One of the first things about C&S is that it makes a division what someone does for a living and what their proficiencies lie. Actually, that is a bit of a half-truth because just about any RPG system does that — they just don't mention it. There is nothing more to stop a D&D Fighter from engaging in thievery than there is to stop a C&S burglar from engaging in battle. Sure, neither is properly suited for the role, but there is nothing stopping them from trying.

In the C&S book 1 you get a wide selection of sub-occupations for thieves. Burglers are your prime second-story and break-in specialists, Cut-Purses are your snatch-and-grabers and muggers, Assassins the killers, and Beggars are beggars and con artists. This makes the cut-purses and assassins like speciality fighters and the beggars and burglars the more traditional silent and sneaky variety.

The more aggressive of the thievish vocations, both of these have weapon skills listed as a primary, with the assassin getting 2 knife (hand and throwing) and 1 choice. This makes the assassin the primary choice for someone that wishes to be a thief, but still engage in combat. With their stealth, skulking, traps, and two weapon secondary skills — the assassin is a most deadly fighter in the twisting warrens of a city.

However, do not thing that even a vaunted assassin could match the sheer options a warrior enjoys in combat. While most assassins will take one combat skill as a mastery; the warrior will start the game with two or three. When taken in combination with the fact that a warrior will place their bes attributes in Strength and Agility they will also do more damage with every blow.

While that gives the warrior the edge in combat, it would be a foolish assassin or cut-purse that sought to engage in a common fight. Instead, these martial thieves engage in skull-duggery, ambush, and poison. This is the providence of the thief — it is where they can best the warrior in combat.

These vocations represent the more traditional thieves. Burglars are the second-story specialists, while Beggars are con-artists. Each use guile and trickery in place of the brute force of assassins or cut-purses. Just to make sure that nobody even gets the idea to engage in combat, neither of these vocations haveeven one weapon skill listed as their primary. Even more telling is that each vocation only get one weapon skill, Dagger & Knife fighting, as a secondary skill.

Just because they are handicapped in the physical arena doesn't mean that they cannot hold their own. In the realm of the shadows and the stage of innuendo and rumors is where you will find these thieves. They avoid all physical confrontations preferring flight to fight. Even against their fellow thieves, a beggar or burglar would also seek the path less violent.

With this in mind these thieves tend to defeat their opponents by the clever use of mantraps, tales of misdeed, and planting or removing problematic evidence. What knight would not be shamed to discover that he was carrying the favor of a different noble lady, while his favor is found in the common stables — or given as a gift to a street worker. Although not directly defeated the thief took out their enemy with no direct risk to themselves. Such is the true nature of burglars and beggars. Final Thoughts

Although all four vocations are listed as thieves, they play significantly different. Anyone seeking to play a thief should take a very close look at each vocation for the best match to their own desire. If someone is thinking about a physical mugger and ends up using the burglar vocation they will be gravely dissappointed. I hope this gives all players enough information to make the correct decision.