#stealer classes

[2claspect4this]

Do you think a good rogue of mind could establish a telepathic communication network between themelf and all the other players?

I don’t see why not. It might look a little like a virtual reality thing where people on the network get to decide what they look like, like a souped up “avatar”.

[2claspect4this]

Could you do a comparison between Bards, Pages and Rogues? One thing I've noticed is that they all seem to deal with problems by avoiding them.

That’s not an inaccurate parallel to draw. Avoiding problems is what Bards do best, Pages struggle not to do, and Rogues learn the nuances of.

Bards are fundamentally irresponsible characters, and that’s how they achieve their best results. Any attempt to assume responsibility for something is an attempt to start sucking at being a Bard; their goal, when faced with a problem (that probably arose from their own doings), is to throw whatever they have available at the wall and pray that something sticks. Believing that they have to think their way out of problems, and initiating a misguided attempt to lead others out of the way of the many far-reaching consequences of their prior poor decisions, creates a lot of dead Bards.

Pages, on the other hand, struggle with an internal conflict between wanting to partake in grand heroism (or rather, a romanticized ideal of grand heroism) and wanting to quit and go home. Unlike with Bards, the expectation for Pages is that they do face up and take on problems head on, using whatever expertise or power that they’ve acquired during their journey in increasingly creative ways; and of course, the issues for Pages therefore arise when they become unwilling or see themselves as unable to solve whatever titanically difficult problem they’ve been landed with, and run away.

Rogues kind of dip into both areas; unlike a Page, they’re “allowed” to sidestep some of the more difficult parts of the path in front of them through trickery and charisma alone-- but unlike a Bard, they can’t just throw away everything and call it a day. In terms of problem solving, I guess you could say that a Rogue is charged with solving a problem in the way that results in the least long-term loss, but gets loads of leeway in terms of the individual “transactions” on the path to solving that problem. As with Pages, the main problem point is a tendency to give up and run away.

[2claspect4this]

soooo how good of a leader would a Rogue of Space be? my fan session has one and i'm trying to figure out the leader and they're my top candidate right now.

A Rogue of Space could make a pretty good leader. Space players tend to be more realistic in their approach to life and the universe than most other aspects, especially in ways that are actually applicable to most other aspects. Classwise, Rogues are among the top three classes in terms of “having a conscience”, which I’ve heard is handy when you want to accomplish goals alongside other people. They also tend to be quite popular among their friends.

Weaknesses of a Rogue of Space as a leader– they prefer to avoid direct confrontation with friends (even if an intervention really needs to happen), they can change their mind a lot if they’re given conflicting ideas of what’s going on and aren’t usually confident that they know what’s right in a moral sense, and the Space player philosophy of “if we fuck it up, we can iterate again” might not work so well in the case of one-time events that have to be exploited properly in order for the group to succeed. They might also have a tendency to see others as shortsighted and selfish idiots (usually in cases where experience has failed to prove otherwise), although that can be mitigated by Spacey optimism in the places where it would happen.

[2claspect4this]

Hello! I'm new to your blog, and I was wondering if I can ask about lands for a Rogue of Light. Also, could I have a little bit of information on the Rogue of Light? Thank you for answering! ^u^

I don’t really do Lands for titles, because I’m not that interested in Sburb outside of the claspect system. The way I see it is, there’s a certain pool of elemental words associated with an aspect (and this pool can be massive), and the factor that tells you which words to choose is the fancy mythic-symbolic quest that’s meant to happen on the planet. From an in-universe (Watsonian) perspective, these quests are Sburb’s attempt at generating conflict for the heroes playing it to overcome in ways that work with their titles, but they happen on a meta, or “Doylist” level in all other stories.Anyway, let’s go onto the usual stuff.Rogue of Light

As a stealing class, Rogues are naturally devious and covetous, but as a passive class, they’re concerned primarily with supporting others. This gives them an internal conflict of interest– between their desire for stuff, and a belief that they should give that stuff to other people. They’re caught between greed and generosity.

