Adventuring Guild

[DarkRaven]

My players would like to form an adventuring guild. I have put together a basic structure for how it will work in my head, but I would greatly appreciate any input.

I figured they would need to pay dues lets say 5% the loot they gather while on a guild mission. That money then goes into the guild coffers. Once the coffers grow to a certain point it could be used on improvements to the guild hall. IE they add on a kitchen, this would give them the ability to hire a cook which would in turn replenish their rations for free every time they returned to the hall. This allows us to "level up" the guild as they feed more money into it. Also each employee they hire has a overhead cost associated to them (found in the PHB), therefore they can only spend treasury money on improvements if it leaves the treasury balance above 30 days worth of staff wages (helps to keep employees loyal).

I love this idea because it allows for tons of adventure hooks and frees them up from the monotony of having to buy rations, find common spell components, repair armor and weapons, etc...

The problem I am having is what to price to make the different "improvements". The books layout the price for different buildings but not kitchen renovations, LOL.

If anyone has any thoughts, or suggestions for improvements/staff, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Draco4472]

Well, they'll need to pay for the ingredients used to make their rations, in addition to any other supplies the cook will need, such as firewood for a stove, knives, pots, pans, strainers, etc. and the means to repair these tools should tehy break. Then there's the cook's wages which may vary based on the quality of the chef. In my experience, 2 gp is enough to buy breakfast and lunch for a group of 5 in a poor-mid class inn. Using this as a basis, characters should pay for the quality of food they want. Obviously, a well-done steak with a side of fried mushrooms will be more then the normal cost of rations, and a bowl of gruel might be less.

Damn it, now I'm hungry.

[Shining Wrath]

I'd just look at the lifestyle costs and use that as the cost of mundane supplies like food and clothes. The cost to upgrade a kitchen is maybe 1/3 or 1/4 the cost of a house.

[Tanarii]

That seems like awfully limited services. Or is this basically a co-op for the party, with some NPCs joining up later on?

When I think of Adventurer's Guilds I think more like a Mercenary Company. But with smaller squad-sized deployments being the standard. I'd expect all loot gained on a Guild deployment to be the property of the Adventurer's Guild first, with it keeping at least half. And shares of the rest for participating adventurers handed out based on rank.

In return, for services you'd be looking at:
Guild Housing when not deployed. Free for the first month!
Mission issued supplies & equipment. Discounted Healing Potions available on request!
All magic items* Identified for free!
Raise, Restoration, and even Resurrection insurance at a low, low price. You won't find a bargain like this anywhere else!

*Guild policy on retention and distribution of all captured loot applies as normal

[Sigreid]

Do they want to join a guild, or do they want to form one? If they want to form one, the work to decide how it works is theirs.

[DarkRaven]

Well, they'll need to pay for the ingredients used to make their rations, in addition to any other supplies the cook will need, such as firewood for a stove, knives, pots, pans, strainers, etc. and the means to repair these tools should tehy break. Then there's the cook's wages which may vary based on the quality of the chef. In my experience, 2 gp is enough to buy breakfast and lunch for a group of 5 in a poor-mid class inn. Using this as a basis, characters should pay for the quality of food they want. Obviously, a well-done steak with a side of fried mushrooms will be more then the normal cost of rations, and a bowl of gruel might be less.

Damn it, now I'm hungry.

I was going to do the math on the ingredients and roll it into the cost of the employee/servant just to make the overhead easier to calculate.


That seems like awfully limited services...

...In return, for services you'd be looking at:
Guild Housing when not deployed. Free for the first month!
Mission issued supplies & equipment. Discounted Healing Potions available on request!
All magic items* Identified for free!
Raise, Restoration, and even Resurrection insurance at a low, low price. You won't find a bargain like this anywhere else!

*Guild policy on retention and distribution of all captured loot applies as normal

The plan is that as they expand the guild hall they are adding more employees and more services.

Alchemist - Discount potions
Wizard - Magic item ID and discount scrolls
In house Priest - 1 free resurrection every X amount of days (thanks for the idea)

[Tanarii]

Wizard - Magic item ID and discount scrolls
In house Priest - 1 free resurrection every X amount of days (thanks for the idea)
Bah. Without the usurious insurance rates and house-evaluated-magic item-value for when they keep them all as part of the guild's "50%" of loot they keep, those aren't nearly as much fun. :smallbiggrin:

[MBControl]

Okay, I have to assume you don't want to become an accountant, so forget about pots and pans, cleaning supplies etc. This D&D not a logistics sim.

I would base expansion prices as if you are adding a new small building to your guild. I would also increase the percentage of the loot fees every time you upgrade to cover basic overhead, and then you decide what that covers. I might add 2-5% per addition. The trade off would be that you offer more and better services, attracting better adventurers, that will bring in larger amounts of loot.

I would also use the guild to collect and give out "contracts" or side quests. As your guild becomes better and more well known, you'll be able to get and offer bigger and more lucrative contracts.

I love what you're doing. keep it up. Have you thought of other improvements? I was thinking of:

- Blacksmith
- Alchemist
- Cartographer
- Messengers

Our group is doing something similar, but rather than starting their own guild, they are investing in their home town, improving different businesses and services to assume benefits.

