Sure, why not? Got any ideas on what the guild will be based around? For example, are they an artisan's guild, an adventurer's guild, a roguelike guild?
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Well, what aspects of the guild do you want help in building? What's the location of the guild? How does the place respond to the guild? Is it a legal killing service, or more secretive and illegal?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I'm thinking - how does an "assassin's guild" make sense, and why does it exist? A merchant's guild exists to ensure fair trade and to prevent cutthroat pricing tactics among members (and to shut out nonmembers), a wizard's guild might exist to share information and knowledge of rare spells, but why would assassins band together in a guild, why would they agree to rules about assassinations and why would they enforce these rules on each other? Why would such a thing exist in a way that's remotely known about?
Here's one answer - because the Assassin's Guild is secretly being run by the local King. This way, he ensures that all good assassins are only taking assassination jobs that he knows about (and of course, that nobody tries to assassinate him). He allows his underling lords to scheme and fight each other, including with assassins, to keep them destabilized so none can challenge him. This also gives him a steady stream of blackmail material and leverage, since he knows all of the things assassins have been hired to do. Since he controls the city guard, he also ensures that even though assassination is illegal, the city guard just happens to be in the wrong place to stop the assassinations the King is ok with, and just happens to be in the right place to catch assassins when he wants them to give evidence against whoever hired them.
All of this won't be known to the players (at least not until they're high-level and have spent a lot of time investigating), but it can inform how the assassin's guild works. The location of the guild is going to be in the slum a few blocks behind the King's palace. At the front of the palace is the front gates, all shiny and resplendent, and the back - the servants entrance - is a seedy part of town. The assassin's guild is based in a network of tunnels underneath that area. New initiates to the guild often snicker about how all this illegal activity is going on right under the king's nose, without realizing that the reason it's so close to the palace is so that the palace wizards can cast Clairvoyance and keep an eye on it.
The guild is organized in a very hierarchical structure - each "cell" of assassins, no more than seven (coincidentally, one party's worth), don't know about the identities of any other assassins besides their cell master. They're given one entrance to the underground guild lair they're allowed to use, and do not know of what goes on in other cells. The cell masters are organized the same way, with a group of five being under the control of an Overlord. The guild tunnels mirror this organization - it's a twisty maze of small rooms and passages, where it's easy to get lost and wind up eaten by a dungeon monster if initiates don't carefully follow the tunnel map they're given (which may be misleading if they try to use it to go somewhere other than where they're supposed to.) (Of course, it's organized this way so that most assassins simply can't find out about the connections between their guild and the King - nobody has enough pieces of the whole puzzle to put together.)
The guild pretends to work for whoever hires them - from shady underworld kingpins ordering "routine" hits on either their subordinates or their rivals, to shady merchants getting rid of or sabotaging competition, to lords playing political games against each other. In actuality, of course, sometimes people who try to hire assassins find themselves on the wrong end of the spear, if the king thinks that's better. Even Cell Masters don't know about this - the procedure to "hire" an assassin involves leaving a message in a designated spot where only one of the Overlords can get it, and then either begin negotiations about price or pass the contract on down to a Cell Master to execute.
....anyway, this was just one approach to making up an assassin's guild! I tried to start with "why does this exist, how do its leaders benefit from it and how does it's rank-and-file benefit from it" and went from there. If you pick different background, you'll end up in a different place!
You could go John Wick style. Not a guild as much as a loose affiliation. They all know each other, have a place they consider neutral ground. One or two people who act as a broker for the deals, who aren’t leaders, per se, but generally third parties who no one wants to mess with.
Or it can be a part of the general thief’s guild
Or, tell the players to write it up if they want one so bad. I’m assuming they are first level so none of them can hold any position of significance. But otherwise have them figure it out, subject to your approval, of course. I do that sort of thing in every campaign I make up. If they want to be a knight, they make up the knightly order, for example. Any time they want to be part of an organization, they make it up and I work it in. It relieves me of some of the creative burden, and helps the players invest in the world.
