ITT red flags

>>50873449
I feel you're being nitpickey here. That's a relatively minor thing, and can actually work in some games.

>>50873449
>There are caravans being attacked.
> Go investigate why

It's always fucking caravans.

>>50873514
I fucking wish. I usually get
> There are caravans being attacked
> Go guard one

>You wake up naked in a prison cell

>you notice a man clouded in shadow watching you from the corner of the tavern.

>I ignore him.

Since when Adventurer is a profession? It is an euphemism for child-murderer mercenary?

>>50873449
It's lazy, but not a red flag. Yellow, maybe, but the DM is at least trying to actually give the PCs a reason to be working together.

>lvl1 characters
>the king has a quest for you

> Hi, DM, my character is a fourteen year old kitsune, who...

>dm gives you multiple pages of story about the history of the setting but is mum on local details of where you are from
>you all start as adult orphans from the local wild boys cabin and were taught by the town loner
>you meet a god(s) and they are active in your business every session or story point
>any setting being fantasy american civil war
>auto fuck yous that the dm has you roll for anyway then ignores the rolls

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>>50873541
It's less a profession, more of a hobby, old chap.

>I want to climb a building and follow the party from the rooftops.

>>50873449

>Character's description includes penis size.

>>50873449
It's actually pretty convenient to have in a fantasy setting, which I am sure you are playing in.
You aren't that autistic to believe you are playing a street sweeper in a realistic setting right in front of your friends at the table?
Do you even ever roleplay?

>>50873449
>DM

>>50873587
As a noob DM, currently prepping for our 2017 which we kicked off with one session so far, what do you think is the most important background material to prepare? It's tempting to start with a broad outline of history, cosmology, a world map etc.

I'm also trying to incorporate my characters backstories, which all fit the broad idea of the world since we worked on the idea together.

>>50873449
>Fantasy setting
>There are potatoes and orange carrots

Does anyone do their research?

>dm provides character background template that includes "preferred pronoun"
>Homebrewed rules for magical recreational drug use
>" Your crit kills the drow how does it happen?" "I shoot the fireball up is ass lol"

>>50873665
> a broad outline of history, cosmology, a world map etc.
Don't, since your players hardly cared about this shit. And they will be checking their phones if you forced it in.

Start with the background/map of the Region they will be in and the power players. The factions, the races, the incredible locales, the insane/striking NPCs.

You will actually use those and can tie their backstories in.

>>50873626
The concept of adventurer guild is fucking retarded, and requiers a setting to be centered around it. Go watch some goblins overlord online anime, if you're into that garbage.

>>50873514
>>50873531

>Caravans are attacking
>Go investigate or defend against one

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>>50873676

> FANTASY setting
> Gods actively bless clerics and create entire races.
> Potatoes and orange carrots are unrealistic because they doesn't fit in any !Not!Europe setting.

>>50873724
If you never play tabletop before, go fuck yourself and get out of this board.
It shows.

>>50873540

>He seems to be ignoring you as much as you are ignoring him, but you can't shake the feeling that he feels disappointed about it.

>>50873587
I think a Greek Mythology inspired campaign where the gods are constantly showing up and fucking with people could be kinda cool.

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>>50873449
>the adventurers guild has imposed itself as the monopoly on dangerous freelance mercenaries
>this sounds fantastical and good when you explain it to the players that they're part of that
>really, as in real life, the monopoly does more harm than good even though it has a lot of NPC mouthpieces that claim the opposite
>adventurers always help the highest bidder, or they are arrested for unlicensed adventuring
>often times the highest bidder is not exactly a good guy
>the players will have to face the fact that they're not exactly the good guys either despite being told they were, or embrace the moral darkness they've been told to embrace

>>50873795
>every quest is killing some monster a god created due to poor impulse control

>>50873893
A campaign where you play as a group of unlicensed adventurers would be cool even having to fight against the guild eventually.

>>50873449
Adventurer guilds can work and make sense if they're contrrolled and taxed by the government.

Easy way of keeping tabs on really strong individuals.

>>50873449
>"I read on /tg/ that..."

>>50873969
>fighting lawyers at low levels
literally worse than vampires

>>50873969
Why won't you get licensed? You only have to pay for the test and renew your card once a year. You get discounts at bars and inns and have a free portal to use if you get stuck. For an extra premium, you can get free treatment at the healers guild too. Sign up today!

>>50873449
I never call them "adventurers' guilds" when I run games. I always call them explorers or archaeologists or monster hunters, since that's mainly what they do, right? Who makes all the sweet maps that everyone relies on? Who discovers the ancient relics and lost cities and ruins? Who keeps towns safe from the REALLY big nasties?

>>50873449
two player ones I've learned to be wary of

>so why do you travel with us mr. CN? t. another player at session 1
>I travel with you because I'm bored
>that's it?
>yes
then the countdown starts till they betray someone in the party for stupid reasons

the second one is just
>militant Paladin/Cleric in a campaign not built around their views

>>50874165
What is this bit about "95% of the dungeon exploration's earnings will go to the guild?"

"Adventurer's guilds" can work, although I'd never personally do them since I run more realistic campaigns, but what I now absolutely consider a red flag from past experiences is Adventurer's guilds that issue ranks (from F to A and then S, but then some guy, usually DMPC, is like SSS or something) and have a magical ID card with your rank on it.

That aside, a red flag I often encountered is when a player makes their character "very beautiful" or something to that extent, and if the system permits it, actually gets stats to that effect, but then their character is just a fighter or a mage or something that doesn't make use of that beauty.

I'm not saying that it can't be done well, but every player I've seen that did that has turned into an insufferable faggot down the line, and are usually the first to throw a tantrum when things don't go their way, in my experience.

in a fantasy setting, wouldn't it kinda make sense to have a adventurers guild?

with constant threats from everything from goblins to dragons, having an organization that manages heroes to solve these things seem like a fairly good idea.

the peasants got a know place that they can go to directly for aid, wich will be provided by people who are guaranteed (atleast according to the guild) to be able to handle the job at a more or less set price, while adventurers get more job security, potential benefits from more organized employments (adventurers guild discounts, etc, etc) and a forum where they can form groups, learn new shit from other adventurers and more easily earn fame (it's easier to gain recognition within tighter social circles)

if anything, just having a office that hands out important missions to literally who's on behalf of the city feels way dumber than a guild

>>50874218
"You can read?"

>>50873726
>The great war between caravans and convoys enters its second century

>>50874322

The problem is, if you have the sort of organizational level that permits a central clearinghouse for that sort of thing, why is it in the hands of mercenaries who have no oversight? And how come whatever government that is apparently permitting this sort of thing to go on hasn't tried to absorb or close down something that could so easily be a threat to its own power?

Freelancing adventurers "work" in kind of wild-west type settings, where official power is weak to nonexistant. Those sorts of places generally don't have the sort of infrastructure to set up guilds.

>>50874322
>in a fantasy setting, wouldn't it kinda make sense to have a adventurers guild?
Only if your fantasy setting facilitates having adventurer's guilds, like having constant threats from everything that somehow didn't get eliminated and cleaned up by the local army and the people don't move away to safer places.

I prefer settings where peasants aren't under constant threat from wandering monsters that can cleave a man in half with no effort, they make no sense to me and I don't enjoy them, they feel too artificial and unnatural.

But whatever floats your boat, I guess.

>>50873449
As a DM, I just renamed it to the local "Contractor's Guild", and described it as "mercenary work with a cheerful coat of paint." Though, it's usually Farmer Bob offering some schmuck ten gold to kill the goblin hiding in his closet and whatnot.

>>50873795
>You get a funny feeling about the swan...like it's checking you out

>>50874036
Isn't this what Iron Man wanted in Civil War?

>>50874421
But... closet goblins keep the sock gnomes from stealing the left sock from each matching pair! Why would you get rid of them?

>>50874444
Quad quads confirm, closet goblins protect you from those little gnome fucks.

>>50874438
yes

>>50874451
Yeah, but the little bastards then turn around and steal your underwear. The perverts.

>>50874506
That's why I keep mattress sprites to stop the goblins.

>>50873726
Fucking this. I want dungeons and dragons, not fucking caravans and bandits on some railroad to a location that's a lot cooler in the DM's head than it at the table.

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>>50873449
>Session starts with a friendly NPC being murdered/raped/etc. by the BBEG
>DM doesn't even let us try to save them or kill the BBEG.
>mfw this happens within the first five minutes of game

I've yet to see a DM pull this off and not have it be an obvious asspull to generate shitty drama and it's why I always start off as a nameless orphan w/ no friends or family.

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>>50873587
>any setting being fantasy american civil war

I fail to see any problem whatsoever with this. I'd love to play a fantasy Confederate. Have a knight with a Tidewater plantation drawl and everything, it'd be wonderful.

>>50874532
How many mythical creatures do you have in your bedroom?

