Author Topic: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society  (Read 1774 times)

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Offline JUNKdeLUXE

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Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« on: August 12, 2013, 06:37:13 PM »
Hello all,

I'm writing my background story for my Magus for an upcoming weekend session with my friends. I've been trying to establish the inner workings of the secret society I'm a member of, but I've gone blank.

Are there any good resources or already established guild/societies available anywhere?

I'm looking for information on the following things:
  • Ranks (1st circle, 2nd circle etc)
  • How to gain them (need 90 in reasoning, doing a magical ritual, recover a tome etc)
  • Benefits from ranks (access to spell lists, discount on various items, etc)
  • Fluff (mottoes, motive etc

Can anyone provide me with some info? It would be greatly appreciated
Why procrastinate today when you can do it tomorrow?

Offline PhillipAEllis

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2013, 08:45:03 PM »
I can't say I know anything offhand, however I do remember that one of the RMs Companions had a decent section on arcane societies, with excellent examples.
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Offline RandalThor

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2013, 09:40:29 PM »
Also you could look into the Dark sun supplement The Veiled Alliance, it might have some good ideas for you.
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Offline markc

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2013, 11:32:18 PM »
 I think in RMSS Essence Comp they had some info but I cannot get to my copy as it is buried.
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Offline PhillipAEllis

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2013, 01:19:22 AM »
The Essence Companion only really talks about guilds and universities in general terms, and in the context of learning spell lists more than anything else. So there may be useful ideas there, but the ideas are not really concrete in terms of guild organisation.

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JUNKdeLUXE, if you don't mind waiting a month or two, I would be more than happy to write something up using a combination of inspirations, from RM2, RMSS/RMFRP, and elsewhere, for an article for the Guild Companion Magazine. How does that sound to you? (I'll wait till you've replied before starting on it.)
Formerly: ghyle.

Rolemastery blog: http://rolemastery.blogspot.com.au/

Offline JUNKdeLUXE

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2013, 02:30:39 AM »
PhillipAEllis that would be amazing, not just for me, but for the entire community I think.

Why procrastinate today when you can do it tomorrow?

Offline PhillipAEllis

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2013, 04:01:45 AM »
No worries: I have a piece on magic items that I am working on tonight, and I want to work on the next psionics chapter this Thursday night & this Friday night, M Is for Murder this Saturday and Zombie Apocalypse! this Sunday, so I suspect that the earliest I can get to it is maybe Monday night or Tuesday night at the latest. I hope that that's fine with you.
Formerly: ghyle.

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Offline JUNKdeLUXE

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2013, 08:02:22 AM »
It's more than in time (we plan to meet in October :P ) and even if it wasn't, I would have a great place to find this for all the following times.

and just a suggestion: optimize SEO and keywords for it, cause searching on google for "mage guild", "arcane society" etc. reveals nothing on the first 5 pages that I could use :(
Why procrastinate today when you can do it tomorrow?

Offline PhillipAEllis

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2013, 08:15:07 AM »
I don't know how much SEO I can do for it, as it shall be a proper article in the Guild Companion, so the style will be dictated by the need to write a good, supplementary article. Once it goes up there there should be a post mentioning it here, in the appropriate forum, and it should turn up in Google searches as well. If I can fix my online bibliography in time, there will also be a link there to the article, as well as one from the Rolemastery blog.

I expect that it will take me around 2-4 weeks to get a working draft together; if you're interested, you'd be welcome to give me feedback on the draft. Would that help you?
Formerly: ghyle.

Rolemastery blog: http://rolemastery.blogspot.com.au/

Offline JUNKdeLUXE

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2013, 12:43:01 PM »
I would love to give whatever insights I could, but I'm not sure how much time I can offer.

My friends and I are trying to make a new video game company, and I've practically lived at the office the last 6 months.

But, I'll do my best.
Why procrastinate today when you can do it tomorrow?

Offline PhillipAEllis

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Re: Designing a mage guild/circle/secret society
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2013, 04:03:23 PM »
No worries, JUNKdeLUXE; I'll keep you up-to-date with my progress on the piece, and any feedback you can give me would be great.
Formerly: ghyle.

Rolemastery blog: http://rolemastery.blogspot.com.au/