Professions that cover the areas of management skills, fences in the thieving underworld and related matters.
1.) GUILD MANAGEMENT PROFESSION / MANAGERIAL PROFESSION
Sorted in alphabetical order.
ACCOUNTANT
Yes,
yes, we know what you're thinking… Bureaucrats ? Why would a guild
need bureaucrats ? Well, the answer is both it wouldn't and “it
certainly would”. It's (usually) all a matter of size and scale.
Type of profession:
Guild Management
Profession in a nutshell: Watches
over the guild's finances and expenses, helps unveil corruption in a
guild's ranks. All accountants are directly subordinate to a guild
Scribe (if the guild has grown big enough to need one) or a guild
Aide.
Recommended combinations with: Aide, Scribe,
Cook-quartermaster, Pencil-pusher
See also: Managerial skills, Dialogue, diplomatic and social skills
COOK-QUARTERMASTER
Thieves
have got to eat and drink something and though everyone has some
basic knowledge of preparing meals, sometimes you need to leave
culinary matters to a professional. The cook-quartermaster not only
looks after his guildmates' hungry bellies, but takes care of
overseeing the various supplies regularly needed by the guild. By
supplies, we mean more than just food. Though the Cook-quartermaster
profession might seem quaint and boring to some, any larger thieving
guild that has grown beyond a mere small fellowship cannot do without
a proper cook and quartermaster position. If the guild's day-to-day
operations are to run flawlessly, the Cook-quartermaster is one of
those staff members of the guild's management section that garners
some of the most respect from many. The profession is very easily
accessible and generally open to any trustworthy character. It
potentially works as one of the many recommended jumping-on points
for former Footpads/Hoydens in particular. Combinations-wise, whether
the new bearers of the c-q position also choose to perform the tasks
of a guild's Dogsbody, or opt for other management-related
professions, such as artisan and trading ones (e.g. Profiteer,
Haberdasher) or healing ones (e.g. Feldsher, Apothecarist), is wholly
up to them.
Type of profession:
Guild Management
Profession in a nutshell: Oversees
the distribution of food, clothing and other common daily amenities
within a guild, oversees the preparation of food within a guild. All
cooks-quartermasters are directly subordinate to a guild
Aide.
Recommended combinations with: Pencil-pusher,
Apothecarist, Feldsher, Profiteer, Dogsbody, Haberdasher
See
also: Managerial skills, Artisan skills
HEIST
PLANNER
There comes a time when tried-and-true thieving
tricks become inadequate for anything more than regular small-scale
theft, such as pickpocketing or burglary. That time is usually when
you prepare for your first true heist. Because heists… Heists are
very different beasts compared to other types of thieving operations.
There is no tried-and-true set of skills that can be utilised to
master the art of the heist. As any true artform, each and every
single heist is a wholly unique situation and context, never the same
twice. Heists can never be learned, they can only be analysed, layed
out, and if all goes well, solved. Due to this, to really prepare for
a heist as best as you can, you need a true problem-solver, a
professional analyst who can just as easily think out of the box as
he or she can honour accepted thieving conventions. And that person
is a Heist Planner. Contrary to popular belief, a Heist Planner
doesn't just sit down, write or draw a few notes on a sheet of paper
with a ground plan and call it a day. He or she is a constant
participant in overseeing the development of the mission - from the
earliest planning stages up until the succesful departure of the
thieves from the location of the heist. The Heist Planner has a fair
amount of overlap with other rather attractive management or trading
specialisations, including higher-up specialisations such as the Aide
or Scribe, or all three loot fence specialisations. Many also feel
that a person with both Heist Planner and Smuggler skills can be of
great use to nearly any growing and developing thieving fellowship or
established guild.
Type of profession:
Guild Management
Profession in a nutshell:
Organising a heist always takes a true management expert - fancy the
chances of becoming one ?