>>50873740
Your new is showing child.

What sort of shitty campaign would glorify murderhobos who kill/steal/rape/etc. anything that moves? If anything, adventurers should be a necessary evil at best, especially after all the horror stories you'd find on what some crazy asshole decided to do at a table one time.

>>50874561
Well part of the problem with that is the BBEG rarely has a good reason for sparing you. If he's determined to kill the friendly NPC, it's not like a bunch of level 1 pissants are gonna do much to successfully impede him, and there's no reason -- if he's such a BBEG as to kill this NPC -- he wouldn't also just wipe the party. It's hamfisted to have him spare them 99% of the time.

>>50874615
Adding to this, in a setting in which PC's are prevalent, you'd think that the BBEG would go out of his way to murderfuck anyone who stands against him simply because of how many creatures were killed because they were arrogant or stupid.

I know I'd send my CR 21 demon prince to squash some PC's if my goal was to kill them, rather than to test them or some shit like that.

>>50874587
yes

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Players who want to roleplay Jagoff Alignments.
I've ran popular campaigns for decades really, in a few large towns as I've changed locations.
Always had players that insisted on playing atypical or what I call "jagoff alignments". By which I mean that almost without fail, the player using that alignment is going to be a game and party-disrupting jagoff, whether it's the intent originally or not.

So years back, I just dropped the Alignment system entirely. And a funny thing happened.
Players at my game tables stopped being troublesome jagoffs. Of course I still had silly Gishes and thinly veiled animu or novelized "adaptations", but the jagoff behavior almost completely vanished with the Alignment chart.

So my red flag is anyone who seems terribly disappointed that we aren't enforcing alignments on everything.
My Orcs are still belligerent and warlike, my Elves are still smug and self-satisfied, my halflings are still impetuous or homebodies and my humans are still opportunists.

I'm...sort of on the fence regarding Adventurers guilds.

I just got out of a campaign (mostly because the club I was part of disbanded) which framed our DnD adventures as our characters being magically abducted by a figure who may or may not be Dungeon Master from the old cartoon. Basically, our characters had the potential to be great and do great things. The actual Hall was basically a demiplane and we didn't get charged stupid amounts for membership. From a Doylist POV, being part of this guild allowed players who couldn't attend every session to basically drop in and out, as well as making it easier to introduce new players/characters.

That said, in-setting Adventurers Guilds kind of upset me. I can understand a Fighters Guild (Hey, you have to learn Power Attack SOMEWHERE) or a Companions style group (Martial-type troubleshooters (in that they locate trouble, then proceed to enact martial-type resolutions upon the trouble) who are the successors of a legendary hero), but outright Adventurer Guilds? Unless the setting is an Ankh-Morpork expy (where the Thieves and Assassins have their own guilds as a way of controlling the amount of theft and killings. Considering that the Thieves have moved to an "Insurance/Protection" model and the Assassins Guild school is seen as one of the best private schools on the Disc and that the Black Syllabus is optional, I'd say that it works), why would a city legitimize the actions of murderhobos?

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>>50874712
>which framed our DnD adventures as our characters being magically abducted by a figure who may or may not be Dungeon Master from the old cartoon.
This sounds like it could be ran to be genuinely fun, and at the same time still upset the Crustaceous Neckbeard busting chops on "children" in this thread.

But really, fuck him. He hasn't had fun in a TTRPG in ages.

>>50873449

>Dex based fighters putting 8 points in strength.

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>>50874712
btw, Thieves and Assassin guilds originated in the world of Nehwon way way back in the day.

The Thieves and Slayer's guilds of Lankhmar were officially the first.

My personal opinion on "Adventurer's guilds" is that a setting shouldn't really have enough "adventurers" to justify a guild or it even be a profession.

"Adventurers" (the kind that players in TTRPGs play, anyway) should be like a once-in-a-century deal or the like, and more a product of circumstance and not conscious choice.

I don't like it when people suddenly wake up one day and decide that they'll spend the rest of their lives fighting monsters and going into dungeons and defeating evil sorcerers. I prefer it when my players are some dudes who are placed in a bad situation and have to deal with it.

Adventurer's guild feel unnatural to me.

That said, I don't consider Adventurer's guilds to be a red flag, more like a flag that this game does not match my preferences.

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>>50873609
I feel bad for that leopard :(

>>50874737
Seriously, if they aren't planning on carrying around STR requisite Armor, why SHOULD they bulk up?
Maybe they want to be the runt or the skinny warrior (or the gurl).

>>50874591
Your bait is weak, newfriend.
Now fuck off to your own thread where you pretend to actually play tabletop offline before while begging to join any online groups.

>>50873449
>not unionizing
You deserve to get dicked over by the nobles.

>>50874832
No one else was going to feed him, just so you know.

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>>50873587
>fantasy american civil war
That sounds like the absolute coolest shit though.

What you got against adventurer guilds? Why wouldn't the fuckers who are continuously in the tavern eventually form a large group to look out for each other?

>>50873533
My favorite. As long as I didn't waste time choosing equipment I'll never get back and there's a plausible reason my lawful good character is in prison.

>>50874922
Setting aside the fact that they are direct competition to each other, oftentimes have strained relations just within the individual parties, and will inevitably involve Clerics and the like from various rival or even confrontational temples?

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>>50873736
>uses the term Not!Europe to refer to a region in his setting
>gets annoyed when people make comparisons to the real Europe

>>50873514
>caravans carry trade valuable/essential goods
>raiders want trade goods
>lack of security far from major cities
except for the mongols, i think caravan raids were frequent

>>50874844
>implying the nobles dont run the guild.


enjoy turning over half your loot some dude who has never even seen the inside of a dungeon.

>>50874307
Define "make use of that beauty"

What is your opinion on a flamboyant knight who always fights without a helmet and has long blonde hair?

>>50873449
my players love the adventurers guild i put in, so maybe the GM is only half the problem

>every NPC of significance is vastly higher level than you are
>they all make a point of telling you how little you matter
>any attempts to influence the setting or influential NPCs automatically fail

>>50875022
If it's a central part of your character and it comes up in play, then it's usually fine.

However, when it's tacked on and isn't a prominent feature of the character, particularly if the player paid a real cost to have that character feature, then it usually results in a bad character.

I'm not saying that playing a beautiful character is bad, I'm saying that bad players usually play beautiful characters.

>>50874412
i understand what you mean, but i think that you just need to put a slight bit of effort into worldbuilding and you could make it work. i hardly think having an organization that organized and redistributes manpower requires as much suspension of disbelief as "the world where super mighty magic exists, wielded by but a few, there has been very little in the way of wizards already ruling over literally the entire world" among a shitheap of other things. i mean, just something like random encounters break the world way harder than guilds, by the constant threat logic

for example either the army doesn't want to risk soldiers dying to goblins, or maybe they use it for talent scouting or maybe it's just a city state who got little in the way or an army, or maybe the army is the one that organizes the guild or the guild is allowed to operate across borders due to attempts at strengthening alliances or other political ties, and the people doesn't move because it's atleast as dangerous elsewhere


>>50874366
why would any government ever allow any form of magic in that case?

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>>50874781
This.

>>50874832
>bait is weak
>still replied
>projecting

I think you need to leave child, the adults are talking.

>>50874366
Aren't most fantasy settings 'wild-west' so to speak? Where the kingdom can barely stop the direwolves and goblins and rats within its own borders, let alone bigger threats like evil undead armies?

>>50875090
>>50874781
My party gets a kick from competing with rival adventurer parties, though

>>50875089
>"the world where super mighty magic exists, wielded by but a few, there has been very little in the way of wizards already ruling over literally the entire world" among a shitheap of other things.
>i mean, just something like random encounters break the world way harder than guilds
I don't like any of those in my settings either. As I said, I prefer my settings to be reasonable and plausible. Think LoTR, Black Company, Wheel of Time, Legends of Ethshar, stuff like that are the kind of feel I prefer for my games.

I'm sure I could worldbuild a world where adventurer's guild are a thing, but it will probably feel like a world that was built specifically to make adventuter's guilds a thing, and I don't like that feeling.

>>50875062
Fuck this shit, my first ever dnd was like that and the dm had to stop every little trouble we cause or were in by letting some lvl 20 dragon or rouge save the day.
FUCK YOU! YOU ALL POWERFUL DRAGON! FUCK YOU!

>>50874506
How do you think we get half goblins?

>>50875121
A lot of them are just "Shit is dangerous on the wild frontiers of the Empire, the ruins of an older civilization are teeming with feral remnants and weird magical experiments. And beyond that, There Be Dragons."

>>50873449
Adventurers' guilds are trash. Character-class oriented organizations and governing bodies are much better.
>Magic-users' guilds
>Monasteries
>Crusader orders
>Marauder
>Wizards' towers
>Knightly orders
>Bands of robbers
>Militias and armies
>Criminal gangs
>Royal orchestras and choirs
>Mercenary companies
>Performing bands
>Assassin cults
>etc etc

Then each character can be associated with different organizations, and the GM can have some flexibility in giving the PCs a variety of questgivers, who can in turn introduce them to new ones as desired.

