User:Emily
As of roundworld February 11, 2016 i am the Thieves' Guild's Guild Mistress.
Here is a copy of the welcome letter I have written for the new thieves.
~ ACVTVS ID VERBERAT ~
Octeday 28th Grune Prime, UC 2036.
Welcome Young Thief, to the Ankh-Morpork Guild of Thieves.
The Ankh-Morpork Thieves are not your typical lawless criminals. We are thieves who are licensed to steal. We have honour and rules that we follow. We do not steal from or attack fellow thieves. We have a quota which controls the amount of theft we do within the city walls. You will find that you have joined one of the most enjoyable and most profitable guilds.
THE THIEVES' GUILD RULES From the inception of the guild we have had two very basic simple rules. 1. Respect your fellow thieves. 2. Do not bring heat down on the Guild.
NPC THIEVES Each Guildmaster or Guildmistress has treated NPCs differently. I prefer that all thieves including NPC thieves should be treated with equal respect. There are a few exceptions, unlicensed thieves such as the pickpockets in Bes Pelargic and naughty children in Djelibeybi may try to swipe from you and I completely understand retaliation against those individuals. The guild house in Mad Stoat really is an extension office of our Ankh-Morpork guild and you will find that while they will take unkindly to non-thieves entering that guild, if you do not attack them they will treat you as a fellow thief with the same honour.
ILIK Although Ilik has a licence and leaves receipts, he is considered by me to be a disavowed thief and you are welcome to attempt to kill him on sight. Be warned however that he is a very tricky bugger and can hide quickly and will likely steal your weapons when you attack him.
FIGHTING ON GUILD PROPERTY Don't. You may of course use the training rooms, but for sparring with other players there are plenty of other arenas. Also if you are PK do not use the guild to run and hide after a PK interaction or to taunt other PKs. That is bringing heat on the guild and the guild should be a safe place for all thieves.
GETTING STARTED AS A THIEF To begin with, read everything that Recruit Master, Kordane has given you... but you are doing that already by reading this letter right? The guide will give you a good overview of the guild. Get a talker and tune it to the thieves channel and listen in. You will learn a lot by asking questions there and by listening. A useful reference website for the guild is http://thievesguild.daftwarthog.com
Your first goal as a young thief is going to be to learn the skills and the commands of being a thief. Explore the guild. Find the lounge and the box where people leave useful items like backpacks and light sources (yellow stone ring or bamboo necklace) for young newbies such as yourself. (Hint: It is in the room description, not sitting out obvious.) Talk to all of the teachers. Ask them to tell you about their courses. Type 'help here' in the rooms, to see what you can do. Experiment and try to use the classrooms to learn. When your time is up in one classroom, move on to the next. These classrooms are the cheapest way to advance and a great resource for the young thief. Take advantage of your opportunities. That is the true essence of being a thief.
KORDANE Kordane is the guy to talk to about a lot of stuff. In case you missed how to get to him, from the guild foyer (the room name is 'entrance hall' but all the thieves will refer to it as the foyer) go up then south. Kordane will help you with advancing skills, learning new commands, choosing your specialization, going off leave (to go on quota and be able to use theft commands in AM) and going on leave (off quota, unable to steal in AM without serious punishments).
ADVANCING SKILLS In addition to using the individual class rooms to learn skills through practice, you can also advance your skills with experience points and money. Use 'help here' in Kordane's office (or most rooms in the guild) to get a rundown on the commands used to 'advance' your skills.
--Ways to increase skills--
Cheapest to most expensive in XP cost
1. Learn by doing, use the guild classrooms to train and/or use your commands. Costs no exp and might even give xp. Learning by doing uses the taskmaster system. ('help taskmaster') When you go up a skill level by doing an activity we call it getting a 'tm'. You will usually see a short line about doing better at something. To see a list of your recent tms you can use the command 'hskills'
2. Use the 'advance' command in the guild. This method will also cost coins. (Some older thieves may be willing to help out with coin cost if you are really stuck for cash.) The 'cost' command will let you know the cost in exp and coin for advancing a particular skill.
3. Learn from other more advanced players. Usually you only want to do this after you have guildmaxed a skill. Remember also that guildmax for some skills will increase after you specialize. 'help teach'
4. Self teach. This is the most expensive in XP. Usually you only want to do this if you can't find anyone with a teach bonus high enough to teach you or you are sitting on a ton of XP and are worried you will die before you can get to a teacher.
COMMANDS Most of our guild specific commands are taught by our Recruit Master, Kordane. To learn commands from Kordane, you'll have to politely ask him to teach them to you once you've acquired the skills necessary to learn them. He will teach you commands when you are eligible. > sayto kordane teach me commands please To see a list of guild commands and how many levels of which skills to be able to learn the command 'refer danduin' or visit http://dwwiki.mooo.com:8080/wiki/Commands for a complete list of commands and skills needed.
SPECIALIZING You do not need to race to specialize the moment you join the guild. Try learning some commands and getting a hang of what it is like being a thief and learn something about each spec. Talk to thieves in each spec and see why they chose the one they did. Or ask on the talker and watch the fur fly, all in fun of course. You really can't fail in any spec you choose, but some may require more patience than others.
