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Guilds

Guilds are the basic social unit of Meridian society. They are groups bound by common goals, common values, and/or a common taste for blood, wealth, or adventure. A small guild may have only three members, roaming the roads of Meridian in mutual support. A large, wealthy guild may have a fabulous guild hall with its own newsglobes, storage chest, pile o gold, and political intrigues. A guild may be committed to high ideals, like the Knights of the Round Table, or have a more practical orientation, like an organized crime syndicate or urban street gang. In short, the guilds of Meridian reflect the full range of human aspiration,

Joining a Guild

You are eligible to join a guild when you accumulate 30 health points - enough health points to engage in fair combat with a fellow citizen. When you have reached this point you may accept invitations from guilds which offer them. You may only belong to one guild at a time.

Creating a New Guild

To create a new guild, you must find and enter the Guildmaster’s Hall, which is located in one of Meridian’s larger towns. (Which one? Ask around!) The Guild Creator lives there, and he sells all guild-related paraphernalia, from basic guild charters to palatial guild halls.

Before you approach the Guild Creator, you may want to come to some basic agreements among yourselves:

  • Choose your group’s first Guildmaster. This is the person who will conduct negotiations with the Meridian Guild Creator, and serve as your first leader: Guildmasters can be removed from office through a process that is described below.
  • Make sure you have plenty of money. A basic Guild charter alone costs about 5000 shillings. Any further details will cost more - often, much more! Most would-be guild members pool their resources, handing the community purse to their would-be Guildmaster:
  • Choose the name for your new guild, along with names for up to five ranks of hierar-chy. High ranks might be something like “Chief,” “King,” or “Paladin.” Lower ranks might have names like “Novice,” Apprentice,” or “Newbie.” The choice is yours, and depends on your guild’s intended style.
  • Decide whether your guild will be secret, or public. A secret guild name will not be displayed on any member’s character descriptions. The Guild Creator will, of course, exact a higher fee to maintain this secrecy.

When you find the Guild Creator, type Buy to view the Create New Guild window:

  1. Enter the Name of your new guild. Press Tab when you are done.
  2. In the Rank Names fields, enter the name you want to give to each of the five hierarchy levels. You have the option of creating different names for men and women at the same level.
  3. Indicate whether your guild will be public, or secret.
  4. Click OK to establish your new guild, or Cancel to end the negotiations. The person who conducted the negotiations will be automatically installed as the first Guildmaster.

You may only belong to one guild at a time. You may not start a new guild if you are currently a member of another guild.

ACHIEVING MATURITY

Once you have established a new guild, you have 24 hours to add at least two members to your roster. If you don’t add two members within this time, your guild charter is automatically revoked. (And no, you don’t get your money back.)

As soon as your charter is issued, your guild begins to accrue maturity. You are granted full maturity once your members have spent a combined total of three hours in Meridian under the guild charter. (Secret guilds must wait for six hours.) The Guild Creator will notify you when your maturity is granted.

Only fully mature guilds may rent guild halls, or raid and conquer another guild’s hall under the Conquest by Guild rules, described below.

ADMINISTRATIVE FEES

You must pay the Guild Creator an administrative fee to continue maintaining the records for your guild. This fee is based on the number of people in your guild, your current numbers of allies and enemies, and whether or not the guild is secret. It is drastically increased by the possession of a guild hall (more about which below). To find out how much you owe at any given time, type say rent at the text line and press Enter.

You must pay your fees every day. Anyone in your guild may undertake this task, which involves making the trip to the Guild Creator’s house. Once inside, type Offer. Your inventory list appears. Type the amount you want to pay, and click OK to hand it over.

If your account becomes more than 48 hours past due, your guild charter will be revoked For convenience, you can pay your fee as far ahead of time as your finances allow.

When you rent a guild hall, your administrative fees are included in your total rent bill. You only need to make one easy payment!

Managing Your Guild

Once you’ve established your new guild, you conduct all guild business from here on out through the Guild window. To reach this window at any time, select Guild from the Actions Menu, or type Guild in text line, and press Enter. The Guild window offers you a variety of different options, depending on your rank within the guild. These options may include:

MEMBERSHIP

This list shows all the guild’s current mem-bers. Click on a name, and the selected person’s rank appears in the text box at right.