>>50875203
>not wanting people of different classes to work together for a single purpose

>>50875155
Well, if you can't spare the men to either patrol those places where your people live or go in and clear out potential dangers, wouldn't it make sense to have a bunch of self-paid mercenaries go in and die for you? You don't have to pay the idiots to try and kill the dragon since they think they'll get enough payout just from the job alone. Unless the guild is taking a cut so damn massive without any compensation for it that they don't go in freely.
Still, if you can't fix an area, is it not better to let some random assholes die trying to fix it rather than waste the lives of your own people? And if you allow the guild house in your city then you can rely on adventurers not trying to randomly depose you.
Though >>50875203 is fine too. I'm going to put an endless, multi-planar spanning dungeon somewhere in my setting and the town that springs up from harvesting its riches will be the beginning of the unified adventurers' guild. Distributing guild so that it doesn't collapse economies, providing for common safety of the divers as well as care should they actually bring stuff out and so on.

>>50873533
Shit, is Kvatch going to get burned down again?

>>50874781
I only ever use adventure guilds in worlds that are infinite.

Then the party might run into a town with a guild hall, find guild marks or dead members in dungeon or just have a place for them to turn in bounties.

Not for high story games but for those old school games.

>>50873745
top kek

>>50875246
I find that having an adventurers guild makes my players feel like they are part of something bigger, that they live in a world where anyone can be a hero

It also gives it a more 80s /vr/ or OSR feel, like yeah these guys are professional dungeon divers, or monster hunters, it really sucks my players in more

>>50873736
>Potatoes
Do you have any idea of the socioeconomic changes that the humble potato wrought?It has no place in most fantasy settings.

>>50875297
by growing the citizens to be big and strong, it makes having big strong adventurers more reasonable to have

>>50873715
>>50873665
agree to what anon said, dont dump info. Give as general of an overview as possible to the players, just enough for them to know what they are in for and the tone of the setting (If you are a more experienced DM, bait and switch is sometimes fun, but dont try that as a first timer)

Do all of the things you listed for yourself, and use them to minimize the amount of things you make up on the fly. The world history, the characters, the creatures, the magic, the archeology and the geography, all those things will help YOU make the game world feel alive and real. Dont just info dump. Create a setting, which the players will explore

>>50873665
Don't have too much detail. Have a bit of it for the local town's atmosphere. Are the people worried, happy, mourning, etc. and why
This will also link adventure hooks to the town, and give ways to drop hints of what's happening in the wider world.

Kingdom's army score a major victory? People are probably going to be cheering.
Orc warband on a path near the city? Probably going to be scared, looking for weapons or packing to leave.

Have a couple ideas for interesting NPC personalities and names they can interact with. Just get a couple, and you can drop one in front of the PCs wherever they decide to go. You can flesh out the character's history later, just have a couple general details for them.
Ex: Local ranger, half elf, a bit short attention span, likes to go on tangents. PCs go to mayor? He's talking to him, trying to organize a hunting party for some harassing goblins. PCs go to tavern? He could be trying to recruit for something there. Wherever the PCs go, you can find a reason to drop the NPC in front of them.
Just don't force it too much, have a couple NPCs with different hooks on hand, to see what catches the players' interest.

>>50874587
There's definitely a fairy between the sheets...

>>50873893
>>really, as in real life, the monopoly does more harm than good even though it has a lot of NPC mouthpieces that claim the opposite
>>adventurers always help the highest bidder, or they are arrested for unlicensed adventuring
t.Commie

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>The group lets the blatant munchkin end the game in the first hour because the GM is unwilling to rein him in.

Someday I would like to play a game where failure has a chance of happening.

>>50874770

It wasn't that I was objecting to the idea of Assassin and Thieves guilds. I think that they provide a good bit of flavor to the world.

An Ankh-Morpork expy city has guilds for EVERYTHING. Teachers guild, Butlers guild, "Seamstress" guild, Builders guild, Igors guild, Beggars guild, Prisoners guild (implied to be a branch of the Thieves guild) and so on. Majority of these were created by the current leader so that the heads of the guild would argue between themselves while he quietly governs.Think of them like Unions that ensure that the appropriate profession gets a fair deal and keeps a certain level of consistency when a member is hired. In some cases, the Guild will crack down on those who are not part of the guild and discourage hiring non-guild members.

In other words, unless there is a ton of guilds, having an "adventurers guild" doesn't make much sense. If you wanted to have the players be part of guilds, have them be "volunteered" by the heads of their respective guilds (Fighters Academy, Mages College, Their Church, Bards Conservatory) for a joint-guild group

(I get the feeling that if someone wanted to start and Adventurers Guild in Ankh-Morpork, the Tyrant would not allow its formation or require it to be called something like the Murderhobo Guild, as a "Hero" usually commits acts of vandalism, murder, pillaging and possibly rape in doing Heroic things.A Hero usally breaks things, finds treasure, kills people/beings they consider "evil" and take advantage of people who are not in a state-of-mind to be giving consent. Yes, this sounds a bit SJW, but Heroism, like Beauty, is in the eye of the beholder)

>>50875423
if the munchkin derails a game, dont waste your adventure save it for next time, and then teach the munchkin a lesson

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>>50874781

>I don't like it when people suddenly wake up one day and decide that they'll spend the rest of their lives fighting monsters

Pic related

>>50873449
>guild
>implies chartered monopolistic control of a particular market or industry
>on adventurers, which isn't an actual profession
>on people whose whole existence is based around wandering around and doing oddjobs and not staying in one place
Either the DM doesn't know how a guild or economics works, or the kingdom is actually some type of magical dystopia where the kingdom has the ability to process and tax even vagrants with actual efficiency and enforce such a ridiculous federally mandated monopoly/directly controlled market.
Then again, it would be cool to be a seditious element trying to fight against this dystopian magical socialist/communist tyranny and create an underground Free Adventurers Movement

>>50875378
>implying that monopolies aren't at their worst when federally mandated under communist control
>implying monopolies aren't super rare in a proper free-market system, and aren't usually indicative of an issue caused by a overreaching federal control or subsidy fueled commodities markets
You are no true American

>>50875466
Is that referring to the player characters, or the players themselves?

>>50875145
I had this in a pathfinder game. The GM ran a campaign based off of dragon slaying. As you'd expect, the dragons tended to overpower our low lever party most of the time, and even when we'd manage to outsmart and defeat one, he'd pull some asscrap and turn it around on us.

This was always and excuse to bring in his snowflakey half-dragon rogue DMPC to save the day.

I'd say I hated the game, but I met some pretty cool people who are now part of my regular gaming group.

>>50873665

>>50875316
>>50875321
While this is good advice and you should definitely listen to it, sometimes you just can't avoid infodumps, particularly if you're running a homebrew setting instead of an established one.

In that case what I usually do is prepare a small document (never more than 2 pages of double-spaced 12pt text) that explains the basics as concisely as possible, including stuff like:

>What is the world like?
>What is the main premise of this campaign and where is it set?
>What is the location of the campaign like (including brief local history)?
>What races and kingdoms/nations are there that players can choose from?
>What gods (if any) can the players worship and what are their main features?
>What is society like and how it is organized?

Stuff like that. Helps a lot with character creation at the beginning. Then I usually have a separate session for character creation so we can work together on making characters that work within the world (and since I run GURPS, I also let them know what is and isn't allowed).

I do have a lot of background information to myself, but as the other posts have said, I keep to myself and only reveal as appropriate, never in infodumps.

>>50875442
It doesn't matter. I have one more session with them and I'm moving to a new city.

Now if they discover roll20, I might have to tell them bluntly no.

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I dunno man, I think Adventurer's Guilds can work.

In my current campaign, the players are in a city that sits at the boundary of former imperial land (Roman-esque collapse 200 years ago) and "wild" land beyond. The city is part of a duchy, but there are some sorts of threats and opportunities that aren't quite fully suited to the already thinly stretched constabulary or noble retinues. Nasty creatures breed in the dark, people need protection, old imperial ruins need plundering, minor bullies need dealing with, sometimes the government needs some extra contractors.

Over time, some people doing these tasks eventually realized that if they stuck together, they'd have an easier time getting reliable contracts, rather than trying to undercut eachothers fees they could price fix, and offer a limited sort of group insurance. Different rulers have had different attitudes towards the Guild; some have driven it underground, some have openly sponsored it as an extension of the regular constabulary and militia. Internal governance also changes from time to time, but tends to be generally democratic or based on favor. If there is a dispute as to who gets a certain contract, it is left to a vote or drawing of lots.