Recommended combinations with:
Aide, Scribe, Pencil-pusher, Artwork Fence, Dough Fence, Jewellery
Fence, Pawnbroker, Smuggler
See also: Managerial skills, Exploration, investigation and burglary skills
PENCIL-PUSHER
"Well,
honestly, who would want to work for a guild as a measly little
office rat ? Where's the fun in that ?", asks virtually every new
recruit into an official thieving organisation. Swashbuckling fun it
might not be, but a guild that has grown and firmly took roots will
always be in need of people who are quick and sharp with parchment,
paper and writing utensils. Think of the Pencil-pusher as a
springboard profession for more major administrative roles within a
guild. Practice makes perfect, patience and good conduct pays off.
You're grumbling that you're not much more of a higher-up, such as a
Scribe, Counsellor, or even just a lowly Accountant ? Don't fret, you
can get there one day, but first you need to start simple. How do you
think those aforementioned higher-ups reached their positions during
the guild's earlier, more amorphous days ? That's right, it wasn't
exactly overnight. They had to work for it. As the guild got bigger
in its membership and got more complex as an organisation, the
veterans of what office work needed to be done back then were
promoted based on their experience and personal qualities to more
specialised office jobs, including those in the leadership. When you
enter a guild and decide for the job of Pencil-pusher, you might as
well be illiterate at first. But it doesn't really matter: Your
colleagues will make sure that you get a good basic education, that
you learn to do your job right and that you'll get a good foundation
to build upon if you ever decide to move further up or in a different
direction. Like with the Footpad/Hoyden and the Dogsbody, the
"starting profession" nature of the Pencil-pusher makes it ideal
for a whole host of combinations with other related specialisations
or its own promoted cousins. You don't exactly need to continue down
the bureaucratic alley during your career in the guild - you can also
go for some more economically or oversight laced jobs, such as the
Cook-quartermaster, the Profiteer, or the Pawnbroker, or even one of
the three types of Fences. The skills attained during your
Pencil-pusher days will bear fruit sooner or later.
Type of profession:
Guild Management
Profession in a nutshell: General
bureaucrat of a guild, the much-needed deskjockey footsoldier to the
aide, scribe and accountants. All pencil-pushers are directly
subordinate to a guild Scribe (if the guild has grown big enough to
need one).
Recommended combinations with: Accountant, Aide,
Scribe, Cook-quartermaster, Profiteer, Pawnbroker
See also:
Managerial skills, Dialogue, diplomatic and social skills
RECRUITER
A
thieves' guild always needs manpower, even a relatively small one.
The recruiter exists to bring in new adepts and new blood into the
thieving family. Recruiters into thieves' guilds answer directly to a
guild's Counsellor (or, if a Counsellor is not available, directly to
the Guild Boss or his Aide).
Type of profession:
Guild Management
Profession in a nutshell: A
thieves' guild always needs manpower, even a relatively small one.
The recruiter exists to bring in new adepts and new blood into the
thieving family. All recruiters are directly subordinate to a guild
Counsellor (if the guild has grown big enough to need one).
Recommended combinations with: Counsellor, Aide, Pencil-pusher,
Pawnbreaker, Profiteer, Dogsbody
See also:
Managerial skills, Dialogue, diplomatic and social skills
----
2.) FENCE PROFESSIONS
ARTWORK
FENCE
So, you’ve nabbed some priceless paintings,
valuable sculptures, exquisite practical art, whathaveyou from the
local art gallery, or public spaces of a prosperous business, or
one's dearly cherished private collections, or even from a
still-ongoing art symposium (!). What now ? Well, obviously, you
can't just go to the nearest flea market and hope to sell it off for
a fortune, not if you're a professional thief. You need to fence it
somewhere. And for that, you need to go see the right kind of doctor
– in this case, an Artwork Dough Fence. As the stereotypes go,
Dough Fences are apparently greedy and obnoxious „numismatic
nitpickers“, Jewellery Fences are careful with the unloaded loot to
an annoying degree… aaand Artwork Fences are supposedly snobby and
overly critical, always ready to undervalue your hard-earned loot of
artistic masterpieces (though, to be fair, you will be often giving
them worthless counterfeits passing for the real thing, you cheeky
fiend !). Nevertheless, whether you haggle with them or not, whether
you surprise them or disappoint them with your loot, they are always
there, ready to assess and fence the works of fine arts (and less
fine arts) that you’ve nicked. Effective specialisation
combinations for the Artwork Fence include those with the Jewellery
Fence and the Dough Fence, but combining Artwork Fence skillsets with
those of a Pawnbroker, Gemcutter or Heist Planner can also prove
useful.
