Guild Structures in Fantasy

[Armored99]

I couldn't find other threads on this so i decided to make my own, if there is another thread about this call me a fool below.

So everyone knows the stereotypical guild.
You have the guild master, the receptionist, and members or registered adventurers.
A lot of the time the adventures also have ranks, usually something like S, A, B, D, C.
Adventures are also able to take quests that are around their ranks.

This is vastly different from how guilds really worked. Something that happened after several generations of permeation to the original idea.
I thought it would be interesting to go back to the roots, and start over. And after some research on old European guilds, I decided to try an make a more realistic guild.

Aldermen are the executives and can also act as guild masters.
Clerks who do the accounting, and like instead of a receptionist.
Possible Idea instead of adventurer maybe using contractor? Adventurer just feels worn down and real guilds never had anything like them. So I cant base the term off of anything either.

So far just some name changes, but next comes the adventurer ranks.
There are five ranks. However rank may not be the most accurate term as they're closer to position, and experience.

Master - Experienced veterans that lead their own squad or outfit.
Journeymen - work under masters, have been recruited after showing a degree of talent or experience.
Apprentice - Are either sponsored by masters trying to scout/train talents, or are working below journeymen
Freelance - works independently but may form parties with other freelancers for harder jobs.
Renowned - Freelancer who stands on par with a master through financial, status, talent or other means.

This is just an idea I had, please give thoughts, criticisms, you're own ideas for a guild structure, or why the current cliche guild is superior.

 

[Emi_the_Fairy]

I've actually been toiling around with a similar idea with a bit more of a focus on how it would all work.

Like for instance having negotiators who handle discussions of the terms, criteria, and rewards of a mission. Different types of specialties that take certain types of jobs, or have special permissions (like having a license to work in specific areas). Plus parts of the organization that helps with equipment and transportation.

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

I think first you need to think why your world would need an adventurer's guild. The level of society/cultural level also depends on it.

Take The Witcher, for example. People either love or hate them. They deal with pests, rescue, settlement threats, and even political warfare. They have very tight groups of people (because of how they're made). Like this, you can have a group more secluded than an open thing where people literally risk their lives in exchange for fame and coin.

"Adventuring guilds" don't really make sense since it's an armed group who thirsts for power at the end of the day. How would a Country see them? The Military? Nobles? How do the powers of the world see an association of individuals that can easily threaten the balance of the world's politics?

Now, you can see them as being a branch of the military like Attack on Titan's Survey Corps. They are literally adventurers that set out to kill titans and keep the populace safe in a sense. Just replace titans with monsters and the 3D gear with magic and you're done.

It need to make sense in-world that a group of armed people either have bad or good reputation if they're independent.

 

[Sabruness]

Sounds like an interesting idea.

It need to make sense in-world that a group of armed people either have bad or good reputation if they're independent.

true. in "Even Though I’m a Former Noble and a Single Mother, My Daughters Are Too Cute and Working as an Adventurer Isn’t Too Much of a Hassle" the Guild is sorta a kind of pseudo-govt branch in that they have an agreement with the kingdom over what jobs and roles are done by adventurers and what jobs and roles are the domain of the military. The kingdom, iirc, also can use the adventurers as a pseudo-military in case of monster swarms and such by issuing special requests to the guild to mobilize en masse. the reasoning being that using adventurers for most works, outside of wars and public security, reduces the burden on the military itself.

Helps that the guild master is basically immortal so they dont have to deal with leadership changes over time.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Sounds like you could just follow the structure of a corporation.

 

[Nahrenne]

I couldn't find other threads on this so i decided to make my own, if there is another thread about this call me a fool below.

So everyone knows the stereotypical guild.
You have the guild master, the receptionist, and members or registered adventurers.
A lot of the time the adventures also have ranks, usually something like S, A, B, D, C.
Adventures are also able to take quests that are around their ranks.

This is vastly different from how guilds really worked. Something that happened after several generations of permeation to the original idea.
I thought it would be interesting to go back to the roots, and start over. And after some research on old European guilds, I decided to try an make a more realistic guild.

Aldermen are the executives and can also act as guild masters.
Clerks who do the accounting, and like instead of a receptionist.
Possible Idea instead of adventurer maybe using contractor? Adventurer just feels worn down and real guilds never had anything like them. So I cant base the term off of anything either.

