Wizards Guild Planning Committee

[Zhym]

Well... Earc might be interested in joining, but he would put his name in for the above position, all things considered. He has 12 1st level spells, 3 2nd level spells, and 3 3rd level spells to his name. And a tower. And produces his own growth potion. All at just Level 6.

Didn't Earc poo-poo the idea of forming a guild—or joining the one Pendleton proposed long ago?

"Oh, I suppose I could join, if you let me run it."

I'd suggest that Earc is keeping busy enough with his own tower. He's more than welcome as a founding member, but having the same wizard running his own tower and ths guild seems like it would spread Earc awfully thin and further shift the balance of power Earc's way a bit much.

Plus, the guild's tower is kind of a reward for Pendleton, Idriss, and Ablesforth closing the demon hole. On that basis, Pendleton or Idriss have the strongest claims to becoming Archmage, IMO.

[Marullus]

Lord Earc has a wizard tower AND an Administrative tower as he is now Lord over Beith's Watch and runs the Wardens who guard against the Morlocks of the woods. He already has his own noble status so doesn't benefit from being Archmagus, mechanically.

I would be interested in cutting this leadership conversation and seeing you all play it out IC - "The first Convocation of Mages" - as an Event. . Want to do that?

[Zhym]

Lord Earc has a wizard tower AND an Administrative tower as he is now Lord over Beith's Watch and runs the Wardens who guard against the Morlocks of the woods. He already has his own noble status so doesn't benefit from being Archmagus, mechanically.

I'm not sure whether you're pointing this out as a reason Earc shouldn't be interested in running the guild or as a reason we shouldn't object.

I would be interested in cutting this leadership conversation and seeing you all play it out IC - "The first Convocation of Mages" - as an Event. . Want to do that?

Honestly? Not really. At least, not yet. Setting up the guild is complicated enough without also having to couch the discussions as in-character role-play. I think that's part of why this has been sitting idle since July. If your goal is to get this thing set up, it seems like we have a much better chance of doing that quickly OOC than IC.

[Spearmint]

The Duke might want Baxtaw to head it up?

Idriss (Spearmint in RL) has enough on his plate and doesn't know enough to lead it so count him out for now.

[Alethan]

Lord Earc has a wizard tower AND an Administrative tower as he is now Lord over Beith's Watch and runs the Wardens who guard against the Morlocks of the woods. He already has his own noble status so doesn't benefit from being Archmagus, mechanically.

I'm not sure whether you're pointing this out as a reason Earc shouldn't be interested in running the guild or as a reason we shouldn't object.

The former. And he's right. I was mostly just trolling, anyway. Sorry.

Earc would offer to the guild a scroll with a 3rd level spell, Protection From Evil, 10' Radius, as a gesture of friendship and good faith. Even if he isn't an active member in the guild, he still hopes to be on good terms with it in the hopes that they might all share with and assist each other when necessary.

[Zhym]

Consider me successfully trolled, then.

Earc is certainly welcome to join, and even to sit on the governing council. Pendleton's vision for the guild is cooperation and sharing of knowledge; the more cooperation and knowledge we can get, the better. If Earc doesn't want to join, maybe Earc and the guild could work out some sort of spell-exchange agreement.

Whatever Earc does, the guild should figure out what's required to join as a founding member. Pendleton is prepared to share his entire spellbook to get the library going (although he doesn't have the money needed to make library copies of his spells). But I don't think contributing your entire spellbook is a workable criteria for being a founding member.

So maybe we could start by having people who are interested in joining saying what they can offer to getting the guild started?

[Marullus]

A key element of this, for me, is the trade of privacy for transparency. If you are independent you do your own research and nobody knows. Being in the Guild provided a tower and laboratory (a 10% bonus to success) but you post in the public thread and others get inkling of what you are working on. Same with spell sharing. Idriss could be the only one with Mirror Others or Fireball, but he can give access to the guild in exchange for access to others spells.

For "founding members" - you have a free tower. I will let you specify what it contains and offers. You need to build a laboratory (1,000gp). You determine initial spells available to members and how they gain access to them.

[Bluehorse]

Lord Earc has a wizard tower AND an Administrative tower as he is now Lord over Beith's Watch and runs the Wardens who guard against the Morlocks of the woods. He already has his own noble status so doesn't benefit from being Archmagus, mechanically.

I would be interested in cutting this leadership conversation and seeing you all play it out IC - "The first Convocation of Mages" - as an Event. . Want to do that?

Definitely following this and once things are ic again, Bianca might well show up

[Spearmint]

I will be clear on Idriss' motivations for joining the guild.

To share and learn new spells that are discovered. To create new spells and magic objects.

To investigate more the 'infernal' inter-planar / portals that were made (the Demon door) and others that crop up. This may mean in time another delve below the caverns.

[Dram]

Baxtaw is still interested in creating the mages guild. He is not interested at this being the mage guild master. He is will pledge his support to Pendleton for the role. Baxtaw is still looking to go expeditions and learning the old ways of magic.

Baxtaw is willing to donate 2,000 to the guild to start. I like Pendletons ideas of the creation and priorities for the guild.

