Roguish Swindling

[Gilrion]

I'm playing a half-elven roguish character who's slick, a cityboy gone into adventuring very much against his will. He grew up in Waterdeep, a huge metropolis in the Forgotten Realms. While he currently adventures outside Waterdeep (much to his chagrin), he has acquired the remains of a ruined tower in the heart of the city. He plans to rebuild this and make a home for himself and his friends and loved ones. The problem is towers aren't cheap. He has sat on the property for some time, and has now begun the process of rebuilding. Of course, he doesn't have the necessary money.

This is where I ask for your help. Since the characters are still low-level, my GM has given me permission to roleplay a bit and try to increase the amount of money. Ideally, we're talking about roughly doubling 12000 gps for now, but the whole amount isn't necessary--any profit would be appreciated. After all, this is mostly for the fun of RPing, and OOC I'm sure the rest of the money will come along from adventuring (the 12K have been saved up for some levels now).

The problem is I'm having trouble coming up with ways to con, swindle, invest or borrow the money. I was hoping for a more inventive solution then gambling, stealing, or simply approaching someone who loans money (although those options may be later used). My character grew up on the streets of Waterdeep, so he has some contacts, despite the city's lack of a thieves' guild. He is actually a good, honest person, with a talent for thievery: as he sees it, it's just how the world made him out to be.
Anyway, I would love to hear everyone's ideas on how such a thing could be accomplished. I have somewhat of a creative license as to events--both good or ill--that may transpire in this "quest". These "plans" need not all succeed. They are merely the culmination of years of conjecturing "if I had the money, I'd do _______". So far, I have thought of the following:

- con my way into the traders' guild, then attempt to acquire raw materials at less than market value
- finance a trading operation, possibly to some exotic location
- acquire some goods rare to/from Silverymoon, where the character will be going shortly
- convince the city that the place will be of some utility to the city, getting them to bank me somewhat (this would likely be a failed plan, either failing to produce money or backfiring and having the place serve its utility--temporary hospital, orphan shelter, you name it!)
- somehow digging an entrance into Undermountain and sell passages to suicidal (IMHO) adventurers?

 

[tonym]

- convince the city that the place will be of some utility to the city, getting them to bank me somewhat (this would likely be a failed plan, either failing to produce money or backfiring and having the place serve its utility--temporary hospital, orphan shelter, you name it!)

This has lots of potential. Maybe convince the town that there's a monster that needs killing (fake evidence, false testimony from a paid witness, you slaughter somebody's pig, etc.), then convince the town to pay you to kill the horrible monster.

Then, later, present them with triple the bill, saying it turned out that there were three of the nasty buggers.

Repeat this scam a few times if it works well.

Then fake your own kidnapping. Then somehow convince the town to pay the ransom to have it's brave monster-killer released from an evil-monster's clutches. After you are released, instead of paying the town back for the ransom, tell the town you will track down and kill the kidnappers for free.



Tony

 

[Phineas Crow]

[snip]
- finance a trading operation, possibly to some exotic location

Why spend your own money financing a trading operation when you can get suckers... er... supporters to finance it for you. Tell them of the great and wonderous journey you have planned... and the immense wealth you plan to bring back from such exotic lands.

Tell them that with a small payment of a 1000 gp they can invest in the trading operation of a lifetime, almost assuredly making five times that much from their share of the goods when the traders return.

Get 12 supporters and you have 12000 gp, whether you actually do the trading operation or just take the money and run is up to you.

 

[random user]

One word: Ponzi

Another idea: get investors to finance something, anything really, under a shell company (persona, whatever) and then use it to hire people (probably your party) to do something at a very inflated value. Then proceed to run that company into the ground, all the while legitimately funding your party (and any other friends or contacts you want to get to like you) to do tasks.

 

[Len]

Another idea: get investors to finance something, anything really, under a shell company (persona, whatever)...

Like a Broadway play for instance?

