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Totema
2014-10-30, 10:34 PM
In my campaign, the PCs start out the game by joining an adventurer's guild. (I think this neatly gives common ground to characters with vastly different backgrounds, as opposed to the "you all meet in an inn" schtick) In my original concept of the guild, it worked a bit like the Fighter's Guild from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in which it served as a headquarters of sorts for low level characters: they could rest there, get basic supplies from a quartermaster, and receive assignments, which would serve as simple quests for them to cut their teeth on and earn a bit of money. Membership would also give them a few other perks, such as discounts at shops, as well as the right to act as deputies to keep order in the more rustic parts of the realm.

This looked fine at first, but now I can see that it doesn't really work as an organization as it is. For one thing, it doesn't seem sustainable. It would take a large sum of money and income to keep guildhouses running, paying for equipment restock and rewards for successful missions, and giving the staff salaries. I suppose I could handwave it by having the guild funded by the royal family or the government, but that seems like an inelegant solution. Additionally, having a guild for adventurers carries an implication that adventurers are commonplace in my setting. This isn't a bad thing, but given that it's designed as an entry point for new characters, and thus the quests they provide are meant to be pretty simple, how can I make my players feel like they stand out? Why shouldn't destiny just call on some other adventuring party?

I've constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed so many aspects of my concept for this guild that I'm not entirely sure I can answer any specific questions about it. I'm really just scouting for ideas on making it work in the setting. Thanks in advance!

IslandDog
2014-10-30, 11:59 PM
In my campaign, the PCs start out the game by joining an adventurer's guild. (I think this neatly gives common ground to characters with vastly different backgrounds, as opposed to the "you all meet in an inn" schtick) In my original concept of the guild, it worked a bit like the Fighter's Guild from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in which it served as a headquarters of sorts for low level characters: they could rest there, get basic supplies from a quartermaster, and receive assignments, which would serve as simple quests for them to cut their teeth on and earn a bit of money. Membership would also give them a few other perks, such as discounts at shops, as well as the right to act as deputies to keep order in the more rustic parts of the realm.

This looked fine at first, but now I can see that it doesn't really work as an organization as it is. For one thing, it doesn't seem sustainable. It would take a large sum of money and income to keep guildhouses running, paying for equipment restock and rewards for successful missions, and giving the staff salaries. I suppose I could handwave it by having the guild funded by the royal family or the government, but that seems like an inelegant solution. Additionally, having a guild for adventurers carries an implication that adventurers are commonplace in my setting. This isn't a bad thing, but given that it's designed as an entry point for new characters, and thus the quests they provide are meant to be pretty simple, how can I make my players feel like they stand out? Why shouldn't destiny just call on some other adventuring party?

I've constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed so many aspects of my concept for this guild that I'm not entirely sure I can answer any specific questions about it. I'm really just scouting for ideas on making it work in the setting. Thanks in advance!

Think about what an adventuring guild really is, for starters. Basically, start by thinking about the classic tavern 'quest/adventure board'. Skilled adventurers see the advertisement ("A goblin ate my baby!") and go respond to the quest giver. An adventurers guild is one savvy entrepreneur taking down all those notices, keeping them for himself, and hiring adventurers privately at a reduced rate, and then getting the original sum from the quest giver. Obviously, eventually adventurers will be like: hey! I want the full price! So the entrepreneur needs to offer advantages: 1) he collects the quests easily and they don't need to look for clients, and 2) he'll supply them etc. Kind of like a law firm with independent lawyers, actually. This is only advantageous to the entrepreneur if he can actually get enough quests in at a time to make a living off of the percentage of the profits he is making.

So why would he do that? How could he have a large enough volume of quests?
1) Monstrous folk are common, and the city/state/empire is lack in controlling them. A goblin ate my baby or stole my crops etc is actually common!
2) There is wild magic in the land, corrupting some and empowering others! It's a sort of passive force that can eventually spawn monsters, but also heroes.
3) There is a lack of law in the land, and he acts as a mercantile form of law.
4) There are a ton of hidden treasures around (from a Past Age of MagicTM), that sometimes have negative side effects on the landscape/people around them.
5) Recurring monsters like undead?