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>Obvious plot hook directing us towards a dragon
>even though we're never above level 5 and its always in the first two sessions
GOD DAMN IT STOP YOU DO THIS EVERY CAMPAIGN. FUCK DISTANT ROARS, FUCK THE DRAGONHUNTERS ROAMING THE NEARBY HILLS, FUCK RUMORS OF RICHES HIDDEN IN CAVES, AND FUCK YOU.
Especially when one of them forced us to draw from the deck of many things

>>50875492

The characters.

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>Spouting retarded meme shit before the start of a game
>A shitty obvious joke/comment halfway through a GM's exposition
>A player leaving until an hour or two before session to finalize things or ask questions

Any of these and I quit the group with apologies to the GM for having wasted his time.

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>>50874366
>>50873449

See, the way to solve that is competing guilds. Have a bunch on moderate sized guilds like PMCs competing for contracts and land stakes. Talkie players can cover contract and land disputes with local government, sneaky types gather blackmail and target prominent competitors, fighty types enforce stakes and fulfill contracts.

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>>50875662
>A player leaving until an hour or two before session to finalize things or ask questions
>A player asks questions
Could you elaborate? I think my reading comprehension is going down the toilet.

>>50875726
>Players agree to play on Saturday
>During the week there are many conversations and such
>Player X is present for all of them
>Player X does not try to fix his character or address any problems he has during this time
>Two hours before the game he says he has a few things he needs to hammer out
>Delays the game for an hour while the GM has to hand-hold him through this shit

>>50875748
Thanks, sorry for not understanding the first time.

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>GM tells you the campaign is going to very "gritty" and "realistic"

>>50875777
always code for edgy as fuck for no reason

>>50875777
Gritty and realistic always means "no fun allowed because I am in a bad mood so fuck you all".

>>50875821
add to that
>PC deaths with no rolls to simulate dying IRL on the DM's whim

>>50874817
That's a fucking Cheetah, dude.

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>>50874218
>What is this bit about "95% of the dungeon exploration's earnings will go to the guild?"

I kekked.

>BBEG is never seen in person
>In fact, the BBEG is never seen at all or directly dealt with
>Campaign ends with the vague implication that their plans failed and they just gave up

>>50875716
That's interesting and you gave me a whole slew of ideas. I love remembering why I lurk shitflinging threads.

>>50875916
I think the end of the campaign is a little late for a red flag.

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>>50875951

>>50873449

>>Make a dark secret/being on the run/secret identity part of your backstory
>>first session, wake up in prison/chains/DMPC's house with rest of party
>>He introduces you all to each other, spills all your secrets

>>50876062
People who do this are the reason why I never put much backstory into my characters anymore.

In the past, I would create elaborate backstories on who they were before game began, nowadays I just play Neutral Mercenaries with no depth since I'm just going to be killing mobs anyways for most of the game.

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What about Monster Hunter's Guilds? Just a Merc guild that exclusively goes after nasty beasties for people that are pissed about the beasties/want bits of the beasties for whatever they're doing? And sometimes the beasties take up residence in your local wizard's tower/crypt/dungeon/fortress? and sometimes the beasties are Human?

>>50874561
I had this feeling when our bro beholder bar keep died in the villains town ransacking, but luckily the game turned out okay, it was also his first effort at a home cooked campaign so we can go easy on him

It did happen again with our Tengu general dude who we instantly enjoyed, but that had a better point being related to a murder mystery and was technically avoidable as we'd learn later

>>50876062
>spills all your secrets
Shit man, what I hate more than that is when the DMPC can read your mind or force you to sit down with his mind or whatever, which is a red flag in itself, but then when it comes time to interact with NPCs, the DMPC suddenly loses the ability to do any of that to them, that's just a signal to walk away from the table.

Over the years, I've come to realize that the most significant red flag to me is the lack of consistency within the game world, when the DM routinely forgets details, or changes what an NPC can do or how magic works as it is convenient to him. It immediately lets me know that the DM isn't putting forward the effort and isn't really interested in running a game as much as he is in telling his own story. It's usually noticeable within the first three sessions.

>>50874997
You realize most fantasy settings are just medieval Europe with elves, goblins, and magic, right?

>>50874438
>>50874452
Yes, except it doesn't work because adventurers/superheroes sometime have to work outside the Law to do the right thing, Tony's ideas had some merits but it shackled the Avengers and mutants and other heroes worldwide to the Law, which as Captain America and the movie points out doesn't let them act when it's necessary because Bureaucracy wastes too much time.

>>50873893
>>50873969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIDgJilvvyg

>>50875466
But the guild in monster hunter is the fantasy DNR, not an adventurer's guild

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>>50873449
>>setting is confirmed to have no afterlife of any kind

>>50874561
>Dm casts command person spell on you
>has you murder your family with your bare hands
>for horror and dramatic effect
>Level 1 prologue
too edgy

>>50876269
I enjoy settings with no afterlife and no gods of any kind.

As a bonus points, those settings usually have no resurrection.

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>>50874165
>free portal to use if you get stuck
>Be Wizzard
>Joined the guild when I was younger, and with friends, but since most of my friends have passed away and I'm getting stronger, I just stopped renewing
>Years later, guild rep contacts me and informs me due to lack of qualified personal, I'm now essentially a tow truck
>Let them know that I haven't paid dues in years and that I'm a fucking wizzzard and will turn them into newts if I feel so inclined
>Informed that my guild status was reinstated, which means that I don't pay dues, but am still required to serve as a tow truck
>Tell guild rep no and to fuck off
...
>10 months later
>Now a guild tow truck
>Guild had sent a an entire squadron of adventurers to 'convince' me and realized that they would keep sending groups until either I kill the leadership or wind up dead
>Tried hiding, did not work
>Tried leaving this plane, did not work
>Tried making my own plane where only I could enter and exit, did not work
...
>It's 2am when I get the message to retrieve a group who are still alive, but crippled
>Pop in
>Warrior is dead from wounds, Elf ranger's legs are crushed, the Human Bard has his flute sticking out of his ribcage, and their mage seems to be alive in name only.
>Start getting the living to the other side of the, only to find our their rogue is deeper in the cave and that they can't find him
>Tough_shit.exe
>Elf is now crawling with her broken legs dangling behind her in an effort to beg me to save him
>Fine but only because I don't need the guild up in my ass about this
>blah blah blah, big bad evil guy about to kill rogue blah blah turn him into a newt blah blah
>Port the rogue
>Thanks for saving us mister what's your na-
>Port out of there
...
>Months later, they find where I live, and are trying to recruit me to fight some other dickwad with a god complex.
Fuck me, all I wanted to do was enjoy some mead and read this book about runic symbols.

>>50873533
I kinda did this to my current group. They were OOCly told not to bother with character background stories or even pick a name; ICly they awoke strewn around in a mangled metal room with broken lighting with no memories of themselves.

>>50874781
What's the difference between going off to join an adventurer's guild or going off to join Blackwater? It seems perfectly reasonable to me for a government to contract civilan security forces.

>>50876296
>DM casts command person
>No Will Save
>Forces you to kill/rape/dismember/etc. family and friends
>Narrates entire ordeal in disgusting detail
>Also makes sure that you know that your character is aware of everything that's happening.
>Level 1 prologue
>First Session
>Somehow surprised when everyone decides not to show up next week

I tell ya, it's like these people got their GMing tips from George R.R. Martin.

>>50875908
Cheetah are literally too fast to hunt my dude

>>50876327
To each his own, it just sounds like edgy atheism to me. I'm not religious in real life, but I don't burden a setting with my personal beliefs. It's worse when characters come back from the dead and say they experienced nothingness, or just blackness and nothing else. Somehow their senses are retained in the oblivion that is death.

Nothing.
It's just several /v/irgins trying to act elitist to feel superior despite never playing any tabletop before.

>>50876403
>>50876366

>>50876382
On the other hand, to me setting with gods just became boring overtime because they tend to justify a lot of things with "Gods did it, fuck off."

Seems lazy and unimaginative.

Of course if the setting is confirmed to have no afterlife but characters still come back from the dead (resuscitation and medicine aside, that is), then that's a red flag.

>>50876421
Uh... No u?

>>50876377
I know that's not true, that trophy is a Cheetah the spots are completely incompatible with a Leopard's whose spots are always in the shape of slightly wonky rings and they are also bigger and more meaty than Cheetahs.

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>>50873449
>>obviously false stories of past games
Person with blue hair (of course) talking about how they played a D&D campaign that ended with a confrontation with the Goblin King who took off his helmet to reveal a luchadore mask who then challenged them to wrestling.

Same goes for most 'critical fumble' stories like accidentally marrying an enemy with diplomacy or any relevant skill.

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>>50876377
Sounds like you're too slow.

>>50876433
ASOIAF did this, so did Torchwood/Doctor Who. Bugged me to no end, but didn't surprise me considering who wrote it.

