Tips on playing guilds.

[AlexH]

I'm currently building my first big city. While writing the various guilds and cults, temples, etc. i wondered how people actually play it in-game?

The game seems to be geared towards guilds as a mean to better one's character: gaining knowledge, skills and various magical powers. I mean, the way i understand it, being a somewhat serious member in a guild (cult or whatever) demands dedication, effort and time, on a PCs point of view. Most guilds, for example, requires at least a year of minimal membership and proven dedication before upgrading in membership level. Some guilds will ask you to perform certain duties, tasks, ceremonies. The way i see it, players will probably join the guilds of their taste, so how do you play different PCs in different guilds at the same time, with different or even opposed goals?

It seems a pain to have actually one PC roleplaying it's guild while the others do nothing and wait. It also seems pointless to have all these different guilds if, for better gameplay, all the PCs join the same guild...

Or are you playing it in the downtime? If so, how do you play it? Something like : PlayerA "Ok, so, we've killed the evil bad guy, we've got nothing to do for now, so i'll just attend my guild's duties for the next week, until something comes up." ?

So, i'm really curious, i'd like to know how do you, GMs, manage guilds in your campaign?

(And sorry if the question seems dumb, i'm not used to this kind of gameplay, coming from d&d and all... )

Also, and i found it a little bit dissapointing, no examples, hints or tips on how to play the guilds in any books i bought (I got most of them, save for campaign-specific books), not even in the GM's handbook.

 

[Loz]

There's a book on its way called 'Guilds, Cults and Factions'.

It offers you everything you need to answer the questions you've asked.

 

[AlexH]

Nice! Now i look like a fool

Thanks, i'll go get that book, and i guess i'll have them all, now ...

edit: Oh, i see it's coming in may ;(

 

[Utgardloki]

I actually have not used guilds very much, and many times I've defined a guild but never actually got a chance to use it.

Basically, a guild is like any other sort of resource. It's there in the world and if the players need to or want to interact with it they can, otherwise they know it is there if they need and/or feel like interfering with its operations.

Wizards Guild

For example, I had a character who wanted to be a wizard but didn't have the fee to pay entrance into the Wizards Guild. I had also indicated that "The purpose of the Wizards Guild is NOT to ensure that people have access to lots of low-priced magic" in fact, it was the opposite. The players also got a little chuckle that a "lifetime membership" in the guild was the same price as six months, which might be an indication of the average adventurer's lifespan.

The PC was able to get training from a non-guild wizard, so he was not frustrated. There was just a guild/non-guild rivalry going on. And those who come up with the hefty fee for the Wizards Guild get access to their libraries and training, which is worth quite a bit. Non-guild wizards have to scrounge a little.

Then there was a war, and the Wizards Guild was directed to open up its library to non-guild wizards for the purpose of learning spells for defense of the barony.

Fighters Guild

I established the existence of a guild that gives martial training to paying customers, run by a group of NPCs renouned for their skills. To introduce a new PC into the group, I once established that he had come to the city to learn at this guild. When the war started, I told the players that many people were training at the guild, and the guildmaster said things like "Don't get fancy, just try to hit your opponent before he hits you," and "Most of you will probably die."

The PCs were also offered a chance to get officer's training, which consisted of a guy yelling at his students and telling them how to yell at other people. (Very important on an archaic battlefield, of course.)

Caveliers Guild

I described these guys as the "snooty caveliers" who were most concerned about "keeping out the riff-raff". Still, they have a reputation of being the best horse-riders in the kingdom. One of the PCs was offered membership in the guild, but she turned them down.

Thieves Guild

When a PC rogue got into legal trouble, I was going to have the thieves guild offer to help him out. Unfortunately, that player was one who said he wanted to play "an outlaw" but balked when his PC was actually treated like an outlaw. So the Thieves Guild saw no action, and nobody knows that it is there.