Level 1
Charm Person, Dancing Lights,Magic Aura,Magic Missle,Protection from Evil, Read Magic,Sleep
Level2
Continual Darkness,Continual Light,Darkness 15ft (reverable light 15ft),Locate Object
Level3 (0)
Level4
Polymorph other,Polymorph self
Level5(0)
Level6
Invsible Stalker

[Bluehorse]

Bianca is interested in what being a part of the mages guild could offer her. She will likewise pledge to support it and will donate the Book of the Warden's Apprentice. It is a spellbook which contains:
Level 1: Read Magic, Unseen Servant, Comprehend Languages, Charm Person, Ventriloquism
Level 2: Detect Evil, Continual Light, Phantasmal Force
Level 3: Fly, Gust of Wind
Level 4: Massmorph, Polymorph Others

[Marullus]

As we're coming into winter, this needs to be finalized. Who is creating, and who is joining, and what are your rules?

How do you donate and receive spells?
Are there rules about who can use the laboratory (and potentially set it on fire with their research)?
Are there rules about who gets housing and good meals?
Do non-members need to do something to get friendly status and hire NPC guild members?

I'm going to institute a few things as part of the Archduke's interest in building you a free tower.

* You need to define what valuable services the Tower provides to the townfolk to earn coin and what the role of the PCs is in providing them. (You can do so personally or commit Retainers to cover the tasks for you.) This establishment of an income stream then covers the benefits below. If you don't want to do this, then you can just pay a large cash payment up-front (and annually, game time) to pay for services.

* Whomever is the Archmage has to devote a Retainer slot to manage the seneschal of the tower. The seneschal then manages normal operations and employs the cook and the employ of guards who handle the Lower Gate.

* Mages residing in the tower get Good Food based on having a good cook... its important to mage-types.

* There are NPC apprentices in the tower. The tower thus serves as a place to "recruit a wizard" for expeditions (thus far unavailable). I'm assuming guild members are Friendly and can recruit normally any time they go out. You need to establish conditions under which others can be Friendly and try to hire (is it default? Is it a payment-in-kind to the Guild first?). You also need to maintain the list on your thread of who has Friendly status (and who is banned).

* You have a tower (+1) and can have a shared laboratory (+1) if you collectively donate 1000gp. That's a good bonus to your research. You will all have months of research time over the winter so figuring this out is important.

* You can get the help of NPCs for your research if you need success more likely up front. Normally, they're all busy with their own needs. If you want their help you normally need to reciprocate. That means for every +1 you get to your search for a week's check you need to spend a week helping someone else with theirs. Since your tower is potentially hierarchical and not egalitarian, you can modify this inequitably according to your hierarchical tiers based on the entry costs to those tiers. (i.e. please make up the rules if you want them different.)

[Zhym]

Starting a guild sure is a lot of work.

I think we're (or at least I am) a lot more likely to get a guild finalized if we can reduce the number of decision points, not increase them. Honestly, I'm approaching the point of "this is way too much trouble."

Also, are the NPCs in Hagaseth's tower not available for adventuring?

[Marullus]

Hagaseth is aligned with the dwarves and not with Gaul. Getting "Friendly" status required to try and recruit is impacted. That's why the Archduke wanted to fund a competing Human-aligned tower.

I mean, I could make all the decisions and dictate the result to you. I am trying to give you input.

[Zhym]

Gotcha.

I appreciate not trying to dictate results. But given the complexity of setting up a guild, suggestions are welcome.

I'm also not sure how much money we have to work with. Pendleton is kind of cash-strapped at the moment, which is why I suggested earlier that "founding members" could buy their way in with spells or with money.

[Bluehorse]

You could always come get in good graces with the witches

[Zhym]

I'm working on putting together bylaws for the wizard's guild (well, it being Pendleton, it's a summary of the official articles of incorporation, and the official name he's proposing is "Soecietus Magus Arcanaeum de Gaul," but "Wizard's Guild" is fine for shorthand, at least in part because SMAG is...perhaps not optimal as an acronym).

ANYWAY. I'm currently thinking that there would be two distinct but related organizations: the Guild itself, and the University of Gaul. The Guild will run the University, but the University would be a separate legal entity (to the extent such a thing as a "legal entity" is even possible in this game world) to limit liability (again, assuming...oh, you know) and because it resolves my issues of "should we call this a guild or a university?" by letting us have both a guild and a university. Essentially, the university is the public-facing arm of the guild.

As for founding members, here is who I have written down as interested and what they'd like to contribute. Am I missing anyone?

• Pendleton: Spell book,
  Baxtaw: 2,000 gp (spells?)
  Bianca: Spell book - Book of the Warden's Apprentice
  Idriss - ??

Earc may or may not join, but has offered a scroll as a token of goodwill.

Baxtaw's 2,000 gp gets us a lab and some funds toward either improving it or copying the donated spells into the library (so we aren't losing our own spell books). Are there any other up-front expenses, or will 2,000 gp cover our startup costs?

[Marullus]

I just went and lowered costs in the house rules. 1,000gp is sufficient to establish the laboratory. For each collective 5000gp in donations it further upgrades for an additional +1.

Coming into winter, I lowered it to 100gp/spell level for researching new spells.

Currently, there are functional laboratories at:
(Idriss burned the Templar Laboratory)
Your Wizard Guild
The Witchwood Tower
Earc's Tower
Hagaseth's Tower
(Pierpont's Tower, not PC accessible)

[Zhym]

We'd still need to pay to copy spells out of our own spellbooks and into the guild library though, right? Which means money for the books and for inks.

Hey, if we made the official name "Soecietus Magus Arcanaeum et Universitatus de Gaul," the acronym would be SMAUG.

[Marullus]

Yes, 2000gp will build a lab and transcribe all spells into the he library. Not a problem.

Bonus points for naming it Smaug.