Light is the aspect of meaning and purpose. Its adherents necessarily have some conception of a cosmic plan that underlies every important event in history, whether that plan is God’s, karma’s or the Illuminati’s. It and its players are distinct from Time in that they focus very much on the content of what is predestined. To a Light player, winning a fight is never just about winning– it’s about being right.

Rogues are among the most likely to be well-liked by society at large; they’re usually a mixture of laid-back and helpful that makes others enjoy spending time with them. If you do have a problem with a Rogue, it’ll probably be that they don’t always take things seriously enough, or that they’ve chosen to play for another team entirely.

As a rule of thumb, Light players are pretty book-smart– high in intelligence if not always wisdom. This isn’t exactly a quality intrinsic to the Light aspect, just a consequence of their desire to learn about the world around them and their natural affinity for rules systems. If we pair that with the congeniality of a Rogue, I bet that, in a social setting like a school lunchroom or an office, a Rogue of Light would be best known for his or her wit and humor.

Unlike, say, a Seer, Rogues tend to struggle with an overly oppressive conscience rather than a lack of one. They’re conscious of the desires and needs of other people, but often end up projecting their own values on to others in the process. As a Light player, they’re likely to perceive that everyone wants to work as much as they do, and try to give the people around them chances to excel, even if it’s at cost to the Rogue themselves. Part of maturing in this vein is realizing that not every desire should be realized– sometimes, people just want things that will ultimately fuck them (or someone else) over, and in these cases you ought to keep it from them by taking it back. I think that the idea of something being “ultimately” bad for someone is pretty relevant as far as the Light aspect goes, since it suggests a coherent line of causality that arises from some original misstep.

In terms of motivations that matter to the Light aspect, you can expect lots of social or religious obligations that the player feels they have to fulfill in order to matter to the universe. This fits snugly with the issues of conscience and desire that affect Rogues most prominently– they want one thing, but the rules tell them that they shouldn’t. There’s a lot of ground that you could tread here if you’re writing a story about a Rogue of Light, vis a vis characters dealing with rules based on story tropes that exist in Real Life and are, in the context of the story itself, effectively sacrosanct until the Rogue comes along.

[2claspect4this]

Hi, new to your blog. But I've been thinking, so I think I would be a hero of time, but I'm torn between rogue of time and heir of time. What are the main differences between the two? Thanks :)

Aight, it’s been a while, but here we are. Thanks for bearing with me!

Rogues and Heirs both accomplish similar kinds of goals, but are expected to take very different paths to get there. Heirs are asked to be chaste, fair and honest rulers, and tend to be bestowed with information and power that allows them to help solve the problems of other people. As a personality type, Heirs rarely initiate action for their own sake, but are quick to move if somebody else needs something done. In terms of morality, there is the question of who (or what) they should place their trust in. Examples of Heirs in popular media include Harry Potter, Steven Universe, Aang (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Gunnerkrigg Court’s Smitty.

Rogues, on the other hand, are much more active as people. If we look at the world in terms of imbalances, Heirs are the kind of people who will give things up (and inspire others to give things up) if they’re shown an imbalance, and otherwise kind of dick around with whatever’s around them. Rogues have an imbalance coded into their personality. On one end is a sense of greed, a desire for something that they don’t currently have. This doesn’t have to be a material object– some Rogues want to have love, or vengeance on some enemy.

The other half of the imbalance here is a corresponding sense that they don’t actually deserve whatever it is that they want. (This is part of what separates Rogues from Thieves.) Rogues tend to have this idea that being a good person and taking what you want are mutually exclusive, and can therefore come to see denying themselves of what they want as a positive thing. While noble-sounding in theory, it practically never works out that way for them. Rogues are already keyed to prefer giving to taking, which is half of what being a “good person” is. What they should be much more worried about is who they’re giving things to, and what they’re actually giving away. Examples of Rogues in popular media include Toph Bei Fong (from A:TLA) and Disney’s Mulan.

