Re: (TFT) TFT: Learning Spells

[daniel@jaws.greatwhite.com (Dan Tulloh)]

David writes:

>
>>From: "Dave Seagraves" <dseagraves@austin.rr.com>
>>Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 20:23:15 -0500
>>
>>Dan writes . . .
>>
>> >Another thing you might try is forcing non-Guild members
>> >to go through the spell-research process each time they
>> >want to learn a new spell.
>>
>>    Yuck!  That is very time consuming and expensive just
>>to learn a spell that already exists, even after first
>>watching someone else cast it and then reverse-engineering
>>it.  Time to join the Wizards' Guild.
>
>     All Dan had to do was say "forcing non-Guild members" 
>and a red flag went up.
>

heh, heh   :)  Actually, this was a suggestion for the GM.
There's no reason why a GM has to automatically allow a player
to learn a new spell simply because they added another IQ
point.  If you want to play a Guild and have the Guild mean
something, then these are the kinds of things you have to 
think about.

>
>     I ask anyone.  Has there ever been a GM who penalized a 
>player for leaving the Guild.  Wouldn't they just assume they
>had gone on an adventure and maybe hadn't come back.  In my 
>campaign things were always so intensely desperate that defacto
>approval from the wizards' Guild was implied.  

There's the problem: de-facto approval, de-facto membership, 
in essence, a Guild in name only.  When I think of a Guild, I 
think of some of a combination of a college fraternity and a 
labor union.  A great place for adventure seeds!  But, IMHO, 
it's got to be a living, breathing, vibrant entity in order to 
make that happen.

If you don't want to go through all that trouble, here's another
idea.  Say joining a Wizard's Guild provides you with a +1/-1 
modifier on the job numbers.  So if you're a wizardly thief with,
say, job numbers of 6/16, Guild membership gets modifies your job
numbers to 7/15 (or whatever.)  This bonus would be added in for
EACH month you pay dues.

>If any wizard character actually survived with money and in some
>civilized place with a guild hall, they would immediately be 
>welcomed, and free to spend as much as they wished.  On the other
>hand, if one wishes to sell something to the guild hall, then 
>they have to join the guild and pay dues, and even then they will
>only get half value of the Items.

Sounds just like a shopping mall:  People are free to come in and
browse around but if you want to sell something there you have to
rent the floor space.  You instantly create a black market for the
items here too: people who want to get full value for the items 
they worked so hard for will undoubtedly be able to find SOMEone
who will pay.

>    A Scenario:  Bring some magic sword in to be analyzed.  The 
>spell works and the mages face lights up.  He looks you right in 
>the eye and says "ever thought of joining the wizards guild?"  To
>me this raises the question of warriors paying dues to the wizards
>guild.

Or Wizards paying to join the Thieves Guild or the Merchants Guild
or whatever.  Guilds should provide some sort of specialized 
benefit.  Otherwise, there's just 'the Guild' which is a generic
entity and doesn't seem too appealing (at least to me).  A Merchant's
Guild, for example, may provide rudiments of banking (though in 
actual historical context, the Knights Templar were the ones who 
came up with the idea of allowing travellers to deposit money in 
one location and withdraw it at another, subject to some pre-agreed 
upon fee.  Still, it was safer than possibly losing all of your coins
to brigands and caravan robbers.)

>> >>   Of course this could be extended to apply to all
>> >>other types of guild memberships.  Now characters would
>> >>have a decent reason to join a guild.
>> >
>> >Except perhaps some kind of warriors guild.  There are
>> >two ways of acquiring talent with a blade: a) lots of
>> >practice (drilling) or b) actual combat. Warriors joining
>> >a guild (or army) may get some ability to learn combat
>> >skills in a non-lethal environment.
>>
>>So how would this keep warriors from learning weapon talents 
>>faster because of Warriors' Guild membership?
>>Wouldn't help and advice from seasoned veterans at the
>>Guildhall be just as good as the same from experienced
>>wizards at the Wizards' Guildhall?
>>
>
>    Well, I have to ask where Dan read that warriors could get 
>experience by practice?  

Ah, the gauntlet has been thrown!  : )

Well, aside from the excellent trilogy, "The Deed of Paksenarrion"
by Elizabeth Moon, there's the example of the Armed Forces, Martial
Arts Dojos, etc.  They all gain practical experience from drilling,
practice and mock combat.  So it would seem to follow that warriors
in a Warrior's Guild could gain experience by practicing, drilling
and what-have-you.

>But aside from that, I would like to publish for the first time 
>the only classified document that I ever had for the wizards' 
>guild.

Neat document!  I'll have to study it later   : )

Dan

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