Making a Guild

[IrncladZmbie113]

Hey guys, so me and and the players in my group are trying to form a guild in PFRPG. Only thing is, we have no idea where to start. So I was wondering if anyone else had ideas. Obviously, we'd need a base of operations, i.e., a tavern or inn where the guild makes most, if not all, of its dealings in. If anyone has read my other post about Mind Mages, you'll remember I have Gnome who owns a tavern and is gonna renovate it, so we've made a deal between my two characters for that little deal.

Our main concern is how get things up and running, like advertising to get people to join, what our main ideal or goal is, securing goods and services for the quests and missions of guild members, establishing street cred/connections to catch word about quests and whatnot, etc., etc.

Anyways, if anyone has any ideas, please help out! Thanks!

[flatline]

Start it like any other business. Provide a service that you can sell profitably and recruit only when there's enough work to keep the new recruits gainfully employed.

You'll become what is typically called a Guild when your organization is in a position to control access to your service in the area either by recruiting everyone else that provides that service or preventing all competitors from providing that service. Once your control is so complete that nobody can provide your service without you getting a cut, then you have succeeded in becoming a guild.

Note that functionally, guilds are no different from labor unions or organized crime. Or governments, for that matter. The differences between the three are merely differences in scope. Guilds and unions profit on specific skills. Organized crime profit on anything they can. Governments profit on everything within their jurisdiction. The same kinds of power hungry people get involved in all of them and the same ruthless tactics are employed by all three, historically speaking.

--flatline

[pblackcrow]

1 What kind of guild are you trying to start? A general adventurers guild?
2 Where are you at? Country and city wise, financial wise, level wise, etc?

[IrncladZmbie113]

1 What kind of guild are you trying to start? A general adventurers guild?
2 Where are you at? Country and city wise, financial wise, level wise, etc?

Just a normal adventurer's/mercenaries guild. And we're based outta the Timiro Kingdom, and we're building about a small fortune (100k+), around 2-5th level characters. Nothing too large yet.

[kiralon]

Think of what you would want yourself from a guild that you would join. Healing and resting services. Magical knowledge services (get friendly with a mages guild) and jobs. Jobs for the guilders to do are important so the first bunch need to be successful to show your guild has what it takes. Get friendly with a dwarven smith or 2 for good quality gear for a reasonable price, and maybe a church as well. Combining them all in at once is difficult, so make some deals with others that have what you want to provide until you have the resources to provide them yourself. Talk to the lawmen around for jobs to do. (nothing like killing giant rats in basements) and find out a few things for yourselves to take as jobs. Once you are popular things get a lot easier.

[Library Ogre]

A general adventurer's guild is going to serve as a job clearinghouse, and a place to get aid. I'd not only talk to priests who might be interested in such a venture (to provide healing), but also people from associated trades. You might sponsor a smith in exchange for a guild discount (i.e. We pay you part of the dues we take in and you fix guild member stuff for cheap), or advertise to merchant guilds as the place to hire special security. Find trainers and get them to offer classes, which guild members can take part in... basic self-defense classes, weaponry, spotting an ambush.

[IrncladZmbie113]

The blacksmith sponsoring thing is something we hadn't thought of, thanks, Kiralon and Mark. The priest and magic services is something we had thought of. I'm thinking we're gonna need a bigger building. That much extra stuff is gonna require more floor space. Wow, this is gonna be a bit more difficult than I thought.

[Library Ogre]

Think about the guilds in Elder Scrolls games... they tend to be some of the largest structures in town, because of all they offer. Smiths, trainers, healers, beds and food for guild members, in addition to jobs. You might want stables for your mounts, including special stables for those If you become more than a single-city guild, you're going to need communications between guilds, meaning messengers or someone who knows Magic Pigeon (probably one of the most useful spells in the game).

[The Immortal ME]

It depends what kind of guild you are trying to make.

A guild was, generally and in the historical vein, constituted by Letters Patent from an appropriate ruler given the guild members an oligarchy or cartel with which to set prices, set productions volumes and allocate it among members, control the supply of raw materials and training, provide pensions to old or disabled members and their widows, and legally punish anyone infringing on their territory. And incidentally punish members who try to undercut the guild rates.

Without the right to legal enforcement, Guild Wars (har har) between adventure guilds would get hella messy. Also keep in mind that by killing the local bandit lord you are going to incur the wrath of the Honorable Company of Caravan Guards local 736 who were raking profits from the business the bandit lord generated (if they were not completely in cahoots).

In order to create such a guild you would need:

Either some kind of sanction... or enough muscle to strong arm the competition.

A charter describing the mission and organization of the guild.

A meeting hall. Maybe some lodging.

A mountain of cash to pay pensions, widows, and disability benefits until the flow of dues and the guild cut from the loot can cover them.

Retired or disabled members (or contracted vendors) to provide services (training, healing, repair), and supplies.

Another question is how much business volume you are looking at, and how many members. On the large side, one possible arrangement would be small office(s) in town(s) were trusted liaison(s) negotiate with customers, and guild fort. Think of a self sufficient, fortified monastery--celibacy optional--where members between jobs, and those that are disabled and retired, work in the common interest. Fortified, and preferably hidden, to discourage retaliation. Adventurers irritate a lot of powerful... things. On the small side, you just need a meeting place to discuss jobs with customers and guild business with each other.

