Guild Operations and Occupations for Thieves' Guilds

Occupations

Organizing and operating a crime organization such as a Thieves' Guild takes much more than simply being a "thief". Consider the following occupations when your character joins a Thieves' Guild:

Initiations

• Jumped In - Survive a physical beating from the entire gang for 60 seconds.

• Blood for Blood - Kill a rival member

• Trophy - Bring back a valuable item from a rival

• Street Marks - Tag the gang symbol in rival territory (usually in a prominent place)

• Wilding - Kill 1 or more civilians

• Spree - Destroy or cause a lot of physical damage to a location

• Run the Pack - Kill a guard and get away

• Renegotiate - Force 3 new marks to pay protection (minimum DC 15)

• Burn the Witch - Kill a mage/cleric (of rank)

• Rat Race - Take large amounts of drugs and alcohol, and be blindfolded and dropped far from home. Return alive.

Scams & Cons

A confidence game, also known as a con, scam, grift, or flim flam, is an attempt to win the trust and confidence of a victim, known as the "mark," in order to defraud them. Although general expectation is that con artists are untrustworthy, their particular ability is actually to be able to gain the trust of their victims. They play on people's selfish desires, greed and the desire to obtain much with minimal effort. Victims often do not report con men due to their own complicity in an activity of dubious, if not criminal, nature, and their embarrassment at having been tricked.
Con artists are charismatic, intelligent, have good memories, and know how to manipulate people's hopes and fears. They attempt to blend in, to look and sound familiar, and often work diligently at appearing to be smooth, professional, and successful. A con man may wear expensive clothes and appear to work in a high class profession. Or, conversely, a con artist may put him or herself in a weaker position to play on a victim's sympathies: They may take on the role of illegal immigrant, a likable man down on his luck, or a woman with a small child who needs to use the bathroom. From city official to beggar, the con artist can appear to be just about anyone.
The Mark The "mark," or victim, may also be just about anyone who wants something. Con artists prey on human desires for money, health, happiness, and even the desire to help others. Some may argue that con artists are a sort of Robin Hood, nobly cheating the greedy and dishonest out of their money; hence the old adage, "you can't cheat an honest man." In many cases, this holds true, as many cons exploit the greed and willingness to go "around the law" in their victims. Many cons dangle the prospect of "something for nothing (or very little)" in front of their marks.
However, there are two main categories of confidence games: The "short con" and the "long con." Sometimes called a "street con," the "short con" takes little set up and little time to execute. The "long con," on the other hand, involves much more time to set up, more planning, more money, and often more accomplices. Unlike the short con, though, the long con usually scams the victim out of a sizable amount of cash. The long con is sometimes referred to as a "big store scam," where the "big store" is an elaborately set up fake bank, lawyer's office, betting parlor, and so forth.
Many victims of confidence games are embarrassed to admit they fell victim to a scam, feeling foolish and stupid for being taken in by the con artist's game. Sometimes, the con artist is so convincing with the pitiful tales he tells the mark about his family, children, and so forth, that, even though the mark knows he has been swindled, he still feels bad for the con man and fails to report him. Other times, the con artist will manipulate the situation so that the mark cannot go to the authorities without admitting that he has committed a crime. Because of this surefire way to escape punishment, many confidence games include a minor element of crime. For example, the victim may be encouraged to use money concealed from the tax authorities to invest in the con artist's scheme; if they go to the authorities, they must reveal that they have committed tax fraud. Similarly, the mark who buys stolen weapons off the back of a wagon, only to find he has bought an empty barrel filled with bricks, cannot report the seller without admitting to attempting to purchase stolen goods.
How do these scams work? Some cons rely on the gullibility of their victims. (Too naïve to be suspicious).
Some cons depend on the dishonesty of their victims. (Too blinded to see the trap).
Some cons exploit the intelligence of their victims. (Too arrogant to think they could be hoodwinked).
Often, the mark tries to out-cheat the con men, only to discover that they have been manipulated into this from the start.
All cons have one thing in common—they employ the victim's greed or need as a lever to success.
You don’t have to be cynical 24/7. But if you’re not even slightly suspicious, you’re prime for the picking.
A “get rich quick scheme” or “too good to be true” investment is easy to spot from the outside. But when you’re right in the middle of it, your critical thinking skills are thrown out the window.
In the most sophisticated cons, the victim never realizes he's been conned. He thinks he was just involved in a failed gambit.
The con man can't be classed in the same group as “thieves”, since he doesn't actually do any stealing—the victims willingly hand over the money.
A clever play of the con man is to make you think the scheme was your idea.
In a traditional con, the marks are encouraged to believe that they will obtain money dishonestly by cheating a third party, and is stunned to find that due to what appears to be an error in pulling off the scam they are the one who loses money.
Very few con men are ever brought to trial. The victim must admit his own criminal intentions (usually the reason they got involved) if he wishes to prosecute.