[Tanarii]

Okay, I have to assume you don't want to become an accountant, so forget about pots and pans, cleaning supplies etc. This D&D not a logistics sim.But D&D is a resources sim. It certainly can be played as a logistics sim on top of that. In fact, that was a large component at first, and what the entire game effectively was by the era of AD&D 1e. You'd be surprised how high a demand there still is for that style of play.

Edit: talking about logistical tracking in general. Not specifically pots and pans & kitchenware. ;)

[JeenLeen]

On loot obtained: the PHB seems fairly clear that weapons and armor gained from 'missions' have no resell value. Maybe stuff from PC races would, but stuff used by orcs, goblins, and monsters is in too poor shape to resell.
I'd recommend that sort of loot be free for the adventurers to keep OR to put into a communal pool. That way there is (eventually) most sorts of mundane weapons and armor available for the PCs and any adventurers who want to join.
Maybe you can hire a smith or armorer who can eventually repair such and make it provide bonus funds to the guild coffers.

For 'valuable' loot, a percentage of all gold going to the guild coffers makes sense. I would recommend that magic items become the property of the finder. Adventurers can request an exemption or reduced fee if they show that expenses were such that paying the fee causes no profit. (Ex., used 200 gp of supplies, but only found 150 gold.)

Also, there needs to be a disincentive to cheat the system. If the PCs are the guildmasters, that seems incentive enough, but keep cheaters as a plothook if they ever recruit lower-level adventurers as guild members. I think letting them keep magic items is a good way to prevent cheaters.
Captured spellbooks and other sources of knowledge become guild property, for member perusal.

[JackPhoenix]

There are adventurer's guilds in Eberron. They want annual, set fee (not percentage) and they offer services adventurers could need: contact with employers who would otherwise be unlikely to ever meet random adventurer party, option to get more companions for missions, access to sages with knowledge adventurers could need, secure accomodation, item storage and a list of reliable hirelings.

[JeenLeen]

There are adventurer's guilds in Eberron. They want annual, set fee (not percentage) and they offer services adventurers could need: contact with employers who would otherwise be unlikely to ever meet random adventurer party, option to get more companions for missions, access to sages with knowledge adventurers could need, secure accomodation, item storage and a list of reliable hirelings.

I definitely like this idea. I ran a short-lived campaign in a continent where there were three or four competing adventurer guilds. In my game, each job paid x gold and the adventurers got to keep what they found. But the 'x' was like 80% of whatever the guild was being paid to handle the job. (If guild paid 100 gp to kill some goblins, adventurers get 80 gp if the job is done.)

The OP seems to be focusing on the PCs creating an adventurer's guild, though. I guess the real 'due rate' should be whatever is necessary to fund it. I think the idea of staff upkeep for at least a month is a good baseline.

Assuming I read the OP right: Perhaps instead of a percentage, you should tell the PCs how much it costs per month and its up to them to put in enough gold.
Perhaps eventually they can hire other adventurers, and those are supposed to paid dues (either percentage or a set rate), to mitigate the costs.
You probably could have some people who are sort of serfs. Let them be free to leave to avoid any slavery feel, but they live on your land and owe you some services (such as growing food), but you don't pay them. I could definitely see this forming from something like if a village is razed but there are some survivors. You can offer them a place to stay, relative safety, and in exchange they do some manual labor or farming. If someone is highly skilled like a smith, you could pay them for the extra work they do for you, but the big boon for the employees is a new place to live.

Eventually, as guild masters, you might not have to pay anything in, although you'd be responsible for managing the guild and handling issues that come up, such as if some adventurers got put in jail or ticked off some noble, or if the guild hall itself is attacked.

...I realize I'm picturing this more as a manor in the countryside than a building in a populated city. I guess you can still have live-in servants, who work for you instead of paying rent (and of course might have side jobs in town to make their living money, or take on paid jobs from the guild in addition to their rent jobs.)

[gfishfunk]

Yes:
- Overly complicated meetings with overly complicated rules of order
- Members that largely grandize without providing any material benefits
- Needless hierarchies and lists of offenses that arbitrarily move members down hierarchies
- Guild resources available only through extensive form fillling and requisition requests
- Waivers
- Guild-approved vendors and hirelings
- Quest and mission availability based on guild standing
- Expensive dues and fees
- Picketing

No:
- Intuitive and approachable systems of governance
- Principle based accepting of quests
- Comradery

[MBControl]

But D&D is a resources sim. It certainly can be played as a logistics sim on top of that. In fact, that was a large component at first, and what the entire game effectively was by the era of AD&D 1e. You'd be surprised how high a demand there still is for that style of play.

Edit: talking about logistical tracking in general. Not specifically pots and pans & kitchenware. ;)

I see your point, but if you read the original post he said he likes it because it creates adventure hooks, and frees them up for the monotony of the minor daily tasks. I understood that as a group of players focusing on the adventure side of the game, not the resource management side.

I agree there needs to be a level of resource management, but there is a point with every playgroup where you need to limit that. Some more, some less. It's about making believable, playable, and enjoyable for each group. The trick is understanding which is which.