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KeresM
2008-08-31, 10:46 PM
I am looking for ideas to help flesh out my game world.

Any suggestions for secret (and not so secret) societies, monasteries, mercenary guilds, cabals, orders, enclaves, circles, brotherhoods, sisterhoods, fellowships, leagues, guilds, alliances, gangs, organizations, clubs, fraternities, and other confederations?

Stupendous_Man
2008-08-31, 10:47 PM
the confederation of confederated confederates.

Flickerdart
2008-08-31, 10:52 PM
Well, a very mundane idea would be to have some sort of orphanage as a cover for a cult that sacrifices the kids to demons, or a soup kitchen be a front for a spy network that uses the hobos as eyes-and-ears. Charitable Organization X as a front for Malignant Scheme Y is always fun.

CASTLEMIKE
2008-08-31, 10:54 PM
The City of Raven's Bluff, the Cult of the Dragon and the Villain's Lorebook could be useful.

The same goes for the Al-Qadim Corsairs of the Great.


http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads

Tallis
2008-08-31, 11:08 PM
The Beggars Guild doubles as a spy network. They can go most places and be ignored, so they pick up lots of useful and valuable information.

The Assassins were a fanatically religious group who used drugs to induce a state of euphoria when killing their victims. Of course you may wish to tone down the drug use for your game.

The Thugee were a cult of Kali worshippers who strangled their victims. Blood letting was against the rules.

A group of fanatical druids works to destroy civilization to allow nature to take back the world.

Merchant's leagues could use all sorts of tricks to influence politics and increase their own power and profit.

A good cult worships an evil god, believing that he has been misrepresented and is actually good.

A secret organization works to keep the government in power by any means necessary. They are not themselves part of the government which may not even know they exist.

A darwinist cult works behind the scenes to increase tensions and start wars. They believe that this will weed out the weak and strengthen the race (whatever race it is). They believe that they are working for the greater good.

streakster
2008-08-31, 11:56 PM
Oh! Go see Bhu's post in the Homebrew forums. The Cat Burglars are perfect for you!

Mewtarthio
2008-09-01, 01:10 AM
Well, a very mundane idea would be to have some sort of orphanage as a cover for a cult that sacrifices the kids to demons, or a soup kitchen be a front for a spy network that uses the hobos as eyes-and-ears. Charitable Organization X as a front for Malignant Scheme Y is always fun.

How about an oraphanage that's really a nest for a race of shapeshifting lizard creatures who masquerade as children (their primary food source is, of course, the real orphans)? As an added potential bonus, if you're running a modern setting where the public is not In The Know (you've never specified your setting), your PCs will have a lot of trouble taking the fight to them unless they're okay with being the guys on the news who just broke into an orphanage and started shooting kids.

Trizap
2008-09-01, 01:39 AM
maybe a secret society that is true neutral, and its goal is complete balance between good, evil, chaos, law or whatever vs whatever?

Xenogears
2008-09-01, 01:46 AM
How about an oraphanage that's really a nest for a race of shapeshifting lizard creatures who masquerade as children (their primary food source is, of course, the real orphans)? As an added potential bonus, if you're running a modern setting where the public is not In The Know (you've never specified your setting), your PCs will have a lot of trouble taking the fight to them unless they're okay with being the guys on the news who just broke into an orphanage and started shooting kids.

Combine the Ideas. An orphanage where the children are being tortured but it turns out that the children were really polymorphed monsters. This way the PC's can save the "orphans" by killing the cultists and a while later track down a bunch of deaths back to the orphanage and realise that either A) the heroes allowed the evil monsters to kill people by saving them or B) that the cultists were good guys and were trying to kill the monsters and the "children" being tortured where being interrogated about the invasion plan and the Players have all but handed the city over to the monsters by removing their greatest obstacle.

Oracle_Hunter
2008-09-01, 02:33 AM
Gosh, I wish I had my copy of the Complete Book of Villains from 2e. That was a good book.

Anyhow, a nice way to make societies is to find a purpose, and then figure out what kind of people would work towards that purpose:
- Merchant companies exist to make money by trading goods from where they are plentiful to where they are rare.
- Monasteries exist to venerate a given God or ideal
- Academies exist to concentrate knowledge
- Governments exist to keep its citizens safe from external threats

A secret society is just a regular society that has a reason to keep out of the public eye
- A smuggler's ring is a merchant company that deals with illegal goods
- A secret cult is a monastery that venerates gods and ideals which are scorned by society
- A secret cabal is an academy that concentrates knowledge which is reviled or feared by society
- A mafia is a government that keeps its citizens safe from external threats... such as the real government.