What we do sometimes is sell loot for far more than it's worth. My DM likes to give us powerful magic items that have powerful drawbacks. For instance, a shocking rapier that gets its energy by draining the wielder's STR and DEX when it's activated. We sold that one to an upper-class twit with more money than brains, for the price of an item without the drawback. He'll never know, he just wanted to hang it on the wall in his den. The twit's mistress helped up the price by oohing and ahing over the sparkling sword - it seems the Thieves' Guild is always allied with the Prostitutes' Guild.

 

[rbingham2000]

Bets are always popular.

The way you generally do this is make a bet to someone for a goodly sum of money that you can make someone else make an ass of himself or do something uncharacteristic, and then go to that person and make another bet for a lesser sum that you lose, but in the process of doing so win the first bet and come off ahead in the bargain.

A classic example of this is the trick described in Quentin Tarantino's joke in Desperado:

A drunk makes a bet with a bartender for $300 that he can pee into a glass on the bar a yard or so away without spilling a single drop. The drunk then proceeds to pee all over everything EXCEPT the glass, including the bartender. The bartender, instead of getting mad, proceeds to laugh his ass off because the drunk now owes him $300.

But the joke's actually on the bartender, for it turns out that the drunk bet several other guys $500 a piece beforehand that he could pee all over everything including the bartender, and not only wouldn't the bartender be mad about it, he'd be happy.

The bet doesn't have to be as crude as the above, but you get the general idea.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Find a book on scams.

The bag of money scam, the Nigerian banking scam, etc. should all give you ideas.

Here's a classic:

There once was a guy who sold shares in a mine. The mine itself was played out, but whenever he had a potential investor, he would hire some bums from the city to "work" the mine while the VIPs toured it. Invariably, one of the "miners" would find a huge lump of whatever he told the VIPs the mine was for.

Over time, that mine was, at different times, a silver, iron, copper, gold, lead, platinum, diamond, emerald, uranium, and many other kinds of mine that, if you know your geology, would never co-exist- some didn't even exist in the country!

When he was brought to trial, he was acquitted, even though all of the above came out in testimony.

Why? The smooth SOB had promised shares in the mine to the jurors at a cut rate, and they believed him!

 

[Pbartender]

How about that little used skill... FORGERY! Letters of credit... False deeds... Fake Wills... Treasure maps... Use them, sell them, trade them for favors.

Or, a few vials of colored water, some polished sticks and a Wand of Magic Aura. Sell fake potions and wands to rich gullibles.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Ah, yes- the wandering snake-oil salesman!

Classic scam. Nasty tasting brew with some alcohol for sale at exorbitant prices. Sell quickly and get the heck out of town.

Of course, anything like that might be impossible in a world with real mages wandering around...unless you have a mage on your team verifying it as the real deal. You know, a schill in the crowd..."You there! Let me examine your potions to see if the wizardry here is real or merely of your glib toungue's manufacture!"

Nonsense words, nonsense words, fingerwiggle

"Yea! This brew is truly potent!"

 

[Old One]

Ponzi Scheme...

A take-off on the "false trader" mentioned above...

Convince 10 people to invest in your trade scheme with a low initial investment 100 gps. Use forgery and other skills to make it look like a legitmate operations (ship's manifest, letters of credit, etc). Use some of your current gold to return their investment 2-3 times over.

Then tell them you have a bigger expedition planned, with even more profit expected. Have them tell their friends and family. This time, up the intial investment to 200 gold and return their investment 2-3 times over.

Then set up the big one. Go back to all of the investors and tell them you have a huge trade deal coming up. The buy-in this time is 1,000 gold. By this time, you should have investors breaking down your door to get in on the deal. Now, you have 2 ways to go:

(1) Just get as much money as you can and run

-OR-

(2) Pay off the first 5 investors (using money from the other investors) and tell the others that part of the shipment has been delayed, but the first shipment was so profitable that you are sending a 2nd caravan or ship. With the first 5 talking about how great the investment is...you bring in even more sheep. Once you have pocketed a significant sum...you shut it down and disappear...leaving the investors holding the bag !

~ Old One