I fucking love that book.

I absolutely agree. I would never DM for anyone I didn't know unless they were paying me a lot more than 5 bucks a session.

Not even considering making maps and props. I try to have something interesting for the battles every week, whether it's an elaborate cardboard castle or just a scrubland made of dried moss.

I run two weekly campaigns, one for kids, one for adults. Both because I want to. I can't imagine trying to DM as a job. I greatly respect anyone able to do it. Coming up with NPCs, encounters, adventures, and being ready for whatever hijinx the party gets up to, it's hard to do every week.

Characters don't get a full range of experiences. OTOH, I've been an insider, outsider, prejudiced, discriminated against, certain, confused, loved, hated, happy, angry, aggrieved, exhilarated, deceitful, duped. I've drunk rare wine and moonshine, at dives and galas. That's enough for any character.

Eh, in 5E Bards can fill the charlatan side of things, properly specced rangers can fill the stealthy espionage/assassin side. Hell, even Artificers have stealth armor as an option. Maybe it's not Wizard/Sorcerer/Warlock/Cleric like for magic classes but its there.

There's so many good options, and I'm not sure I agree that none appear commonly.

Confidence man. Safe cracker. Assassin. Spy. Charlatan. Fixer. Saboteur. Pickpocket. Smuggler. I've definitely seen some of those in various RPGs.

You know what, I'm sorry. I disagree with you on this, but I don't think you're a bot or a Russian shill. A state judge in her own courtroom has extraordinary latitude. Feds don't have a magic wand to overrule that without a judicial warrant. This arrest is straight from the fascist playbook.

Found the Russian propaganda bot.

If I had a nickel for every time I had to use my lockpicks to gain access to a room that I should have already had access to, I'd have... like 35 cents.

It's the perfect activity for people who hate leaving their house.

Your politics are wiping out kelp forests off the Pacific coast, but on the other hand, are the favorite food of sea otters, so I guess it evens out.

I find that thread kind of reductionist navel gazing. I'm sure there are tables where the players are enacting some kind of imperialist/capitalist passion play, but I think most tables, players want to be heroes. They want to slay the dragon because the village is in danger. Gold is just a bonus.

Except when your party is in an underground tunnel and your DM rules that they're going to use the fireball's volume, rather than its radius, to determine who needs to make a saving throw.

Gross.