RANK

In addition to showing the selected person’s rank, leaders in the top two tiers of the hierarchy can use the Rank box to promote or demote lower-ranking members. You cannot grant promotions any higher than the level just below your own. To grant a promotion or demotion:

  1. Press the down arrow beside the Rank field to view all hierarchy levels.
  2. Highlight the new level you want to assign to the promotee/demotee, and release.
  3. The affected member will receive notice of the rank change immediately.

EXILE

Leaders in the top two tiers can also exile a member - that is, kick them out of the guild as a punitive measure. To do this, select the member’s name in the membership list, and click Exile.

SUPPORT

Guilds don’t have formal elections. Instead, voting goes on constantly, as group support shifts between one leader or another. The leader with the most popular support holds the Guildmaster position - but only until someone else can get the support of 50% or more of the guild members.

The Support box is where you indicate who you’d like to see as Guildmaster. This information is secret: nobody else can find out who you support. You can change the name in this box as often as you like, and support anyone in the guild you choose, regardless of rank. If a simple majority of your fellow guild members also enter this name in their support boxes, this person automatically becomes the new Guildmaster, and the old Guildmaster is notified of his or her removal. Ousted Guildmasters are demoted to the guild’s sec-ond-lowest rank.

To change your support, choose the name of your new candidate from the membership list, and click the Shift Support button. A message appears to confirm the switch.

Whenever guild leadership changes, your Support box is cleared.

ABDICATE TO:

This button appears only on the Guildmaster’s screen, and is used only once: to issue a voluntary resignation and stand down in favor of another member.

To abdicate, click the name of your successor on the membership list. Then, click Abdicate. Your abdication takes effect immediately after you leave the Guild window, and the new Guildmaster is notified of his or her ascension.

All former Guildmasters automatically assume the guild’s second lowest rank, though they can be re-promoted by someone in the top two levels.

LEAVE GUILD

Choose this option when you want to resign your membership in your current guild. A warning box appears, offering you the chance to back out. Click OK to resign, or Cancel to stay in the guild.

This option does not appear in the guild window of the reigning Guildmaster: Guildmasters can’t leave the guild unless they abdicate first.

ALLIANCES

This command allows you to declare the guild’s official posture in relationship to other guilds - that is, to publicly announce an alliance, or identify enemies. These decrees can only be issued by those in the top two levels of guild leadership.

Clicking Alliances brings up a new window offering three separate lists. Every guild in Meridian 59 appears on one of these lists:

  • Allied Guilds are guilds you regard as friendly. Members of allied guilds are granted free access to your guild hall. If you are declared an ally of their guild in return, you have access to their guild hall as well. Since the Guild Creator looks kindly on guilds which maintain a standard of chivalry and pacifism, he will reduce your rent slightly for each alliance you have declared. (On the other hand, having lots of allies leaves you open for betrayal.)

  • Unaligned Guilds are neutral guilds with whom you are neither friendly nor hostile.

  • Enemy Guilds are those with whom you have hostile relations. The benefit of declaring your enemies is that if a member of an enemy guild should attempt to raid your guild hall, every member of your guild — as well as the members of every allied guild — will be instantly warned of the attempt. For each enemy your guild declares, your guild hall rent is increased.

Use the arrows between the three lists to move guild names between lists.

To find out how another guild feels about your guild, click on the guild’s name. A message appears to let you know whether this guild regards you as an enemy, an ally, or unaligned.

INVITE

This is the window you use to invite new members to join your guild. It appears in the Guild window if you belong to one of the top three levels of the guild hierarchy. To issue an invitation:

  1. Click the Invite tab. This brings up a list of everyone who’s in your local area at the moment.
  2. Select the name of the prospective new member, and click the Invite button. This issues the invitation automatically. It appears as a scroll in their inventory.
  3. The prospective member has two minutes to Use the scroll, thereby accepting the invitation. After two minutes, the scroll dis-appears, and the invitation is withdrawn.

