Rogues of Velnaris — A Gallery of Subclasses

Velnaris has no thieves' guild. It has crews, and every crew steals something the street already has a name for.

Rogues of Velnaris gives your Rogue eight crafts grown from the public face of the city's criminal trade — each one a subclass at levels 3 / 9 / 13 / 17, each with its own Cunning Strike option that lands as often as the core ones, and a street cover you can play tonight.

The Eight Crafts

• Ledgerhand — you steal obligation. A leaf in the pocket, a name in the Grey Ledger, evidence that was not there this morning.
• Nightbloom — you steal a death that looks like grief. Blooms, cuttings, a symptom with a horticultural name.
• Palimpsest — you steal provenance. A citation the university cannot institutionally doubt.
• Saltcut — you steal the difference between two manifests. Sometimes the difference breathes.
• Watchcloak — you steal an hour. The one between the dusk roll and the dawn roll, in someone else's uniform.
• Coilwhisper — you steal weight: what a person will do to keep a thing unsaid.
• Reliquary — you steal while the nave is looking up.
• Ashfoot — you steal inheritance, in a grey coat, with condolences.

Also Inside (~38 pages)

• The Trade: how crime looks from the street — crews, laws that are not laws, what each craft actually takes
• A Chooser: pick by hunger, not damage type; what still works when tonight is the wrong street; where to go from the core Rogue subclasses
• Playing a Velnari Rogue: tools, d8 downtime jobs, cant, party roles, suggested backgrounds, advancement
• The Kit: every feature beside the sheet, and all nine Cunning Strike options on one table
• Names, tells and bonds for each craft — 64 ready-made Velnari

Written for the 2024 rules, with a one-paragraph conversion for 2014 tables. No GM spoilers: the city's private lore stays in the GM sourcebook.

Who It's For

Players who want their Rogue to belong to this city rather than pass through it, and GMs who want crews with prices instead of a guild with ranks. Sweet spot: levels 5-10. Pair with the free Player's Guide to Velnaris for species, districts and sanctuary rules.

Content

18+. Crime, poisoning, religious theft, Watch corruption, debt and adult indenture, the professional discretion of the lantern houses. Four hard lines are printed in the book (child indenture, assassination on-screen, intimacy as cover, crimping and drowning) and Session Zero is assumed. Intimacy is never required to play any subclass.

More in the Line

Player's Guide to Velnaris (free) · Backgrounds of Velnaris (20 backgrounds) · Heroes of Velnaris (free pregens) · Velnaris — Expanded Edition (GM sourcebook) · Velnaris: The Complete Edition bundle.

Written, designed and playtested by a human; AI assists with editing, translation and cover art.

Compatible with fifth edition. Includes material from SRD 5.2.1, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.