>>50876382
I dunno, thinking a setting needs to have gods and an afterlife to not be edgy sounds hardcore christfag to me.

>>50876382
I hear you, its best to keep it all ambiguous anyway, it makes playing a religious character and roleplaying the test and leap of faith all the more interesting when its a gamble

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>>50876461
Who needs speed?

>>50876366
Adventurer's Guilds have a bit of a different flavor than a Mercenary outfit.

Nothing's stopping you from fluffing your Adventurer's guild like it was Blackwater or whatever, but most Adventurer's guilds I've seen are fluffed like they're straight from a shitty JRPG.

>>50876480
You misunderstand. Its not that it "needs" to have a confirmed afterlife or gods, rather its best when there's no way to confirm any of it at all one way or the other.
It makes for a compelling narrative, just like it does in real life.

>>50876403
Elitists exist everywhere, not just /v/.

>>50876480
>>gods
>>christfag
Also, there's more religions than just Christianity. It's more the specific mention that there is nothing after death. Like >>50876484
says, ambiguous is best.

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.>>50876377
>Cheetah are literally too fast to hunt my dude


It's easy! You just lead them a bit more!

>>50873449
>One of the players are trying to moral police everyone else

Fairy Tail is a pretty shitty manga/anime but its guilds are an okay basis for stuff like that. I avoid making any fuck-off powerful ones with an all epic membership like in FT though.

>>50876504
Let's be honest, famalam, when was the last time your party didn't end up in a questionable operation where they weren't supposed to be?

>>50876535
Man, everytime Fairy Tail is brought up, I get dissapointed.
It had promise to be a semi-intersting shonen, but it turned into so much shit.

Which is a shame because Rave Master, the writer's previous work, was bretty nice.

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>>50876377
>>50876461
>>50876501
>Cheetah are literally too fast to hunt

And that, governor, is why fully automatic weapons are perfectly legitimate for wild game hunting.

>>50876506
I think you also misunderstand, I don't think I've ever seen a setting that specifically said "There is no afterlife and there are no gods."

When I say that I like settings with no afterlife and no gods, it doesn't mean that I exclude religions from my settings and there are people walking around with mathematical proof that there are no gods. It means that whatever religions and beliefs are in this worlds are not confirmed and there are no gods actively (and provably) interfering with the world.

When I say that I don't like settings with gods in them, I mean that I don't like settings where Gods are a confirmed part of daily life, and nearly omnipotent to boot (at least when compared to puny mortals).

And I specifically dislike the concept of a provable afterlife because that necessarily means that resurrection is possible, and I really don't like playing games where resurrection is possible.

>>50873565
...who was found three years ago wandering the woods alone shellshocked out of rational thought, and has only two goals in life,
1)get strong enough to swing his father's sword,
2)find faceless assholes in red(dish?) armor and end them, all of them, and everything they ever held dear.

To be fair, "DM" had already started to replace "referee" by the late 70s. So it may not be the preferred term, but it's entirely legitimate.

Unless, of course, you're
>implying RPGs other than D&D are relevant,
in which case, top kek old boy.

>>50876686
Woah, dude, pathfinder is way more relevant than dusty old D&D!

>>50876538
In that case, an Adventurer's guild would be closer to a Thieves guild or an Assassin's guild (which are also pretty dumb concepts) than a public organization.

Anyway, let me clarify my point. I don't mind the idea of a bunch of tough guys getting together into an organization and selling their services as a group, perhaps even calling themselves a guild. But it gets stupid when a setting has THE Adventurer's guild, as in, a single, overarching organization that controls, ranks, and sells the services of every single "adventurer" and is present in every nation and town on the planet, and where "adventurer" is an occupation that you live off like a day job and a sizeable portion of the populations is and "adventurer."

>>Adventurers Guild
Mercenary Company

>>Thieves Guild
Mafia.

>>Mages Guild
University.

>>50876375
yeah pretty much. He specifically asked me to write up a familial relationship for my character. Someone this character actually cared about. What was going through my head was optimistic. I thought the npc would be connecting point or something to ground the character. Or at the very least a kidnap target. so I actually sat down and wrote a little about a ExThief who is divorced but has a loving daughter. You can guess which one it the sacrificial lamb. After that I turned him into a full criminal and nose tanked any redemption. I was simply, fuck it non of these npcs matter I'm not getting invested. It continued up til after our first combat and the GM introduces the jaded quest giver.

>>50873449
I like the idea of an adventurers guild, mostly as a way to keep track of and regulate murder hobos, and provide an exscuse for law enforcement to arrest or fine those who don't get their guild liscencing in order. Good source of income for the kingdom, makes the commoners happy because they see the troublemakers being taxed instead of them. Adventurers still flock to adventuring because of the sheer profits involved plus their other adventury bullshit

It's basically a necessity in any high fantasy campaign, imo

>>50873449
> Pathfinder Society

OP mental retardation confirmed

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>>50876575
>he still want to use automatic weapons for hunting

It's anti-tank guided missiles now, grandpa.

>>50876746
I absolutely agree that a world monopoly on the adventuring business and adventurer/peasant ratios greater than one are bad, but the anon I replied to said silly things like adventurers should only come around once every century. They shouldn't all the level 30 demigods with ten classes and three races, but the drive to go out and see/do extraordinary shit isn't nearly that uncommon.

I abhor DMPCs. The DM must be focused on the party's entertainment and not having his self-insert edgy character guide the PCs around, saving their asses, etc.

How exactly can civilization maintain itself if there is enough of a market for adventurers that they can swing the numbers, money and influence necessary to form a guild? Is every settlement a self-contained fortress with scores of unlooted ancient tombs, respawning bandit camps and hordes of roving monsters right outside of their walls? All sorted out in a level-appropriate order so adventurers in different skill brackets can all reliably make a living off their work?

>>50876901
It's more or less universally agreed dmpcs are only acceptable when they're there to help the party by providing a healer or a tank or whatever is needed in a low-key way. Also waifus

>>50876926
The setting is on a freshly discovered (read: colonized) continent with small pockets of civilization surrounded by hostile natives, ancient ruins, and societies castoffs

The Not Roman Empire has collapsed and we are now in the Not Darkages where actual civilized settlements are rare, barbarian hoardes looking for food and land sweep the horizon, robber barons get fat off the weak, and ancient little understood relics from a more enlightened era dot the landscape

The term Adventurer itself is just a polite society term for explorer and mercenary, invented by noble families who wanted to justify their third and fourth sons going off to make sums of money anf earning glory for their families alongside the other professional rabble but without the public shame of being called a mercenary or sellsword, which is synonymous with the lower class.

>>50876899
I'm the same anon actually, and I still maintain that heroic adventurers (the kind PCs are) should be very very rare, and adventurers in general should also be rare, and "adventurer" shouldn't be a profession you can live off of, but a way to describe other people.

Hell, look at the size of the US Armed Forces, it barely reaches 1,300,000 active personnel (in a country of 318 million people), and I doubt even half of those will ever be within 100 miles of combats. It's been like that throughout all the history. You vastly overestimate the drive and amount of people wanting to put their lives in danger for a bit of money or the chance to bang exotic beauties.

>>50875777
It can also mean "I just read a certain book or watched a certain movie, and my imagination is really working."

It can also mean "I just thought of a way to impose harsh penalties on the player characters in the name of realism."

>>50876998
>>50876926
The astral barrier between this world and the elemental plane of dungeins has been torn. Now any region not regularly explored or seen by human eyes will bring to spawn increasingly more dangerous monsters, as well as generate its own loot. Seldom used wine cellars will just get giant rats and small boxes of gold occasionally, hidden forest caves start generating goblin tribes and their savage plunder. One continent has already been lost due to lack of dungeon tending and now ships of undead legions are launching from across the sea led by dragons with no other goal than the absorption of this plane into theirs
The real armies are concentrating on fighting this threat, so contractors are used to handle local issues

>>50874561

Dude, I once played an online game with some guy who DMed a dark elf attack with a rape of a princess or something. Apparently he was a system admin of a major porn website. Fucking creepy and almost made me quit the hobby.

>>50876998
First two don't really work if you apply logic to them, and the third one doesn't actually address my question.

>>50877048
I'll be honest, if you pitched a game like that to me, I wouldn't play. Doesn't sound interesting.

>>50876926
Ask your stupid brain how does a society justify having private military contractors and private investigators when there is so much cops about?

When you grow up and go out of your college, you will find the answer as well

>>50877081
>>50877101
I do not know you but I am filled with an immediate dislike of you both. However i respect your right to your opinions

>>50877127
The feeling is mutual. This must be the kind of red flags this thread is about.

>>50873564
I hate this one. Drives me nuts every time.

>>50876772
The problem is there are always assumed to be numerous mercenary companies, mafia groups, and universities depending on where you go.
Most shitty fantasy settings/GMs have ONE OVERARCHING adventurers guild, thieves guild, and mages guild for the entire world. THAT is the problem.