Invitations can’t be transferred between people: they can only be used by the person to whom they are issued. An invitation scroll disappears if dropped, if the invitee leaves the room, or when the inviting guild member logs off.

You may issue a guild invitation to a citizen who is not eligible to join (either because they are relatively new to Meridian, or belong to another guild). However, an ineligible citizen will be prevented from accepting your kind offer.

CHANGE GUILD PASSWORD

This option is available only to Guildmasters who are in charge of guild halls. You’ll use it to change the password of the door that leads to the guild’s storage chest.

Io change the password, click to the Guildmaster tab and click in the Change Password field. Type the new password, and click Done. The new password takes effect immediately.

ABANDON GUILD HALL

This button appears if you are the Guildmaster in charge of a guild hall. When a guild dis-bands, this command is the equivalent of the last one out turning off the lights. Simply click this button, then answer Yes when the warning box appears.

Before you abandon your guild hall, make sure you clear out your storage chest.

DISBAND GUILD

Using this command dissolves the guild’s char-ter, closing the guild. This command is available to all Guildmasters. Click Disband Guild, and answer Yes when the warning box appears.

About Guild Rankings

The five ranks in a guild each have their own set of privileges, and there are limits on the number of people who can hold a given rank. A quick summary follows. The names given to each rank are the default names: you may change them when you set up your guild.

Initiates (Rank 1) can:

  • vote
  • leave the guild

Members (Rank 2) can do the above, plus:

  • open the guild hall’s outer doors

Lords and Ladies (Rank 3) can do all the above, plus:

  • invite new members

Heroes and Heroines (Rank 4) can do all the above, plus:

  • exile lower-ranking members
  • promote or demote lower-ranking members
  • buy a guild hall
  • forge and shatter alliances
  • declare enemies
  • make peace

There may be no more than two Rank 4 members in any guild at any given time.

Guildmasters and Guildmistresses (Rank 5) can do all of the above, plus:

  • abdicate their leadership and choose a successor
  • change the guild hall password
  • abandon the guild hall
  • disband the guild

Renting a Guild Hall

A guild hall is a haven and home for your guild. Guild halls vary widely in opulence and value, but they all come equipped with:

  • A foyer, which anyone may enter. Anything said in the foyer is not heard in the rest of the guild hall, except perhaps as a muffled conversation.
  • A front door, a magically-controlled portal which opens only for full members, allies, and Guardians.
  • A secret door, operated only by pass-word, which leads to a storeroom. You can store your worldly goods in this chest, and they will not be lost if you happen to die.
  • A guild newsglobe, the guild’s communication center, which any guild member may post to or read from.
  • A container in which you may store items. To place an item in a container, drag the item from your inventory to the container: To retrieve an item from the container, drag your mouse pointer from the container to your inventory.
  • A switch that controls the building’s defenses. This switch is often hidden in a secret place that’s easy to defend, and hard to get to. If this switch should be flipped, anyone can enter the hall to capture it.

When you rest in a guild hall — your own or anyone else’s - you recover your vigor twice as fast as you would anywhere else (except an inn, where the same rule holds true).

If you are in someone else’s guild hall, and you log off, you return to the foyer of the same guild hall when you return.

You may not rent a guild hall until your guild members have a combined total of at least six hours in Meridian 59 following the guild’s initial creation. Once you have accrued this maturity, you may approach the Guild Creator.

Here’s how to rent your hall:

  1. Approach the Guild Creator with large sum of money in hand.
  2. Type Buy at the text line.
  3. Select the guild hall you want from the list that appears.
  4. Type the password that will open the secret door to the storage chest. The Guildmaster may change this password at any time.
  5. Click OK to take possession of your hall.

Anyone who is standing inside this guild hall when you click is instantly teleported to the hall’s foyer, and your guild is free to move in!

Paying Rent

As you know, guilds without a guild hall are subject to administrative fees that must be paid to the Guild Creator (who, as you may have guessed by now, is largely in this for the money) at least once every two days.