So the easy way to write up an organization is the following:
1) Figure out what their primary focus is (collecting demonic lore, protecting a valley from barbarian raiders, worshiping Dagon, etc.)
2) Determine whether that focus is acceptable or not to the society its placed in. If YES, then it's a open society; if NO then it's a secret society.
3) Choose an organizational model. Secret Societies are generally more diffuse (cell systems, local autonomy, etc.) while Open Societies are generally more centralized (extended chains of command, hierarchies, etc.).

Once you've got that down, you should be able to figure out their background fairly simply.

Tonkarz
2008-09-01, 03:46 AM
How about a secret society that long ago vowed to prevent anyone using a certain dangerous body of knowledge (e.g. a school of magic)? The founders of the organisation had the best of intentions and they initially suppressed anything related to this knowledge with peaceful methods. In the intervening centuries, the organisation has grown increasingly extreme, resorting to mass murder and arson to ensure their objective.

Pronounceable
2008-09-01, 04:42 AM
Why no love for non evil, no secret societies? They're actually more interesting you know.

Postmen's Guild: A guild that has an extensive runner network throughout the nation. For a reasonable sum, your letters/small packages are delivered to wherever you want as fast as nonmagically possible. Think of Genghis's runner network. Think how much wealth and power such a guild will have.

Caretakers: A string of orphanages throughout the country dedicated to wellbeing of children, possibly managed by clerics of some NG god WITH NO SINISTER TWIST! This is a very novel idea in a fantasy setting. Of course, nothing prevents you from organizing the "graduates" into a semi-secret brotherhood/sisterhood (siblinghood?) that works to better their lot in life by whatever means necessary.

Church of Supremacy: A body of men/women/small green things from Alpha Centauri worshipping themselves. KKK meets religion. They believe they're the pinnacles of creation being [insert physical properties here], and others are only fit to be slaves. And they're not shy about expressing their views.

The Guild of Guilds: A major organization that grants guild status to other organizations. If you wanna set up a thieves guild in the city, you must appeal to them. If a band of assasins decide it's time to settle down and set up shop, they have to see the guild. When shoemakers decide they need to band together to keep shoe prices stable it's the guild they go to. All smaller guilds pay "taxes" to the guild which has a lot of men with pointy sticks and/or pointy hats to insure things go their way.

Oracle_Hunter
2008-09-01, 05:09 AM
Why no love for non evil, no secret societies? They're actually more interesting you know.

I don't know if they're more "interesting" but they can be more difficult for the PCs to deal with.

My favorites have been the MIB and the Freedom Fighters.

"MIB" are people who know about a particular bizarre threat (Gate to Hell underneath town, sleeping Elder God in the lake, etc.) who have decided that the fewer people who know about this hazardous situation, the better off everyone else is. They not only try to keep people from investigating the local Horror, but they also spend most of their time fighting off these Horrors in a Secret War.

"Freedom Fighters" are a bunch of people who fight for a Good cause, but prefer to operate in the shadows.

A good type are a "private law" group that exists to resolve disputes that the official courts refuse to arbitrate. They may have wandering Justiciars who are Judge, Jury, and Executioner for isolated communities - their reputation for incorruptibility is enough to earn the respect of the peasants.

A more classic example would be La Resistance; a group which objects to the current power structure on very good grounds (corruptness, oppression, etc.) and are waging a shadow war to stir up enough support for a widespread revolution.

The nice thing about Freedom Fighters is that they tend to like to have a monopoly on "freedom fighting" in the region. If the PCs go about righting wrongs on their own, they may be invited to join the secret society. If the PCs refuse, then they may be branded enemies of the secret society (after all, what truly good person would refuse such an invitation?) resulting in a new host of problems :smallbiggrin:

Prometheus
2008-09-01, 02:32 PM
I have a secret society loosely based on The Lottery (a short story) (http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html) and very loosely based on the real organization ZPG. The idea is powerful and influential citizens of the city decide that they would rather be even more rich than they are concerned with being alive. So they set up a lottery, if your number is up, than you are killed and you possessions are divided amongst the others. Fewer people, more to go around between them. Really extreme ideology that gets even worse when a Fatespinner starts picking who lives and who dies. He even cho0ses someone very close to him in order to ensure no one suspects foul play.