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Creation Rules for Magic Guilds

By: Galahad

Here it is!!! The long-awaited creation rules for the Magic Guilds. Please give it the once-over and see if I missed anything or if there's anything you don't like. I re-posted the Magicsmiths guild under these new guidelines. Tell me what you think.

Step One: Size (choose one) - The size of the guild is the first step to determining the basic qualities of the guild. Give bonuses or minuses of 5 to 10 points as

  1. Small-time. This guild consists of twenty-five members or less and is usually pretty loose-knit. 70 POINTS, +15 for ANNUAL FEES
  2. Minor. A larger group, but still having only the basics structures of organization. Membership ranges from about 25 to 100. 105 POINTS, +5 for ANNUAL FEES
  3. Moderate. The average size of a guild on Rifts Earth with 100 to 500 members. These guilds can afford to be choosier in their member selections and more elaborate in their structure. 160 POINTS.
  4. Large. This is the largest they currently get on Rifts Earth. These organizations range from very grandiose to the super-secret. Membership is very exclusive and often includes only the highest-level mages. Membership ranges from 500 to 1500. 220 POINTS, + 5 for TYPICAL EXPERIENCE.
  5. Massive. This large of a guild does not exist on Rifts Earth, but possibly could although the logistics would make it virtually impossible to keep up with. Likely places would be England (and its Islands) or Atlantis. Membership would be over 1500. 280 POINTS, +10 for TYPICAL EXPERIENCE

Step Two: Secrecy - This basic category determines the classification of the guild and how it goes about its operations.

  1. Association: A group of mages that identify with each other and that's about it. The organization is totally public and any bum on the street can find out everything about the guild from its members to its business in any affair. Membership is usually as simple as showing up to a meeting and paying the dues. Cost: 0 points.
  2. Open Guild: Although anyone who happens to be curious can find out virtually everything about the guild, it does have its secrets. Financial records and other touchy subject matters are basically tucked away from public eye. Members are usually interviewed or given some test of their magical skill before being admitted. Cost: 10 points.
  3. Fraternity: The fraternity is far more common than either of the above two simply because mages like to keep their secrets. A fraternity is typically a known organization, but no one knows exactly what goes on within the guild. Identifying marks such as tattoos or jewelry are common so that "brothers" may recognize each other. Members are never allowed to mention the guild or their membership to a non-member, even if asked. A mage may only join if invited, but may ask someone he suspects of being a member to nominate him. Naturally, the member will say they have no idea what the mage is talking about. Cost: 20 points.
  4. Society: The "secret society" is in a deadlock tie with the fraternity for the most common form of guild. The society is super-secret and virtually unknown to the public. Prospective members are sought out and tested without their knowledge before being asked to join. Those who refuse membership often find themselves silenced in one way or another. Cost: 35 points.
  5. Clan: An insanely paranoid and secret organization. The only people who know the clan exists are its members. Business is usually conducted through fronts and liaisons, never exposing the true organization. In fact, the vast majority of the membership will not even know who the leader is or what the ultimate purpose behind the guild is, if there is one. Member recruiting is similar to #4, but far more intense. Months of testing (usually life-threatening) will lead to the mage being inducted into a front guild where he will be tested and manipulated for roughly a year before becoming a full-fledged member. Cost: 50 points.

Step Three: Leadership - determines how the guild is governed. For an additional 10 points, the true leader may be a secret (despite the status of letter B) with a puppet government or leader publicly running things.

  1. Alien Intelligence or God: the being uses the tithes and resources of the guild for its own purposes, whether it be world peace or world destruction. Unless the leadership is secret, the guild probably doubles as a cult for the being with its priests leading the masses. Cost: 0 points.
  2. All-powerful being: a single mage, demi-god, or supernatural creature has created the guild for his own purposes. The motive could be sinister, like to take over a territory through his guildsmen minions or genuinely good, like to share his higher knowledge with other mages. A secret leader would likely use a puppet council of some sort. Cost: 5 points.
  3. Cult or religious: unlike the possibility for a cult in #1, every member of the guild is a worshiper of some deity, though it has no affiliation with the guild itself. The leadership is a hierarchy of clergy who may or may not be legitimate. Annual fees are doubled, since tithes are very high. The points spent for a secret leader are in this case only applicable to a phony religious movement, covering up the lies. Cost: 15 points.
  4. Magic scholar: A single being (could be human, d-bee, or supernatural) simply has an insatiable thirst for magic knowledge. This knowledge could be used for the good of the guild if the leader is of a good alignment, for personal power if of an evil one, or a combination of the two. In order to keep his followers happy and the information flowing, special cares are taken to ensure that no member is ever out of work or going hungry. A tye of communism exists under this type of leader. If a secret leader, any other form of government could be used, whichever will get the most results. Cost: 25 points.
  5. Council of mages: a council of mages is elected every few years to govern the whole. Elections are typically fair and equal among all. Every member gets a vote. The council makes all decisions from the rate of fees to the waging of war. This is not unlike the old Roman republics. There is no secret leadership in this type of government. The ten points, if spent, establishes an executive office for the people's further representation. Cost: 40 points.
  6. True democracy: a small senate is elected every couple of years, but their decision-making is limited. Any decisions that needs making is directly voted on by the people. This can cause some problems in such areas as annual fees and any other that affects the whole populous, since they may turn down vital proposals. The ten points do not establish a secret government, but create an executive with veto power and otherwise identical to the one described in #5. Cost: 50 points.

