The best practices for CoG as sent to me back when I started writing is “always get to an awesome ending” where “awesome” can be a spectacular failure or a hilarious debacle.
On another note, while it’s probably good to signal to the reader that if they train with that guy, sneaky_stat will rise, it’s perfectly reasonable to have all sorts of other stats moving around that you don’t talk about–if you train with the master thief, you are lowering your respectability or putting wear and tear on your poor Achilles tendon. So signalling which primary stat you are dealing with doesn’t necessarily = full control.
This thread has a bit of discussion on the subject.