Reviewing game organisations: the Shadow Thieves

[Kelemvor]

The Shadow Thieves
The shadow thieves are a wide-ranging guild of thieves and spys who
perform particularly dangerous, evil-aligned, and lucrative ventures.
Their activities, unlike most thieves guilds, are not limited to a single
city and they range the whole length of the Sword Coast. Their trademark
is a black silk mask impaled upon a stilleto blade which is left behind at
the scenes of murders.

Here is the Wiki page http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Thieves

The best source of information is probably The Lords of Darkness source book which can be found at http://theisleofkev.com/dnd/books/

[Kelemvor]

As a global guild of thieves and enforcers with designs upon Waterdeep this organisation probably has a greater appeal than the Night masks.

It is supported by a small in game area, but with few resources and no known membership it would need a great deal of work to bring it to a level of use.

[Selveem]

but with few resources and no known membership it would need a great deal of work to bring it to a level of use.

I, personally, feel this is a damned shame.

I am very much opposed to the removal of this guild and feel that if this guild is removed it would be a disservice to the MUD now and in the future.


Edited per Kelemvor's request.

[Kelemvor]

Selveem, could you revisit your post above and remove anything that does not relate to the topic at hand. (Which I hate to say, is probably everything after 'damned shame' up to and 'I am very much opposed')

I'd rather not edit another player's comments, but the focus here is on what we as a playerbase are doing today not what happened to you as a player in the past.

Please do, though, post any thoughts you have on this organisation which might help with bringing it to that level of usefulness I alluded to above.

I've certainly not marked this one in my mind as 'for the scrap heap' so the more focussed and compelling the discussion the better.

[Nedylene]

If thought of generally, the Shadow Thieves is the evil counterpart of the Spy Guild. I believe it should remain open with the option for a known evil thief to step forward to lead it.

If both the Spy Guild and the Shadow Thieves is kept open as a "secondary" organization for thieves to join it gives a good evil guild and a good good guild and offers opportunities for the members of each to join a good organization with the same character. These are PRIME guilds for such. It is perfectly logical for the Harpers to welcome a Spy Guild agent into the organization for information as it is perfectly acceptable for the Zhentarim to welcome a Shadow Thief agent into their organization for the same reason.

That said, does the Shadow Thieves currently have a guild hall like the Spy Guild does or will the Spy guild have an "unfair advantage" in that regard? Also, how much interest is there to join an organization such as the Shadow Thieves? Would it be more appealing if there was an option for a character to join two seperate organizations as an agent (no room to advance in the secondary organization just he first)?

[Kelemvor]

The Shadow Thieves have a small 'guild' area with trainers and storekeeprs, probably very similar in size to that of the Spy Guild so they could well be viewed as ideal antagonists.

Area and Immortal support is high on our list of priorities for those groups which are determined to offer the best roleplaying/recruiting opportunities for players.
RL permitting, I'll have all of them up and being discussed by tomorrow at the latest.
Beyond that, I'd like to give a week or so for everyone to contribute and then we'll begin the refining process.

[Aegir]

Shadow Thieves should definitely be kept as the evil thieves guild org, the counterpart of the Zhentarim that Spy Guild is to Harpers. I don't doubt it needs work to catch on, but I suspect it would be a popular option so long as it had an active leadership to drum up interest, and from there its just a matter of members building areas.

[Tavik]

I'd like to keep this, though I would point out that it should teach and maintain strict rules concerning Pstealing. Other than that, the RP opportunities are limitless, ESPECIALLY if they have an opposing org (Night Masks) to compete with. I think the concept of an 'underground war' between these two would great.

[Glim]

I have always held the Shadow Thieves as my favorite thiefly organisation. I always thought it suited the mud more than the Night Masks as the NM always seemed more assassin based than thievery to me. I think it is a terrible shame that this organisation doesn't have a more active membership or better area for it.

I fully support this organisation to be kept in the game and expanded. Though I still think it should be held in extreme secrecy, definetly moreso than the Night Masks (who have an area right there in the open). I'd love to have some players in the game playing as hidden "Shadow Lords".

[Lathander]

I am very much opposed to the removal of this guild and feel that if this guild is removed it would be a disservice to the MUD now and in the future.

How does the removal of an used, no-member organization do a disservice to the mud? Why is there only this negative comment with no reason to back it up or proposed solution? Some others have posted above with well-reasoned, intelligent thought behind their stated opinions. To say it is a disservice and leave it at that is in no way helpful or positive. If I were to go ONLY by that comment and not the comments of others that followed, I would simply draw the parallel that when house cleaning, things that aren't broken but haven't EVER been used get given away to friends, passed along to charity or possibly put in the attic. If it takes up space for no reason, there is no reason to keep it. Discarding the organisation under those circumstances does not do the mud any disservice.

However, enough other people have backed up their thoughts well enough that I think it should be supported provided, as Kelemvor originally states, that there are enough active people wanting to make it work.

[Glim]

I am just assuming here, Lath, but I think he had more in there before Kelemvor asked him to edit it.

That is just my assumption though.

[Selveem]

Lathander,

Please read Kelemvor's post below.

I stated it was a disservice to the MUD based on the past experiences I have had and enjoyed with an unauthorized 'guild' (more a band of thieves than anything) I created in the past. I'm not going to go into further detail about it as per Kelemvor's wishes, but if you would like more detailed information I would be happy to provide it.

[Kelemvor]

I'd rather not see the post fall into a negative tit for tat, but I need to point out that the request for that earlier post to be edited was because it had no bearing on the discussion. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear when I asked for the edit.

I forewent further comment when you removed the references without adding more pertinent thoughts because it might have seemed unfriendly.

Apologies to Lathander and Selveem for the misundertsanding.

Back on track now I hope

[Kirkus]

From what I have heard here, the Shadow Thieves are are wide ranging organization. That to me means they can be of some use... in the future. I say we put a presedance on what to work on organizationly speaking.

I would say our first priority should be the Zhents. We have a decetly strong goodie player base who in my opinion can be more than a handfull for the Zhents and until the Zhents can pose the same level of a 'threat' to the goddies that should be the focus.