EN World City Project: Guilds and Organizations

[jdavis]

Right I really like the idea of a small group of idealists (ie no more than 3d4 D)) who have declared themselves to be the 'Workers Senate' and are trying to get other commoners to join them and stand up for the rights of the common labourer.

They claim to speak for the hundreds of common labourers in Mors End but its unlikely that Midge the Street Sweeper has actually been asked his opinion -yet

Well your handful of idealist are unknowingly generating the scam of the century for the thieves guild, maybe Midge the street sweeper not only wasn't asked but she was told to keep her big mouth shut and pay her dues if she knew what was good for her. Idealist seem to keep their heads too far in the clouds to see the ground below their feet, all they see is that Midge the Street Sweeper has signed their list.

 

[Conaill]

3d4? You know what, let me meet you halfway and we'll call it an even hundred

Led by the Com9/War2/Exp3 disgruntled bricklayer, and a Com3/Rog6 Thieves Guild infiltrator (very charming chap, manipulating the bricklayer for his own ends). I don't want the manipulation/scam of the century to be at all obvious though! This should be the kind of organisation CG members of the PC party could fully support, only later to realize they're being manipulated. Besides, the bricklayer is no fool, he should probably have a reasonably high Wisdom.

Guild fees are by donation only for now (and in some case that may be by "donation" only ). You have at least one patron/advisor who is willing to fund some of the expenses (e.g. renting a meeting room): check out my writeup for Conaill U'Ciaran (retired Ftr5) in the Crafts thread.

 

[jdavis]

3d4? You know what, let me meet you halfway and we'll call it an even hundred

Led by the Com9/War2/Exp3 disgruntled bricklayer, and a Com3/Rog6 Thieves Guild infiltrator (very charming chap, manipulating the bricklayer for his own ends). I don't want the manipulation/scam of the century to be at all obvious though! This should be the kind of organisation CG members of the PC party could fully support, only later to realize they're being manipulated. Besides, the bricklayer is no fool, he should probably have a reasonably high Wisdom.

Guild fees are by donation only for now (and in some case that may be by "donation" only ). You have at least one patron/advisor who is willing to fund some of the expenses (e.g. renting a meeting room): check out my writeup for Conaill U'Ciaran (retired Ftr5) in the Crafts thread.

If it was too obvious then it wouldn't be such a good scam. To all outward appearances it should probably look so high minded that it is almost to good to be true, the plot hook comes when people learn that the apple has a rotten core. I have a NPC on the first page of the NPC thread who probably has some links to this organization (his master was killed for speaking out for the people when he was still a apprentice and he is carrying on his work) Elias Starkad, Bard.

 

[Conaill]

Ahh... support from the intelligentsia! Well, Elias is always welcome in Conaill's Cock & Tails, especially if he's wearing one of those french berets! Yes, we have absinthe on tap...

PS: what do you think of the size? ~100 members sounds like something the city is going to have to pay attention to. They'll be petitioning to get a seat on the city council soon!

 

[jgbrowning]

My understanding of Mor's End's social structure is that people have overlapping affiliations -- guild, religious, political. However, there seems no sign so far of competing affiliations. So, I'm going to offer a few ideas:

There should be a minimum of two merchant associations/guilds. Each guild should be chartered by the city and should enjoy different rights and privileges. I'd therefore like to suggest that there be the Mor's End Merchants' Council and the Red Lion Mercantile League.

buncha good stuff deleted....

yes, very nice idea. very nice... muhawhahaha


joe b.

 

[jdavis]

Ahh... support from the intelligentsia! Well, Elias is always welcome in Conaill's Cock & Tails, especially if he's wearing one of those french berets! Yes, we have absinthe on tap...

PS: what do you think of the size? ~100 members sounds like something the city is going to have to pay attention to. They'll be petitioning to get a seat on the city council soon!

Elias will be tuning up the lute to sing one of his "non-political" songs he picked up on his last trip to the North to entertain the crowd.

I like 100 members but they should have a petition with several hundred names on it and if some of those names belong to people who are 10 years dead or look like they signed under duress, well so much more for the plot hooks to come. I'm sure every unemployed begger and street urchin shows up for the rallies and marches, swelling the numbers with people who don't really know whats going on but were promised a copper if they showed up and yelled alot. Weeding out the bad apples in this group should be a big plot hook.

 

[Conaill]

Hey jgbrowning! Good to see you drop in again. How do you feel about a guild for the lowest skilled work force (mainly Laborers and Porters I guess)? I got the impression from MMS thatjust about *everybody* who has a job would belong to a guild in your typical medieval city.

So, should we really have a laborers guild with ~800 members? Or do you think the current plan of a burgeoning social/union/guild movement is a better idea?

 

[fusangite]

Much as the question was thrown to Joe and not to me, I do want to express my opposition to a labourers' guild. Guilds should be based on skilled, specialized labour. Period.

I'm already quite uncomfortable with the Halfling Communist organization that's being discussed somewhere in one of these threads. I do hope we can maintain some kind of pre-modern feel for the city.

 

[jgbrowning]

Hey jgbrowning! Good to see you drop in again. How do you feel about a guild for the lowest skilled work force (mainly Laborers and Porters I guess)? I got the impression from MMS thatjust about *everybody* who has a job would belong to a guild in your typical medieval city.

So, should we really have a laborers guild with ~800 members? Or do you think the current plan of a burgeoning social/union/guild movement is a better idea?

We'll historically laborer's guilds etc are definitly not a medieval thing so it would be a little anacronistic. Laborers were generally abused and had no real social status. Craftsmen and merchants belonged to guilds almost universally, because it was a social safty net, and way of setting themselves apart from others, and a way of talking shop with people of similiar interests.

Laborers were abused because cities had big negative growth rates due to high mortality rates. Cities only grew because of the constant influx of immigrents from the countryside. Generally most of the people showing up in a city looking for work don't have any craft knowledges and have to be simple laborers, so there's a lot of competition for what few jobs a city has to offer. Without governmental or social protection, the laborers suffer mightily.

But if you want to keep running with the idea, i'd reccomend something similiar to a peasant riot building in the city. You have a few agitators stirring up the generally apathetic labor populace. This was very hard to do historically because it was difficult to prevent people from "scabbing" over to the other side. (When so many people are on the verge of starvation, its hard to make them not work on moral principle). But magic would provide all sorts of ways of convincing people.

Of course it will be terribly violent and the end result (even if successful, which given the concentration of magic in the hands of the wealthy) would probably fall apart, but it is a pretty unique plot idea. If you played it with fusangite's idea of two competative "merchant guilds" (ie the "laborers" gain benefits from one guild by hurting the other guild) you could have the laborers double deal both sides to their benefit.


just my .002$

joe b.

 

[jgbrowning]

Much as the question was thrown to Joe and not to me, I do want to express my opposition to a labourers' guild. Guilds should be based on skilled, specialized labour. Period.

I'm already quite uncomfortable with the Halfling Communist organization that's being discussed somewhere in one of these threads. I do hope we can maintain some kind of pre-modern feel for the city.

If ya'll are aiming for a pseudo-medieval feel, he's %100 correct. See my above post about how you can turn the work you've done for this idea into a very interesting "laborers riot" that would be a great city happening, but that wouldn't really acomplish anything, and which wouldn't subtract greatly from the pseudo-medieval feel. The wealthy were so worried about the beggars in venice around (gah cant remember) i think 1380's? that they made it a crime to import people into the city. This worry implies to me that they are afraid of riots (more likely due to food scarcity) by the laborers.

joe b.