[2claspect4this]

i have an OC who's a thief but i dont know what her aspect should be??? shes v competitive and wants to control people and i think thats sort of like a blood player but she's too cerebral/not angry enough to fit. shes more into subtle mind games than brute force or intimidation and sometimes gets jealous of people who are smarter than her which i think is more like mind or hope

The thing with Hope players is that they tend to invent narratives about the universe and then subscribe to them wholeheartedly, while Blood and Mind players are less about narratives and more about actual game plans. You could say that where Blood and Mind are more into ethics, Hope players are more marked by their weird-looking takes on metaphysics.

And Blood’s not necessarily about anger and pure action: it’s more about passion, like caring so much about your goals and the world that you could drill a hole in reality itself. Blood players can be schemers too, especially if they’re of a stealth-based class like Thief.

The big distinction between Blood, and Mind or Hope, is the much firmer pragmatism of Blood players. They’re not into all the shit about possible futures or deciphering whether or not something even exists. It’s kind of like the difference between Meenah and Vriska– Thieves of Hope and Mind are a lot more conscious of perception and presentation than a Thief of Blood, because those things enter into their class arc in a big way. A Thief of Blood is much more concerned with being able to secure tangible goods.

Incidentally, I’m like 80% sure that Adolf Hitler was a Thief of Hope. Do with that information what you will.

[2claspect4this]

Idk if i'm a Rogue or a Witch of time...Help!

Alright.

At a surface level, Rogue and Witch look like incredibly different classes-- but looks can be deceiving, and immature Rogues and Witches are often pretty similar! They both have issues with self-pride and can dislike actually taking control of anything, both in a leadership sense and just objects in general.

Rogues see it in terms of greed; they don’t want to impose on others or make themselves look bad, so they give up on things in order to appease the palates of those others, so to speak. However, they often don’t understand how much greed is actually encoded into these “sacrifices”, and can end up failing at their true goal-- inspiring as much resolute greed in their friends as is humanly possible.

Witches are more pragmatic about the situation when they’re unwilling to lead; they often see themselves as reliant on certain allies or tools, and powerless unless they keep those allies co-operative. This makes them significantly less self-directed in their actions and goals than they should be, which in affords external forces more power over them and reduces their own agency-- making a self-fulfilling prophecy out of their fears that they’re too weak on their own.

Basically: a Witch makes herself by drawing on her own power and exerting enough force of will that others are cowed into following her or leaving, while a Rogue does it by exploiting the short-sightedness and desires of others. The latter is reliant on the impulses of others in a way that a Witch isn’t.

Adding the Time aspect gives you all kinds of fun things. Basically, a realised Witch of Time weaves determinism into her schemes; she’s a stoic motherfucker who conceals whatever awareness she does have from everybody and anybody, something that makes it look extremely cool when she dodges a bullet or turns out to have trained in anti-magic martial arts from a young age. A Rogue of Time takes assholes and hardship as granted and cheats the system, so to speak. They’re comfortable with the knowledge that people are motivated chiefly by their self-interest, and they’re able to use it to trick people into going hunting after their own demise.

[2claspect4this]

last thief of void spam: would i still be a thief of void and not a light player even though my rationale for being "bad" is to dominate other people and have the most personal agency because i think being important and getting whatever i want done is better than being overridden by the will of another person because i don't want give my independence to them and not matter to the world as an individual?

basically not only do i want to leave an impact i also want all of it to be credited to me as something /i/ did, thinking for myself. /i/ got what /i/ wanted and everybody else should know it

Yes, this is all pretty natural for a maturing Thief of Void. Importance is still an idea with some relevance to Void players, despite their notion that it’s an illusion of human thought– their take on it is that humans create importance, hewing meaning out of the bedrock of causality by themselves. They may not subscribe to objective standards of morality (those don’t exist anyway), but a Thief of Void would still be his or her own number one.

The importance you place on being given credit and wanting to matter to the world are certainly both Light-y qualities, but they can be Page ones. Look out for situations where you’ve claimed more credit for something than you actually needed to and gotten your ass kicked for it, or where notoriety set you at a disadvantage relative to others.