Everything Thieves Guilds Do

[Slife]

Through extracting liquid agony from diseased people, then curing them. The guild can charge for the cure and end up with a bunch of drug/magic item components.

 

[Deadguy]

Pimping

I just wanted to say that it's very telling that immediately after Nightfall posts, Teflon Billy thinks of 'pimping'.

Here's to Nightfall, our resident Scarred Lands Pimp-in-Chief.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Quote:Originally Posted by Wraith Form
So, basically everything every government in history does?
Fixed that for you.

I was thinking of banks, or the historical banks of the Italian city-states. Something every ambitious thieves guild could aspire to...one day....

 

[nute]

A great deal of the concept of a thieves' guild assumes a number of things:

1) Most guilds are formed to consolidate the power and protect the rights of merchants providing a service. Thus a thieves' "guild" can be one in name only, as they provide no service and have no rights.

2) Thus, a guild of thieves' would be in essence, organized crime. But if it's specifically a Thieves' Guild, they do one thing: theft.

 

[Ourph]

I like Discworld's (Ankh-Morpork's) take on guilds: The Patrician thought that when there has to be crime, it can as well be organized. There's an official Thieves' Guild. They have a certain quota of thieving, which is enforced. They must steal/rob/burglarize a certain amount of money each year. When you're robbed, you get a receipt so noone gets robbed too often or too much. Many people intentionally let themselves be robbed at the beginning of the year, to get it over with.

This is actually not too much different from the way Thief-takers operated with official license in the Edwardian/Victorian era. Thieves would steal items and sell them to officially sanctioned fences (Thief-takers) who acted as brokers to allow people to get back their stolen goods. Technically, the thief-takers were supposed to track down and confiscate stolen goods, returning them to their owners for a reward. But it was much easier to just pay the thieves a portion of the reward to bring the item straight to the Thief-taker. The attitude of the rich and powerful was 1) thievery is going to happen no matter what, 2) I have money and I have my great uncle Herman's gold pocket watch, 3) I'd rather lose the money than the pocket watch, 4) So, let's set up a system where, if I have something stolen that I really don't want to lose, I can pay a "ransom" for it that's a fraction of the actual value rather than never seeing it again. IMO, a very practical and elegant system for the time, even if it did arguably encourage thievery by making it easier for thieves to dispose of stolen goods.

 

[Twowolves]

Or, you could just read the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust.......

 

[theredrobedwizard]

Which isn't easy, as I and others can testify to.

I don't know what you're talking about. Pimping is a relatively easy way of earning money; that famous quote about it being difficult is just to dissuade those who don't have the stones to go full bore with it.

That being said, the correct answer is; "Hell yeah, pimpin's easy."

OP: The best Thieves' Guild members have Profession (Barrister) and high ranks in Diplomacy, Bluff, and Sense Motive.

-TRRW

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Sell potions of Cure Minor Wounds as potions of Cure Moderate Wounds. Bastards!

 

[Cergorach]

Isn't the thieves guild also in the garbage disposal business? Or is that uniquee to our own world...

Running brothels, gambling houses, opium dens, brutal sports arenas, underground railroads for unwanted (non)humans, etc.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Sell potions of Cure Minor Wounds as potions of Cure Moderate Wounds. Bastards!

Well, if you didn't parade around wearing a crown and calling yourself a prince, they might not have overcharged you...so much.