Before you reach guild level 50, and you are sure of which specialization you want be, return to Kordane. He will help you to specialize. > sayto kordane specialize He will give you a list of the specs. > sayto kordane specialise prowler He will make you a prowler forever. (or whichever spec you choose)
After you specialize your primaries will change depending on the spec, unless you choose Prowler in which case your primaries will be the same but the guild max will be higher for those skills.
QUOTA - Getting Started Once you're ready to start relocating goods, Kordane will also be the one you'll have to speak to if you want to go on, or return from, a leave of absence.
Being brand new to the Guild, once you're ready to start stealing, you'll have to politely tell Kordane that you'd like to return from your leave of absence. (You begin on leave.) He'll give you a licence (read 'help licence'), which you'll want to keep on your person, and your first quota period will begin. At this point, you'll be required to meet at least your minimum quota in relocated goods, and you'll have to pay the Guild its 30% cut before the the current quota period expires.
He will let you go off leave (on quota) and off quota (on leave). > sayto kordane I have returned from leave > sayto kordane I'm taking a leave of absence
QUOTA - your licence and you You need a guild licence to keep track of your thefts in Ankh-Morpork. Kordane will give you a generic one when you return from leave. When you are of sufficient level you can get a custom wearable one from Elusive Ron.
There are a couple of ways to check your quota on the licence. 'check quota' My personal favourite, this method lets your read your licence with your fingers, it requires no light but you must have a free hand. It also works with a worn licence.
'read quota' This method requires light, your hands do not have to be free, but you also can't twist your head around the read a worn licence and so must make an extra step of removing it.
Other helpful licence commands are 'check receipts' and 'check previous quota'. You won't need them often but they come in useful sometimes.
Checking your licence will tell you your minimum and maximum quota, how much you have stolen, how much you owe the guild, and how long you have until next quota period begins. A quota period is 12 roundworld hours of game playing time. Feel free to live your roundworld life and know that quota is not ticking down while you are logged out.
QUOTA - ARTAN aka Paying the guild After having a fun time picking pockets and shoplifting shiny things, do not forget to pay the guild its cut. You can do this by speaking with Artan (From the Guild Foyer, go west six times to the kitchen, one up, and then one north). Once in the room with him, make sure you have the money you owe sitting out in your inventory and 'pay artan'.
QUOTA - FINES Try very hard to take care of your minimum quota in the time allotted. And try just as hard to not go over your maximum. In your early days, if you go over quota by say a dollar or two it may be fairly easy to just raise your guild level and thereby increase your quota limits. As you become more advanced this won't be as easy.
When you go over quota, you will owe the guild the normal 30% for everything up to your max, and 100% of everything over your max. Plus you will have additional fines at the beginning of your next quota period. Those fines vary slightly but can be estimated to be about 150% of your overage.
When you have fines the guild heavies like to come after you with a club to collect them. They will bang you on the head, drop your unconscious body on the river and take all of your coins both foreign and domestic. They will only attribute the domestic coins towards your fines however. (Repeat offenders or those with extremely high fines may find they are heavied for inventory as well as coins.) To avoid being heavied, try to be at Artan at the beginning of your next quota period. If you need help getting to Artan undetected, ask on the talker. Some thieves have ways of getting you there safely.
UNLICENSED THEFT Be warned, anyone caught stealing in Ankh-Morpork without a licence will be clubbed over the head, relieved of all their possessions, and dumped head-first into the river. When you are on leave, you are considered to be unlicensed, so if you attempt to use any theft commands in Ankh-Morpork without returning from leave, you'll be heavied just the same as non-thieves. If this happens to you, be sure to check out the heavy shop to the north of the Guild Museum (four west from the Guild foyer and down the stairs). You'll have the opportunity to buy at least the majority of your equipment back through there.
TALKER - GUILD BONDING AND HELP Thieves guild talker channel can be a bit spammy noisy but stick with it. It really is where we bond as a guild, we have a tradition of silly banter and silly games that you miss out on if you keep the channel turned off. The guild channel is a great place to ask questions. Often better than asking a single person because the Disc is such a large place and things are always cahnging. By asking on the channel, we thieves are able to update one another on changes. By listening int you will also get answers to questions that you didn't even know to ask. The guild talker channel is one of the things that makes the thieves guild more cohesive than most.
REARRANGE Don't race to rearrange your stats. Take time and learn how you really use your skills and which skills really end up mattering to you. The initial all 13s has some benefits which includes a 4hp regen rate instead of the usual 3. Most thieves go for a lot of Dex, Strength and Intelligence. To see how different rearranges might affect your play go to http://bonuses.irreducible.org/
NEWBIE BOX There is a box tucked away in the guild research room, south, southwest from Artan. You will find clothing, weapons, and wearable light sources (yellow stone rings and bamboo necklaces), and packs to carry your stuff. Take what you need to help you get started and remember to contribute useful items for the next newbie when you are a bit older.
Again, welcome to the Guild of Thieves. May you find true friends and prosperity with us.
~Emily von Schaf Guildmistress of the Thieves' Guild