[glitterboy2098]

note also, while guilds were often community based (drawing their authority from the community government and local community law enforcement), they tended to develop a series of connections to guilds in othertowns via the master/apprentice method of training.

guilds were based around this concept. you usually had ranks.. and while they often varied some based on what the guild did, they can be summed u[ as such..

Apprentices. lowest rank. basically trainees and gofers. new members traditionally begin at this rank unless they can prove they belong higher. Apprentices actually do most of the grunt work and trainees on the verge of being promoted to a higher rank would often be given more important tasks. they learned by doing and watching.

Journeyman. middling rank. still a trainee of sorts, these know the important skills, they just haven't demonstrated a level of skill to move up yet. these actually do most of the day to day work of a guild, unless it is very tricky or very important. Journeymen are the lowest rank that can hold a business of their own. they strive to complete a 'masterwork', creating or doing something that proves they have the skills needed to move up past journeymen.

master's. master's are the experts and the leaders of a guild. they run the guild itself, and usually own the main shops and buildings. they also represent their guild in the political and social fields. they also get to approve all promotions within the ranks (apprentice to journeyman, journeyman to master).

it was very common for journeymen/masters to send their sons to guilds in other towns to be apprenticed. not only did it ensure they could learn new tricks and skills.. but it helped spread the gene pool around a bit more, since often a town would have lots of the person's distant relatives in it. often they'd either come back home when they've reached journeyman, or would settle down there to become a master.

if your in a place without a guild already (which is unlikely in any established community), you have two choices.. first is to claim your masters.. which will be hard unless you've shown your skills to be quite high. the other is to communicate with guilds in other towns and invite them to send a master, journeymen, and some apprentices to help get one started.

in general the latter is going to be likely.. guilds represent craftsmen and talented people.. a new community will usually have members of guilds present already in the groups helping to build the place.. and those people are likely to just invite the guild they are members of to send people to help establish a new guild branch. this also has the advantage of bringing with it all the organization, bylaws, and traditions a guild needs to be successful.

if your adventurers, i think it is going to be easier to set up a 'warriors order' of some kind, either religious (like the templars, hospitaliers, and Teutonic knights) or secular (like the Order of the Garter, the order of the Dragon, the Order of the Thistle, or the order of the Golden Fleece). this would only really require a code of conduct and founders to induce new members. organizationally you'd want to adopt a squire/knight type system for training new members.. and establish distinct roles within the organization as to leadership, record keeping, finance, etc. early on you could get by with just regular arranged meetings in a common place as you operate within a general region.. later as you accumulate members and funds you'll find people offering buildings to your cause or will get funds to build your own. as long as you work with the guilds you'll be fine. and you don't have to limit yourself to warfare. the Hospitaliers started as a medical order, offering food and shelter to travellers as well as maintaining military might. the Templar's used their contacts and how they spread across most of europe and the middle east to become some of the main money lenders and money traders of the christian world. the Teutonic knights were big on building infrastructure in the lands they operated in, bettering people's lives. etc.

[pblackcrow]

1 What kind of guild are you trying to start? A general adventurers guild?
2 Where are you at? Country and city wise, financial wise, level wise, etc?

Just a normal adventurer's/mercenaries guild. And we're based outta the Timiro Kingdom, and we're building about a small fortune (100k+), around 2-5th level characters. Nothing too large yet.

Ok. Where are you trying to start this guild?...name and pop. of city? Um, what do you intend to offer the members?

[IrncladZmbie113]

1 What kind of guild are you trying to start? A general adventurers guild?
2 Where are you at? Country and city wise, financial wise, level wise, etc?

Just a normal adventurer's/mercenaries guild. And we're based outta the Timiro Kingdom, and we're building about a small fortune (100k+), around 2-5th level characters. Nothing too large yet.

Ok. Where are you trying to start this guild?...name and pop. of city? Um, what do you intend to offer the members?

We're starting in Credia. And right now there's only 7 members.

Also, thanks guys for the all the advice. The Elder Scrolls reference is probably the best visual example, and probably what we'll base our guild off of. I, and the rest of my rpg party, really appreciate all the advice.

[Goliath Strongarm]

In an old campaign, we had a guild that was more of a "in the city" guild, that ended up spread waaay around.

What they did was link up various businesses with adventurers. Adventurers paid membership dues, as did businesses. When adventurers needed services, the only "authorized" business to deal with would be one that was connected to the guild. In return, these businesses gave discounts (usually 5-10%) to guild members.

The advantage for adventurers would be a vetted business that they could trust, and if things went sour, they could trust the guild to be legal representation (and to give serious hell to the business).

The advantage for businesses was that they would have customers pushed in their direction, thereby giving them extra business.

It got to a point where there were a lot of small businesses that ONLY did work for guild members.

You have to be careful, though, to only have a couple of businesses that do the same sort of thing. You want enough for there to be some competition, but not too many, or else it's not an advantage for the business to be part of the guild. We usually had about 2, except for very specialized (yet relatively in demand) businesses. Inns, Taverns, and restaurants would generally be 2-3 of each "quality level" (we broke it down to basic rathole, decent but affordable, and rich-folk), and alchemists (started in the western empire, where we had a LOT of alchemists) that specialized would have several members.