Scygnus
Well worn.
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- Jun 2, 2018
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Adventurer's Guilds can serve several purposes, in a setting where 'Adventurer' has become a stable profession. A government might want to set them up to keep an eye on them, make sure they aren't sticking their noses too deep into local politics- or just to prevent a private interest from setting up a guild and having their own private army, as long as they're clever enough with their 'requests.' To make sure their rewards are taxed. So the nobles can make requests without having to invite the filthy peasants into their homes and the common folk can avoid having to make requests of possibly volatile mercenaries to their faces.
In settings with a ranking system, it serves as both a way to keep weaker parties from biting off more than they can chew and providing a scoreboard for the higher-ranked to boast about.
In some settings- usually the more dangerous ones- the guild provides a paycheck even when missions are scarce, keeping the Adventurer population from turning to crime or retiring to a calmer profession until such time as it's obvious they aren't needed- that it's not just a lull.
They also often act as brokers, selling retrieved monster corpses and valuables and taken a portion for themselves- but probably getting a better deal as well as knowing who to sell to and who can take the bulk, etc.
When there are three parties running about your country solving problems and stirring shit up, you can handle them individually. When it breaks, oh, thirty? You'll want some organization.
So I'd say it's mainly a matter of scale.
In settings with a ranking system, it serves as both a way to keep weaker parties from biting off more than they can chew and providing a scoreboard for the higher-ranked to boast about.
In some settings- usually the more dangerous ones- the guild provides a paycheck even when missions are scarce, keeping the Adventurer population from turning to crime or retiring to a calmer profession until such time as it's obvious they aren't needed- that it's not just a lull.
They also often act as brokers, selling retrieved monster corpses and valuables and taken a portion for themselves- but probably getting a better deal as well as knowing who to sell to and who can take the bulk, etc.
When there are three parties running about your country solving problems and stirring shit up, you can handle them individually. When it breaks, oh, thirty? You'll want some organization.
So I'd say it's mainly a matter of scale.