Anyone started one in-character? Or a similar organisation? How did you go about it? What challenges were you faced with, and how did you overcome them?
The main challenge is there are few games run where you can have a party member take time out to build, recruit and teach. In those games if the party continues without them then they will be left behind level wise - if they all do something in the interim the absolute best scenario is a city based adventure arc over weeks and months where they involved peripherally (Waterdeep Dargonheist wouldnt be a bad place to start for that kind of idea)r
Challenges -
Finances - construction, staff and equipment cost and upkeep and TAX after its running. Your not an NPC business owner your likely to run at a loss.
Time - away from the adventure/campaign/ party
How to proceed? It might be easier to handle it with updates out of game on troubles that have occurred that need decisions made about. This saves time at the table for the group adventure. If you do take time to involve the group in the founding / saving of a business be cautious in that the game could end up gravitating to this player / business. Thats great if everyone enjoys it, not so much if they feel its not really including them.
Businesses (and buildings) If going straight out of the DMG are money sinks that drain a players finances, If the player wishes to gain a tangible benefit from it other than 'where I store my copious mountains of gold coins' then you may need to think about how that will effect your game (for example a breeding and training ground with attached staff to train monsters as mounts / pets. leading to the surprised exclamation 'Wait Hydras eat 30 gold of lamb a day when they are kept active? And we need to pay double time to trainers now so many have been injured? dammmmnnn maybe this wasnt a great idea)
Have fun with your decisions, Good luck with your game :)
My character's idea isn't a guild, strictly speaking, but rather a business. Providing security for travellers and merchants in the region. But really that's just an excuse to recruit a body of men without rousing suspicion. His eventual aim is to oust the corrupt leadership and watch from a miserable little town and put someone (namely, he and his companions) more capable and just in power.
It's going to be a long road, and the first step is convincing the others to buy-in. I may not tell them the eventual aim, initially.
Fencing societies like the Marx Brothers in Frankfurt had been recognized by the emperor (perhaps you need a permit by the local lord in your campaign) and became so famous for good training that a recommendation/diploma allowed fighters who joined the Landsknecht mercenary forces in the 30-years-war to charge twice the pay of a normal soldier (therefore the name Doppelsöldner). Masters of those fencing guilds guilds wrote fencing manuals (e.g. Talhoffer or Meyer). They also trained people for judicial combat. Albrecht Dürer, a famous German painter was a member and he illustrated his own fighting manual (so you also need artists, scribes etc. in the guild). They owned properties in big cities (like Frankfurt, Nürnberg, Augsburg and Prague) and elected their leader (Hauptmann) when they meat in Frankfurt.
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Anyone started one in-character? Or a similar organisation? How did you go about it? What challenges were you faced with, and how did you overcome them?
The main challenge is there are few games run where you can have a party member take time out to build, recruit and teach. In those games if the party continues without them then they will be left behind level wise - if they all do something in the interim the absolute best scenario is a city based adventure arc over weeks and months where they involved peripherally (Waterdeep Dargonheist wouldnt be a bad place to start for that kind of idea)r
Challenges -
Finances - construction, staff and equipment cost and upkeep and TAX after its running. Your not an NPC business owner your likely to run at a loss.
Time - away from the adventure/campaign/ party
How to proceed? It might be easier to handle it with updates out of game on troubles that have occurred that need decisions made about. This saves time at the table for the group adventure. If you do take time to involve the group in the founding / saving of a business be cautious in that the game could end up gravitating to this player / business. Thats great if everyone enjoys it, not so much if they feel its not really including them.
Businesses (and buildings) If going straight out of the DMG are money sinks that drain a players finances, If the player wishes to gain a tangible benefit from it other than 'where I store my copious mountains of gold coins' then you may need to think about how that will effect your game (for example a breeding and training ground with attached staff to train monsters as mounts / pets. leading to the surprised exclamation 'Wait Hydras eat 30 gold of lamb a day when they are kept active? And we need to pay double time to trainers now so many have been injured? dammmmnnn maybe this wasnt a great idea)
Have fun with your decisions, Good luck with your game :)
Thanks for the input.
My character's idea isn't a guild, strictly speaking, but rather a business. Providing security for travellers and merchants in the region. But really that's just an excuse to recruit a body of men without rousing suspicion. His eventual aim is to oust the corrupt leadership and watch from a miserable little town and put someone (namely, he and his companions) more capable and just in power.
It's going to be a long road, and the first step is convincing the others to buy-in. I may not tell them the eventual aim, initially.
Perhaps you want to read something about historical fencing schools / societies from the late middle ages and renaissance times as inspiration?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_school_of_fencing
Fencing societies like the Marx Brothers in Frankfurt had been recognized by the emperor (perhaps you need a permit by the local lord in your campaign) and became so famous for good training that a recommendation/diploma allowed fighters who joined the Landsknecht mercenary forces in the 30-years-war to charge twice the pay of a normal soldier (therefore the name Doppelsöldner). Masters of those fencing guilds guilds wrote fencing manuals (e.g. Talhoffer or Meyer). They also trained people for judicial combat. Albrecht Dürer, a famous German painter was a member and he illustrated his own fighting manual (so you also need artists, scribes etc. in the guild). They owned properties in big cities (like Frankfurt, Nürnberg, Augsburg and Prague) and elected their leader (Hauptmann) when they meat in Frankfurt.