Guilds and Guildhalls

Guilds are are a social construct, derived from the more-general Covenant, created when a group of craftsmen swear an Oath to cooperate in order to promote their trade. Most beginning characters will benefit from seeking membership in a guild soon after coming of age, which will assign them their early quests and teach them the skills needed to play a useful role in the game.

As a Covenant (and therefore a Composed Object), each Guild is composed of three components: Craft, Hall, and Charter.

• Craft -- the collected trades or skills which the guild was formed to promote. It embodies the collected knowledge of all of the guild's members.
• Hall -- the aspect of the guild which defines its outward form as others understand it: its material assets such as crafthalls, stores, vehicles, etc.; its uniform or livery (if any); its maker's marks, emblems, crests, or seals; and, indeed, anything which anchors its identity in the physical realm (which can even include such things as passwords and handshakes).
• Charter -- the aspect of the guild which defines the roles of its members, rules of membership (as they differ from their oaths), its organizational structure, its leadership, and its rules of conduct.

Statistics

Statistics for guilds are:

• Craft:
  • Primary -- [name] -- the underlying skills that define the purpose of the guild
  • Secondary -- [name] -- the current local skill level achieved (as modified by trade routes)
• Hall:
  • Primary -- [name] -- the trade which underlies the need to establish halls in various locations
  • Secondary -- [name] -- the physical structures with which those outside define the guild's form (can be affected by trade routes and other temporary phenomena)
• Charter:
  • Primary -- [name] -- the actual membership, taking into account proficiencies in the relevant skills as well as sheer numbers
  • Secondary -- [name] -- the support and supplies available to the guild from the surrounding communities

Traits for guild objects are:

• Unary traits:
  • [name] (Craft)
  • [name] (Hall)
  • [name] (Charter)
• Binary traits:
  • [name] (Craft over Hall)
  • [name] (Hall over Charter)
  • [name] (Charter over Craft)
  • [name] (Craft over Charter)
  • [name] (Hall over Craft)
  • [name] (Charter over Hall)
• Trinary traits:
  • [name] (Craft over Hall over Charter)
  • [name] (Hall over Charter over Craft)
  • [name] (Charter over Craft over Hall)

Research/Ideas

Here are some links to some useful stuff about medieval guilds that is worth looking at when designing FaerieMUD guilds:

• There's lots of good stuff in the Medieval Sourcebook, but some especially relevant documents are:
  • The Garment Cutters of Stendal: Guild Law Revision, 1231
  • Documents Concerning the Origin of Guilds, 884-930
  • Arras: The Charter of the Shearers, 1236

See also

• Covenants
• Cultural Covenants
• Skills

— ScotusTheProsyFaerie? - 21 May 2000
— ScotusTheProsyFaerie? - 27 May 2000
— GedTheGreysHain - 10 May 2003 [Brought up to date with current covenant plans, added some outside references]