>>50876998
>The term Adventurer itself is just a polite society term for explorer and mercenary, invented by noble families who wanted to justify their third and fourth sons going off to make sums of money anf earning glory for their families alongside the other professional rabble but without the public shame of being called a mercenary or sellsword, which is synonymous with the lower class

oh I like this one. It's aristocratic romanticism covering up the very brutal but pragmatic reality.

>Adventure starts at level 1
>Yeah, my character is a 2000 year old elven warlord and very powerful sorcerer who was famous all across the land but then lost his power because <insert reason here> and now his objective is to get it back. But he still has all his memories.

>>50877185
New poster here. Can I ask why this one is a red flag?

>>50877217
You know, I somehow have less problem with one universal Mages Guild (or many local mages guilds operating under a set of rules they agree upon) that I have with a universal Adventurer's guild or Thieves guild.

>>50877117
>Ask your stupid brain how does a society justify having private military contractors and private investigators when there is so much cops about?
Neither of those things work like you think they do.

>>50877127
Fair enough.

>>50873969
My players choose to do this once. The setting had an Adventuring Guild, but the players decided to "screw the Man" and go freelance. The Guild had a Good alignment bent, and about half the party were unrepentant lifetime members of the Bastard Society.

So instead of...literally any support whatsoever, they braved the depths of a cursed tomb with only the shirts off their backs, and were surprised when they were overwhelmed by legions of the dead. It took four sessions of constant combat to clear one level of the damn tomb, all because they decided against buying discount holy water from the goddamn Guild.

Whenever there's no separation between game mechanics and the setting.

>"I know you said no evil characters, but I decided to make a Chaotic Neutral Assassin guy who straight up murders anyone he wants."

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I don't have a problem with the idea of an adventurer's guild. It can be a useful thing for a DM planning an adventure or campaign to give things structure, or as an avenue to get players involved.

It can be small and interesting like a local club (think Skyrim) or a local chapter of a larger organization that has its base much further away (hooks for later adventures), -- or it can be a more monolithic organization like the Royal Geographic Society, with rules and politics and such. PFS was interesting in that regard. A MMORPG's player's guild is what I think is spoiling everyone's idea of it in-game.

Nothing wrong with having a club to which the PC's belong, rather than having them murder-hoboing their way across the globe.
>"You receive a letter from the Royal Adventurer's Society asking you to investigate a strange occurrence in a town near you..." etc.

>>50877315
I like to imagine it was the corpses of their previous characters that filled/clogged all the traps that killed them on that first level.

>>50877359
Ah yes, Chaotic Neutral, the "I want to play an evil character but don't want to write "evil" on my character sheet" alignment.

There are few bigger red flags than that.

>>50877359
this x 1000

>>50877324
>Tell players that magic is less strictly defined in setting than in regular d&d, but we'll use standard classes for convenience sake
>one player keeps asking people IC what class they are
>eventually have one guy refer to himself as a sorcerer (was in fact a druid/cleric hybrid)
>player got butt mad when said NPC wasn't sorcerer class

>>50877324
It's a much worse one if fluff and crunch don't acknowledge each other. I've seen my fair share of 'legendary champions' who were level 15 d&d fighters with shield and longsword and completely incapable of doing anything they were credited with achieving.

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>>50877368
>"You receive a letter from the Royal Adventurer's Society asking you to investigate a strange occurrence in a town near you..." etc.
I approve.

>>50877415
No. None of that. Shame on you.

>>50877421
>>Player hands you a card with a large X drawn on it after one of your other players tortures an NPC for information

>>50877482
"What the fuck is this? What is this supposed to mean?"
"Use your words, like an adult."

>>50874615
Completely unrelated, but, as a PC, I've always wanted to get rich and powerful enough to hire a big merc company for a job, then betray and kill all but four of them (whom I would knock unconscious or whatever) after the job was done. Just to see what would happen, and if the GM would take advantage of this for whatever ironic purposes he has.

>>50877508
>>Said player hands you another X
Did you not read their trigger manual?

>>50877530
I only skimmed the pronouns section.

>>50877242
It's just that as level 1 characters, you should be beginning to make your way in the world, without any noteriety, rather than getting a job from the king

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>>50877242
>New poster here. Can I ask why this one is a red flag?
The implication is that in a game with character levels, the king of an entire country probably should have a number of high-level (as in, level 15+) adventurers that he can call on for help, rather than entrusting the safety of his kingdom to a bunch of noobs who might die during their first random encounter.

>>50877561
fair enough.

>>50877587
Assuming the monarchy is hereditary, I don't see why the king would have to be. He could easily be more of an Elagabalus type whose only claim to the throne is blood.

>>50877561
>>50877587
What if in your setting there's parts of the world out in the frontier/periphery where any schmuck with a horse, armor, sword, castle, and enough similarly equipped schmoes claiming to be loyal to them calls themselves a king?

>>50873724
What if the players start one?

>>50877648
No, not the KING is high level, but the king HAS COMMAND OVER high level lackeys.

>50873587
>you meet a god(s) and they are active in your business every session or story point

Isn't that literally the entire conceit of exalted?

>>50876377
A human can walk down a cheetah.

>>50877753
He probably means god in the D&D sense of "near almighty being" instead of in the Exalted sense of "functional in a not-Chinese celestial bureaucracy".

DM can't act or has a poor sense of storytelling for his narrative.

>>50876671
Is that supposed to be an improvement?

>>50876166
You realize that flipping out over potatoes makes you seem somewhat unhinged when you also unquestioningly accept numerous gonzo fantasy elements, right?

>>50876269
>>50876327
>ever confirming or denying what does or does not happen after the player characters die
Best my players will get is
>"Followers of this religion usually think XYZ happens, but it's not like you can really check. Sure you get some folks who claim to have seen it during near-death experiences, or when they get bombed out of their minds on mushrooms, or something like that. The accounts are about as sketchy and inconsistent as in real life. Some could be true, but some could easily have been fever dreams, lies, or hallucinations."

The really scary part of dying is not being certain of what happens next. If you know for a fact you'll get your 99 virgin catgirls plus a stripper factory next to a beer waterfall, then it's not quite so scary and heroic sacrifice seems like a pretty solid idea overall. Even if you are pretty sure of the basics, but you're not *quite* sure if your teenage years still qualify you for eternal torment, then death is a pretty unnerving prospect. So I think that maintaining that ambiguity is important for helping PCs have a fear of death.

>>50877894
It's a sound foundation.

>>50875803
>the first critical hit you take at lvl 1 cleaves your arm and part of your torso off
>no, you're not at 0 hp

>>50873449
I dunno man, I'm a huge sucker for the generic fantasy cliches done in quirky ways. Really gives a setting a rustic and comfortable feeling to it. Not everything has to push the boundaries, you know?

The setting I'm using at the moment has a whole bunch of adventurer guilds which essentially function as competing mercenary groups and operate on a heirarchy outside of the local rulership, arranging rules of conduct, keeping tabs on contracts, and mediating disputes via a guild council that includes members from the forty four guilds who sent a champion and won the previous guild tournament, of which one is held every four years.

>>50873540
Yeah i played with a GM for a couple campaigns who thought that overused and obvious cliches played out exactly as expected were hilarious, so the entire game was nothing but the most boring and derivative shit, intentionally made as dull and predictable as possible because that was so "clever". So I've had this exact exchange more than a few times.

>>50873449
I wouldn't consider this a warning sign. For some games, if they are more generic fantasy and light, it makes sense. And some groups of players absolutely have to have an NPC overlord, a boss who gives them orders, or they just kind of sit around in taverns, turn down quests for not being profitable enough, get into fights with peasants, and complaining the game is too boring. So it might just be a reaction to more passive players.

>>50873652
Underrated post right here.

>>50878193
you have an ultrahipster DM then why the fuck did you play with him after the first campaign?

Societies completely based on hereditary rules, like hereditary monarchies/dynasties, being tolerant to anything but arranged marriages.

>>50873449
What if in response to an adventure guild, the monsters/bandits of the world set up their own guild?

Be gang style warfare between guilds while the nations of the world back either or in the hopes they will fight in a kind of proxy war against nations backing the opposing guild.

I don't think kings or anyone in power would like the idea of closed societies of superpowered characters running amok. What if the adventurer's guild decides to quest to remove the king?

>>50878424
then the king hires adventurers to stop those adventurers

>>50878424
The Adventurer's Guild might not be the only game in town in terms of high-powered individuals, just the only ones who do stupid things like delve into eldritch horror-infested dungeons or chase after elder dragons for money. I could imagine a king keeping a Royal Guard full of the scariest warriors and sorcerers in the kingdom at his command.

>>50878554
you might think a guild devoted to giving all these murderhobos work, would place some kind of control, if only to make sure that their revenue is not threatened by being implicated in regicide

also killing the king is under the purview of the assassins guild, you may have a throwdown if you step on their toes

>>50873514
>>50873531
>There are caravans being attacked
>Help the bandits looting it.

