Sunday, January 29, 2012

Guilds In RPG Settings Part 2: The Fighter Guild

It's time for part 2 of these articles on guilds in RPG settings!

The purpose of this article is to lay out the concept that Fighter Guilds are interesting and greatly affect society. Since a Fighter Guild can be a lot of things, this article will break down the three general types of Fighter Guilds. I will analyze how they function financially, how they train their members, and what types of characters would be produced by Fighter Guilds.

Real-Life Inspirations

Even in relatively peaceful urban areas, martial traditions are still taught and practiced by people. Most do it for exercise, self-discipline, or a boost of confidence. However, the average person in real life doesn't have extensive combat training.

In a fantasy setting filled with night creatures, maurauding orcs, and bandits, there is a more pressing need for martial training. Every person knows that someday the time may come to raise one's sword in defense of one's family and property. Practice can keep a person in shape but can't compare to formal training. So, over the centuries, martial traditions are passed down from generation to generation and taught to anyone who finds a pressing need for it.

The traditional D&D setting has organizations or guilds based around each of the core classes. Wizards are trained by wizards who often form guilds, druids are trained by druids who often form circles, and rangers are trained by rangers who often work in groups to take down whatever dangers threaten civilization. Obviously a fighter is going to have a lot more training than an uncivilized barbarian, but in modern editions of D&D the fighter class has a lot of options. A fighter can focus solely on cutting through enemies with a two-handed sword, or use a shield and armor to build an impenetrable defense against his foes.

It doesn't make sense for there to be just one "Fighter's Guild". There are too many options for warriors for them all to be taught by the same organization. And honestly, it's just boring to have one martial organization in a fantasy setting. Fortunately, real life offers some great examples. These real-life organizations are great inspiration for Fighter Guilds:
  • Dojos that teach oriental martial arts like Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Jiu Jitsu.
  • Firing and archery ranges that maintain a safe environment for practice.
  • Government-hired security consultants like Blackwater or the Pinkertons.
  • Private security firms that maintain public buildings and transport valuables.
  • Modern military forces in their various branches.
  • Local militias and national guard in small rural towns.
  • Militias and paramilitary organizations in third-world countries.
  • Terrorist training camps (yes, you read that right. I'll get back to this topic in a minute.)

Ultimately, the definition of a Fighter's Guild is "anyplace where we teach people how to hit things until they stop moving." By this definition, I'll focus on three major types of organizations:

  • Academies where hitting things until they stop moving is taught as an honorable artform.
  • Mercenaries who get paid to hit things until they stop moving.
  • Subversive groups that teach people how to hit things until they stop moving in order to accomplish specific goals.

Academies

Academies are the most formal of the organizations we will inspect in this article. Well-defined martial arts like Tae Kwon Do or Bushido are typical of academies. Most fantasy settings have orders of knights, paladins, or slayers who teach reliable methods for slaying the undead and other night creatures that threaten society.

The most important feature of an academy is its formal curriculum, the set of refined techniques that have been passed down for generations from teacher to pupil. Students who come to the academy are ranked as novices. A student can only advance by merit, demonstrating to a teacher that the most recent techniques have been mastered. Because of this, all of the students of an academy tend to have the same skill set (though there may be secret techniques that are only taught to those who have proven themselves worthy.)

Students usually have to pay their master to receive training. Being a teacher is a full-time job, and it requires total mastery of the art being taught. Experienced students may be allowed to teach in exchange for reduced tuition, and a student who has demonstrated mastery of the martial art and learned the most secret techniques may be allowed to join the faculty and teach his or her own students.

This may not be the case for all academies. A military academy established by an empire to train new recruits and groom officers will often be government-funded and pay its students. However, most academies will want to remain politically neutral so that their business is not affected by outside affairs.

Because academies receive income from their students, it's unlikely to find one out in the middle of nowhere. A dojo in a city will get a lot more business than an ancient monastery in the mountains (but it's perfectly reasonable for both to exist in the same country.)

If multiple academies are in the same city, they may find that they have to compete for students. This conflict is most felt when both academies teach the same type of combat (for example, two dojos that teach slightly different martial arts.) This could lead to public displays to attract students and violent disputes as each academy strives to prove that its style is superior.

A warrior who has had formal training will have a very recognizeable combat style because every student is taught the same curriculum. Anyone who has studied martial arts can easily tell the difference between Tae Kwon Do and Tai Chi. A warrior who has trained under several different masters may simply switch between these styles rather than work on incorporating them into one.

Academically trained warriors tend to have good self-control because of the discipline required of them. A well-trained warrior will understand that he still has much to learn, and will seek out more experienced warriors to teach him. Warriors who come from academies often adhere to the creeds, political beliefs, and religion of their academy.

Mercenary Groups

A mercenary group is an organized band of warriors for hire. This is usually because working with a large organization is safer and easier than being a "free lance". Very large organizations will need auxiliary members who help repair equipment, forge needed gear, and make contacts on behalf of their mercenary group.

In real life, guilds are designed to help all of the members get work. Prominent examples can be found in Hollywood, where actors and writers guilds severely impact the economy.

Members of a guild are all put on a waiting list. Whenever a client needs someone from the guild, they will present a list of criteria (so many years experience, female, at least five foot six, fluent in these languages, etc.) The guild will offer the job to everyone at the top of the list who meets the criteria. Those who accept the job are returned to the bottom of the list, while those who refuse it (because of pay, scheduling, or any other reason) stay at the top so that they can quickly get another offer.

