Reviewing game organisations: The Night Masks

[Layna]

I think one of the main issues with the Night Masks is that, in canon, it's run by vampires (a vampric clone of Manshoon actually!), which pretty much scuppers any chance of there being a PC head - provided we stick with canon and not house rules. Looking back over the 'final recommendations' made for the guilds, it seems the plan was to demote this to a thieves guild where PC thieves could train - much like the Ivory Hands etc. Realistically, this would make the players low-level members and not really involved in the machinations of the higher echelons.

Yes it's based in Westgate, but it's also pretty much only concerned with Westgate and eventually ruling the city (and the small matter of raising of a kingdom of vampires). There are no PC rulers of Westgate, which does leave me wondering what exactly player members of this organisation would do - other than strut around Westgate.

I still think the Shadow Thieves are the better option. They're based in Amn yes, but they have guild houses all over. Plus, they have the advantage of a long-standing animosity with Waterdeep (their former base of operations), upon which they wish to avenge themselves.

I do understand the desire to move evil roleplay away from the Keep – which is Cyric's city in essence – but rather than spreading the already small evil playerbase more thinly, I think other options could be considered. In later years Cyric even begins to accept that other gods really are gods, which would probably lead to less religious persecution and, in general, less ass-hatery from Cyricists

I'm not sure where you were going with the diabolic evil comment though – the Zhentarim, for example, will engage in legal operations if it can and the Shadow Thieves are no worse than the Night Masks. Besides, I'm not sure there's much more diabolically evil than wanting to build a kingdom of undead

Just my two-copper.

[Kelemvor]

The organisation review begun in late 2007 did not result in any action being taken. The playerbase and Imm staff were just too diminshed to carry out the various plans suggested.

In time I plan on returning to this topic as well as the situation with faith orders, but I have several other projects to complete before I can do so.