare to steal from other thieves, or even thieves' guilds.
It's dangerous activity, but it does have certain advantages. Foremost, the guilds and thieves can't very well report thefts to the authorities (assuming they don't control those authorities through bribes or blackmail).
And, of course, authorities permit the theft of stolen items when its purpose is recovery, to return the goods to the original owner, as bounty hunters do.
Sanction and some degree of protection might also be gained from a rival guild. Mob wars provide many opportunities for the daring thief, willing to run around in the crossfire, scoring loot. The trick is not to be identified as stealing from the wrong people (i.e., the guild that wins in the end).
Perhaps the biggest advantage of all, and the reason that thieves will brave the risks, is the enormous wealth that can be concentrated in the hands of a single criminal, especially an important officer of the guild.
But there's no shortage of risks. First off, intelligent thieves understand themselves and, by extension, other thieves. Each thief needs to be a troubleshooter, in a way, designing protection for himself and his possessions, and making sure that it's proof at least against any thief of his skill or less. This means that in stealing from another thief, you can expect a fairly difficult job. Sometimes, however, a thief may be surprisingly flippant about not protecting his wealth.
The people who can get away with this are incredibly powerful crime lords, with vast wealth and myriad connections. They have the resources to find anyone who dares to steal from them and deliver a fitting punishment. Among such punishments, a simple assassination is very mild and humane.
Understand that the underworld is often harsher on thieves than the established authorities. The underworld does not presume innocence; and sweet revenge is more important to a wronged crime lord (and his ego and ruthless reputation) than the recovery of any but the most precious property.
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