How do you make them special? The classic way: have them start as lowly adventurers who are assigned to a regular, easy assignment to prove their worth. However, they stumble upon something bigger than themselves (a powerful artifact, a secret, a conspiracy, a new race, a hidden city, a courier, intrigue, espionage, plot!) and somehow miraculously survive. Then they're dragged straight in to events that are way over their heads, but since they're PC's they manage to live to tell the tale, and even catch up and become powerful heroes themselves :)

Hope that helped!

Vitruviansquid
2014-10-31, 12:06 AM
I'm feeling pretty tired, so prepare for typos, redundancies, and inconsistencies.

1. Why do Adventurers' guilds exist? Like real-world guilds, the Adventurer guilds ensure quality control. They make sure that when someone hires a group of thugs to kill a dragon, those thugs are qualified and that dragon actually gets slain. As such, the guild probably has some way of evaluating the effectiveness of adventurers and ranking them to show what kind of quests they can handle. As well, the guild gives adventurers a place to network and form parties with the required combination of skills to complete a task. The guild might also police adventurers, ensuring that some high level group doesn't get bored and try to take over a city - an adventurer without a guild is just an armed thug. The guild, as you describe it, might also exist to serve adventurers. It interfaces with outfitters, weaponsmiths, and organizations frequently in need of adventuring services in order to give adventurers an easy way to obtain equipment and employment. In this case, it's not the guild itself that pays adventurers for completing quests. The guild only acts as a middleman to link adventurers and employers. When there are no quests to be done, or quests are in short supply, the guild might also support adventurers financially. Adventurers who are hurt while adventuring might be able to receive some support from the guild as well.

2. Who pays for the adventurer's guild? The guild could charge money for allowing someone to advertise a job and take a cut of the adventurers' earnings when they complete a quest or bring back loot. Adventurers might also pay a monthly or yearly fee for being a member of the guild, especially if the guild promises to take care of them during emergencies. The craftspeople who provide equipment through the adventurer's guild might pay an amount of money for the privilege of selling though it. Being the swordsmith endorsed by your local adventurer's guild would be really good for business.

Exediron
2014-10-31, 12:23 AM
How does the guild pay for itself? A guild without guild dues is a rarity in the modern world, and there's no reason to assume it would exist in any other world, either. Taking a small percentage (5% maybe) of its affiliated adventurers' earnings is also a possibility. The rewards offered by the guild for starting missions would - as pointed out above - presumably be lower than the sum the guild is being paid to field that quest, so they make a small profit there. Discounts would probably be offered by shopkeepers as a method of advertising, and cost the guild nothing; if I run a sword shop and offer 15% off to members of the adventurers guild, I'll get customers I wouldn't have otherwise. That's not a 15% loss, that's an 85% profit. :smallwink:

Does it mean adventurers are commonplace? Yes, in all likelihood. The other option would be that the guild is very exclusive and looked up to, and contains practically all the adventurers in the world - Aes Sedai in Wheel of Time, only more violent and money-grubbing. That would be a very different feeling, however, and may not be what you're looking for.

How to make the PCs stand out: The mission they get sent on - while seeming to the guild and everyone else like just any quest - is the one that leads to something important. Job done. The PCs get sent to clean a rot-grub infestation out of an abandoned building? While exterminating the heart-eating vermin, they discover an eaten through chest, its wards eroded by time and now op-enable, containing a set of tablets of unknown origin speaking of an event that will happen deep in the polar desert some time this year, and hinting at dire portents if it should come to pass... That sort of thing.

The players don't (or they really shouldn't, at least) need to have their characters be the only members of their profession for them to feel important. In fact, if you do it right you might even be able to make them feel more grounded in the world by having them occasionally bump into other adventurers on guild business, or perhaps even develop a rivalry with some other party who started at a similar time as them and keep pace for a while. There's plenty of opportunity there for the taking.

Good luck!

Nobot
2014-10-31, 04:24 AM
I think, realistically, any 'adventurer's guild' would end up as a mercenary company or a security company like Group 4 Securicor or Securitas. What else can they offer besides enforcement and security? The employed 'adventurers' will spend most of their time doing routine security tasks, while the guild takes a big cut. There may be some very interesting and exciting tasks, but only 1 in every 1,000 guild members is involved with those.

You could make it more exciting:
- It's a fantasy world, so there are fair maidens to be saved, baby-eating/crop-stealing goblins to be hunted down, etcetera. An abundance of quests!
- There is a high level exec in the guild who sees potential in the players and sends them off on one of the more interesting and challenging quests (perhaps to further his own nefarious goals or to aid him in the intra-guild power struggle).

