I got this idea from Dirich's post in the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1096460-politics-of-tamriel thread.



This led me to start pouring out a whole bunch of ideas, whereupon I realized that it had gained the scope of a completely standalone mod that could fulfill something a lot of players have been wanting for years: a real reason to become guild head. Unfortunately, I'm not nearly good enough to accomplish this, so I'll toss it out for others to take up the torch.

This mod will require resource management! But then, as I'm sure you're all aware, becoming the head/leader/boss of any organization is more about paperwork than anything else. In this case, I'd say keep it simple and measure everything in terms of cost.

You start off with x gold (say, 100K) in operating capital. You automatically gain x gold every week from random minor jobs, donations, grants, and membership fees. Each week, you also get a mission to which you can delegate some of your guild members (or do it yourself). The missions would be broken down into four levels of difficulty, which are listed when the mission is given to you. You then decide which resources to allocate; lesser resources have a lesser chance of getting the job done right, but cost less - they're good for minor missions; likewise, something major would require a greater number and/or higher quality of people (which, of course, costs more). You can always volunteer yourself for any given mission, which costs the guild nothing, but if you fail, you die and it's game over.

If you delegate someone else to do it, it's handled behind the scenes (you get a message a few days later) and there's a random chance of success, modified by mission difficulty and the resources allocated. If it succeeds, the guild gets paid and you make a percentage. If you do it yourself, you get paid and the guild gets a percentage. If it doesn't, you lose all the money you spent. If your operating capital gets to 0, you can't take any missions and you might even have to deal with angry guildmembers (sort of like the "you got kicked out of the guild" quests). The kind of quests you get are pretty much like what we already have:


FG: Some random town/settlement is being terrorized by a big bad monster/group of monsters; someone wants to retrieve a lost item; someone wants a trophy; someone needs a bodyguard (once the assassin is dead, the mission's over).

DB: People need killed. Duh. There are a couple mods that deal with this already.

TG: Someone wants to steal/recover , gather intel on XYZ person, etc.

MG: Find in (see Enhanced Economy for how this works); someone needs an alchemist to make some potions (quality varies);


You could also toss in some (no more than three each, I'd say) special one-time quests that pop up randomly, that would require the expertise of the guildmaster him/herself. These could be multi-stage quests, and while you're doing them, you personally can't do other jobs, but the payout is much higher:

FG: Hmm... I'm drawing a blank here. All I can think of is bigger versions of the normal FG quests.

DB: Someone needs protection (The Assassinated Man), or a particularly powerful being needs to be killed.

TG: Someone wants to steal a really well-protected item, or someone wants to find a person who's very well hidden.

MG: A rogue mage gains enough power that he becomes a threat (though whether or not he actually is, is another story - is he someone like Mannimarco, or is he simply happy to putter around in his tower making potions and someone just wants to get rid of him for his research? <_< ); someone wants to recover an item (a book, maybe) lost in an old ruin that no one knows about - you'll to do research in the AU archives to find it, then go there and get past the wards and guardians to get the item.

It seems to me like a really good idea! I second this!

I think that some weekly quest are a really good way to get the feeling of "I'm doing something as the head of the guild". A better experience could be provided by a dedicated quest mod, but that of course is totally another kind of work (altough the two aren't mutally exclusive... >.> ).

Also, a nice idea to exploit is the following. Let's assume you are a member of guild X (fighter, mage, etc). You get ranks untill you want to get the title of guild leader (for a certain city). At that point you gotta have some sort of challenge (duel with the actual leader after a difficult quest and/or getting some of the guild members of the city to vote for you), if you win you are the guild leader of guild X for that city only!

Now what to do? There are other cities, and there can be only ONE guild leader for the entire guild. In order to provide the best experience, and to not let everything end when you win, every year the guild elects his master! It could be a decision of the council of guild leaders of guild X, or a votation by every member of guild X. Reputation (some sort of good/bad system, based on the "morality" of the guild, depending on your action is a good way check the reputation within the guild), quests, political alliances (this year me, next year you / I'll give you this and that / etc) and so on can influcence the votation. If you win, you are the leader for 1 year and you get to deal with the management of the guild.
While no one can challenge the Master of the guild, a guild master of a city can be challenged by the members of the guild of that city.. even if the guild master is the player! So, aside when being Master of the guild (all of it), there are local management quests for the guild master AND possible challenges to the guild leadership.
Of course the challenges shouldn't be only and always based on duels! There must be a good chance for the player to lose, so he can work again toward getting back the leadership of the guild in a city!


I think the good point of this idea is to keep the "guild game" very alive, since you have to work to assure yourself the election (sometimes, maybe, in the case of the leadership of an entire guild, by assuring the election of someone else!).

This sounds really intriguing, but I think it would involve a LOT of scripting. (sigh, I still need to learn beyond basics) Maybe you could set up a team? Just an idea...

It's kind of funny... I hate resource management, but being the head of a guild would require it, which is why I suggested a minimal amount - I wouldn't want it to seem like "work", you know?


I did suggest some quests specifically for the guildmaster too. Further expansions could add more quests, so it's very modular.


Regional guild heads, like Azzan, Burz gro-Kash, etc. I like it. It's something they never handled in the main game, but probably for good reason - a regional guild head would definitely be tied down to one location, as opposed to the provincial guildmaster. The guildmaster has the regional leaders to fall back on; all he has to do is send a messenger to XYZ guild and say "I need this many people to go here and do this" and the regional guild head handles it.


Yes, lots of scripting. It would have to be a lightweight mod that didn't alter a lot of locations, so scripting is the best way to achieve that end. I know nothing of scripting, which is why it was an idea tossed out for someone to (hopefully) take up. I'd be happy to help with the writing aspects (dialogue, quests, etc.), but otherwise I'm pretty useless for modding.