Activities of Thieves' Guilds

There are certain obvious core activities of thieves which will always be a staple of guild goings-on, but there are also more uncommon activities which not all guilds will have dealings with. Looking at the range of possible guild activities is done here for two reasons. First, it is a useful precursor to guild design, to come later. Second, it is a natural lead-in to the issue of relations which exist between thieves' guilds and other groups. Since these are often based on mutual interests and spheres of activity, it makes sense to consider these interests and activities first, to make sense of the associations to be reviewed later!

Importantly, the activities reviewed here do not involve all the thieves of the Guild. If PC Guildmembers find some activities run by a guild objectionable (e.g., because they are good-aligned), they shouldn't be forced to do so. The idea here is simply to give an idea of the range of activities which guilds may be involved with on more than an occasional basis.

Core Activities

These are the bread-and-butter activities of thieves. Virtually any guild will have these as everyday activities. That is, guild members will regularly indulge in them and they will provide much of the "bread and butter" income for most thieves (especially lower-level thieves).

Pickpocketing, burglary, robbery, street theft, street gambling, and mugging are the most obvious core activities. There's little need to say much more about them here. Almost all players will have had their thieves indulge in such behaviors, and will be familiar with them. Standard AD&D® game rules, and many equipment items and Thief Kits presented in this volume, give exhaustive detail about them.

Other Activities

The DM can look upon the listing here as a menu from which choices can be made later on when designing a thieves' guild. The list isn't exhaustive; devious DMs can no doubt add to it for unusual guilds in a campaign setting. The activities here are ones which will involve the guild as a body, or many of its members, on a systematic basis. In turn, this will affect the nature of the guild significantly. Obviously, many of the activities listed below may involve specialists, and the thieves' kits outlined earlier can be very useful in many cases.

Table of Contents