So far just some name changes, but next comes the adventurer ranks.
There are five ranks. However rank may not be the most accurate term as they're closer to position, and experience.

Master - Experienced veterans that lead their own squad or outfit.
Journeymen - work under masters, have been recruited after showing a degree of talent or experience.
Apprentice - Are either sponsored by masters trying to scout/train talents, or are working below journeymen
Freelance - works independently but may form parties with other freelancers for harder jobs.
Renowned - Freelancer who stands on par with a master through financial, status, talent or other means.

This is just an idea I had, please give thoughts, criticisms, you're own ideas for a guild structure, or why the current cliche guild is superior.

In the Legend of Heroes game series there is this organisation called Bracers that works across the entire continent.
Their sole purpose is to help people and protect the weak.
In some countries in the series, they are warmly welcome with many guild branches set up, while in others they are basically in a situation where the government tries to make excuses to arrest them on sight because they 'meddle' or 'interfere' too much.
They have exams to see if a person has what it takes to be a Bracer, with them needing both intelligence and strength to be allowed to become a member.

The Bracers also have a rivalry against the mercenaries of the series' world called Jaegers, who are all in corps and basically act as armies for hire - think the Band of the Hawk from Berserk but with zero chance of gaining political power.

The difference between the two is that the Bracers are there for the people, while the Jaegers are there for the money. There's even a country that suffered a huge catastrophe that meant they had a severe food shortage and no means of farming anymore due to a huge amount of salt covering their land. A lot of the country's able-bodied men formed Jaeger corps to get money and help feed their families back home.


I think I digressed.
Anyway, the Bracer guild has both information gathers, 'receptionists', infiltrators, and other roles, so might be interesting to take a look.

'-'

As for real life guilds, there were merchant guilds formed to ensure stability among the markets while protecting the merchants from being targeted by malicious people. Though, I don't think you were wanting such stuff...

X

 

[Ununique]

I couldn't find other threads on this so i decided to make my own, if there is another thread about this call me a fool below.

There's not another thread on this site that I can remember but here's one that pretty much surmises what I think and has a lot more listed out and organized ideas than I as one person can hope to try to describe.

 

[EternalSunset0]

In the Legend of Heroes game series there is this organisation called Bracers that works across the entire continent.
Their sole purpose is to help people and protect the weak.
In some countries in the series, they are warmly welcome with many guild branches set up, while in others they are basically in a situation where the government tries to make excuses to arrest them on sight because they 'meddle' or 'interfere' too much.
They have exams to see if a person has what it takes to be a Bracer, with them needing both intelligence and strength to be allowed to become a member.

The Bracers also have a rivalry against the mercenaries of the series' world called Jaegers, who are all in corps and basically act as armies for hire - think the Band of the Hawk from Berserk but with zero chance of gaining political power.

The difference between the two is that the Bracers are there for the people, while the Jaegers are there for the money. There's even a country that suffered a huge catastrophe that meant they had a severe food shortage and no means of farming anymore due to a huge amount of salt covering their land. A lot of the country's able-bodied men formed Jaeger corps to get money and help feed their families back home.


I think I digressed.
Anyway, the Bracer guild has both information gathers, 'receptionists', infiltrators, and other roles, so might be interesting to take a look.

'-'

As for real life guilds, there were merchant guilds formed to ensure stability among the markets while protecting the merchants from being targeted by malicious people. Though, I don't think you were wanting such stuff...

X

Trails fan. Nice

 

[Jemini]

Mostly, the current stereotypical fantasy adventurer's guild was created based on MMORPG guilds. It makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE from a real-world perspective to have guilds structured like this for all of the reasons listed above.

Going back to the roots really is a good way to think about this. Another thing that you are going to have to consider though is the fact that where there's a fantasy adventurer's guild, there is usually also a world filled with monsters that the average human citizen has no chance against, thus the need for some form of military power to protect them.

Thinking logically, the adventurer's guild is effectively a group of free-lance guards and soldiers going out to exterminate the monsters. There is a valid place for things like that, but I think the term "adventurer" makes fairly little sense for the role. So, you would probably have to re-name it. Make it something like "Mercenary" or "Hunter." Those both make more sense and are far more descriptive of what these people are doing. Also, if you think in terms of mercenaries, you ought to be able to make some reasonable extrapolations on what the guild structure might look like.