Once you own a guild hall, these fees are greatly increased, because they now include your rent as well. Your rent is based on the number of people in your guild, the opulence of your edifice, and your current numbers of allies and enemies. To find out how much rent you owe, go to the Guild Creator, type say rent at the text line, and press Enter.

You must pay your rent every day. Anyone in your guild may undertake this task, which involves making the trip to the Guild Creator: Once inside, type Offer. Your inventory list appears. Type the amount you want to pay, and click OK to hand it over.

Taking a Guild Hall by Force

If your guild is low on money, but high on health points and not averse to a little blood-shed, you can also acquire a guild hall by simply marching in and taking it. This is a major military operation that should not be undertaken without considerable planning, and only with people you trust implicitly. Your mission plan will need to consider the following steps:

  1. You need to get someone into the guild hall. Guild doors only open for members and allies, but an agile burglar can sometimes slip in behind an authorized person while the door is open.
  2. You need to find out where the switch is. This is usually a closely-held guild secret.
  3. You need to get to the switch, and flip it before anyone can stop you. Flipping the switch disables the guild hall’s defenses, allowing the rest of the conquering force to enter at will. What happens next depends on the your relationship to the guild:

Conquest By Enemy Guild - If you are a member of an enemy guild:

  1. All members of the defending guild and allied guilds are immediately notified that the guild hall’s defenses have been breached, and by which guild.
  2. The defending guild has ten minutes to reach the switch and flip it back into position. If they can’t recapture the switch within ten minutes, the hall is considered conquered.
  3. The conquering guild has one hour to get someone to the Guild Creator to claim the hall by paying the rent on it. The hall may only be claimed by the conquering guild. If the hall is not claimed within one hour of conquest, the guild hall is considered abandoned, and may be rented by anyone who has the money.

Conquest by Allied or Neutral Guild - If you are a member of an allied or neutral guild:

  1. All members of the defending guild only are notified the guild hall’s defenses have been breached. They are not told by whom, and the message may be delayed by as much as three minutes.
  2. The defending guild has seven minutes to reach the switch and flip it back into position. If they can’t recapture the switch in time, the hall is considered conquered.
  3. The conquering guild has one hour to get someone to the Guild Creator to claim the hall by paying the rent on it. The hall may only be claimed by the conquering guild. If the hall is not claimed within one hour of conquest, the guild hall is considered abandoned, and may be rented by anyone who has the money.

Conquest by Mercenary - If you are not a member of any guild:

  1. All members of the defending guild are immediately notified in detail that the guild hall’s defenses have been breached.
  2. The defending guild has ten minutes to reach the switch and flip it back into position. If they can’t recapture the switch within ten minutes, the hall is considered conquered.
  3. The hall is considered abandoned as soon as the ten minutes are up. For a period of one hour, neither the mercenary nor the members of the conquered guild may rent the hall. During that time, any other mature guild may go to the Guild Creator and claim the hall by paying the rent on it.

Conquest By Betrayal - If you flip the switch in your own guild hall, here’s what happens:

  1. All members of the defending guild and allied guilds are immediately notified that the guild hall’s defenses have been breached. This message is not very detailed, and may be delayed.
  2. The defending guild or its allies must reach the switch and flip it back into position. If they can’t recapture the switch within the allotted time, the hall is considered conquered.
  3. The conquered hall is up for grabs: it will ultimately belong to the first guild — it could be ANY mature guild - that can get to the Guild Creator first and put up the rent on it. The former owners cannot rent it until an hour has passed.

WORDS OF WISDOM

A few things to remember before you rush off to seize someone else’s hard-earned guild hall:

  • The switch does not work in abandoned guild halls. The only way to acquire these halls is to buy them from the Guild Creator:
  • Members of immature guilds may not flip the switches. Your guild must attain full maturity - that is, your members must have spent a combined total of three hours in Meridian as a group - before you can go off and raid someone’s guild hall. (Secret guilds require six hours.) The Guild Creator will notify you when you have achieved maturity.
  • Citizens who have not achieved 30 maximum hit points — the number required to be eligible for guild membership, and to be vulnerable to attack by others - may not flip the switches off or on.
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