Developing the Thieves' Guild

This chapter sets out to understand first what benefits a PC thief will derive from membership in a thieves' guild, and what responsibilities and duties he will have in return. This is a good place to start, for two reasons. First, it briefs the DM on luring the PC into guild membership so that instead of being onerous, it becomes interesting and rewarding. Dragooning a PC thief into guild membership isn't as good as the lure of the carrot (with the threat of the stick in the background . . . ). Second, in looking at the "rights and responsibilities" guild members have, many of the functions of the thieves' guild—its raisons d'etre—become clear in the process. This helps to show why such guilds exist.

This matter—what thieves' guilds do—is developed further in the next major section. The activities of the guild are divided into core functions—what almost all guilds will do—and secondary ones. Secondary functions may be carried out or wholly avoided, depending on the guild in question. These various activities are laid out for the DM here to make guild-designing easier later on. Players may also get ideas for sneaky and nefarious behaviors for their PCs here. Many "secondary functions" will relate to the specialized thief kits presented earlier. This section does not make explicit use of these kits, since different DMs will wish to handle these differently. However, developing specialist NPCs to fulfill these specialized activities is greatly facilitated by using the kits.

Next, the relation of a thieves' guild with other groups is considered. These can vary from minimal to very highly organized indeed. The DM is briefed on major associations (with merchants, the law, other guilds) and the general social background to thief activities.

Immediately before the section on designing guilds, there is the crucial issue of the power at the top of the guild. This is usually the Guildmaster—or maybe a small group of dominant thieves, a ruling council. The personalities involved here will have a major effect on the personality of the guild, and need careful design by the DM.

An extensive design section, complete with play-aid record sheets, is then provided to enable the DM to develop a thieves' guild for the major urban setting(s) in his campaign. This section uses a flexible approach to guild design. That is, there are tables which can be used for random determination of aspects of guilds, and dice-rolling alone will generate workable guild structures. However, the DM is encouraged to use a guided-semirandom approach, tailoring or omitting certain dice rolls and choosing design options which produce the most suitable and pleasing overall picture. This also covers the possibility that there is no formal thieves' guild, with design options for very loose affiliations or even relative anarchy!

An example, the thieves' guild of Mallain, shows how to use the design system. This example takes an apparently contradictory set of dice rolls, and shows how to resolve them; the result is that the intrigues and tensions in the resulting Guild structure can be a focus for adventures for any PCs. The Guild becomes far more than just an anonymous body a thief PC pays dues to!

A short section on unusual thieves' guilds (travellers on the road and others such) is followed by a valuable DM resource, a section on handling PC Guildmasters. The straightforward system laid out here handles guild income, hassles, arrests, trials and tribulations, followers arriving and leaving, morale, and the day-to-day business of running a thieves' guild. This should make life a lot easier for the DM!

A small number of selected "blueprint profiles" for major NPCs within a guild follow; the DM can use these unchanged in game play or modify them as he wishes.

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