By far though, the aspect of the fantasy adventurer's guild that makes the absolute least sense is the part where the guild card acts kind of like the ultimate pass-port/visa that gets you into any town without paying taxes and has you automatically recognized and respected in almost any kingdom you travel to. That was likely just thrown in for the convenience of authors to not have their protagonists getting constantly caught up in political red tape. However, it makes zero sense for these kingdoms to throw open their boarders to some of the strongest military forces in the world to just travel through their lands as they please. That's definitely something you would need to contend with.

Likewise, the international and independent aspect of the stereotypical fantasy guild. That's also more for author convenience rather than anything that makes reasonable sense. There's absolutely no way any government would allow a force that strong to go unchecked. If such a thing existed in a more realistic world, each guild would definitely belong to it's host nation and be beholden to the local lord in some fashion. There would also likely be some stage of your development around mid-rank where the government would start laying on the pressure to join the military formally and the only way to escape that pressure would be to throw yourself in with one of the superior guild members who have the power and authority to resist on your behalf.

All sorts of complicated little political goings-on.

 

[The_Everdistant_Utopia]

I think that the structure with which the adventurer guilds should be structure should be dependent on the conditions in which it was born. As in, why do they even got started, why do they continue to exist.

Real life guilds arose from two basic needs in the medieval world: The artisan's needs for a safe source of materials, installations to do their work and safety in both the physical sense and monetary sense since being a member of a guild guaranteed they would be paid fairly for their work. And the need of the clients for a guarantee of quality in what they were buying, which the guild could provide by virtue of all of their artisan's products needing to be handled by the guild for sale with a minimum bar of quality for the services.

Knowing the conditions in which you can satisfy the two needs (the guildmember's and the client's) goes a long way to making a structure in which the guild is built around. Why would adventurers need to be under the umbrella of an organization like the guild rather than a mercenary company or just selling their service to a lord? Why would people need the help of adventurers compared to their local structures of power?

Though... While I wouldn't question the existence of an "Adventurer's Guild", I don't think there would be a single unified entity like it's portrayed on fantasy. Since the general adventurer's guild feels more like a mercenary company, but less organized. I would probably wager a guess that things would be more local and smaller in scale, much like mercenary companies of old.

Of course, there are several examples of international organizations that were solely independent of any nation state (see any banking family and the Hanseatic League). If you wanted to go for that, maybe having the guild being a sort of informal-formal agreement between several regional mercenary/adventurer's bands would make some sense.

 

[Armored99]

As for real life guilds, there were merchant guilds formed to ensure stability among the markets while protecting the merchants from being targeted by malicious people. Though, I don't think you were wanting such stuff...

I think that the structure with which the adventurer guilds should be structure should be dependent on the conditions in which it was born. As in, why do they even got started, why do they continue to exist.

Mostly, the current stereotypical fantasy adventurer's guild was created based on MMORPG guilds. It makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE from a real-world perspective to have guilds structured like this for all of the reasons listed above.

Sounds like you could just follow the structure of a corporation.

I think first you need to think why your world would need an adventurer's guild. The level of society/cultural level also depends on it.

Like for instance having negotiators who handle discussions of the terms, criteria, and rewards of a mission. Different types of specialties that take certain types of jobs, or have special permissions (like having a license to work in specific areas). Plus parts of the organization that helps with equipment and transportation.

Hmmm... a lot to think about.

The apparent critique provided though is how would a government co-exist with an organisation that houses assets that could over throw it. The organization also not being separated by borders.

After doing some reading on mercenary bands, I've come up with some ideas. As mercenaries typically existed in one of two variations, from my short readings. People who argued terms with their government for participating in war, and actual mercenary bands. The bands typical existed during warring state periods, and it was pretty rare that they ever fought for other countries.

The best reason I could fathom for an organization existing is the incredible variation of individual power in a fantasy world. As in the real world the chance of some peasant gaining power to fight against a hundred knights is impossible. However, in a world where a person can attain supernatural or magical abilities It is within reason to believe it could regularly happen.

A counter argument to this though is why wouldn't the soldiers also have powerful people among the ranks? Which I refute that they do, but they can't oversee every village.

But how does this connect to a guild?
Possible theories.
1. the guild is a way of tracking strong citizens. (But what would they do with the info?)
2. its a way of keeping them controlled or distracted. (keep them busy so they stay out of politics.)
3. it accidentally came into existence and just works (very lazy writing.)
4. corporate interests subverted the government because they found a way to make money (sounds reasonable)
5. perhaps its connected to a religion?

