Guild Rulership

A roll on Table 12 determines the nature of rulership of the guild. The DM wishing to select, rather than roll, this rulership might want to look through the following section to look at the effects of rulership on the guild before making his choice.

Table 12: GUILD RULERSHIP

d20

Roll

Guild Leadership

1-13

Guildmaster

14

Complex/Mix

15

Democracy

16-19

Council (d3+2 members)

20*

Reroll on Table 13

*Natural 20 (regardless of modifiers) only.

Modifiers to die roll:

Social alignment is lawful: -1

Social alignment is chaotic: +2

Table 13:

UNUSUAL GUILD RULERSHIP

d20

RollGuild

Leadership

1-2

Leaderless

3-8

Complex/mix

9-10

Special Guildmaster (dragon,etc.)

11-12

Special Council (concealed Drow, etc.)

13-20

Reroll on Table 12, ignoring any roll of 20

At this stage, the DM can also determine the rulership style of the ruler(s). Table 14 can be used for all cases in which the guild has a guildmaster, and also for council leadership. It is not suitable for democratic guilds, where there is no real rulership as such. On Table 14, three d20 rolls are needed.

Table 14: RULERSHIP STYLE

Strong-Weak

Cruel-Just

Despotic-Populist

d20 Roll

Rulership

d20 Roll

Rulership

d20 Roll

Rulership

1-5

Strong

1-4

Cruel

1-4

Despotic

6-12

Fairly Strong

5-11

Fairly Cruel

5-10

Fairly Despotic

13-17

Fairly Weak

12-16

Fairly Just

11-16

Fairly Populist

18-20

Weak

17-20

Just

17-20

Populist

Modifiers to die roll

Modifiers to die roll

Modifiers to die roll

–1 if social alignment lawful

-1 if social alignment lawful

+1 if social alignment

lawful

+2 if social alignment chaotic

+1 if social alignment chaotic -2 if social alignment evil+1 if social alignment good

-1 if wealth level poor or fair +2 if social alignment good

-1 if social alignment evil

-1 if rulership style weak

-1 if rulership style strong

-4 (-2) if rulership style

cruel (fairly cruel)

The final step is to determine guild organization, and this is done with a single d20 roll on Table 15. Some of the results from this table may need particularly careful thought, because some odd-looking results can emerge. The DM can crop out such oddities if he wishes.

Table 15: GUILD ORGANIZATION

d20

Roll

Guild Organization

1-6

Centralist

7-12

Cohesive

13

Complex/Mix

14-17

Fractionated

18-19

Oppositional

20

Anarchic

Modifiers to dice roll:

-2 if social alignment lawful

+1 if social alignment chaotic

+2 (+1) if Guild rulership is weak

(fairly weak)

-1 if Guild rulership is strong

+2 if Guild is Leaderless

A major shake-up of what the DM has rolled may be indicated if a dice roll indicating Oppositional or Anarchic guild organization is rolled on this table. Oppositional means there are competing, small guilds (and Fractionated means there are sub-guilds within the guild); Anarchic, that there is no real guild at all. The worked example later shows that the combination of such results that at first seem at-odds (e.g., guild rulership by a single guildmaster) is actually workable, although the overall picture which emerges may be a strange one!

Some results may need re-rolling, however. The one notable case is the Oppositional structure if the absolute number of thieves in town is small. You can't really have a plausible collection of competing guilds with only six thieves in town, for example (but maybe two very small gangs could exist, after all . . .)

The final step is to determine how many of the thieves in the town or city are actually members of the guild.

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