I really want to make adventurers guilds be small and numerous and they all compete over work either given by the local government or private investors,
but it conflicts so much with my romanticized vision of those guilds being a gang of happy go lucky misfits that just want to have some fun adventuring,
instead I get literal private military contractors with all the non-happy go lucky implications that come with it.

Of course I could also just leave behind my childish obsession with noble heroes doing noble work and just make a campaign that is basically MGS4 in a fantasy setting, private adventurers guilds have largely replaced armies in the world and are in a bloody and worn out conflict over who gets the best and most expensive contracts.
The war and destruction those guilds leave behind force the suffering people to take up arms themselves and also join another guild to support their families which turns into a vicious cycle of constant war.

>>50878610
both is good
sometimes you want an old school /vr/style Romp of adventure, other times just go game of thrones

>>50875062
Yeah, one of the first games i was ever in was like this. Veing young and naive, i got the players to have a talk with him where we all explained how it was not fun for us. He acted super sorry and humble, promised to change, then made it even worse in the next game. Killed some of our characters with enemies three or four times stronger than us, and haf his all powerful DMPCs harvest lur bodies for parts.

Guy was super butthurt when half of us left and started another game. He was in his 50s, but spent weeks brooding about how we had backstabbed him. It was weird.

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>Gods regularly have children with mortals
>The children are completely bumfuck normal with no divine powers at all

>>50876332
fucking LOL

>>50878668
He sounds like this old fucker I was friends with on Ps4 for a time, doubt he's the same person but man I understand your situation there.

>>50876062
Or likewise, if your character's motivation is resolved by thd GM in the first hour of play.

>>50876062
>Not getting together as a group and collaboratively creating backstories and relations
Otherwise you have a situation where you need to shoehorn a bunch of characters together that wouldn't go together.

>>50873540
>He ignores you more.

In all seriousness, I put shady strangers in ever corner in every tavern, just so the players can't sit there.

If provoked, they rip open their coats to start selling red and green herbs and magnum ammo.

>>50878407
>bandits set up their own guild
So a gang?

>>50878828
Sounds like it.

>>50878828
Well the Thieves Guild is basically a Mafia, why not have the Bandit Guild be a more modern Gang.

>>50877391
I've played lots of CN characters and nome of them were evil. It's frustrating the archetype has such a bad rep.

Please, don't call it a Guild. You are neither craftsmen nor merchants.

>>50878268
Believe it or not, at that club, he was the best one aroumd by a mile.

>>50873449
>I don't really expect much, but It would be cool if I could get a few lines about your character
>everyone gives me about a paragraph that sums up their character
>one guy gives me a three page word document

>>50878870
>>50878407
>bandit
>guild
Aren't bandits supposed to be disorganized groups of outlaws? Why would they have a guild? Doesn't that make them, yknow, not bandits anymore?

>>50878891
Our Craft VIOLENCE!
Our wares DEATH!

No where else can you get such great deals!

>>50878891
They are craftsmen, their craft is killing monsters and exploring dungeons/the frontier and other planes depending on setting.

>>50878901
That sounds fucked up, but good for you then finding the one nugget of decency in a pile of shit.

>>50878906
>guild of outlaws
basically medieval COBRA

>>50878906
Gangs were originally disorganized groups of criminals, that came together for greater profit.
Same thing with bandit "guilds"

>>50878942
A large group of bandits isn't a guild of anything, it's just a bunch of assholes camping outside the city and robbing people.

>>50878878
I played a CN character from the streets who was a bit selfish and capricious. He kind of teetered between good and evil. When it came to poor and working class people he tried to do charity and help them selflessly. But when it came to nobles he was prepared to slaughter them if given an excuse. How badly did I fuck up?

>>50879011
That doesn't stop themselves from calling themselves a guild, and killing other Bandits who don't join their 'guild'

>>50878891
The middle ages saw plenty of guilds that had nothing to do with your profession. Frith guilds, egalitarian guilds, religious guilds... Harsh times saw people join together for mutual help and protection, and for fun.

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>>50879091

>>50879091
the word guild is also pretty awesome, i can imagine people calling themselves a guild long after they stopped being a guild

>>50877217
>most shitty fantasy settings

well here's the core problem, fuckface

>>50877415
oh god don't remind me

>>50876349
>choo choo

>>50879235
>literally retarded

>GM's setting has eight fucking adventurer's guilds
>they all compete and hates each other's guts, so you're kind of fucked no matter which guild you join

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>>50873449
>rape is described by the GM
>PvP is started note: a few times PvP is legit, such as when a stupid player decides to have his character rape an ally of the group
>dickass thief steals from the party
>"Pay me to heal you" shitheels

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>>50879451
I literally just wrote down the concept of my global adventurer's guild the players are enlisting in, but reading the thread is giving me cold feet. I'm still resolved to have it, but should it be the only one or just a part of a collection? In my setting it would historically be the first guild to be established and would have a world renowned reputation that attracts people from all over. Where would other adventurer guilds fit in? Maybe the main one has lost influence and the sense of prestige it did over the years and now its fighting to maintain relevncy with the newer, hipper guilds formed by the very adventurers it churned out.

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>>50873565
...crossdresses.

>>50879562
It's not actually a Red flag if your players are fine with it keep going man.

>>50873449
GM includes in the description of his campaign any variation on "I've been watching Game of Thrones lately".
Every time a GM of mine has been a GoT fan it means edgy-as-fuck for no reason, npc's who will backstab you for no reason, and hamfisted geopolitics written by somebody with only a passing understanding of medieval society and economies.
It's understandable, I don't expect every GM to be a history or classics major, but if you have no idea about the subject matter then it's better to go full fantasy and not psuedo-realism that falls into uncanny-valley territory (I.e. It's just unrealistic enough to make the inaccuracies glaring and grating, rather than full fantasy which is so stylised that it's obviously inaccurate but we don't care because it's still fun)

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>>50873449
>>50873531
>>50873540


>This thread

>>50879562
The adventurer's guild in one of my campaigns was secretly funded by most other guilds. They would actively recruit the most unstable and unfit people in the community and send them off on various jobs. The guild was as fair and organized as possible, but the whole point was in keeping the scum of society occupied.

>>50874817
If it didn't want to be turned into a plush, it should had evolved bullet proof skin.

>>50873466
Late to the party, but I'm still going to say it.
Adventuring guilds, yes.
Adventuring Guild, no.

>>50875297
It totally has since few DMs care to describe the big ass fields needed to feed the over million souls cities. Therefore potatoes are a good way to keep them feed in less space. Also it did not help precolumbians that much.

How many XP do I get for killing party members?

>>50873724
But the booze i buy has a snippet about the company being founded by a merchant adventurers guild.

I keep that dagger hidden from the party.

>>50873541
That depends entirely on the definition of adventurer.

Using the term, its anyone that can be contracted to do any kind of menial labor, bodyguard duty, clearing out of strange things, or exploring uncharted lands.

its a catch all term for a medieval handyman and explorer.

"This is the picture of my character".

>Shows anime pic.

>>50878605

>Caravans are attacking the cities, go wreck those marauding merchants
>One major city in the middle of nowhere has no caravans returning from it, figure out why
>An army of master traders appears to be selling quality goods until there is no more money to be had, then moving on to the next area. See if you can negotiate with the Sultan of the Salesmen and get them to leave before his men dry up the place you're currently in.
>Start a caravan and bilk a bunch of rubes into protecting it for you

>>50874591
>what sort of shitty campaign

Most of them. Thats the answer regardless of the next part of the statement.

>>50877530
I came all over it when someone tried to force me to read it. My semen Now seals It shut forever. I won't ever read it And nobody will ever Again since my semen is quadridimensional and stains And taints every page of every copy. Electronic copies included.

>>50879011
> it's just a bunch of assholes camping outside the city and robbing people.

Sometimes, they just go and took over the city.
Play some total war.

>>50878610
Read some fiction regarding Italian cities in the Medieval Era and you will get your inspiration for fantasy PMCs.

Or you can simply just do happy go lucky adventurers who are not allowed to whore their skills to political conflicts as a global unspoken rule by everyone.

>>50875466
Are you retarded? Like, being serious, are you actually retarded?

When monsters on the level of those are prevalent problems, and not one you will feasibly ever get rid of in several lifetimes worth of work, you need professional hunters.

What exactly is wrong about that? They are literally hunter-gatherers, bringing in resources to whatever place of work they have found. The guild just mediates skill level and difficulty.

>>50879562
If you allow /v/tards trolling to influence you, you have deeper issues than your writing or creativity.
When insecure, just talk to your players instead of us.
We will just make your more insecure for our own selfish fun and you gain nothing in return.

>>50873740
Careful with that projection, bucko, you might hurt someone with that.