Scams

The Accident
The con artist tricks the mark into damaging, for example, the con artist's wagon or cart, or injuring the con artist, in a manner that the con artist can later exaggerate. One relatively common scheme involves two wagons, one for the con artist, and the other for the shill. The con artist will pull in front of the victim, and the shill will pull in front of the con artist before slowing down. The con artist will then try to rein up to "avoid" the shill, causing the victim to rear-end the con artist. The shill will whip the horses and pull away quickly, leaving the scene. The con artist will then claim various exaggerated injuries in an attempt to collect from the victim.
The Art Student
The art student scam is common in major cities. A small group of 'students' will start a conversation, claiming that they want to practice their Common. After a short time they will change the topic to education and will claim that they are art students and they want to take you to a free exhibition. The exhibition will usually be in a small, well hidden rented office and the students will show you some pieces which they claim to be their own work and will try to sell them at a high price, despite the pieces usually being nothing more than an counterfeit of other lesser-known works. They will often try 'guilt tricks,' (e.g., introducing their "starving child") on people who try to bargain the price.
The Badger
This is extortion that is often perpetrated on married men. The mark is deliberately coerced into a compromising position, a supposed affair for example, then threatened with public exposure of his acts unless blackmail money is paid. This also works well on anyone in positions of power or prestige or fame.
The Big Store
The Big Store is a technique for selling the legitimacy of a scam and typically involves a large team of con artists and elaborate sets. Often a building is rented and furnished as a legitimate and substantial business. (The "betting parlor" setup in the film, The Sting is an example.)
The Big Store Further Explained
These confidence games are meticulously planned and carefully rehearsed “plays” with members of a team (the crew) assigned detailed parts and lines, which they practice assiduously so as not to crack out of turn. It’s a fascinating form of theater.
The opening scene is the catch, when the mark is lured into the first stage of the long con by a lugger or a roper. The mark’s interest in the scheme is then excited in the build up, with promises of easy money—from glowing recommendations by a fellow member of the crew known as a boost or singer. Or perhaps tipped through an intentionally overheard conversation between two members of the team known as the crossfire.
Next, the customer is allowed to invest a moderate amount of money and naturally succeed, proving the efficacy of the scheme being sold. The money won at this stage of the game is known as the convincer or the kickback.
The next stage is sending the mark home or to the bank to get more money, known as putting in the send.
The head con man now appears to invest his own money into the scheme for further proof of its worth—giving this stage of the game its name: the last hurrah.
Just when it all seems too good to be true—it is! The customer/mark gets the surprise of all surprises—the gold was not gold, the diamonds were not diamonds, the Divination Mage made a mistake in reporting what horse had won a race. Imagine that! Welcome to the sting.
Finally, when the customer and his money have been successfully separated, it’s now time to get rid of him with the blow off or the cool off. This is accomplished through a number of dramatic embellishments, such as a false arrest (the button) or the destruction of a mark’s letter-of-credit (the tear up).
Fun Fact: In 2014, a rural co-operative in Nanjing, China constructed an entire brick-and-mortar fake bank with uniformed clerks behind counters; the unlicensed bank operated for a little over a year, then defaulted on its obligations, swindling Chinese savers out of 200 million Chinese yuan.
The Clip Joint
A clip joint (or Fleshpot) is an establishment, usually a strip club or entertainment bar, typically one claiming to offer adult entertainment, in which customers are tricked into paying money and receive poor, or no, goods or services in return. Typically, clip joints suggest the possibility of sex, charge excessively high prices for watered-down drinks, then eject customers when they become unwilling or unable to spend more money. The product or service may be illicit, offering the victim no recourse through official or legal channels.
The Curse
One traditional swindle involves fortune telling. In this scam, a fortune teller uses his or her cold reading skill to detect that a client is genuinely troubled rather than merely seeking entertainment; or is a gambler complaining of bad luck. The fortune teller informs the mark that he is the victim of a curse, and that for a fee a spell can be cast to remove the curse. The mark is then told that the curse is in his money; he brings money in a bag to have the spell cast over it, and leaves with a bag of worthless forged currency.
The Dropped Coin Purse
The Dropped Purse scam usually targets tourists. The con artist pretends to accidentally drop his coin purse in a public place. After an unsuspecting victim picks up the coin purse and offers it to the con artist, the scam begins. The artist accuses the victim of stealing money from the coin purse and threatens to call the Watch, scaring the victim into returning the allegedly stolen money.
The Fiddle