In one setting I played in, the wealthy and powerful college of mages was the biggest customer of the adventurer's guild (they stylized themselves as 'the Knights Errant'). Whenever an expedition of mages was sent out or the college needs some muscle, it buys a security contract from the guild. That way, there are plenty of interesting quests to go around!

Financially (and finally), don't give the adventurers free equipment (especially low-lever newcomers). That is not economically feasible.

BeerMug Paladin
2014-10-31, 04:41 AM
You could have the so-called adventurers guild just be an employment center for people with specialized talents. So there's essentially job postings there for odd jobs that a player party will have no (or little) interest in. And has fairly small pay considering the time put into it.

"Train four new horses to perform basic farm work before the upcoming fall harvest." "Create a detailed trap for my mansion's treasure vault in four weeks. I have specific design requirements you must meet." "Need a field medic on standby in the guardhouse until a suitable replacement cleric is trained for a more permanent position. Magic preferred, but mundane skill acceptable." "Suitable performers needed to draw crowds for the month of the harvest festival. Must be willing to work with others and flexible with schedule." "Alchemist seeks assistant to perform basic lab work and maintenance for the next three weeks." "Teach recruits the basics of armor and weapon maintenance. All types of weapon care must be covered."

Then there's other, more notable jobs postings in the guild hall. Possibly with their own classification category. These would be the job postings of giant rats in the inexplicably wealthy peasant's basement, escorting caravans through bandit territory, and mysterious quests of vagueness that most sane people wouldn't dream of approaching. Along with bounties for dangerous fugitives.

The key is, the players get rewards much greater than the other jobs will offer and faster, but taking those jobs is often seen as very dangerous, so most people with similar skill sets choose instead to do the tedius, but safe jobs. Most NPCs wouldn't do those jobs. At the same time, the players will be known as those crazy lunatics that take the Suicide Class jobs over and over and keep coming back for more. This can make them feel special as it takes a special kind of crazy to risk your life.

The guild gets a cut of the value of the contract, and offers identification, and basic mercantile services in order to make their money.

As for higher level NPCs, just make those that are around people who took Suicide Class jobs for a while to attain a life goal (like buying a mansion/title, complete a personal quest or whatever) then retired with a less risky job as soon as their great personal need or backstory was satisfactorily resolved.

Just make sure the players have a way to figure out how dangerous each potential job is likely to be, and that they have a way to learn more about what to expect from one when they express an interest in one.

Fra Antonio
2014-10-31, 05:07 AM
So why would he do that? How could he have a large enough volume of quests?
1) Monstrous folk are common, and the city/state/empire is lack in controlling them. A goblin ate my baby or stole my crops etc is actually common!
2) There is wild magic in the land, corrupting some and empowering others! It's a sort of passive force that can eventually spawn monsters, but also heroes.
3) There is a lack of law in the land, and he acts as a mercantile form of law.
4) There are a ton of hidden treasures around (from a Past Age of MagicTM), that sometimes have negative side effects on the landscape/people around them.
5) Recurring monsters like undead?

This. And his other advice are equally great.
The existence of an adventurer's guild implies at least two things:
1) There are a lot of threats and other adventures around, and dealing with them is important. It can be a recent cataclysm that left many ruins to explore and monsters to defeat, or an ethereal force constantly spawning new dangers.
2) The local authority is weak and cannot protect its people (which is actually one of its direct responsibilities) or take the guild under its direct control (otherwise it would become a special task force).
Oh, and also probably
3) The guild somehow can't / is not interested in taking the throne (the founder's ideology, lack of church's support and/or something else).

Actually, I can see this as a base for an exciting campaign. After establishing the setting where the abovementioned is true, you can play with it:
1) The royal court becomes more powerful and tries to take over the Guild or replace it with its own organization.
2) The reason behind the supernatural threats is dwindling, mainly thanks to the efforts of the Guild.
3) A veteran adventurer gets fed up with all this and starts scheming to take the power.
4) Meanwhile an idealistic prince joins the guild because he grew up with stories of great adventures.
5) Actually, the reason behind the threats is just waiting for the right moment to land a devastating blow.