Another problem is how would it work with other countries?
Possible theories.
1. it only works with allied countries
2. One country perceives it as infiltrating the other sees it as getting more military might.
3. They just do.
4. more merchant nonsense with convincing other countries they could use it to recruit.
5. Religion again, and supersedes borders.

If you have any ideas please add them. If you have critiques add them too.

 

[Jemini]

Hmmm... a lot to think about.

...

The best reason I could fathom for an organization existing is the incredible variation of individual power in a fantasy world. As in the real world the chance of some peasant gaining power to fight against a hundred knights is impossible. However, in a world where a person can attain supernatural or magical abilities It is within reason to believe it could regularly happen.

...

Another problem is how would it work with other countries?

...

This all brings up another subject you very rarely see anybody considering. How exactly do people survive in this land where there are all these monsters? This is very important to consider when you are considering the forces around what would form these guilds.

Shadiversity made a pretty good realistic evaluation of what it would mean to have monsters and magic in a world a few years back. You really have to take things like that into consideration. I will link the video at the end of this post, but I don't want to interrupt in mid thought because it would derail things.

Basically, the key take-aways I got from this which are relevant to this discussion are 2 very important considerations.

1. What do the farmers do in this world with all these monsters? Humans need to eat to survive, so they need some way to get the food. This would raise the position of "farmer" to quite likely the single most valued and prestegious job in society because the risk in farming is greatly increased by the presence of monsters.

You would also have to ask how these farmers manage against the monsters. They would have to be able to fight off the monsters to protect their own lives and/or the health of their crop or herd. This means either they are incredibly strong and capable, quite likely MORE capable than your standard entry-rank... whatever we're going to call what is presently known as "adventurers." That, or they are fifthly stinking rich and are able to hire permanent security for their fields. More likely than not though, it's going to be both.

(also, the solution of putting walls around your fields is fairly impractical. It would actually be even more costly than permanently hiring private security.)

2. You would have a LOT more castle towns, and a LOT less small rural villages because the small rural villages are going to be wiped out without a wall to protect them.

If we extrapolate this a little further, it is also going to make communication and logistics more difficult, which in turn will make it harder to have a single nation cover a large amount of territory. It could easily wind up with government being structured in a way that is more oriented toward the city-state. As in, the cities grow larger as well as the urban population, but as a trade-off the government of the city becomes entirely self-contained and does not expand much beyond the walls of the city. The main exception would likely be that the cities would need to keep up good relations with the farmers, which I just went into in detail above.



Anyway, here's that promised Shadiversity video.

BTW:

But how does this connect to a guild?
Possible theories.
1. the guild is a way of tracking strong citizens. (But what would they do with the info?)
2. its a way of keeping them controlled or distracted. (keep them busy so they stay out of politics.)
3. it accidentally came into existence and just works (very lazy writing.)
4. corporate interests subverted the government because they found a way to make money (sounds reasonable)
5. perhaps its connected to a religion?

I actually considered this stuff a little myself. I have been trying to put together an expanded universe project where I have several action-adventure style Isekai appealing to as many different genres as I can. So far, I'm going for a cultivation world and a super-hero world. However, I am also trying to put together a LiteRPG world and religion was the exact way I came up with as what would realistically have something like the stereotypical adventurer guild form.

To be specific, a religion based upon someone who was also Isekaied to this world previously. That's literally about the only way you would have a guild with the stereotypical structure and also have it called "adventurer's guild" when other things like "hunter" make more sense. That would only happen if it was all put together by a human from Earth who has been influenced by Earth media on the subject.

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

I completely agree with Shadiversity. Another addition that I hope helps you consider a few things:

In the fiction I'm currently writing, 'adventurers' are something completely different, and the presence of high level individuals change how the whole thing operates. There is no 'adventurer's guild' because hierarchy only functions when everybody has the same level of power with only a few outliers.

Even countries work differently, and Kingdoms are basically the populace allowing the King to rule due to tradition.

In my fiction, dungeons provide a lot of resources like ores, beast hides, animals to tame, etc so they're essential in-world, and things inside should never be completely eradicated since the source for those resources needs to be kept alive in a sense. This makes 'adventurers' pretty damn useful and important.