I'm thinking - how does an "assassin's guild" make sense, and why does it exist? A merchant's guild exists to ensure fair trade and to prevent cutthroat pricing tactics among members (and to shut out nonmembers), a wizard's guild might exist to share information and knowledge of rare spells, but why would assassins band together in a guild, why would they agree to rules about assassinations and why would they enforce these rules on each other? Why would such a thing exist in a way that's remotely known about?
Here's one answer - because the Assassin's Guild is secretly being run by the local King. This way, he ensures that all good assassins are only taking assassination jobs that he knows about (and of course, that nobody tries to assassinate him). He allows his underling lords to scheme and fight each other, including with assassins, to keep them destabilized so none can challenge him. This also gives him a steady stream of blackmail material and leverage, since he knows all of the things assassins have been hired to do. Since he controls the city guard, he also ensures that even though assassination is illegal, the city guard just happens to be in the wrong place to stop the assassinations the King is ok with, and just happens to be in the right place to catch assassins when he wants them to give evidence against whoever hired them.
All of this won't be known to the players (at least not until they're high-level and have spent a lot of time investigating), but it can inform how the assassin's guild works. The location of the guild is going to be in the slum a few blocks behind the King's palace. At the front of the palace is the front gates, all shiny and resplendent, and the back - the servants entrance - is a seedy part of town. The assassin's guild is based in a network of tunnels underneath that area. New initiates to the guild often snicker about how all this illegal activity is going on right under the king's nose, without realizing that the reason it's so close to the palace is so that the palace wizards can cast Clairvoyance and keep an eye on it.
The guild is organized in a very hierarchical structure - each "cell" of assassins, no more than seven (coincidentally, one party's worth), don't know about the identities of any other assassins besides their cell master. They're given one entrance to the underground guild lair they're allowed to use, and do not know of what goes on in other cells. The cell masters are organized the same way, with a group of five being under the control of an Overlord. The guild tunnels mirror this organization - it's a twisty maze of small rooms and passages, where it's easy to get lost and wind up eaten by a dungeon monster if initiates don't carefully follow the tunnel map they're given (which may be misleading if they try to use it to go somewhere other than where they're supposed to.) (Of course, it's organized this way so that most assassins simply can't find out about the connections between their guild and the King - nobody has enough pieces of the whole puzzle to put together.)
The guild pretends to work for whoever hires them - from shady underworld kingpins ordering "routine" hits on either their subordinates or their rivals, to shady merchants getting rid of or sabotaging competition, to lords playing political games against each other. In actuality, of course, sometimes people who try to hire assassins find themselves on the wrong end of the spear, if the king thinks that's better. Even Cell Masters don't know about this - the procedure to "hire" an assassin involves leaving a message in a designated spot where only one of the Overlords can get it, and then either begin negotiations about price or pass the contract on down to a Cell Master to execute.
....anyway, this was just one approach to making up an assassin's guild! I tried to start with "why does this exist, how do its leaders benefit from it and how does it's rank-and-file benefit from it" and went from there. If you pick different background, you'll end up in a different place!
Because the description I gave is basically stolen from the assassin's "guild" in the movie John Wick. At least the first one, I didn't see the other two.
I am kind of having trouble building a guild for my campaign. Can anyone help me out plz?
TIAMAT SHOULD BE RESURRECTED!!!
Sure, why not? Got any ideas on what the guild will be based around? For example, are they an artisan's guild, an adventurer's guild, a roguelike guild?
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Assassins guild
TIAMAT SHOULD BE RESURRECTED!!!
I am playing with like 7 friends and 4 of them are rogues, 2 assassins
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And they are begging for an assassins guild
TIAMAT SHOULD BE RESURRECTED!!!
Well, what aspects of the guild do you want help in building? What's the location of the guild? How does the place respond to the guild? Is it a legal killing service, or more secretive and illegal?
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Sure, here's some thoughts!