>>50880006
Did you just look into a mirror or are you that butthurt that nobody want to play with someone like you?

>multiple NPCs of a higher level than you following you around for extended periods of time
>DM brings up sex and rape but gets nauseous at torture
>DM let's personal beliefs run every single NPC and whines whenever you go against his worldview

>>50875297
>Not having magic Taters to explain how there are multiple cities with millions of inhabitants in countries as big as England, how there are vast ecosystems underground and how there are so many huge Creatures.

>>50874354
kek

>>50879562

I like adventurer's guilds that are more like a loosely connected group of inns, hotels, and information resources that offer discounts and a place to sleep for adventurers. Partially so that people who need adventurer's can find them easily enough, and partially because adventurers are problem causers when left to their own devices and it allows a way to keep track of them.

>>50880049
I like to make the adventurers guild more like an agent, matching adventurers to the quest

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>>50878610
DUDE

WATCH BERSERK

Or in other words... if you want your misfit guild, just make the campaign about a bunch of wankers starting their own merc company, shooting up to become world-famous, only to be destroyed horribly when their leader fucks up.

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>>50874561
I know that you're talking about shitty GMs, but...

>be forever GM
>decide this session that I want to seriously read PC backstories instead of being a jerk and stopping halfway through and use characters from them to integrate them into the setting to the best of my ability
>tell players that I want them to mention at least three NPCs in their backstories. They don't have to be family, associates or friends are good enough
>make a personal note that I won't kill them for cheap drama, ever
>at worst I will have one or two be hostages, prisoners or some shit like that, but nothing more dangerous or threatening than that
>even plan to have one or two of their NPCs send the PCs off to their journey by telling them about a plot hook, instead of having them hear a rumor from the inn keeper as usual
>the players turn in their characters
>the relatives/associates are all dead at the end of the PCs' backstories, frequently in gruesome (and sometimes disturbing) ways
>"WHAT THE FUCK GUYS?"
>one of the players proudly tells me that he "knew" that I would kill the NPCs off for drama's sake, so he convinced the rest of the group to kill their NPCs off in their backstory
>mfw

>oh npc x is a lvl 15 mage
> actually npc y is a lvl 20 cleric better watch out
> get fucked by npc z because my character didn't agree with him and I didn't decide to just suddenly stop rping my character when the dm told me that z is 6 levels higher

also
>you lost the guy you were chaising
> immediately after "misterious woman" appears and tells you where you can find guy if you agree to some shit
> no chance to look around/ for clues on your own ,have to be carried by some "interesting" and "misterious" cunt
> after you find the guy and kill all his henchmen( only the guy we need surrenders of coarse despite we ambush them and outnumber them)
> betray woman because way tired of her
> dm says something about my alignment( alignments lol) and has her run away no problem because she is a lvl 2 rogue
> next mission "streetwise" "tricky" kid asks me in particular to swear I"ll hold my end of the bargain after he tells us where the other guy we need is

felt so good when both games got terminated because the dms felt "burned out"

>>50877217
What if it isn't one overarching adventurers guild, but that none of them compete in a direct fashion, treating adventurers like assets, rather than disposable meatbags?

Like, they compete with eachother in low-key ways, Because things still need to get done and the scope of some of them could affect the entire world, but they try to keep adventurers in their area by providing better benefits, better payment for jobs, lodging of some sort, basically whatever a good adventurer needs, and these things change depending on the area and its particular economic forte's.

For example, one that is situated in a place known for farmlands and pastures could have an abundance of food, lowering the prices of it in most places like restaurants and bars. Another could be somewhere thats very developed, and so finding housing is easy and cheap. One could be near somewhere with lots of breweries and vineyards, and so booze is good and cheap. Some could pay better overall because they are in a wealthy area or are granted a certain budget from a king or fiefdom to solve more high-profile problems.

So, adventurers gravitate to the ones that have the better options for them. Economic competition, rather than directly pitting your problem solvers against each other.

>>50876375
Well, it's certainly a herculean task to get back from that...

>>50880058
>WATCH
eh

>>50879973

The Hunters Guild also seems to do more than that though.

They also provide education (You really think someone could have passing compentency in 14+ weapons without some sort of training. That's not to mention monster biology and item combining) and assign Hunters to villages (Most of the time, the PC is the new hunter for that village. 4 and Gens sorta futz with that a little)

I had nothing wrong with that. I was pointing out that there exists a setting where you can pretty much just wake up and decide that you want to kill monsters for a living.

>>50880085
Brought it on yourself, and serves you fucking right.

>>50880129
Due to bad economic choices I was forced to move back in with my very Christian parents. So all my Berserk manga are in a storage unit because it is "satanic and I don't want that in my house!".

If I need my dose of Berserk I gotta watch one of the anime series or the OVA's.

>>50880155
You replied to something complaining about the archetype overall, so i thought you were complaining.

That said, you are right. There seems to be some level of basic hunter's ed, but to be fair its not like most of what they do is particularly complicated once the actual weapon usage is explained. Most of them aren't hard to use, and the actual skillset involved is fairly simplistic for most until you start getting into blood arts, but those are gained gradually through the game.

As for item combining, they sell books of them that increase the odds, so its not like you just have all that knowledge. Rather, you don't, and need a guidebook to make sure you have it right.

On top of that, you don't actually know anything about monsters until you fight them yourself and figure it out yourself. The game is actually very competent about being a learning experience as well as just monster hunting.

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>>50874781
As a forever DM I made an adventurers guild work. I called it a "dungeoneering guild" with the fluff that there used to be tons of sorcerers who built towers with dungeons connected to an underground kingdom of monsters. The sorcerers eventually killed each other off (and clerics got organized) but the towers and dungeons are still around, and fill up with monsters from "the deep" every so often. Essentially "Dungeoneers" are magical sanitation workers clearing up after immoral magic users. They have a hierarchy, exams, and certifications so it adds a competative aspect to the game.

>>50877776
Humans can walk down, or at least jog down, anything. That's the thing we're evolved for. Also why most of our really iconic horror stories involve something better at it than us.

>>50877650
That just brings the treshold for "worty of king's personal attention" from level 15 to level 5. Still not 1.

>>50880352
If it's a minor job that the king would rather pay some local sellswords to handle it makes perfect sense.

>My character will attack you if you say her full name

>>50880378
Then it would be the king's steward dealing with the sellswords.

>>50880387
"The king has a job for you" doesn't mean that that's not the case.

>>50880378
He isn't going to be handing it out personally.

>>50880396
"King has declared reward to whoever does X" is appropriate.
Personal attention from king to PCs before the job - no.

>>50880169
Yeah, that day I learned that you can never expect good things from a group of murderhobos. I will remember to abandon them the first chance I get as soon as I find a new group.

>>50873449
>Been DMing for 5 years now
>No time to prepare last session so I go full improvisation
>PCs enter a new town
>No idea of what to put in it so I start saying first things that come up in my mind
>"...Blacksmith, tavern... and a Fighters Guild"
>PCs immediately go there
>Actually have no idea of what a Fighters Guild is or does so make the guard at the entrance a dick

What the fuck happens in a Guild?

>>50880641

A guild is where a group of likeminded individuals go to train, assist one another, and be provided with shelter and supplies. Joining gets you access to things and a bed to sleep in in most town, and the guild gets a cut of your adventuring revenue. This also helps your reputation because being a member of a recognized group implies there are rules so common folks will be less likely to assume you're a murder hoboing troublemaker.

>>50873676
>fantasy medieval setting
>they have purple carrots
>"fuck you lel so random GM"

>>50874199
>wtf is your anarchist doing in a lawful party
>oh he's CN he does whatever
>its even a system with no fucking alignments

>>50877227
I'd allow it. Hope they enjoy being universally feared (until the whole power thing is discovered), and lothed by the populations of the land. Gonna come up with some wives' tales about them and everything.

They can say there were benevolent all they want, but actually good people wouldn't be bumming about with some semi-random people. They'd be getting help from all of the flocks of people they endeared themselves to.

>>50876296
Setsuna aren't you too busy being a gundam to shitpost.

>>50876177
That was just the movie. The comic gave the hero's a lot more wiggle room, only required them to register themselves in the hero databank and occasionally take orders when shit hits the fan. Also people with new powers were forced to train so they wouldn't end up hurting themselves or others.

>>50880404
Following the conversation chain, we're talking about a "king" who is actually a glorified, too-big-for-his-britches, local warlord who just calls himself a "king."

Not every king is the ruler of a vast kingdom.

>>50880641
Treat it like a martial arts school.

Well yeah, otherwise they are mercenaries, freebooters, brigands, lollygaggers, miscreants or something of the sort. They have to pay a royalty to use the name adventurers!

>>50880085
Can't really fault them actually, they were pretty smart to cut out the middle man.

>>50880099
So one(minor) act of deception can nullify a lifetime's work?