I named the adventurers 'chasers' because at the end of the day what makes them any different from any other profesion is that they chase power, as in levels to grow stronger for whatever goal they have (studying magic, exploring the entire world, reaching the level cap, a culinary quest that requires going around the world, etc), and everybody can be one and go around helping people, clearing dungeons, taking care of threats/pests, etc and gets paid to do so. Naturally, people that focus on crafting/trading don't go out to kill 'horned rabbits' outside town, lol. They'd hire chasers to boost them since 'exp' exist in a way.

Monsters also need their own ecosystem. You don't see tigers in our world raiding cities en masse because there's a surplus or meat (humans), even when there's shortage of food for them. Coexistence is also very possible with how we have pets for a large number of reasons (police dogs, horses, etc.). Monters need a purpose other than being a threat to the people, because an Elephant is a real threat when you think about it, you may get killed with a swing of its nose-thing (lol) and then stomping you, and yet we don't exterminate them.

So, a creature that doesn't pose a direct threat to civilization shouldn't be considered a monster to be exterminated, which peresents a challenge to the writer: how do people begin their 'adventuring journey'? If there's a being like a slime and people gather to exterminate them, you must face hard questions like the reason for such violence and how the state/government/country/kingdom allows such genocide/extermination of relatively harmless beings. You could go the goblin way, but if your world has species evolved from animals that gained sentience over time, that would be relative to crimes against humanity, or wiping out a tribe in the middle of the amazonas. Fantasy should never be easy to write.

Again, think The Witcher, monsters serve an ecological purpose, and only when they are threatening human settlements they get exterminated.

The presence of monsters in a fantasy world should also change how countries deal with each other in radical ways, and how the people of the world face coexistance against a greater threat. You can't realistically have wars in a world where large, flying monsters exist. Zombies/undead would be a real threat if they come from dead people left to rot in that world, making wars near non-existent.

You have to question a whole lot when including both magic and monsters. Mainly 'individual vs nature' and 'individual vs state'.

Yes. You have to think of politics/laws/etc if you want your world to make sense. If people can level up, even that has to be considered by the law and have appropriate responses for anything, otherwise you'd have anarchy.

If adventurers are walking nukes you HAVE to make the world react to it. The world is not birthed when your story begins, but thousands if not millions of years before that, and it should feel that way.

 

[Armored99]

This all brings up another subject you very rarely see anybody considering. How exactly do people survive in this land where there are all these monsters? This is very important to consider when you are considering the forces around what would form these guilds.

I think there are several simple answers for how farmers survive..
1. creatures that specifically hunt humans are rare.
2. There are plenty of areas free from major infestations of monsters.
3. wild monsters would act similar to animals and wouldn't be likely to attack human in groups, especially settlements.
4. Perhaps humans had a safe homeland that they spread from out after having a certain degree of development.
5. Religion again, gods or something.

As for tying these things into a guild. Monsters always pose some level of nuisance, and also provide valuable resources.

I actually considered this stuff a little myself. I have been trying to put together an expanded universe project where I have several action-adventure style Isekai appealing to as many different genres as I can. So far, I'm going for a cultivation world and a super-hero world. However, I am also trying to put together a LiteRPG world and religion was the exact way I came up with as what would realistically have something like the stereotypical adventurer guild form.

To be specific, a religion based upon someone who was also Isekaied to this world previously. That's literally about the only way you would have a guild with the stereotypical structure and also have it called "adventurer's guild" when other things like "hunter" make more sense. That would only happen if it was all put together by a human from Earth who has been influenced by Earth media on the subject.

Yeah, but they'd still have to get it to work when they're gone. Which means keeping it from overthrowing kingdoms, or getting taken over.

In the fiction I'm currently writing, 'adventurers' are something completely different, and the presence of high level individuals change how the whole thing operates. There is no 'adventurer's guild' because hierarchy only functions when everybody has the same level of power with only a few outliers.

I disagree, as elderly would never have elevated status with that notion. Society doesn't exist because there's guns that enforce it. The reason it exists is because we believe it does, or believe in it. Hierarchy isn't derived from power, but belief. Only fools and cowards would make it otherwise. Fools who want only power to rule, and cowards who can only follow orders.

Elephant is a real threat when you think about it, you may get killed with a swing of its nose-thing (lol) and then stomping you, and yet we don't exterminate them.

its called a trunk.