We could easily demonstrate how this applies to a group of fierce mercenaries in a typical fantasy setting. When a merchant caravan wants ten strong men to escort it, the owner will send a request for ten mercenaries of the required skill levels and talents. If he wants everyone to be good with bows, he'll ask for bows. If he wants to require some feat of prowess to ensure they're skilled enough, he could tell the guild he wants them all to be able to perform some feat like splitting an arrow or meeting a specified spread (but it's more likely the guild will promote its own ranking system for that to save time.)

This system has some interesting implications for newbies. A new recruit would be hired less often, being passed over in favor of others who meet the clients' criteria. A recruit still needs to be on call and visit the guild hall frequently to see if any new offers have come in. Obviously, this gives the recruit a lot of free time to practice.

A new recruit in the guild hall will meet many other veterans of the guild. These experienced mercenaries will probably have nothing to do either, giving the new recruit the opportunity to learn from them. The recruit probably won't be interested in learning a martial art or having extensive combat practice. All the recruit needs is the skills to get a job more frequently.

The one thing a recruit needs to get ahead in the guild is the ability to meet the guild's criteria for experience. "I just need to hit two bulls-eyes in ten shots." "I just need to be able to disarm a three-year veteran once." "I just need a set of steel armor to show the client that I'm not a poor peasant." These criteria are either set by the guildmaster to grade recruits in different combat categories, or by the clients who are paying them.

High-ranking leaders of the guild are probably going to spend most of their time out of combat. Their job is to solicit clients, spread the guild's reputation, and find new work for the guild. The guild gets a cut of everyone's pay. Obviously they want to keep the business running smoothly. Leaders will also be in charge of reviewing new recruits. It's bad for the guild's reputation if teenagers with scarce equipment and no combat experience show up for a job.

A character who learned how to fight in a mercenary guild will often bear ugly scars from past mistakes. "Yeah, I was pretty inexperienced back then, I've never turned my back on my opponent after that one." Each mercenary's fighting style is unique because they learn their skills piecemeal from other guild members. Despite this, mercenaries will have to become extremely competent because that's what they're paid for. Even inexperienced mercenaries may know hundreds of stories about wilderness lore, monsters, and politics. And every story was heard from someone who experienced it first-hand.

Subversive Groups

A subversive group provides its members with the bare minimum of training before sending them on missions to further its own ends. This can include evil henchmen, terrorist training camps, and brainwashed cults. Members are recruited based on a number of criteria including mental illness, gullibility, and poor work history.

New recruits are immediately assigned roles and trainers. For the next few weeks they are taught to do everything they need to do, and they are taught to do it well. A subversive group usually wants to train as many operatives as possible as cheaply as possible because of scarce funding.

Subversive groups tend to be financially backed by large, wealthy organizations with specific motives. The backer's interests may not be exactly aligned with the subversive group's interest, but they are usually close enough that the backer thinks it's worth the investment. This setup allows shadowy organizations to accomplish things without leaving too much of a paper trail. A little research into the funding of modern terrorist groups would be good research for this topic. Members of these organizations will often need to supply their own equipment and receive no pay.

Subversive groups can have good intentions and goals. A band of freedom fighters striving to overthrow a corrupt government will have scarce resources and lots of civilians that need training. The organization will be the same, but the ideology will be much different. Robin Hood's band of Merry Men is a good example of this.

Even more interestingly, clerics and paladins could fall into this category.

Someone trained by a subversive group will have good practical skills from training, but otherwise be extremely uneducated. Subversive groups can produce bomb-makers who know how to make thirty kinds of useful alchemical substances without knowing how to read. Harsh training can also produce high-level fighters and rogues who are very good at combat, but otherwise peasants. These warriors will also adhere strongly to their group's ideology. On the other hand, someone who has escaped from a cult will be very suspicious of any ideology, religion, or large organization.

Pulling It Together

This leaves us with several things to consider. If a character is a warrior, what is his martial background? What background did his teachers have? It his fighting style recognizeable or piecemeal? What kinds of connections does he have with other warriors and organizations in the region?

All three of the groups outline in this article have the potential to be major political entities. Martial academies may receive requests from their government to train soldiers or operatives. The leaders of a mercenary group will always have political connections with people who need their services. Subversive groups, by their very nature, want to upset social order and change things (subjectively) for the better.

Very similar groups tend to have the most conflicts. Two academies will compete over students. Mercenary groups in the same region will have to compete for clients. Subversive groups will be drawing from the same population of recruits, and some subversive groups may be formed specifically to destroy other subversive groups.

If you are making your own campaign, you may want to ask your players about this topic. Players often will have their own ideas about these kinds of organizations and the NPCs that run them. Because fighter guilds are so numerous, it shouldn't be too hard to fit the players' ideas into your setting. If you're lucky, the players may even help you flesh out some of the more influential ones.

Plot Hooks
  • The rivalry between two competing dojos has boiled over and has practically become a war. The biggest problem is property damage and the worry that the participants may kill each other if it goes on any longer.
  • A yearly tournament is held in the capital to encourage all of the different martial organizations to show off their skills.
  • A friend of the PCs who is an ex-felon tells them about this great job he found from an employer who doesn't care about his bad work history. The next day he goes missing.
  • A client has asked a mercenary guild to supply two hundred men for a fairly dangerous job. The guild drastically lowers their hiring standards to meet the required number of mercenaries.
  • A man who claims to have studied under every martial teacher on the continent boldly challenges a member of the party to a duel.
  • A scroll describing a secret spear technique has been stolen from a monastery. The masters of the monastery will pay a handsome reward if it is returned quickly.
  • The party is blacklisted by the mercenary guild after one of their hirelings dies.