The Fiddle uses the Pigeon Drop technique. A pair of con men work together, one going into an expensive restaurant in shabby clothes, eating, and claiming to have left his wallet at home, which is nearby. As collateral, the con man leaves his only worldly possession, the violin that provides his livelihood. After he leaves, the second con man swoops in, offers an outrageously large amount (for example 1000 gp) for such a rare instrument, then realizes he is late and runs off to an appointment, leaving his card for the mark to find him when the fiddle-owner returns. The mark's greed comes into play when the "poor man" comes back, having gotten the money to pay for his meal and redeem his violin. The mark, thinking he has an offer on the table, then buys the violin from the fiddle player who "reluctantly" agrees to sell it for a certain amount that still allows the mark to make a "profit" from the valuable violin. The result is the two con men are richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument.
Fun Fact: This is depicted in the tv series Better Call Saul where James McGill and a friend sell a Kennedy half-dollar to a mark for a very high price, claiming the coin is a rare and valuable mis-print.
Glim-Dropper
The Glim-Dropper scam is a variation of the Fiddle It requires several accomplices, one of whom must be a one-eyed man. One grifter goes into a store and pretends he has lost his glass eye. Everyone looks around, but the eye cannot be found. He declares that he will pay a 1000 gp reward for the return of his eye, leaving contact information. The next day, an accomplice enters the store and pretends to find the eye. The storekeeper (the intended griftee), thinking of the reward, offers to take it and return it to its owner. The finder insists he will return it himself, and demands the owner’s address. Thinking he will lose all chance of the reward, the storekeeper offers 100 gp for the eye. The finder bargains him up to 250 gp, and departs. The one-eyed man, of course, cannot be found and does not return.
Fun Fact: Variants of this con have been used in movies such as The Flim-Flam Man, Hustle, The Traveller, Shade, and Zombieland, and also in books such as American Gods.
Gem Dealers
This phony gem scam involves layers of con men and helpers who tell a tourist of an opportunity to earn money by buying tax-free jewelry and having it shipped back to the tourist's home country. The mark is shown around the city by one of the con men, who ensures that the mark meets one helper after another, until the mark is persuaded to buy the jewelry from a store also operated by the swindlers. The gems are real but significantly overpriced (usually 1000% or more).
The Hoard
This scam takes advantage of the victim's greed. The basic premise involves enlisting the mark to aid in retrieving some stolen money from its hiding place. The victim sometimes believes he can cheat the con artists out of their money, but anyone trying this has already fallen for the essential con by believing that the money is there to steal.
Fun Fact: You've heard of a variant this scam already if you've ever gotten an email from a Nigerian Prince.
The Jam Auction
In this scam, the confidence artist poses as a retail sales promoter, representing a manufacturer, distributor, or set of stores. The scam requires assistants to manage the purchases and money exchanges while the pitchman keeps the energy level up. Passersby are enticed to gather and listen to a pitchman standing near a mass of appealing products. The trickster entices by referring to the high-end products, but claims to be following rules that he must start with smaller items. The small items are described, and 'sold' for a token silver piece amount - with as many audience participants as are interested each receiving an item. The pitchman makes an emotional appeal such as saying "Raise your hand if you're happy with your purchase" and when hands are raised, directs his associates to return everyone's money (they keep the product). This exchange is repeated with items of increasing value to establish the expectation of a pattern. Eventually, the pattern terminates by ending the 'auction' without reaching the high-value items, and stopping midway through a phase where the trickster retains the collected money from that round of purchases. Marks feel vaguely dissatisfied, but have goods in their possession, and the uplifting feeling of having demonstrated their own happiness several times. The marks do not realize that the total value of goods received is significantly less than the price paid in the final round. Auction/refund rounds may be interspersed with sales rounds that are not refunded, keeping marks off-balance and hopeful that the next round will refund.
Fun Fact: The Jam Auction has its roots in Carny culture.
The Money Exchange
This scam occurs when exchanging foreign currency. If a large amount of cash is exchanged the victim will be told to hide the money away quickly before counting it ("You can't trust the locals"). A substantial amount will be missing.
Pigeon Drop
The pigeon drop involves the mark or pigeon assisting an elderly, weak or infirm stranger to keep a large sum of money safe for him. In the process, the stranger (actually a confidence man) puts his money with the mark's money in an envelope or chest with which the mark is then entrusted. The container is then switched for an identical one which contains no money, and a situation is engineered where the mark has the opportunity to escape with the money. If the mark takes this chance, he is merely fleeing from his own money, which the con artist will have kept or handed off to an accomplice.
Fun Fact: This scam is depicted early in the film The Sting.
Pig in a Poke (Cat in a Bag)