ILM
2014-10-31, 06:01 AM
Why wouldn't there be adventuring guilds? Adventuring is hugely profitable, if you survive. Look at the WBL tables. Any level 3 adventurer can already buy multiple decent apartments; hell, they can afford a cheap manor or a tenth of a warship (before you dismiss this, ask yourself: can you affort a tenth of a warship? I know I can't). They can stay for almost 4 years straight in a good inn (can you afford 4 years at a good hotel?).

With that in mind, it makes sense that people are attracted to the adventuring trade, and from there it makes sense that they try to increase their chances of a) finding good adventures to go on, and b) suviving the ordeal. Sharing information goes a long way towards both. Other benefits could be a centralized job board - allowing you both access to work and to pick missions you're reasonably confident you can tackle - equipment rental/rebates (credit?) and, well, information on stuff you're about to face. And if all it costs you is a percentage of your haul, well, seems like it'd be worth the price.

Consider, again, that at level 3 a CR-appropriate encounter yields 900 gp in treasure. Assume the guild takes a cheapo 5% of your haul, that's 45 gp. Trained hirelings (for guild staff) cost 3 sp per day; renting a large house/villa in the city would cost 2d8*10 gp/month (going by Cityscape p.50). So basically, the guild not only easily pays for itself but would probably make money hand over fist once it's running. I think that we become sort of jaded to the prices magic items get, and just shrug when talking about a +4 sword costing 32,300 gp - but that is actually an immense amount of money. For all the millions of commoner 1s populating the world, 500 gp is probably as much as they'll see in an entire lifetime. Successful - even low-level - adventurers are crazy rich, and maintaining a guild hall with staff and extra mundane adventuring gear is chump change.

There's also a good blurb on adventurer's guilds on page 85 of Cityscape but I'd hate to be too specific. Suffice it to say they provide more reasons adhering to one makes sense for adventurers.


Now, your other question:
Why shouldn't destiny just call on some other adventuring party?
It's not just a question for you and your party, really. Any game, any story about any character begins with the same question: why are we telling this guy's story and not that other guy's right there?

I think there's two ways of answering that. The first option is: your protagonists are special. Something in their nature, whether they know it yet or not, makes them stand out from everyone else. Maybe they're all descended from divine beings or have all touched some ancient artifact, or maybe all their names begin with the letter B and that's somehow significant, but either way there's a clear reason destiny picked them.

The other option is that they're not special, and destiny didn't really pick them. The thing is, destiny had to pick someone - and from there, you can either tell the story of all the guys who tried and failed, or you can focus on the lucky bastards who actually made it through (unless they screw up of course) because it's a better tale.

It's kind of like when a player wisecracks "how convenient that we're encountering all these monsters in ascending order of CR!". Well, yeah, but the alternative is what? Being the adventurer who bumps into a great wyrm at level 4? I'm the DM, I can do that - but it's gonna be a mighty short game; might as well accept that if events weren't at least going to give your players a fighting chance, then you wouldn't be interested in that particular story in the first place.

Palegreenpants
2014-10-31, 08:57 AM
I utilize a system of trade licenses, as apposed to adventuring guilds. In my oppinion, guilds are for commoners. If you can prove that you're a trustable mercenary, privateer, or expeditioner, you cough up 50 pounds, and get an appropriate license. Then, you're eligible for all kinds of dangerous jobs, even government jobs. It's not a very heroic system, but it sure feels realistic.

sktarq
2014-10-31, 02:18 PM
Actually since in many eras operating a trade without the local guilds say-so was illegal the guild could well pay for itself via dues. Laws state that wielding a blade or spell requires employment by a government. Representative (a power which may or may not extend to nobles of the realm) or membership of a guild that holds such a license. That way the government can keep an eye on people who could both be helpful or dangerous to the state too.

Milodiah
2014-11-01, 02:47 AM
"Adventurer" is rather a catch-all term, think about their individual job description to help you see it more specifically.

"This goblin killed my family, five hundred gold dead or alive."

That's a quest hook, sure, but it's also a job for a bounty hunter. Therefore, in this case adventurer = bounty hunter.

"Nobleman seeks expedition group to mountain ruins."

Quest hook again, but also the job of an explorer. Now we've got bounty hunters and explorers under the same roof.

"Mystical artifact stolen from mages' college."

The odd investigative job will come up for the average D&D party occasionally, so now we're donning the trenchcoat and fedora of the private eye.

"Giant spiders decimating King's private game reserve."

...okay, now adventurer = pest control specialist. Now we're talking a guild for bounty hunters, explorers, private detectives, and exterminators.

