Dungeons and Dragons Thieves Guild ideas?

Play the Thief series.
The 4th Thief Game has just come out.

From my experience, one class guilds usually do not work well. Also, in a game you are supposed to have fun and not be forced into roles in my opinion. In any case you can give it a go and see how it works, if it does then cool, if not, it’s just a game:-)

PS. If you do play the new Thief game, please do let us know how you find it.

There’s many ways it could go. Discworld offers a rather unique spin on guilds if you’re into a light-hearted approach.

@kounoupi—A thief doesn’t have to be a rogue PC. Being creative, you could have any class be a thief. They would each use their special abilities to steal stuff and probably steal different things.

EDIT: I just realised you’re talking about background info, and not campaign ideas. Still, I’ll keep my original answer up. Maybe it’ll help someone.

Bear in mind that Bards and Monks have thief or thief-like skills as well. And there are Thief sub-classes, like Assassin and Thief-acrobat.

And in certain circumstances, the character doesn’t necessarily have to be of evil alignment. Halflings can be any alignment and still be a Thief class.

I might do a Bard and Thief-Acrobat campaign based on a travelling mummer’s show.

These are all good answers, but what I’m looking for is the activities that the thieves guild would participate in like burglary, pick pocketing and stuff like that. While he’s running the guild ways that his members would be making money,that sort of thing. The PC is actually playing a class that I made up and he originally was just a smooth-talking con artist with a touch of sleight of hand (ok, ok… I made him Gambit from X-Men) and now he wants to graduate to much bigger money.

Well, then wouldn’t how this PC runs his organization be up to him (though subject to the DM’s guiding hand, of course)

Waitaminit… YOU are the player.

Gods this question is worded weirdly.

What’s your Charisma? Level? Race?

If you’re literally Gambit running a gambit, why not start small with a bunch of young street hustlers? You’ll take their earnings and pay them a bit out of it.

For money-handling suggestions, read Freakonomics, the chapter on the financial workings of the crack gang.

@Daisygirl You can hire a mage. and lieutenants from different classes.

Lol, Ok I DM for my husband and a few others. The hubs wanted to have a class much like Gambit from X-Men but couldn’t find prestige classes that fit his liking. I took it upon myself to make him a class that’d he’d like and it’s heavy on DEX, INT and CHA.

He’s human, an un-deity amount of CHA and he’s level 13.

BTW, the hubs isn’t much for patience either, I just situated the divisions of who has what territory (like Saints Row 2) and told him this area belongs to “blah” and “blah”. Well, he found out where the Grand Counsels of the Thieves Guild territories are and is already trying to formulate a plan to kill them all. Facepalm. He may be making a new character if he keeps this sh*t up lol

Jaysus. I’d have killed him already.

Classes are just that – classes. You don’t have to make up a special class to make a player character. If you do, you’re not creative enough to play D&D anyway.

As far as the rest of that stuff, I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.

@Seek_Kolinahr Now you know why I prefer Shadowrun and GURPS; they don’t have artificial constructs like “classes” and “levels” to restrict character design. Makes things simpler :)

Something else to bear in mind is that thieves do all the things they do for the end goal of power. Money is power. Blackmail is power. Assassination is power.

Politics is something that requires Charisma; Bards are a subset of Rogues.

Espionage requires a blend of charm (getting secrets from people) and stealth (getting secrets from their premises). Who are the sweet-talkers and second-story men?

Efficient and stealthy use of deadly force can topple regimes as well as any war can; which of the four class-groups do Assassins belong to?

Taking over a kingdom by force usually means ruling over a barren wasteland in need of rebuilding. Taking over by more subtle means allows you more power, and often a scapegoat that will get killed while you escape.

More importantly, it’s proper role-playing of a Rogue. Rogues don’t do swords, fireballs, or miracles. Leave the hack-and-slash to Fighters, blowing shit up to Wizards, and smiting for Clerics! Rogues are about subtlety, finesse, and getting what they want, preferably without a stand-up fight.

But if he just wants to kill them all then you’re better off just having him play an Orc Barbarian :p