No more so than a cabal of mages bent on world domination.

Right, i'm not trying to say that's impossible, I'm jyst trying to point out it's not exactly lile the women's rotary club!

There aren't guilds, per se, is what I believe Backgammon was saying.

Groups of people with similar ideas/beliefs/job descriptions exist, sure. Doesn't make it a guild.

That's not at ALL the same thing. I have no problem with small groups of people doing these kinds of things. The Black Lodge, Chimera, that's all fine.

It's when you have this one central "guild" idea where anyone planning on commiting murder or steal in a city must register with that is ridiculous.

A city with a dominant syndicate (Yakuza or Mafia) *might* come close to that idea, but I still don't see it has the equivalent of DnD's guilds. The syndicate is merely making sure you don't attract media->citizen->political->police crackdown attention to their turf. And even there, you're not exactly a "registered guild member" or whatever.

Guilds are a fantasy/medieval thing. Doesn't work in modern+ times.

Hmm. Well, if "guilds" won't work...

"Assassins Trade Union"
"Assassins Union Local 327 (Seattle Chapter)"
"The Shiva PoliClub"
"The Charles Manson Society"

Deliver Ninja Burgers.

Shadowrun is a fantasy/Cyberpunk setting.

I use them. I have Several Assassin's organizations - including a Guild. I also have a Mercenaries Guild and a Guild of Spell casters. Unions are on the way out my friends - so let's change the name to something with less negative publicity.

Ya Guilds is a Fantasy thing - and SR is partial Fantasy - I see no reason this couldnlt work in your campaign.

(And if you are Pro Union, I apologize for any offense you may take by this.)

Well, when you go and add three paragraphs of clarification it makes a bit more sense.

Sounds like a guild would do pretty much the same thing as the dominant syndicate in your example. Reduce attention, fix prices, etc.

I'm not saying it has to be a "WORLD WIDE ASSASSINATION FEDERATION." But I think there could be some spooky "guild." What the hell, we have ninjas running around everywhere it seems. Why not non-japanese assassins?

Edit: And I like "Assassins Union Local 327 (Seattle Chapter)"

Well, while I wouldn't necessarily think of a singular massive group like a guild or a union used by the various Corps or organized crime groups for wetwork, I could see of the various syndicates (Triad, Yakuza, Mafia) in various cities having their own "Murder Incorporated". There is, after all, a contemporanious historical precident.

Wonder why I'm having flashbacks of Dan Aykroyd in Grosse Point Blank?

Well, my take is:
Shadowrun is a Cyberpunk setting with selected Fantasy elements added (namely Dragons, Metahumans and Magic).

An Assassins Guild would of course be incredibly valuable for law enforcement. Just imagine a raid on its HQ:
"Hey, look at that - a database on professional murderers, with names, contact adresses, job history..." - "Get all SWAT units you can and call the FBI!"

Um, Chimera? Ninja Clans?

Just don't use the word "guild." Easy fix.

Interesting. I would think the ability to alter or affect a criminal investigation would be the primary function and cause for an organization or syndicate to purpose an assassins union. For a small few or large fee they will destroy evidence, intimidate witnesses, and outright bribe whoever is needed to stall, flaw, or end such cases. They already have the technology in place, since most of it is the same for creating fake identifications, syndicates also must deal with their own investigation derailing, and canon (all be it ancient) mentions a yakuza boss who offers such service to Lone Star incarcerated runners... for a small favor, of course.

Thank you so much for making it clear to me. It was so silly of me to think that people could see things differently. How could I have ever doubted you?

No, it's not. It's a case of a name change representing a change in the object, too.

*guy raises hand at meeting*
"So how many kills do we have to get before we can pass journeyman?"

Ok, joking aside...

Assassin "guilds", in history were mostly prevalent in Asia and were ordered by the governments to establish their training and order of such a team.
They were, in effect, the old version of black-ops forces.
Get in. Complete the objective. Get out. Leave no trace so no one can be blamed.
"Oh? My rival has suddenly passed on from a mysterious murder? How unfortunate. We should send a condolence message to his wife with our troops when we take over the care of the region until his child reaches of age."

In European areas, such guilds weren't used because assassins weren't part of the government. Here, they followed more like their role in Roman society. A hired killer for a price that suits the position of the target. They were people who could be scapegoat after the murder and betrayed by their employer. They were outlaws before they even committed the murder so their word meant nothing in the courts of old. They were the perfect tool to get rid of a "problem".
In Africa, they weren't ever formed because betrayal was commonly done with vengeance and wrath to take over control and was more or less accepted as a pattern of order. You take what you take control of. Just like nature.
In Old Russia, they weren't employed. They weren't employed until around the late czars of Russia when a radical change was desired and then it was done by pulling members of the military officials to the opposing side of the leader and getting them to do the job in return for a promised raise in power and rank.
In America, we never had any except for bounty hunters, more or less. Later, we developed special task forces to carry out jobs that weren't exactly desired to be known as general public knowledge and that's about as close as we got.

The idea of an assassin’s organization is one that simply does not work in a realistic sense simply because, for one to exist, all of the assassins would nearly have to be agents for some facet of a governmental agency.
In doing so, they pretty much negate their existence as assassins and become a special black-ops group of highly trained agents for the specific goal of eliminating potential threats to the benefits of the government that they are a part of.

A freelance assassin’s organization, even if they had the funding and resources of Microsoft multiplied by 10, would not have the ability to manipulate the multiple entangled systems of tracking and legal systems across multiple nations needed for travel, hiding, killing, training, and supplying such a group.

Furthermore. There simply is not enough work in the world for people to actually need an assassins organization in any respect.
The extent of power that the backing group would have to have to pull together such an organization would negate any and all targets that were anything below extremely valuable assets to the targets organization or to the backing groups interest of gain. Both are pretty much the same thing.
There are simply not enough targets in the world that are big enough in that concept to require an entire organization and especially not to require a plural of such organizations.

Simply put. It's not practical in any way at all.
It makes great movies and comic books, but it has really no place in the realms of plausible reality.

So it's perfect for Shadowrun then.

in real life, yeah, probably not. in SR, however, it's feasible.

Hash-shashin is the pronunciation I'm most familiar with.

~J