Type of profession:
Fence
Profession in a nutshell: A fence who buys
loot consisting of stolen artwork (paintings, statues, tapestries,
etc.).
Recommended combinations with: Dough Fence, Jewellery
Fence, Gemcutter, Heist Planner, Pawnbroker
See also:
Managerial skills, Dialogue, diplomatic and social skills
DOUGH
FENCE
So, you’ve nabbed some money, dough, boodle,
the necessary, cash, rocks, gelt, lucre, whathaveyou from the local
land bank, industrial bank, savings bank, exchange office, insurance
firm, friendly society or one's private safe. What now ? Well,
obviously, you can't just go to the nearest local and drink it all
away, not if you're a professional thief. You need to fence it
somewhere. And for that, you need to go see the right kind of doctor
– in this case, a Dough Fence. As the stereotypes go, Artwork
Fences are supposedly snobby and overly critical, Jewellery Fences
are careful with the unloaded loot to an annoying degree… aaand
Dough Fences are apparently greedy and obnoxious „numismatic
nitpickers“, literally penny-pinching at your own expense by
undervaluing your chinking loot. Nevertheless, whether you haggle
with them or not, whether you surprise them or disappoint them with
your loot, they are always there, ready to assess and fence the
coinage and banknotes you’ve nicked. Effective specialisation
combinations for the Dough Fence include those with the Jewellery
Fence and the Artwork Fence, but combining Dough Fence skillsets with
those of a Pawnbroker or Heist Planner can also prove useful.
Type of profession:
Fence
Profession in a nutshell: A fence who buys
loot consisting of stolen money (in both coin and banknote
form).
Recommended combinations with: Jewellery Fence,
Artwork Fence, Heist Planner, Pawnbroker
See also:
Managerial skills, Dialogue, diplomatic and social skills
JEWELLERY
FENCE
So, you’ve nabbed some diamonds, rubies, opals,
emeralds, whathaveyou from the local gallery, museum or even
someone’s private collection or jewelbox. What now ? Well,
obviously, you need to "unload the ice" or "unload the glass"
(depending on which corner of Aporue your daily lingo comes from).
And for that, you need to go see the right kind of doctor – in this
case, a Jewellery Fence. As the stereotypes go, Artwork Fences are
supposedly snobby and overly critical, Dough Fences are apparently
greedy and obnoxious "numismatic nitpickers"… aaand Jewellery
Fences have a folk reputation among thieves for being annoyingly
careful and viewing nearly everything they get their hands on as
fragile and easily tarnished. Nevertheless, whether you haggle with
them or not, whether you surprise them or disappoint them with your
loot, they are always there, ready to assess and fence the precious
gems you’ve nicked. A particularly effective combination for the
Jewellery Fence is the Gemcutter, a specialisation that is very
closely related in terms of basic skillset, for obvious reasons.
Other effective specialisation combinations for the Jewellery Fence
include those with the Artwork Fence and the Dough Fence, but
combining Jewellery Fence skillsets with those of a Pawnbroker,
Gemcutter or Heist Planner can also prove useful.
Type of profession:
Fence
Profession in a nutshell: A fence who buys
loot consisting of stolen gems and jewellery.
Recommended
combinations with: Gemcutter, Dough Fence, Artwork Fence, Heist
Planner, Pawnbroker
See also:
Managerial skills, Dialogue, diplomatic and social skills
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