"Army of darkness marching on border city."

We'll never deny that adventurers are soldiers of fortune, mercenaries always accepted in this line of work.

"Village terrorized by spirit of necromancer."

Who ya gonna call?

So, in reality, an Adventurer's Guild isn't just a niche employment area, it's actually a catchall employment area in which several different careers overlap into the same apparent skillset (i.e. "hitting things with swords"), where the individual adventurer is capable of a wide variety of different tasks. So really, they're a lot like handymen. Only, you know, for stabbing people.

LibraryOgre
2014-11-01, 07:59 AM
Actually since in many eras operating a trade without the local guilds say-so was illegal the guild could well pay for itself via dues. Laws state that wielding a blade or spell requires employment by a government. Representative (a power which may or may not extend to nobles of the realm) or membership of a guild that holds such a license. That way the government can keep an eye on people who could both be helpful or dangerous to the state too.

In the Forgotten Realms, this was actually the law in Cormyr; adventuring in Cormyr required a charter from the crown, which was quite expensive if you weren't already an adventurer.

Jay R
2014-11-01, 12:27 PM
Just to complicate things, why would the Fighters, Thieves, Wizards, etc. be in the same guild? The most likely structure is a Mercenary guild, a wizards' guild, a Bardic College, a Thieves Guild that is underground and hard to find, etc.

LibraryOgre
2014-11-01, 12:41 PM
Just to complicate things, why would the Fighters, Thieves, Wizards, etc. be in the same guild? The most likely structure is a Mercenary guild, a wizards' guild, a Bardic College, a Thieves Guild that is underground and hard to find, etc.

You might have a general Mercenaries Guild that includes the variety of them, though... sure, the Wizard's College specializes in magic, but you go to the Adventurer's guild when you need something done.

Joe the Rat
2014-11-01, 01:18 PM
Lots of good advice all around here. Here's what I've used:

Adventurer's guilds are pretty much mercenaries, save that rather than fielding units of soldiers for war or security, they are fielding small teams of specialists for high-risk missions. Mercenaries can be big on branding: Your name is your reputation - and sometimes that makes the job (battle) easier, and often can draw more job offers. Always be branding, people.

Entrance Exam: You need to prove your qualifications. We actually ran a DCC Character funnel on this idea: You want to join Crypt Cleaners, Inc.? You have to pass survive the obstacle course. (We were going for the Black Humor of fatal testing).

Dues & Discounts: You have a regular fee, or a profit percentage, but get access to facilities and legal counsel.

Shadowrunners: When you come down to it, this is what you're doing. The Guild is simply a formal, above the board Medieval Mr. Johnson organization. With charter from the local government. Yes, this does imply that "adventuring" is relatively common. So are bandits, goblins, kidnappings, sheep-killing monsters, weird cults, lost items, and ancient creepy places that are dangerous to go alone. Plus the regular need for 20 bear asses. But there are also big jobs that require a higher "level" of ability to pull off - those are the elites. You want to be one of the elites.

Rivals: Now here's where it gets fun. The threat of "if you don't take this job that will put you in the good graces of the local ruler, Team B will." This isn't to force them into a specific plot hook - but give you the impression of a living world, where other adventurers are taking the jobs you aren't doing. You could have a rival Adventurer team... or a rival Guild.

DrK
2014-11-01, 02:10 PM
I justified an adventurers guild in one of my games with 3 main avenues.
1/ The attraction of an elitist club where you can drink and stay. Made more fun with quasi magic games (some examplrs in one of the eberron books) and offerings of t-rex steak, wemic kebab, fermented yeti milk etc... Plebs can drink in the front room. Members have a lounge and elite members have the VIP room.

2/ Magic items and alchemical items are restricted. Only the guild and the Kings chosen troops can own/trade magic items (the king is on the Guild council and the guild council include several royal advisors).

3/ Jobs, rumours and just general hints and tips of ruins and monsters can be found in the Inn. And in the wild if a non guild member is "poaching" a monster he's fair game to be beaten and looted by a guild member.

Milodiah
2014-11-01, 02:28 PM
Just to complicate things, why would the Fighters, Thieves, Wizards, etc. be in the same guild? The most likely structure is a Mercenary guild, a wizards' guild, a Bardic College, a Thieves Guild that is underground and hard to find, etc.



