Campaign Guidelines
Introductory Note
This is intended as a replacement for the Introduction section of the GM's Guide, including the 10 commandments. The intention is to replace the older (and more perscriptive document) with one for both players and GMs that explains the aims and goals of the campaign, the reasoning behind some of the established nature of the campaign, and provides guidance on the campaign norms.
Principles
The Guild campaign is intended to foster and promote enjoyable, co-operative, long-term roleplaying within a multi-GM environment.
Participation
The Guild campaign is open to anyone who wants to play with us, and is willing to follow the few restrictions placed on players and GMs in this campaign.
House Rules
Character Restrictions
Some actions taken by characters against other characters can easily spill over into ill feeling between players, and in extreme cases emotional distress. We do not consider this desirable in the campaign and to this end, some player character actions are not condoned or supported within this campaign. It is not considered appropriate for player characters to murder, sexually assault, assault, or steal from other player characters.
The in-game mechanism for controlling this is the Guild and the Guild contracts. Within the campaign the Guild does not condone activities such as wilful killing, theft, extortion etc, and any crimes committed against society will be answerable by the members concerned to that society. The Guild will not stand in the way of the normal course of justice.
Within these strictures the campaign is intended to offer as wide as possible roleplaying and characterization opportunities, so this doesn't mean that all Guild characters have to be pleasant or good, they can be as unpleasant and unprincipled as you desire provided that they are prepared to honour the Guild contract, and that their players understand that aim is for everyone to have an enjoyable roleplaying experience, that the inter-character restrictions are there to help ensure this, and that not everyone will have the same aims or goals in role-playing that they do.
Within the game your character does not have to like, or even wish to adventure with, certain of your fellow guild members, but it is expected that they will avoid attacking, deserting, endangering, injuring, stealing from, or withholding treasure from fellow guild members and avoid provoking other members into performing such activities.
A breach of the standards of behaviour expected between guild members will result in an investigation using all the powers and abilities of the guild, and depending on the cirumstances may be dealt with severely.
Party and Campaign Balance
Part of the GM's role involves generally adjudicating for the enjoyment of the majority. This does not mean just the GM's friends, the players in their current specific game, or just new players etc. This means everyone who plays and GMs in the campaign.
GM's need to (within reason) turn away characters if they will greatly unbalance a party; the enjoyment of the majority will generally be diminished if they find themselves adventuring with Superman. If it is a particular item that the character possesses that makes them unbalanced for the GM's game then consider asking them to leave it at home as an alternative to being turned down.
In the same vein, when handing out treasure GMs shouldn't feel the need to plug up all of the "holes" in a character for whom they are devising rewards. A character that has no weaknesses has little need to adventure with other characters. Weaknesses provide an excellent rationalisation for players to form groups, i.e. to shore up their areas of vulnerability, and often offer fertile roleplaying options. Characters that are good at everything are often boring.
Campaign Flavour
The primary flavour and genre of the Guild campaign is pseudo-medieval european fantasy. Within this genre some GMs prefer heroic fantasy, while others prefer lower key games. Even within heroic fantasy there are many different ideas of what constitutes this sub-genre. To some GMs and players a single swordsman holding off three enemies is heroic, to others heroic is the single warrior standing against 1000. Not everyone has the same idea as to what is fanatsy, or good fantasy, and the Guild campaign tries to cover as wide a spectrum of style as possible.
Alusia
The core shared world of the campaign is Alusia, with the Guild being based in Western Alusia which maps (very loosely) to Europe in our world. Not all of Alusia is european, parts of it have cultures (somewhat) analogous to the middle east, the orient, the new worlde, and even to the classical world. The GM's and Player's guides have information about Alusia and the Guild's home base of Seagate. Additional information can be found on the Campaign's wiki site.
Technology
The technology level of Alusia ranges in the most part from dark age through high medieval and into renaissance, with some odd parts that have no simple historical analogue. Technology level aside, gunpowder and many similar explosives fail to operate on Alusia (a campaign decision from early times) and that style of missile weaponry is not in use.
Off Alusia
There is considerable inter-planar access and travel to and from Alusia, which allows GMs to run games far and wide across many other worlds and planes. Some of these planes are similar to Alusia but give the GM an opportunity to run their game outside of the main shared world, others are strange, weird, and wonderful, and range from discs, to rings, to worlds in perpetual night, to elemental planes, to the homes of the Gods and other Powers.
Breaking the Atmosphere
Some things have a detrimental effect on the fantasy flavour of the campaign, and the worst offender seems to be high technology. Many GMs have over the years run games in worlds with a technology level higher than Alusia. Items brought back from such adventures risk significant damage to a fantasy environment; nothing seems to break the mood more than ray-guns and modern brand names.
GMs are expected to ensure that treasures they award are not mood breakers, and fit with the fantasy genre of the campaign. In some cases this can be as simple as a more fitting description. For example, eye glasses or spectacles were known even in medieval times. Even tinted eye glasses are not a problem, but RayBan is going to break genre.
GMs should also be aware that some players are not keen on out of genre advenuring and would prefer to avoid it. It is best if running an adventure of this sort to give players as much indication as possible during advenure sign-up, so that they may opt out of the party if they so wish.
Awards and Character Growth
Characters grow through play and the rewards gained on adventure. There are several currencies in the campaign of which the most common are Experience Points, Training Time and Treasure (which covers the monies, items and other loot gained from an adventure). These currencies are controlled to a greater or lesser degree in an attempt to regulate character growth. Too little rewards can lead to players feeling frustrated, too much creates an unbalancing factor in a multi-GM campaign. GMs are expected to carefully consider the rewards guidelines and keep within campaign norms.
