User:Diarik/Guild Analysis

Theoretical and Design Framework

Character Versus Power

Alternatively, "single advancement" versus "multiple advancement" or "waterfall" versus "agile" or "straight and narrow" versus "winding and flexible".

The initial design of Dragonrealms, and indeed, most many old class-based systems, implied an archetypal character in the guild itself. This is embodied in an anecdote a player once told me, about how, when he went to create an empath, he decided to create a female charcter, because in his experience, all empaths were female and it must be that an empath must be female. We laugh at this, today, especially those of us who read the boards regularly, but what you must see here is that there is an implied character concept built into the guild concept.

I assert that that's a bad thing. It creates inflexible and shallow character, and places the entire concept of RP squarely on mangled English and minimal thought. What should you do instead?

The alternative model to the guild is power. While the character-based guild concept is an ideal to be reached towards which all characters conform, the power-based concept is founded on an essential premise that creates possibility and flexibility. So, while the character-based model is founded on archetypes, the power-based model is all about choice.

Thus, a strong guild, in development terms, requires choice: the ability to be different from one's brethren. In short, multiple development paths, binded together as a guild by the circle requirements.

The Idea of a Guild

So, here's a justification of what makes a guild a unit, both mechanically and inside the overall narrative of DR.

A guild is an academic unit overseeing the training of adventurers to a particular paradigm. They are keepers of secrets, and are capable of teaching what they know without allowing what they know to be revealed to others in an actionable way. Whether embodied in the guildleaders themselves (as is the case in Barbarian or Thief guilds) or expressed in broader departmental terms (as is the case in the Moon Mage guild), they also carry out the vast majority of research and development in the realms.

A guild is also, however, a political unit involved in the ebb and flow of once imperial and now provincial thought. The guilds were formed under the auspices of Emperors, and remain in existence at least in part as a right granted by provincial heads. Internally, they retain mechanistic paradigms that take the form of circle requirements, which act as a recognition of competence as well as a form of control over its members.

Thus, it is ultimately a political decision for a guild to select its circle requirements, whether the reasons are internal or extrinsicly motivated, and the best way to enact changes is to modify guild leadership. The existence of such tyrannical leadership does not preclude choice, but instead inherently enables it. Choice, then, arises as fluid skill requirements and paths of differentiation within the possibilities the guild offers.

Making Circles Meaningful

One central problem of the initial game design was lack of importance assigned to the circle. It was thus anticipated that circles would be individually difficult to achieve, and thus retain personal significance by their rarity. Now, however, it is not difficult to race most guilds to 10th circle, if you know what you are doing, and with a range of 150 potential circles, it is difficult to value something worth 0.67% of your potential, rather than 3.33%.

The significance, thus, has moved from the individual circle to ranges of circles. These ranges are:

• 1-10: Novitiate Status. You are effectively powerless at this stage.
• 10-25/30: Initiate Status. This is the time of extremely rapid initiation.
• 25/30-50: Full Member. You get access to the notable stuff.
• 50-70: Respected.
• 70-100: Extraordinary.
• 100-150: Legendary.

Previous to circle 1, however, is a magical period that happens as a mix between the guildleader speech and the preceding educational period that gives you an instinctual foundation that undergirds your abilities. In most guilds, a large part of this training takes the form of seeing mana. It is the source of other guild abilities, such as Inner Fire, or the devotion pool, or the scouting skill, or the ability to create empathic connections. You get the idea.

As a novitiate, you are deluged with essential abilities: this period is the typically a period of dense training meant for real world application. The Align ability, basic berserks, sign language, the glyph of warding, your first aethereal pathway.

Becoming a full member generally grants access to the guild's central concept. For Moon Mages, they are allowed to choose Moongate. Resurrection, Lightning Bolt, and Regenerate are other examples; it is christened by access to the appropriate guild title.

Elaborating the Power Paradigm

So, how do you actually use the power paradigm? The paradigm can be expressed very simply:

1. Define guild turf in terms of tiers.
   1. At tier one, we have things like the Moon Mages' "magical travel". Sacred and untouchable. We can pretty much assume that every moon mage will have a number of related abilities at some point related to magical travel.
   2. At tier two, you have things that other guilds may copy, but is never stronger. How strength is determined is a subject of obvious controversy, but it's the developer's right to deal with this.
   3. And finally, at tier three, you have things that may be replicated wholesale in other guilds. The evasion boost, for instance, which off the top of my head exists in at least six guilds.
   4. What this allows is a way to build guild hybrids. Paladins who worship Meraud, for instance: magic might be the bread and butter of magic primary guilds, but as a tier three ability, paladins may choose to train their magics and become skilled spell slingers despite the odds.
2. Bah, fuck this. I'll finish it later.