I'd say that they'd be under the same roof for the same reason as they're in the same party. Most adventuring groups aren't spur of the moment "you all meet at an inn" style, and society has by now certainly recognized the game balance advantages of combined-arms tactics that we players take for granted. So why would you go to five places to put together the "five-man band" of fighter, rogue, wizard, ranger, cleric when the Adventurers' Guild offers a package deal?

Sure, to get a war fought you go to the mercenary companies. To get a diamond stolen you go to the thieves' guilds. To get a magic artifact analyzed you go to the mages' colleges. But to get a small group of highly competent specialists who are conveniently willing to go off and do nigh-impossible tasks over a long period of time for the coin of an important-looking stranger you go to the adventurers' guilds.

Zalphon
2014-11-01, 03:08 PM
A Local Adventurer's Guild: An overglorified hunting club that collects jobs to deal with minor threats and deals with them between binging on wine and venison. Paid by those who post the bounties. No utilities.

A Regional Adventurer's Guild: A charted organization that handles threats that the guards of the cities and military force of the region is not authorized to deal with. Paid a salary by the governor of the region to be on-call to address issues. Every member is given a salary and assigned jobs every now and then--they are bound by a legally binding contract. Their chapter-houses have some utilities (e.g. a smithy and an alchemist)

A National Adventurer's Guild: A charted organization that exists to regulate adventuring. Adventurers must pay dues and register with this adventurers guild, lest they be unlicensed and therefore unauthorized to adventure which could result in hefty fines, as well as prison time. However, they do have the most well-funded chapter-houses which licensed members are authorized to use at discount pricing (e.g. Weaponsmiths, Armorsmiths, Alchemists, Enchanters, etc.).

In other words, use different sized adventurer's guilds for different things. The local ones are really just groups of guys who like to go kill a few kobolds every couple of weeks and squander the money on overpriced drinks, gambling, and women in between.

The Regional ones may be used to handle real threats to the cities and towns of the area.

The National ones may be used to ensure that all adventuring practices are legal and noted, to ensure that nothing shady should go on. As well as ensuring that the Crown receives their cut.

Jay R
2014-11-01, 03:32 PM
I'd say that they'd be under the same roof for the same reason as they're in the same party.

But this has nothing to do with how trade guilds work.

Here's a list of the guilds in London (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livery_company#List_of_companies_in_order_of_prece dence). As you can see, just for a dinner in medieval London, you need to go to the mercers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Mercers), grocers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Grocers), fishmongers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Fishmongers), butchers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Butchers), etc. After 1371, even the bowyers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Bowyers)and fletchers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Fletchers)are in different guilds.

You can certainly have an organization of adventurers in your game, but calling it a guild is as meaningless as calling it a football league.

Shyftir
2014-11-01, 04:09 PM
Watch the first season of "Fairy Tail" It's an anime that is all about the members of an Adventuring Guild. It doesn't get into the details of its finances but it gets the functional feel very well.

LibraryOgre
2014-11-01, 04:32 PM
But this has nothing to do with how trade guilds work.
...
You can certainly have an organization of adventurers in your game, but calling it a guild is as meaningless as calling it a football league.

Not necessarily, though. While trade guilds ensure that things get made to a certain standard, hiring an adventurer's guild is to ensure that things get DONE to a certain standard. Rather than hang out in a tavern and look for murderhobos, you go to the guild, who contracts some murderhobos to do the job for you. You haven't hired adventurers... you've hired the guild. If the murderhobos are all eaten by the rats, the guild is still responsible for cleaning out the rats. If the murderhobos decide to clean the rats out of your barn by burning down your barn, then you have someone you can sue... the guild. And the guild can get the money out of the murderhobos.

It provides a level of accountability for adventurers by making them belong to a guild, and making the guild responsible for their actions. The guild will ensure that they're up to snuff, and assign them to tasks to complete for the guild. The adventurers may have diverse skills and ways of accomplishing things, but so will guild leaders, who have the responsibility of rating their members.

mephnick
2014-11-01, 05:24 PM
In Canada there are plenty of multi-trade guilds, it's not that rare.

BRKNdevil
2014-11-01, 06:43 PM
This link is to where i got my ideas for an adventurer's guild.
http://www.amazon.com/Orconomics-Satire-Dark-Profit-Saga-ebook/dp/B00O2NDJ2M/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414885173&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=orconmics

There is also this solution. Guilds are basically corporations with advertisements, fees, and products that rely on the popularity of their product - the adventurers - as well as taking cuts in the posting of the job, and the final outcome of the job itself. Finally to prevent groups from taking jobs that are beyond their means, their are fees for failing a job as well.