Step Four: Area of Operation - the general region where the guild has influences and attains new members. Game masters should make point modifications to more accurately fit specific game needs. This area could be disjoined and split up between more than one location (sister cities, for an example), but this should cost a point penalty of about 5 points per split (5 for two locations, 10 for three locations, etc.)

  1. Insignificant: the guild basically exists in the area just large enough for its local members to stay. This usually means the area of a small village, roughly ten square miles at the most. Cost: 0 points.
  2. Local: the membership of the guild spans a couple of small, interrelated towns and villages. Generally, a hundred square miles makes up the "core" of the guild's population. Cost: 5 points.
  3. Territory: the membership spans the size of a large kingdom or several interrelated towns and cities. Many members of this guild are not local, but only visit periodically. The are covered is roughly 5000 square miles, roughly the size of metropolitan Dallas. Cost: 15 points.
  4. Regional: the membership spans the size of a state or small country. Only half of the guild members will have permanent residence in the inner "core" of the area of operation. Roughly 50,000 square miles can be covered by a guild this size. Roughly the size of modern-day Alabama or the nation of England. Cost: 30 points.
  5. Incredible: this classification is not known to exist of Rifts Earth. This size of a guild holds a maximum influence over an area roughly the size of Alaska, a whopping 500,000 square miles. Cost: 45 points.
  6. National: control of this kind would be logistically impossible in Rifts Earth, but could perhaps exist in some other setting (or Rifts for that matter, if deemed appropriate). This size classification could cover up to 2 million square miles, roughly the size of Australia. Cost: 60 points.

Step Five: Spell Knowledge - the amount of spells taught to initiates and the amount available later on. The game master may wish to modify the cost, depending on what level of spells will be available. Spells are taught over the first year and all additional spells are taught only to those in good standing with the guild. Extreme acts of heroism, sacrifice, or other action directly helping the guild in the extreme will warrant the member additional spells. The number of spells initially learned may be taken and the spell may be of any level offered by the guild. Usual restrictions apply, as per guild.

  1. None: no spells are taught to initiates, the guild is nothing more than a loose association of mages. Cost: 0 points.
  2. Minor: 1D4 spells from levels 1-5 or 1 from 6-10. Every four levels of experience since joining the guild an additional spell may be learned from any level up to the characters current level, but no spell over level 10 is available, nor are most offensive spells or spells deemed "Superior". Metamorphosis spells are rarely available. Cost: 15 points.
  3. Lesser: 1D6 spells from levels 1-6 or 2 from 7-10. Every three levels of experience since joining the guild a new spell may be learned from any level as high as one above the character's current experience. Most offensive spells are available, but "Superior" and metamorphosis spells are rare. Cost: 25 points.
  4. Greater: 1D6 spells from levels 1-8 or 2 from 9-15. Every three levels of experience since joining the guild a new spell may be learned from any level except spells of legend. Almost any spell is available, but any specific one is guaranteed. Cost: 35 points.
  5. Master: 1D4+2 spells from 1-8, or 3 from 9-15, or 1 spell of legend. Every other level of experience since joining the guild two spells may be learned from any level (including spells of legend). Any spell is available, but spells of legend are hard to come by and take the cost of both spells and usually require extra dues to the guild or some service or another. Cost: 50 points.

Step Six: Annual Fees for Membership - the amount paid to the guild annually. The first year's fee is ten times the normal annual fee, making many mages save their whole lives for admittance.

  1. Outrageous: the fees for this guild will be insanely high, at least 5 million in precious metals and/or gems per year. Cost: 0 points.
  2. Extreme: fees are incredibly high. Typical rate is 1 million in precious metals and/or gems per year. Cost: 5 points.
  3. High: fees are high, but affordable if a mage asserts himself and tightens his belt. Average rate is 100,000 in precious metals and/or gems or three times that in the local currency. Cost: 15 points.
  4. Reasonable: fees for this guild are not beyond the reach of most mages. Fees are roughly 50,000 in precious metals and/or gems or twice that in local currency. Cost: 25 points.
  5. Low: rates for these guilds are comparatively low, roughly 10,000 per year in precious metals, gems, or local currency. COST- 40 points.
  6. None: the guild has some other way to pay expenses and does not require dues. Cost: 50 points.