The con entails a sale of a (suckling) "pig" in a "poke" (bag). The bag ostensibly contains a live healthy little pig, but actually contains a cat (not particularly prized as a source of meat). If one buys the bag without looking inside it, the person has bought something of less value than was assumed, and has learned first-hand the lesson caveat emptor.
Fun Facts: Pig in a poke originated in the late Middle Ages. "Buying a pig in a poke" has become a colloquial expression in many European languages, including English, for when someone buys something without examining it beforehand. In some regions the "pig" in the phrase is replaced by "cat", referring to the bag's actual content, but the saying is otherwise identical. This is also said to be where the phrase "letting the cat out of the bag" comes from, although there may be other explanations.
Quick Change
Change raising, also known as a quick-change, is a common short con and involves an offer to change an amount of money with someone, while at the same time taking change or bills back and forth to confuse the person as to how much money is actually being changed.
Fun Fact: The most common form, "the Short Count", has been featured prominently in several movies about grifting, notably The Grifters, Criminal, Nine Queens, and Paper Moon. For example, a con artist shopping at a gas station pays for a cheap item (under a dollar) and gives the clerk a ten dollar bill. The con gets back nine ones and the change and then tells the clerk he has a one and will exchange ten ones for a ten. This is what the scam artist is doing: getting the clerk to hand over the $10 before handing over the $1 bills. Then the scam artist hands over nine ones and the $10. The clerk will assume there has been a mistake and offer to swap the ten for a one. Then the con will probably just say: "Here's another one, give me a $20 and we're even." Notice that the scam artist just swapped $10 for $20. The $10 was the store's money, not the con's. To avoid this con, clerks should keep each transaction separate and never permit the customer to handle the original ten before handing over the ten ones. Another variation is to flash a $20 bill to the clerk, then ask for something behind the counter. When the clerk turns away, the con artist can swap the bill he is holding to a lesser bill. The clerk might then make change for the larger bill, without noticing it has been swapped. The technique works better when bills are the same colour at a glance like, for instance, U.S. dollar bills.
Rain Making
Rainmaking is a simple scam in which the trickster promises to use their power or influence over a complex system to make it do something favourable for the mark. The trickster has no actual influence on the outcome, but if the favourable outcome happens anyway they will then claim credit. If the event doesn't happen of course then the trickster may be able to claim that they need more money until it finally does. This can be stretched out over a long period, depending on the greed of the mark.
Fun Fact: Classically this was promising to make it rain, but more modern examples include getting someone's App 'featured' on an App Store or a politician implying that they can use their influence to get a contract awarded to the mark (as illustrated by Clay Davis in Season 3 of TV show The Wire).
The Rip
The Rip is essentially a Pigeon Drop confidence trick. In a typical variation scammers will target, say, a jeweler, and offer to buy some substantial amount of his wares at a large markup provided he perform some type of under-the-table cash deal, to avoid taxes and export fees. This exchange goes through flawlessly, at considerable profit for the mark. Some time later the scammers approach the mark with a similar proposition, but for a larger amount of money (and thus a larger return for the mark). His confidence and greed inspired by the previous deal, the merchant agrees—only to have his money and goods taken, by sleight-of-hand or violence, at the point of exchange.
Fun Fact: This scam was depicted in the movie Matchstick Men. The same term is used to describe a crime where a vendor (especially a drug dealer) is killed to avoid paying for goods.
Salting
Salting or “salting the mine” are terms for a scam in which gemstones or gold ore are planted in a mine or on the landscape, duping the mark into purchasing shares in a worthless or non-existent mining company.
Fun Fact: This was depicted in the tv show, Deadwood
Three-Card Monte
Three-Card Monte, "find the queen", the "three-card trick", or "follow the lady" is essentially the same as the centuries-older shell game or thimblerig (except for the props). The trickster shows three playing cards to the audience, one of which is a queen (the "lady"), then places the cards face-down, shuffles them around, and invites the audience to bet on which one is the queen. At first the audience is skeptical, so the shill places a bet, and the scammer allows him to win. In one variation of the game, the shill will (apparently surreptitiously) peek at the lady, ensuring that the mark also sees the card. This is sometimes enough to entice the audience to place bets, but the trickster uses sleight of hand to ensure that he always loses, unless the con man decides to let him win, hoping to lure him into betting much more. The mark loses whenever the dealer chooses to make him lose.
There is a variant of this scam. The shill says loudly to the dealer that his cards are fake and that he wants to see them. He takes the card and folds a corner and says in a hushed voice to the audience that he has marked the card. He places a bet and wins. Then he asks the others to place bets as well. When one of the audience bets a large sum of money, the cards are switched.

Type

Contracting