Frozen_Feet
2014-11-02, 02:03 PM
An "adventurer's guild", quite often, is just an euphenism for "mercenary company", "military" or "covert operations". My favorite comes from a computer game Exile III: the Ruined world: "Unspecified Services". Which was basically undercover wing of a certain nation's military, sent to do all manners of odd jobs. :smallbiggrin:

Sartharina
2014-11-02, 03:46 PM
Finally to prevent groups from taking jobs that are beyond their means, their are fees for failing a job as well.There's already a 'fee' for failing a job - not getting paid, and losing your life against a bugbear/hydra/swarm of rats/dragon/Tomb of Horrors. Don't take jobs beyond your means.

Mastikator
2014-11-02, 04:54 PM
It sounds like a mercenary company. And since "adventurer guild" doesn't make sense when you think about it, just call it a mercenary company. A mercenary company that has swords for hire, sneaks for hire and spells for hire. All the jobs have similar descriptions, protect a VIP or take out designated targets.

Or better yet, make it a specialized branch of the military force. "Special ops".

Milodiah
2014-11-02, 05:16 PM
It sounds like a mercenary company. And since "adventurer guild" doesn't make sense when you think about it, just call it a mercenary company. A mercenary company that has swords for hire, sneaks for hire and spells for hire. All the jobs have similar descriptions, protect a VIP or take out designated targets.

Or better yet, make it a specialized branch of the military force. "Special ops".

In my setting the term "Guild of Exploration & Protection" is what's used. The former because A) the setting is currently in a bit of an expansionist/colonization phase so such services are genuinely needed, and B) adventurers tend to have blundered into various lost cities, forgotten dungeons, untamed wilderness, or entirely different planes of existence by the end of the story arc their current contract.

The latter because of the old "Department of War/Department of Defense" semantics thing, nobody wants to make it sound like their army is for attacking people, so...

In the theme of the former, I've always found it more fitting to assign intelligence diction to their official documentation. All the better to screw with my players' minds when the latest communiques refer to colonial pacification assignments and the hostilities that were resolved in the nearby forest.

Beleriphon
2014-11-03, 02:09 PM
An "adventurer's guild", quite often, is just an euphenism for "mercenary company", "military" or "covert operations". My favorite comes from a computer game Exile III: the Ruined world: "Unspecified Services". Which was basically undercover wing of a certain nation's military, sent to do all manners of odd jobs. :smallbiggrin:

Anaximander was a pretty good boss all things considered. ;)

The Glyphstone
2014-11-03, 03:25 PM
Anaximander was a pretty good boss all things considered. ;)

The supply clerk was a jerk though.

Beleriphon
2014-11-03, 03:54 PM
The supply clerk was a jerk though.

Not as bad as Linda, gods why did anybody trust that woman with more than mop?

runeghost
2014-11-03, 04:23 PM
One way to look at an Adventurers' Guild could be as the Fantasy equivalent of a Gentleman's Club. A place were a certain group (adventurers) can hang out with their peers. After all, while most adventurers aren't Noble (at least to start with), most of the successful ones are going to be ludicrously rich by the standards of their society. (At least, in a lot of campaigns, obviously YCMV.) While there might be complementary services (Message service, light healing, library), there's also the chance to network with your fellow adventurers, and just kick-back, relax, and spend some of that not-completely-ill-gotten gold on Owlbear pate and getting the chance to show-off those dragon-hide boots.

Milodiah
2014-11-04, 12:41 AM
It would certainly make a nice in-story explanation for where that random bit of Knowledge (Dungeoneering) information came from if your character had never personally encountered an aboleth or whatever, wouldn't it?

GoblinGilmartin
2014-11-04, 08:18 AM
In my setting, I have what is called "The Greatseekers Guild". It's an organization that breaks down into many parts, but it's goal is to uncover prehistory and to catalog history.

My campaign world breaks down into a series of historical stages based on who was trying to take over at the time. I can justify part of it as an "adventurers guild" because the guild sends members to scout out sites of possible historical interest. They need to check for certain markers and bring back certain artifacts, but they get to keep pretty much everything else they find. Explore>discover>fights>loot. pretty adventure-y to me.