I have an idea if I restart that campaign to send the PCs to another city, with a more active Thieves Guild that includes a cadre of "Bogeymen" who specialize in making sure that secrets remain secrets. Tracing the "Bogeymen" back to the guild might not actually happen, since they are so good at covering tracks, but it might be good to know what kind of resources they can bring to bear.

Barbarians Guild

I never actually used this one, but I decided that it is the name of a tavern in one of the northern cities that sees a lot of barbarians passing through. The backstory is that the name started as a joke, but as they started attracting barbarian clientele, they adapted to match the barbarian culture by serving the kind of food they liked and having bards who played the kind of music they like, hiring women familiar with their customs, etc, even religious services. They also started offering services for their clients, such as job posting, legal help for those who got into trouble with the law.

The model works so well that the owner got the duke to write up a license to open up a Barbarians Guild in another city, thereby establishing a primitive franchise.

I have not had a chance to use the Barbarians Guild idea yet, but I think it is a cool idea. It fits in with the character of that particular city, which is situated on an important trade route, is run by a very efficient administration with very strict but benevolent rules, and where everybody has gold. (Economists reading this of course are correct in their expectation of what that means for prices in this town.)

 

[Utgardloki]

I was thinking that the point of all I typed above is that guilds are creations of NPCs who have their own agendas. These NPCs, their personalities, agendas and political conflicts will determine, along with the applicable laws of the area, what the guilds do.

For example, the Bogeymen mentioned above exist because a baroness is receiving money from pirates, and she wants to make sure that nobody finds out about it. The Judges want to uphold the law, and if they find proof, they can and will have her title remove and have her imprisoned. So the baroness pays money to the Thieves Guild to make sure that nobody finds out about her extra line of income. An additional twist is that the Duke does not want to remove her because that would cause political chaos that he would rather not deal with, but if the Judges present positive proof, he would have no choice but to remove her from power. The resulting chaos could turn violent, however.

Not all guilds have to have such strong political conflicts. The Caveliers just want to confirm that they are the best in the kingdom. But I like to come up with answers to questions like "Why does the guild exist?" "Who started the guild?" "Who runs the guild?" "What are the goals of this guild?" "Who opposes the guild?" "What are the relevant laws?" "What is the attitude of the governing officials?".

 

[AlexH]

Thanks, Utgardloki!

But my question was more geared towards how you handle your Players joining guilds. Or are you using them as background material only?

How do you manage one PC interested in joining the Cavalier's Guild while another one is more interested in being a member of a Thieve's guild, for example?

My fear is that it'll only separate the group, each going their lives in different directions.

 

[Utgardloki]

I try to discourage PCs from joining organizations that have opposing goals. Obviously if one player wants his PC to join the Judges and another player wans his PC to join the Bogeymen, there will be problems. I would strongly discourage that, possibly even forbidding it.

On other hand, guilds can also have allied goals. Members of the Wizards Guild and the Fighters Guild would coorperate without antagonism, since both roles are necessary.

A handy tip for role-playing is to consider if I was writing a play; would a scene help or hinder the story. Important developments might require a PC to find contacts in the Wizards Guild to get an important clue, or I might role-play a sparring match between a PC and an NPC in the Fighters Guild, but in general I don't have the players role-play going to the guild library to look up an obscure spell or role-play through the training needed to master a new weapon.

So far I have not made extensive use of guilds. By default, I would just say that the PCs may join the relevant guilds, unless there are special requirements, such as an entrance contest or a need to negotiate acceptance. If I get any special ideas I'll throw them in. Typically these are just one-liners describing relevant NPCs, but they can be more.

To prevent the guilds from being a means to separate the PCs, one way is to make sure that the guilds have allied interests. PCs should not be able to just say "I am going to join the Secret And Hidden Assassins Guild" because first they would need to _find_ the guild, then convince the guild members to let them in instead of just killing them. Guilds that are easy to join will have goals aligned with the prevailing morals, and won't need to divide the PCs.

Hope this helps.