So, a creature that doesn't pose a direct threat to civilization shouldn't be considered a monster to be exterminated, which peresents a challenge to the writer: how do people begin their 'adventuring journey'? If there's a being like a slime and people gather to exterminate them, you must face hard questions like the reason for such violence and how the state/government/country/kingdom allows such genocide/extermination of relatively harmless beings. You could go the goblin way, but if your world has species evolved from animals that gained sentience over time, that would be relative to crimes against humanity, or wiping out a tribe in the middle of the amazonas. Fantasy should never be easy to write.

This is easily solved by saying the monster poses a direct threat, but not a immediate one.

The presence of monsters in a fantasy world should also change how countries deal with each other in radical ways, and how the people of the world face coexistance against a greater threat. You can't realistically have wars in a world where large, flying monsters exist. Zombies/undead would be a real threat if they come from dead people left to rot in that world, making wars near non-existent.

They could still have wars, because eventually they'd reach a point where they would be advanced enough to contend with the monsters. As for undead they'd just have to burn the battlefields afterwards.

Yes. You have to think of politics/laws/etc if you want your world to make sense. If people can level up, even that has to be considered by the law and have appropriate responses for anything, otherwise you'd have anarchy.

I wanna say anarchy rules, but it feels like a oxymoron.

 

[Jemini]

I actually considered this stuff a little myself. I have been trying to put together an expanded universe project where I have several action-adventure style Isekai appealing to as many different genres as I can. So far, I'm going for a cultivation world and a super-hero world. However, I am also trying to put together a LiteRPG world and religion was the exact way I came up with as what would realistically have something like the stereotypical adventurer guild form.

To be specific, a religion based upon someone who was also Isekaied to this world previously. That's literally about the only way you would have a guild with the stereotypical structure and also have it called "adventurer's guild" when other things like "hunter" make more sense. That would only happen if it was all put together by a human from Earth who has been influenced by Earth media on the subject.

Yeah, but they'd still have to get it to work when they're gone. Which means keeping it from overthrowing kingdoms, or getting taken over.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention something. Remember the part where I said I already have a cultivation world Isekai? Well, the LiteRPG isekai is a same-world sequel to that one. A character from the cultivation world Isekai (I think I just might be the first to make a milti-riencarnator cultivation world Isekai) is the one who created this ground-work for the adventurer's guild after getting to a high enough level of cultivation. They were also the one who created the LiteRPG system that governs this world. (And, no, the one who did all this is not the MC of the 1st one.)

So, said Earth-origin character is still around and has super god-like cultivation powers and is literally the god of the system.

Yes, there are still a lot of the political considerations to have. However, the continued presence of a figure that powerful being the founder is literally what it would take for such an institution to persist even with all the political issues related to it.

(BTW: Don't try to look for this series I'm talking up here. I've only written the 1st chapter and it's not posted up yet, and it won't be until I've got a much stronger lead on it on my hard-drive.)

 

[Lloyd]

The average fantasy guild is based on video games, not real life. It is kinda pointless to make it realistic.

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

I disagree, as elderly would never have elevated status with that notion. Society doesn't exist because there's guns that enforce it. The reason it exists is because we believe it does, or believe in it. Hierarchy isn't derived from power, but belief. Only fools and cowards would make it otherwise. Fools who want only power to rule, and cowards who can only follow orders.

What do elderly have to do with adventuring people and their organizations? And why do they require an elevated status that prevents it from working? Society works the way it does in our world because everyone has the same relative capabilities. If people are walking nukes, things change. You can´t base society on trust just by saying that it is and be done with it. Ours do because we´re all relatively the same and there´s trust BECAUSE of it. Not every country has people with guns, and some countries don´t even have police with guns. People have their own "social ecology", and it all changes when adding magic. It´s no longer a world similar to ours in that aspect.

They could still have wars, because eventually they'd reach a point where they would be advanced enough to contend with the monsters. As for undead they'd just have to burn the battlefields afterwards.

If they´re advanced enough that nature doesnt pose a threat then there´s no use to fight monsters, as the military would wipe out all potential threats ´for mankind´ or some extreme notion, making adventurers obsolete. Dont get rid of a problem without thinking of what that entails. We live in peace in our world because we conquered nature a long time ago, even wars are not fought the same way as 100 years ago. If they can just burn the battlefield then they can do that to any environment where dangerous monsters live, getting rid of another porblem. Why would they use that ONLY to avoid undead from forming, when magic vultures or something can show up? Yet more questions for a ´simple´ solution.

