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hoverfrog
2012-06-01, 11:40 AM
In my campaign the PCs have recently pitted themselves against the dominant guild of thieves in the coastal city where they all live. They've decimated the ranks and taken out the leadership but they don't want to just allow the other local crime families and organisations to fill the void. They want to take up the reins of the guild and have them working for the PCs or at least a few do.

They've got the manpower from captured thieves who they cleverly imprisoned in their own smuggler's cave and enough of them would turn their coats if asked. Some of the thieves would desert at the first opportunity of course but there are enough remaining (a dozen or so) to build a functional guild. They've got the papers and accounts of the smuggling operation, who to but from and sell to, what protection was being paid, etc. All they need to do is step in and keep the guild going as it was, recruit and add some muscle against the other crime organisations.

Assuming that this is something that can run between sessions or function as an affiliation should I just assign a small profit from the guild to the party and use it as a source of occasional adventure hooks?

There is potential for something interesting that I didn't think of when I set the guild up as the player's enemy. How would you run this? What could happen when the party is away from the city adventuring? I'd rather it not dominate the game but I also don't want to stop the players from exploiting a resource that they've taken control of.

Rorrik
2012-06-01, 07:07 PM
If you don't want it to dominate the game, I recommend you assume it can take care of itself except for the occasional involvement of the PCs through adventure hooks. Let it be a source of income and a resource they can draw upon for information and the like whenever they are within the city. Depending on where your campaign is going, it could a huge boon if they ever need to defend the city from siege or something like that.

Weirdlet
2012-06-01, 07:27 PM
If they want to get involved in the business of running the thieves' guild, that in and of itself is a campaign waiting to happen- if they want to take a hands-off approach and just run it as a resource, they're going to need loyal people in place to run the guild, oversee its network, defend their business from competition and keep its members in line. Leadership and cohorts is one way to do this, or some really strong persuasion and intimidate checks, with regular visitations to make sure that no one figures 'they're gone, we can do what we wanna'.

Figure out some interesting ways that the guild's been making its money, like they have contacts in the harbor or the carters' guild, and cargo sometimes falls off the wagon, or they've got a deal with some group or other that they get cuts of different sources of money in exchange for x service or y lack-of-trouble. Then figure out how that's being fouled up- maybe something's blocked up the river, or is eating your agents before they can get back to you with the night's take. Maybe someone's started snitching, and you have to figure out who it is without losing too much more loot. Maybe there's a sudden demand for a certain drug or information, and you have to go hunting in exotic locales, or shut down the other sellers (or their entry points into the city), or make sure your info stays lucrative by making sure it stays out of the papers.

Have a few of these hooks to have developing between games, so that your PCs occasionally need to break off from what their primary adventures are to keep their side-business healthy.

Jay R
2012-06-01, 08:57 PM
I would quickly give them some very nice information or other reward for being on top of the guild, because a recently toppled guild now run by people who leave town regularly is not a stable configuration.

Running the guild is a full time job. They should quickly decide they don't ime they leave town for any length of time.)

They've just shown how easy it is to take over, and all the thieves have seen it. As soon as their backs are turned, others are moving in.

INDYSTAR188
2012-06-01, 09:22 PM
I would quickly give them some very nice information or other reward for being on top of the guild, because a recently toppled guild now run by people who leave town regularly is not a stable configuration.

Running the guild is a full time job. They should quickly decide they don't ime they leave town for any length of time.)

They've just shown how easy it is to take over, and all the thieves have seen it. As soon as their backs are turned, others are moving in.

+1 to this. I would be hesitant to walk away (in character) from a position of power and trust criminals to maintain a lucrative business in my best interest and just hand it back to me when I return. I would say they could pay a NPC and 'buy' his loyalty or blackmail/bribe him. Then you could run the above mentioned recurring side quest where some serious threat to the guild needs to be taken care of.

Rorrik
2012-06-01, 11:19 PM
You could say they showed how easy it was to topple, or rather that they showed how incredibly powerful they are. I agree that they can't run the guild, but they can give it over to someone they trust enough to give them a spy network within the city, and coerce into giving them a cut if they feel like it.

GM.Casper
2012-06-02, 02:38 PM
The NPC who runs the day-to-day operations of the guild will be sorely tempted to take over. Sure, he will fear that PCs might kill him the same they killed the previous guild leader, but if he gets confident enough...
Enemies and competitors of the guild will also try to exploit any long PCs absences.

Avilan the Grey
2012-06-03, 07:08 AM
It depends on the size of town and guild, where the trickiest size is the medium size I think.

Basically if it is a small organization, walking away and leave someone in charge works well. If it is a very large organization it has enough red tape in itself to be stable, too.

What is the campaign they are in now about? How far along are they? I would suggest leaving the guild as a plot hook / small monthly gold deposit for now, but with the idea of them as soon as this campaign is over get more involved. If you do it skillfully, they will feel themselves being pulled into the business gradually.

Dreamteller
2012-06-03, 10:21 AM
Like Jay R said - it's probably a full time job. I would guess that it also doesn't only consist of keeping threats and promises up to maintain loyalty.

In case of small organization, such a figure would probably be quite hands-on, known and visible to all ranks of members. Resolving conflicts, running major actions, dealing with 3rd parties like bribed officials or fences, all in person.

Now in case of large organization, there might be a lot of administrative stuff (as boring as it sounds) involved. Like hearing reports, buying ships, making big decisions et cetera. Not necessarily very exciting life as opposed to adventuring.
In latter case, I think you could resort to having some very old thieves guild with tons of traditions, where guild master would be more a honorary position with highest decision rights, but all the administrative activities outsourced to small group of 'bosses'.