I had a player in my last session bring up the idea of recruiting a local thieves guild in town to help fight a nearby warren of hill giants. This sounds like a fun idea, but I'm struggling to wrap my head around how to accomplish this. I want it to be something earned, with potentially varying degrees of success. Any ideas on how to present this at the table?
The obvious question is what's in it for the guild? Thieves aren't notorious for caring about the public good. Once that's established can the party deliver on the promise? It could be interesting in the long term game if the party ends up over promising and under delivering and the guild becomes antagonistic as a result. Another possibility is to set the price of cooperation as something the party don't want to give up creating conflict over whether to agree, agree and then go back on it, or not agree at all
Thieves also aren't the most reliable of allies. They might never show - or they might turn and run the instant one of them falls under the club of an angry giant.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
The thieves wouldn't mind being the most dangerous thing in the forest, so they don't have to watch over their shoulders for giants when planning ambushes. So there is at least some motivation to cooperate, but you're right about their trustworthiness. There may be no-shows when the chips are down, and the relationship could sour. It really all does depend on what the PCs offer as reward in their proposal.
Well I mean ... giants aren't exactly renowned for their stealthines - can they really sneak up on a bunch of rogues? =)
Anyways, I'm not trying to shoot down your idea. Just pointing out possibly objections or ... potential failures of verisimilitude.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
And I appreciate that. It's less about giants sneaking up on them and more about them getting attracted by an ambush gone wrong and making things a lot more complicated than they'd have to be. A covert strike on the giants would certainly help thin out the chances of an ambush getting ambushed in the future.
I should also mention that a hag leads the giants, and there may be more than one thief in the could who wouldn't mind her removal, either.
Degrees of Success: Worst Outcome - the Thieves guild promises to help but doesn't show up until the fighting is over and tries to steal the loot from the party Bad Outcome - the guild promises to help and shows up but hang at the back doing very little until it is clear the party will win and insist on getting most of the loot. Good Outcome - the guild shows up and helps the party so long as it doesn't obvious lead to the death /maiming of guild members and demand equal portion of the loot. Best Outcome - the guild shows up and helps the party as equals in exchange for the party swearing loyalty to the guild / joining the guild.
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Hi everybody!
I had a player in my last session bring up the idea of recruiting a local thieves guild in town to help fight a nearby warren of hill giants. This sounds like a fun idea, but I'm struggling to wrap my head around how to accomplish this. I want it to be something earned, with potentially varying degrees of success. Any ideas on how to present this at the table?
The obvious question is what's in it for the guild? Thieves aren't notorious for caring about the public good. Once that's established can the party deliver on the promise? It could be interesting in the long term game if the party ends up over promising and under delivering and the guild becomes antagonistic as a result. Another possibility is to set the price of cooperation as something the party don't want to give up creating conflict over whether to agree, agree and then go back on it, or not agree at all
Thieves also aren't the most reliable of allies. They might never show - or they might turn and run the instant one of them falls under the club of an angry giant.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
The thieves wouldn't mind being the most dangerous thing in the forest, so they don't have to watch over their shoulders for giants when planning ambushes. So there is at least some motivation to cooperate, but you're right about their trustworthiness. There may be no-shows when the chips are down, and the relationship could sour. It really all does depend on what the PCs offer as reward in their proposal.
Well I mean ... giants aren't exactly renowned for their stealthines - can they really sneak up on a bunch of rogues? =)
Anyways, I'm not trying to shoot down your idea. Just pointing out possibly objections or ... potential failures of verisimilitude.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
And I appreciate that. It's less about giants sneaking up on them and more about them getting attracted by an ambush gone wrong and making things a lot more complicated than they'd have to be. A covert strike on the giants would certainly help thin out the chances of an ambush getting ambushed in the future.
I should also mention that a hag leads the giants, and there may be more than one thief in the could who wouldn't mind her removal, either.
Degrees of Success:
Worst Outcome - the Thieves guild promises to help but doesn't show up until the fighting is over and tries to steal the loot from the party
Bad Outcome - the guild promises to help and shows up but hang at the back doing very little until it is clear the party will win and insist on getting most of the loot.
Good Outcome - the guild shows up and helps the party so long as it doesn't obvious lead to the death /maiming of guild members and demand equal portion of the loot.
Best Outcome - the guild shows up and helps the party as equals in exchange for the party swearing loyalty to the guild / joining the guild.