Imagine there´s a dragon in our world, with a nest in the antartica. Argentina and Chile have nuclear weaponry, yet dont use it to kill a massive threat that usually flies to the US and burns cities when they least expect it. Pretty dumb, isnt it? A single pop and the thing would be solved. Naturally, you can just handwave problems away, its your story at the end of the day.

 

[Armored99]

What do elderly have to do with adventuring people and their organizations? And why do they require an elevated status that prevents it from working? Society works the way it does in our world because everyone has the same relative capabilities. If people are walking nukes, things change. You can´t base society on trust just by saying that it is and be done with it. Ours do because we´re all relatively the same and there´s trust BECAUSE of it. Not every country has people with guns, and some countries don´t even have police with guns. People have their own "social ecology", and it all changes when adding magic. It´s no longer a world similar to ours in that aspect.

My point was that power won't prevent those organizations from forming. But also I'm not trying to defend systems were people are walking nukes.

If they´re advanced enough that nature doesnt pose a threat then there´s no use to fight monsters, as the military would wipe out all potential threats ´for mankind´ or some extreme notion, making adventurers obsolete. Dont get rid of a problem without thinking of what that entails. We live in peace in our world because we conquered nature a long time ago, even wars are not fought the same way as 100 years ago. If they can just burn the battlefield then they can do that to any environment where dangerous monsters live, getting rid of another porblem. Why would they use that ONLY to avoid undead from forming, when magic vultures or something can show up? Yet more questions for a ´simple´ solution.

I never said the monsters don't pose a threat, I said that people can contend with the monsters. That they can spare a degree of resources from the struggle to fight each other.

Imagine there´s a dragon in our world, with a nest in the antartica. Argentina and Chile have nuclear weaponry, yet dont use it to kill a massive threat that usually flies to the US and burns cities when they least expect it. Pretty dumb, isnt it? A single pop and the thing would be solved. Naturally, you can just handwave problems away, its your story at the end of the day.

Plenty of reasons for why those countries wouldn't waste their nukes on a another country's problems.

You also seem to have an obsession with adventurers having nuke level powers. I don't think that is necessary. Typically the strongest creature is a dragon, but making it require anything above a tomahawk missile to kill it is excessive.

Additionally I think there are several sources we can draw from for how such tactically powerful weapons might be used such situations. How are nukes used in zombie movies? Well nukes have severe drawbacks from being used. So they usually first do fire bombing before resorting to nuking. Putting this in terms of adventurers, if you want them to have that level of power, make it inconvenient to try have them do front line fighting. they're too destructive or its too risky to let them wander about.

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

My point was that power won't prevent those organizations from forming. But also I'm not trying to defend systems were people are walking nukes.



I never said the monsters don't pose a threat, I said that people can contend with the monsters. That they can spare a degree of resources from the struggle to fight each other.



Plenty of reasons for why those countries wouldn't waste their nukes on a another country's problems.

You also seem to have an obsession with adventurers having nuke level powers. I don't think that is necessary. Typically the strongest creature is a dragon, but making it require anything above a tomahawk missile to kill it is excessive.

Additionally I think there are several sources we can draw from for how such tactically powerful weapons might be used such situations. How are nukes used in zombie movies? Well nukes have severe drawbacks from being used. So they usually first do fire bombing before resorting to nuking. Putting this in terms of adventurers, if you want them to have that level of power, make it inconvenient to try have them do front line fighting. they're too destructive or its too risky to let them wander about.

Yes, they would form. How long would they last? A single system of organization doesn't last forever. Especially with exponential individual power.

I refer to them as walking nukes as a means of last resource, not actually having the power of a literal nuke, my bad there.

Using nukes in zombie movies usually involve the human factor, because zombie outbreaks take place in cities...

That inconvenience due to destructive power adventurers pose has to be adressed in-world as well, especially if an organized group is full of people like this (potentially reaching that point of destruction). It works in games because they're a game mechanic that organizes players and is weakly linked to the world with very little justification.

All I'm saying is the hierarchical structure of an adventuring guild is weak af with any measure of realism. As I said before, it'd be much more realistic to be a branch of the military in fantasy. That way you have the humanitarian approach with a dose of brainwash- I mean patriotism/nationalism.

 

[Armored99]

The average fantasy guild is based on video games, not real life. It is kinda pointless to make it realistic.

Perhaps realistic is the wrong term. I'm looking to make it more immersive, which means making it feel less like watching someone playing a video game.