I'm thinking - how does an "assassin's guild" make sense, and why does it exist? A merchant's guild exists to ensure fair trade and to prevent cutthroat pricing tactics among members (and to shut out nonmembers), a wizard's guild might exist to share information and knowledge of rare spells, but why would assassins band together in a guild, why would they agree to rules about assassinations and why would they enforce these rules on each other? Why would such a thing exist in a way that's remotely known about?
Here's one answer - because the Assassin's Guild is secretly being run by the local King. This way, he ensures that all good assassins are only taking assassination jobs that he knows about (and of course, that nobody tries to assassinate him). He allows his underling lords to scheme and fight each other, including with assassins, to keep them destabilized so none can challenge him. This also gives him a steady stream of blackmail material and leverage, since he knows all of the things assassins have been hired to do. Since he controls the city guard, he also ensures that even though assassination is illegal, the city guard just happens to be in the wrong place to stop the assassinations the King is ok with, and just happens to be in the right place to catch assassins when he wants them to give evidence against whoever hired them.
All of this won't be known to the players (at least not until they're high-level and have spent a lot of time investigating), but it can inform how the assassin's guild works. The location of the guild is going to be in the slum a few blocks behind the King's palace. At the front of the palace is the front gates, all shiny and resplendent, and the back - the servants entrance - is a seedy part of town. The assassin's guild is based in a network of tunnels underneath that area. New initiates to the guild often snicker about how all this illegal activity is going on right under the king's nose, without realizing that the reason it's so close to the palace is so that the palace wizards can cast Clairvoyance and keep an eye on it.
The guild is organized in a very hierarchical structure - each "cell" of assassins, no more than seven (coincidentally, one party's worth), don't know about the identities of any other assassins besides their cell master. They're given one entrance to the underground guild lair they're allowed to use, and do not know of what goes on in other cells. The cell masters are organized the same way, with a group of five being under the control of an Overlord. The guild tunnels mirror this organization - it's a twisty maze of small rooms and passages, where it's easy to get lost and wind up eaten by a dungeon monster if initiates don't carefully follow the tunnel map they're given (which may be misleading if they try to use it to go somewhere other than where they're supposed to.) (Of course, it's organized this way so that most assassins simply can't find out about the connections between their guild and the King - nobody has enough pieces of the whole puzzle to put together.)
The guild pretends to work for whoever hires them - from shady underworld kingpins ordering "routine" hits on either their subordinates or their rivals, to shady merchants getting rid of or sabotaging competition, to lords playing political games against each other. In actuality, of course, sometimes people who try to hire assassins find themselves on the wrong end of the spear, if the king thinks that's better. Even Cell Masters don't know about this - the procedure to "hire" an assassin involves leaving a message in a designated spot where only one of the Overlords can get it, and then either begin negotiations about price or pass the contract on down to a Cell Master to execute.
....anyway, this was just one approach to making up an assassin's guild! I tried to start with "why does this exist, how do its leaders benefit from it and how does it's rank-and-file benefit from it" and went from there. If you pick different background, you'll end up in a different place!
You could go John Wick style. Not a guild as much as a loose affiliation. They all know each other, have a place they consider neutral ground. One or two people who act as a broker for the deals, who aren’t leaders, per se, but generally third parties who no one wants to mess with.
Or it can be a part of the general thief’s guild
Or, tell the players to write it up if they want one so bad. I’m assuming they are first level so none of them can hold any position of significance. But otherwise have them figure it out, subject to your approval, of course.
I do that sort of thing in every campaign I make up. If they want to be a knight, they make up the knightly order, for example. Any time they want to be part of an organization, they make it up and I work it in. It relieves me of some of the creative burden, and helps the players invest in the world.
Why do you make the name "John Wick style"
TIAMAT SHOULD BE RESURRECTED!!!
Thank you for the advice
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illegal and secretive
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Because the description I gave is basically stolen from the assassin's "guild" in the movie John Wick. At least the first one, I didn't see the other two.
ok
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Also i was wonndering now that i have those ideas, should there be rankings?
TIAMAT SHOULD BE RESURRECTED!!!