Re: Guild Entry

[Postmaster]

Originally posted by Armitace

Greetings to all,

What to say, I think there are two sides to every issue, and I have
difficulty knowing how to add my opinions on this particular
issue since I want to support both sides.

I suppose the first thing to address is 'things as they stand right
now'.

What is nice about things as they are? Well, guilds become more
that just a collection of skills. The human interaction, and all the
good and bad things which go along with it, is what gives a
guild its flavour.

It also allows for this world to be moderated by the mortals
themselves. Is it really appropriate for a Nazgul to have a soft
spot in its heart for the youths of this world? Well, perhaps it
is if their reason for doing so is to lure the poor youth onto the
path of darkness. But who is to draw that line? The immortals
have a hard enough time attempting to police the actions which
might, or might not, break the rules here. Attempting to watch
over the more, personal?, actions of guild members would be
a task too large to even consider.

What could be the result? Well, there could be Nazgul who go
kill slaves in Kabal to remain sufficiently evil, while they use
their fearsome powers to become good samaritans for all the
youths of this world. Now, while I personally would not object
to the Nazgul doing this, since we would all like to see them
redeemed from the foul lure of the twisted forces of the East.
It would in another sense ruin the nature of what is 'supposed
to be'. For lack of a better ability to describe things.

If there is not going to be a Nazgul wearing a ring of power
who can keep the other mages in line. Then there needs to be
an immortal who will do it instead. Otherwise, we open the
door for destruction down the road.

In the case of a guild like the mercenaries, there is very little
need for any structure of how things are 'supposed to be', and
as such, have less need of mortals to be in a position of power.

However, if there is noone home, you can knock on the door
and it will never be answered.

Opening up guilds so that people can freely join and advance
within them will mean that this world will become a more
accessible place. If there are no Nazgul, then the question of
any of them becoming good samaritans or not is purely
academic.

I am not certain that I have a solution to offer, but so long as
I can see strong benefits AND strong detractions to both sides
of this issue, I get the feeling that there must be a third side
as yet undiscovered.

I would guess that any solution would entail some sort of
compromise. Perhaps a new position of 'Arch of Guilds'
could be introduced? And then the 'AoG' team could keep a
watch on things, and become a court of appeal. That would
mean that some current guilds are told to be more flexible in
allowing new members to join. The initial application could
be created by the immortals, so that if no response is sent
to the applicant within a reasonable time frame, the AoG
could take action. And all rejections are detailed and explained
to the satisfaction of the AoG team. That would (hopefully)
create a minimum of immortal intervention, allow people to
go where their hearts please (so long as they are going to be
responsible about it) and still give the individual guilds
enough power to have the ability to keep things the way they
are 'supposed to be'.

Now, this whole Arch of Guilds thing is really just an offhand
concept of what a potential solution could look like. I have
not spent any time thinking about it in detail, and I am certain
that I have overlooked several flaws, but perhaps it will stir
up some good thoughts with others.

In the end, I suppose I end up coming down on the side of
'keeping the mortals in control of their own guilds for now'
Does it lend itself to certain abuses? Sure. But then, if a mortal
is big enough, they can abuse people regardless of the guild
that they are in. But, maybe some sort of third-party ability
to intervene might resolve the problems.

After all, what are we all after here? A reasonable way to
enjoy this world, for everyone. I think we need to remember
that just letting people have the 'right' to be a Nazgul, or
whatever, is not always the way that creates enjoyment for
everyone. Especially if some youth starts to equate those
Nazgul with good, kind-hearted philanthropists who love
everyone, I think we have lost a large part of what can make
this world special to all of us.

OOC - While I tried to keep that note in character as much
as possible, I suppose it did not really work. Regardless, in
simple terms, having an NPC responsible for apprentice
tasks is already in place within the Rangers. And I find that
it works very well. We usually have a Ranger to work with
the apprentices as they move through the tasks, when one
is available. Which helps to round out the training given by
the NPC. But, in the event that no active members were
around (most notably as referenced in Joyce's note) the
task NPC can handle all of the training required. I think that
having a NPC handling apprentice tasks is going to be a
mandatory part of whatever solution is found.

Armitace Half-Elven