Experience Points Awards
Experience points in the Guild campaign are awarded using a standard system.
Time
The Guild Campaign runs in close to real time. There are four Guild sessions each game year (one for each season) and these correspond to one real year. In normal play a party will start an adventure after a Guild meeting, the players will meet for 10-13 weeks, one night a week, and the characters will return to the Guild before the next meeting. Training time equals the 13 weeks of the Guild session less the time taken on adventure.
Time is perhaps the most tightly controlled of the reward currencies in the campaign and GMs should consider very carefully before making any additional time available as treaure, whether through special training that takes less time than usual, or time distortion effects, such as planes where time runs at a different rate than Alusia.
Money Limits
The maximum amount of monetary treasure, or overall share value, that chacters should earn from an adventure is dependent on the experience level:
- 1000sp for low level
- 2000sp for medium
- 3000sp for high level
This is per playing session (approximately 3.5 to 4 hours of play time).
Magic Items
Powerful magic items can be quite a disruptive or unbalancing factor in the campaign as they move from one GM's game to another, or are sold by the original owner and pass into other hands. GMs are expected to exercise caution and restraint when designing magic items, balancing them to the level of the characters they are being given to, and ensuring that they are neither indestructible nor infalible. Even then items that are too tough should be avoided because it can create an inflationary cycle with respect to game balance factors such as damage and damage avoidance.
Make it clear for the next GM
Remember that another person will have to read your write-up, so it should be easy to read and understand. Write-ups that are difficult to understand make the administration of the game much more difficult. Before you write the item up take some time to think about what you are about to create. And, make it clear to the next GM what your intention is.
Flaws
It is generally best to add flaws (specific drawbacks) to the items being designed, weaknesses that help balance out their strengths, and reduce their overall value. The only shaped items that are generally without any flaws are those of minor nature, (e.g. amulets, +5% BC +1 DM swords). Flaws in an item cannot be removed without also removing the useful abilities.
Additionally, no shaped item should be indestructible, there should always be a way to destroy it. If any part of a shaped item is broken then the magic is lost.
Generally the more powerful the magic of the item, the worse will be the flaws. The difference between the powers and the flaws will represent the value of the magic in the item.
Maximum Value
As part of controlling powerful items, the maximum value that the Guild will place on any shaping is 50,000sp. If you design an item that you feel should be valued at greater than 50k then seriously consider removing some of its abilities and/or adding balancing weaknesses. Fragility, weight,and magical downsides should all be considered when valuing an item.
Bear in mind that this is the value of the shaping, not necessarily of the item -- a magical manor house might be valued at greater than 50k, even though the shaping is simply magical servants who clean and tidy.
New GM's should have a look at items currently in the game to get a feeling for power and value, and should have their items reviewed by a couple of established GM's for their first few adventures.
Other Limitations
Even apart from flaws, no item should always work under all circumstances, and should be designed to leave GMs with wiggle room. Some design factors that GM's may want to consier are:
A "Use by" date
While shaped items don't generally expire it can be worth put a date imitation on some items to encourage characters to use them before they lose them. It also helps to maintain a more balanced game economy and gives characters added motivation to adventure. Items that do not themselves expire may require recharging, which can be an opportunity for a further adventure.
Actions Required to Use
Consider the range and type of actions that are available to a player, and under which circumstances the item can be used. If the process of using the item takes a lot of time and effort, then a character will most likely not use it in situations when they are under time pressure, such as combat. If the item will be used in Pulse time consider whether it will require a Pass action, or a Fire action to activate.
Running Costs
This could mean that the item uses something (usually rare and expensive) to stay active, though if the cost or difficulty is too at is too high then players may simply let the item lapse. Nevertheless, it can be a good idea to assign a running cost in cash (simple) or items (less simple) to keep the item active.
Exceeding Maximum Rank
Put a rank cap on the item, and don't let the item's effects take attributes, skills, or spells, etc. beyond the normal limit. If they do go beyond normal, make sure the effect is limited in breadth or scope.
GM Headaches
Be aware that Scrying, truth-telling, and detection items, for example, can easily destroy another GM's carefully constructed mystery adventure.
Item's that are always on, and act in a passive manner (such as danger detection) can be an administrative hassle for a GM who has to remember and allow for the item at all times.
Items that give extra actions, besides being very powerful, can significantly increase the administrative workload of the GM. Every additional action doubles the amount of time the GM takes to administer the character, which often detracts from the enjoyment of the game for other players and they sit around and wait for one character to take their actions.
Special Abilites
Although not technically magic "items", another form of similar award popular with both GM's and players is special abilities.
These can range from abilities that function like magic items, but without the item, (consequently more valuable as they cannot be easily lost or broken), to standard but "out of college" spells, to unique rankable talents or spells which are not part of the standard game.
Special abilities can personalise and differentiate a character, but there is a danger that they can be misused to cover the character weaknesses designed into the game system or break game-balancing factors, and they should be designed much like magic items, with careful consideration for balance and the level of the character.
First Session Checklist
If the GM wishes they can fill in a GM's character record so that they will have the characters' statistics to hand during play.
Players
The GM should have a look over each player's character, and ensure that any awards from the last time they played have been correctly spent.
With new characters the GM should ensure that the PC has been seen by the Character Tribunal, is a Guild member, and understands the House rules. The GM may need to help with character generation if the player does not yet have a character.
Characters
With the party together a Guild Representative will ensure the adventure is properly set up. They will remind the party of the Guild Rules, suggest that a Party Leader and Military Leader be appointed, and require that a Scribe be nominated.
Once the Guild requirements are out of the way characters can introduce themselves with descriptions (and often a brief summary of their abilities). The GM can introduce the adventure and the party can begin their preparations.