Step Seven: Time and Services - the minimum membership time and services the member is required to perform for the guild. Deserting the guild is not a good idea, especially from those with high levels of secrecy.

  1. Life of Servitude: every member of the guild is in for life and owes the guild their labor and services for the duration. Members could, at any time, be called on to do physical labor, assassination, or reconnaissance work. Cost: 0 points.
  2. High Price: the term of membership is roughly 50 years. During this time, all of the duties described in #1 are required of the member. If the member chooses to stay in after their time, they pay another sum of money (usually five times the annual amount) and become a sort of senior member, looking over the younger members. Cost: 5 points.
  3. Moderate: the structure of the guild acts like a hierarchy. For the first 20 year, all of the requirements of #1 are in place. After the first term, another 10 year term is served where the responsibilities are more limited. Another 10-year term follows with the member as a senior member, but still asked to do services from time to time. After these 40 years, the member has the option to stay on as a senior member with none of the responsibilities described in #1. Cost: 15 points.
  4. Limited: the same as above, except the terms are 10, 5 and 5 years. This is the most common among Rifts guilds. Cost: 25 points.
  5. Easy Time: the member is only required to stay for 10 years. Those years are of limited services, but they will be called on from one time to another. Contracted professionals do most of the guild's manual work. Cost: 35 points.
  6. No limits or Responsibility: members may come and go as they please as long as they pay their dues. The guild relies totally on outside forces to do any given task. Cost: 50 points.

Step Eight: General Alignment - the general alignment of any certain member of the guild. A guild member player character could be an exception to the rule.

  1. Miscreant and Diabolic. Cost: 0 points.
  2. Miscreant and Aberrant. Cost: 0 points.
  3. Anarchist. Cost: 2 points.
  4. Anarchist and Unprincipled. Cost: 4 points.
  5. Unprincipled and Scrupulous. Cost: 7 points.
  6. Scrupulous and Principled. Cost: 10 points.

Step Nine: Typical Experience Level - the level of experience of the average NPC from the guild.

  1. Newbies: levels 1-2. Cost: 0 points.
  2. Inexperienced: level 1D4. Cost: 5 points.
  3. Young guns: level 1D4+1. Cost: 15 points.
  4. Experienced: level 1D6+2. Cost: 25 points.
  5. Seasoned Veterans: level 2D4+2. Cost: 40 points.
  6. Masters: level 2D4+3. Cost: 50 points.

Step Ten: Other Services - additional activities and specialists that the guild offers. More than one of these may be purchased.

  1. Literacy School: a school is set up to increase the literacy rates of guild members. literacy in many languages is a vital skill for mages and helps increase their potency to the guild. The school lets any that attend increase their proficiency. Attending takes time away from other things, however, so a bonus of 10% comes at the cost of 200 experience points. Learning the literacy skill in new language (as a secondary skill) costs 1000 points. Three bonuses (30%) may be added to each literacy skill (for a total of 600 points per language.) Cost: 20 points.
  2. Healer (1): a magic healer is on-hand to help cure everything from battle wounds to illness. The healer could be any number of character classes and is level 1D4+3 experience, though his spells probably exceed that. They may be assigned to field duty or never leave the base of operations. Cost: 10 points.
  3. Justice System: A tribunal-style justice system is available and code of laws enforced throughout the territory covered by the guild. Cost: 20 points.
  4. Bandits: to help keep money flowing through the guild, a group of bandits are employed by the guild to rob and plunder those travelling through the territory. Usually this is only done to travelers and on the outskirts of the guild's influence. Cost: 10 points.
  5. Smuggling: especially popular in warrior guilds and those including techno-wizards, this feature offers the running of magic items and weapons from the guild's interior and onto the black market or other "hot spot". TW items are most common, but occasionally a magic weapon will come up in trade. Cost: 15 points.
  6. Informers: a network of informers span the territory of the guild. All are civilans or ex-guild members who are paid and/or given benefits to keep the guild informed of military movements, strange newcomers, etc. These informers are 40% reliable on any specific information they may be asked (the color uniform the soldier wore, what the mysterious d-bee said to them, etc.), but will at least be close to being right 60% of the time. Cost: 15 points.
  7. Money Hoard: a huge stockpile of currency, precious metals, and gems are hidden somewhere by the leadership of the guild. The location is only known by the higher-ups in the organization and is only used in emergency. The credit amount is 1000 times the annual fees of a member. Cost: 15 points.
  8. Assassin (1): a mage trained in stealth and combat works for the guild, usually as a member, but possibly a hired gun. Any magical character class could be used, but many are Super Spies with magical training. Level of experience will be 1D4+2. Cost: 15 points.

MageGuildRules.php -- Revised: March 24, 2007.