Trade Guilds of Waterdeep

Trade guilds have been in Waterdeep virtually since its its founding. In an attempt to differentiate them from factions, I created some rank and structure rules for trade guilds, along with some guild perks for members. Meant to be a downtime activity with minimal DM interaction, Trade Guilds of Waterdeep hopefully gives players some more flavor and character development opportunities.

It includes details on all of the 44 trade guilds included in Waterdeep - Dragonheist, using a combination of historical and current information.

Section 1: General Information

• Calendar. This includes clarification of the treatment of weeks, workweeks, and tendays.
• Downtime Sources. This includes ways characters obtain downtime.
• Downtime Guild Work Income. This includes some clarifications on guild work rules.

Section 2: The Guilds (44 of them)

• Guild Characteristics. This section provides some general details about guilds in Waterdeep and how to join them.
• Artisan Guilds. These guilds cover traditional crafting and artistic jobs such as armorers, carpenters, musicians, etc.
• Labor Guilds. These guilds focus on more mundane labor-oriented tasks such as dungsweeping and laundering.
• Owners Guilds. These guilds are for the owners of industries and properties such as innkeepers, ship captains, stablemasters, etc.
• Broker Guilds. These guilds focus on buying from suppliers outside the city and selling to businesses inside the city at wholesale prices.
• Other Guilds. These are other guilds that don’t easily fit into other categories.

Section 3: Character Options

• Downtime Activity. This includes a new downtime activity, dumpcart diving, which any character can do.