GUILDS Professional Guilds Each of the major towns in Britannia is home to one or more guild halls. To join a guild you must go to the guild hall, find the guild master, and pay him 500 gold for membership in the guild. You can only belong to one guild at a time – if you join a second guild, you lose your membership in the first. These Guilds are currently accepting new members: • Guild of Arcane Arts • Bardic Collegium • Society of Clothiers • Order of Engineers • Guild of Healers • Maritime Guild • Merchant’s Association • Society of Thieves • League of Rangers • Mining Cooperative • Warrior’s Guild Player Guilds There are also PC organizations called guilds. These are groups of PCs banded together for a common purpose, or for mutual protection. See “Guild Halls” on the web site (http://www.owo.com/guild/index.html), for a complete list of currently active PC guilds and groups. Any group of players can get together and declare themselves a guild. To be recognized by the “Guild Halls” list it is only necessary that the guild have a web site and have registered its existence using the Guild Halls registration form. Guild Stones However, guilds can also organize so that their existence is recognized by the game itself. To become a “recognized guild,” at least one member of the guild must own a house, and the guild must also invest in a “guild stone,” an expensive object obtainable from Provisioners. When you buy a guild stone you obtain a deed. The deed must then be used to place the stone by the door of a house or castle owned by a guild member. The person who places the stone must also be the owner of the house, and may not already be a member of a “recognized” player guild. Only one guild stone is allowed to be placed on any given house. When a guild stone is placed, a name must be entered for the guild. Unlike character names, guild names must be unique on their shard. The first person to touch (click on) the guild stone becomes the guild’s guildmaster. Guild stones give players and guildmasters access to a number of specialized functions related to the administration of their guild. Guild Members may use the guild stone to: • Recruit someone into the guild. • View the guild roster. • View the guild charter (if any). • Declare fealty. (You may choose one guild member to whom you are loyal. The person to whom the most members declare fealty is recognized as the guildmaster. Until you declare fealty, you are assumed to be loyal to the current guildmaster.) • Toggle whether the guild abbreviation will be displayed along with your name when players click on you. The default is Off. • Resign from the guild. • View a list of current candidates for membership. Guildmasters may additionally use the guild stone to: • Open guildmaster options. • Set the guild’s name. (Can only be used once every seven real-world days.) • Set the guild’s abbreviation. (Can only be used once every seven real-world days.) • Set the guild’s charter. • Dismiss a member. • Declare war (see below). • Accept a candidate seeking membership. • Refuse a candidate seeking membership. • Set the guildmaster’s title. • Grant a title to another guildmember. • Return to Main Menu. Guildmembers will be notified automatically of name, title and membership changes when they occur, or when the member next logs on. Both the guild name and the guild abbreviation must be unique within the shard. Guild stone changes can be saved with the CONTINUE button. The guild stone Menu can be closed with the CANCEL button. Joining a Guild To join an existing guild, you must first be recommend as a candidate for membership by a current member using the “Recruit Someone into the Guild” option at the Guild Stone. The recommendation must then be accepted by the guildmaster, then the candidate must touch the guild stone himself to become a full member. The guild stone can keep a record of no more than 12 recommended candidates at any one time. Guild Wars Guild war is a way for those who enjoy player vs. player combat to indulge their tastes without risking harm to their own characters’ Karma or ruining the fun of innocent bystanders. Guild masters can declare war on other guilds. When two guilds both declare war on one another, a state of war exists between them. The members of warring guilds can fight, kill and loot one another without penalty to Karma and without fear of becoming a criminal or murderer. Chaos and Order Guilds Order Guilds operate under the direct sanction of Lord British, Chaos Guilds are sponsored by Blackthorn. A guildmaster may declare his guild a Chaos or Order Guild if the guildmaster is a Lord or Lady, i.e., if he or she has a Fame of the highest level. Once a guild is declared for Order or Chaos, all members of the guild with Fames of Lord or Lady status receive an Order or Chaos shield (these shields are extremely powerful defensive magic items). Those who have not attained this exalted Fame are cast out of the guild, nor can anyone of inferior Fame join an Order or Chaos guild. More importantly, all Order Guilds are considered to be in an automatic and continual state of war with all Chaos Guilds, and vice versa (see “Guild War,” above).