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.

Table of Contents