Monday, April 5, 2021

Guilds in your OSR games, part 3; Guilds within a Fantasy Setting

 Guilds in your OSR games, part 3; Guilds within a fantasy setting

Part 2


So far, I’ve only given a generic overview to guilds from history. Their place in the economy and rise within the context of a medieval society helped shape town and city living, not to mention trade in general. With that said, in a medieval-inspired world with magic, monsters, and dungeons opens up more guild opportunities for players to use in their game. Guilds in a fantasy rpg would more likely be willing to work with an independent contractor (player characters) for specific tasks under specific, secret contracts. In addition, guilds historically provide seemingly mundane but essential services to customers, such as bookbinding or bakers. However, they are still just as essential if not more so within the confines of a fantasy setting. For example, Magic users might need to seek a bookbinding guild member to get a new spellbook or to expand its pages to include new spells. PC parties might not be able to get much-needed rations if the party upset the baker’s guild. In addition, Player parties who keep treating their hirelings from a town as “meatshields” might find themselves suddenly blacklisted from any weaponsmith with guild membership to prevent a negative association with such reckless personalities, forcing the players to seek out shoddy work from a non-affiliated goblin smith. 

Historically, Guilds were restrictive and limited to men of a common cultural group and religion. This meant women weren’t normally allowed, nor were non-Christians or foreigners. In a fantasy milieu, this could extend to non-humans and provide a rival guild made up of demi-humans. For example, a blacksmith guild in a city who has denied dwarves entry might find themselves at odds with a newly established dwarven blacksmith guild; provided the town allows it to happen. If the town’s council has burghers who trade in the human blacksmith guild’s goods, they might be hesitant to provide this legal document unless they see a marketable opportunity.

The most frequent use of guilds in a fantasy rpg is usually resided to thieves guilds and adventurer guilds. Thieve guilds in AD&D mention hierarchies within its structure and a high level thief character can climb the ranks within it and seem to be informed by pulp stories such as Fafred and the Grey Mouser. Adventuring guild as a concept seems more associated with modern editions and is used as a generic group of overly unique and quirky player characters receiving adventures for hire. I’m under the impression that adventurer guilds are less of a guilds and more of a club/bar that players seek railroaded adventures in. I DO think there should be a market for adventure-oriented guilds within a fantasy setting, especially for those located in a place where risk-taking professionals can be hired. However, this should be focused on specific ROLLS of hirelings having their services hired out by a player party. If a town is near a megadungeon, it’s far more likely that this service will be needed and a cooperative organization will form to protect those professionals from misuse and provide legally-binding contracts dictating the use of those professionals. The services these guilds provide might also have enough influence to inform local laws and hold trade secrets. The following is an example of such a hireling guild:

Torchbearers Guild: This guild provides light in underground and otherwise dark settings that require the use of artificial illumination. Guild members are trained the art of fire science and; by contract; are the only members of any expedition that are allowed to carry any fire-sourced illumination or provided any fire-sourced utility while on the expedition.

-     Apprentices will be traditional torchbearers whom might be able to use their general knowledge to provide light in addition to any defensive use of fire against environmental or monstrous threats. Frequently used by miners, Apprentices have knowledge of creatures that have a fear of fire or any warding that fire might provide against supernatural threats as informed by local folklore or superstition. This provides them as a valuable resource for any adventuring party


     For additional costs, specialized torchbearers who carry large sized, two-handed torches called “Doppelte fackel” that provide extended light radius and provide the benefits of both a light source and a ten-foot pole. These individuals are also willing to use fire offensively with their doppelfackel and a number of them would be trained to work in formation of optimal fire-based combat. Oftentimes their services might be rented out for ceremonial purposes for more wealthy clients, but can double as bodyguards within those circumstances if needed.

-     Journeymen within the torchbearers guild are individuals who have been trained in additional sciences by different masters. They can use oil, black powder and similar substances effectively with minimal issues. As such, they can provide explosives, flash powder traps, and more as tools to use on an expedition.  A team of journeymen armed with specialized bellows and oil extruders would function as a flame throwing unit. Journeymen have some knowledge of the alchemical arts and are taught how to read and write so they can follow formulas and develop their own. Journeymen know how to smoke out any threats and keep them at bay, while providing insight into ventilation underground and detection of any poison gases that might leak in underground chambers.

-     Masters of the torchbearer guild understand magical fire and how to extinguish it. They are sought by aristocrats whom might be plagued by dragons or seek advice in dealing with wizards and the ilk in times of war. Masters have an understanding of basic engineering and know how to bring down any structures effectively with fire and explosives. Masters are sought out when dealing with the use of fire to cleanse evil from town, such as destroying reanimated corpses, burning witches, or the full destruction of instruments of evil. In addition, Masters of fire might also provide insight into quick recovery from fire burns and might be advised by clerics with helping with recovery for those who have experienced severe burns.

Here are some other examples of hireling-specific guilds for adventuring

Reconnoiter Guild: Consisting of those individuals who poke/prod with ten foot poles, search rooms in conjunction with the player characters, and can even create maps. Higher ranking members would be able to do basic reconnaissance into unexplored areas with a team for general surveying rooms and note anything suspicious to players to investigate. Some might even be trained in the art of trap making and can be used for disarming trap or rearming traps. The highest ranking members would be delegated to long term recon for military scouting or multiple surveying of locations and give detailed (and correct) information useful to the player characters, essentially functioning as spies. They can provide full details of a map area for strategic purposes and all resources or threats contained within the area. Warlords who are known to hire the masters of this guild are known for having strategic superiority on the battlefield.


Porter Guild:
They will carry all of the junk and treasure found, and by contract will be kept confidential. Meaning, they provide the sacks and will keep private ledgers just for the player characters to see and away from any wandering eyes of other hirelings or henchmen. Mechanically, porters will not be encumbered with movement, and thus will be able to keep pace with players movement. Higher ranking members overlap with teamsters, but are of specific importance because they will venture into dungeons, caves, lairs, etc. with hand carts or a well-disciplined beast of burden while normal teamsters will only work above ground. Masters of the guild can organize the moving of large creatures, living or dead upon request, including binding and transporting captured dragons, ogres, etc. While this requires a team of porters from the guild, a master is needed to oversee and to provide the correct amount of tranquilizing herbs to keep them in their sluggish stupor or asleep against their consent. In general, porters accept the risks that normal teamsters won’t, but come a much higher cost.

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