WarPlayer said?.
Hey there.
What do you think might happen to a person who hired a non-guild
wizard?
Do you suppose mysterious misadventures might befall his
business, home, family, and even himself?
Try getting a job as a contractor if you are not a member of the
union, um, guild even today in some towns. What happens? No one
will hire you openly, for fear of retaliation by the union / guild.
Plus, the union / guild holds its members to certian standards of
pay, treatment, and quality.
Now apply this to an adventurer-wizard. He has the experience
and Memory to learn that spell he has wanted for two years. But
99% of the wizards in the area are union members. Where will he
learn it? And since he can't get work as a wizard, to make money,
he has to do manual labor, like cleaning stalls. (There is no
stall-cleaners guild.)
Just apply union politics to the campaign, and every wizard will
eventually join the union, if only to try and change his "bad luck".
Just my $.02 worth.
What system did you go onto after TFT and why? -Bradd Thurkettle<
RuneQuest. I like the combat system. The magic system is, IMO,
too convoluted, but then I usually like to run campaigns where real
magic and real wizards are scarce. The magic in my campaigns tends
to be potions and powders, it is amazing what a sniff of the
"magical" white powder can do for a fighter going into combat.
Likewise, certain herbs can reduce pain and speed healing. Magic
or herbal-alchemy, it depends on how it is presented. In civilized
lands, the injured character seeks out a doctor (or barber). In
the more exciting jungle, the witch-doctor does the healing.
You get the idea.