Ill-gotten Realms

Long cons and larceny in a fantasy land

In the world’s dungeons and frontiers, adventurers risk their lives for riches and glory.
That’s not where your skills lie. Instead you’ll forge wands, relics and treasures, find a mark
too greedy to ask questions, and flog it to them before they see through your deceptions.
Building your Grifter
Pick your Class Assign stats pick your Race
Thief: Skilled at shadowcraft, Divide 8 points between these: Human: Once per con, reveal a
sneaking, stealing items Grace: Social skills and ally within the mark’s
and planting objects. keeping your cool. organisation and lower
Artificer: Skilled at enchantment, Knowhow: Obscure lore and Suspicion by 1.
identifying magic, and arcane knowledge. Dwarf: With 5 minutes of
building props. Wits: Quick thinking handling a magic item
Bard: Skilled at illusions, and rapid action. you understand its
getting the mark’s Skulduggery: Stealth, thievery enchantment and get +1
interest and allying and ambushes. dice creating a forgery.
their suspicions. Elf: Your refined aura makes
Seer: Skilled at divination, Pick your Day Job people assume you’re
planning a con, and Get +1 dice when your job applies. wealthy and high-class.
judging truth and lies. Bodyguard, Monster, Smith, Goblin: Failures when sneaking
Fighter: Skilled at martial arts, Priest, Dungeoneer, Barkeep, about don’t raise
fighting, breaking Aristocrat, Tailor, Farmer. suspicion - goblins are
things and guarding. anonymously shifty.

The Con Getting things done

The first step is to get your mark. The GM will roll When it’s your character’s turn in the plan, say what
or pick from the table below to build them up: you’re doing and the GM will say what stat to roll.
1. Roll one six-sided dice per point in the stat.
Mark Desires... Vice 2. If any dice are on or under Suspicion, increase
Lich Trophies of Eating souls Suspicion by one.
conquest 3. If any dice are above Suspicion, you succeed. The
GM narrates what your success looks like, and
High Priest Paintings Narcotics you hand off to the next member of the crew.
Empress Holy relics Wrath 4. If you don’t succeed, the GM will say what goes
wrong. Say which member of the crew steps in to
Mobster Arcane tomes Domination keep the con running.
General Elven artefacts. Gambling The GM may ask you to roll for the actions you take
Wizard Duelling swords Fine clothing as you set up or move on from your step of the con.
and wands These rolls work the same, but don’t raise Suspicion.
Each class has their own kind of magic. When you
The mark starts at Suspicion 1. use it, you can reroll results of 1. If the roll still fails,
Together you have the skills to take them for all the GM describes how the magic goes out of control.
they’re worth. Make a plan that uses each class. If every step is complete, the con succeeds! Narrate
what you do with your cut, and either raise a stat by
Example cons: 1 or get a higher-status day job.
Get the mark to invest in a joint venture, then let
them steal the venture’s worthless fruit.
Suspicion
Bribe an angel to rig divinations in your favour. Here’s what each level of Suspicion looks like:
Control the sage they use to appraise your forgery. 1: You don’t register on the mark’s radar.
2: They go to a friend or ally for advice.
Salt a hoard with genuine treasure to it look valuable.
3: They bring in outside experts to advise them.
Show an item to the mark, get a ‘third party’ to talk 4: They send minions to put pressure on you.
up its value, then let them buy it from you. 5: They threaten you with the law, exile, death etc.
6: They cut ties and secure their assets: con is over.
By James Iles patreon.com/ufopress