Pilferer
This design document is currently completely unimplemented in Ephemeral Space.
You should not expect to find anything listed here in-game just yet.
Tracking issue:
Name: Pilferer
Troupe: Crew
Archetypes: Sabotager, Freak
Description: Play a stealth game and yoink random bullshit from everybody in sight.
Objectives: Pilfer X items from X (~20-25% of crew?) people on the station.
Some people on this station are too rich for their own good. Lucky they have me to give them a hand. Yup.. I'll be a hero once I distribute these lighters and pocket lint and assorted fruits to the downtrodden. Eventually. I'll keep the revolver to myself.
It might be good to have a generic delay for this ability, and the abilities of other masks, to avoid stuff happening instantly on arrivals, since it can be a little too easy to go unnoticed. Not that it'd be very useful to steal stuff from people on arrivals anyway, though.
Concept
The Pilferer can steal random items from people's backpacks without being seen, as long as they stay out of sight and pick their marks tastefully.
Abilities
The Pilferer has a player-targeting action usable (successfully) once per player, with a doafter that doesn't show up for others. They can activate this action only when out of sight of that player (i.e. in their viewcone's shadow, or more literally, when they're facing the same direction), taking ~1.5-2 seconds, failing if either of them move. If successful, this will pick a random item out of their backpack and place it into the Pilferer's hand.
This ability cannot be used on unconscious or dead players.
Gameplay
The Pilferer's objective and actions lead them into direct minor conflict with many people, while the random nature of their action means they're unlikely to be able to powergame very hard with the items they do manage to steal. The leadup to the steal--having to be outside of their viewcone--integrates nicely with the viewcone mechanic itself and other related mechanics, like footsteps being muted when walking, or invisibility granted by things like the Spy's stealth suit, if the Pilferer can manage to steal it.
The Pilferer has co-deniability with the Philanthropist, whose behavior up to the conclusion of the action is functionally identical.
Variants
Professional Pilferer - Action usable N times (>1) per player, and with a faster doafter.