Generally anything similar to AC:II's villa or upgrading the Normandy in Mass Effect would suffice... you can buy stuff that unlocks new opportunities and you get some sort of income or reward for running the guild well and expanding...

The fighter's guild in Oblivion nearly had something like that where you chose to focus on recruitment, doing contracts and one other thing I can't remember, but this didn't really have any noticeable or substantial effects other than possibly affecting what weapons your received in a your chest each week.

There should also be some set and written quests once you become guild master. Not something that factors into that guild's story line too much just things like diplomacy missions with the opportunity of forming alliances, or going on the odd contract... I don't know much about the system but it seems to me the Radiant Story could accomplish this rather easily with minimal effort...

SURE TO EVERYTHING. But you can only be leading 1 quild at a time

If not a single thing in this topic is implemented in this game in some form or fashion. Or at the very least doesn't have some kind of framework or skeleton that modders can easily build off to make it happen quick, fast, and easy. Then I'm going to be extremely disapointed. Guilds should be a HUGE part of the game. They're basically their own little contained storylines. Mini-main quests even. But at the end of every single one of them the reward is... bleh. And it never really feels like you're actually running the guild you're supposedly the master of.

No guildmastership. If you can be a guildmaster, there are two options.

1. Have very little to no power over the guild, and still have to go and do everything yourself,which makes no sense and feels pointless being guildmaster
2. Get all the power and benifits you'd expect, which, if even possible to script without wasting a huge amount of effort on the developers part, would make you excessively rich and powerful with no need to go and do anythingelf, simply command others to do your will, as well as having to do a lot of menial managerial duties, and thus completely change the style of gameplay to something more of a business sim than an RPG action adventure and take all challenge from doing anything outside your guild in the game.

So my choice is don't let you become the guildmaster of anything.

I like the way it was in Oblivion. I know there would be that added realism, but considering some guilds would be obvious rivals, you would be kicked out by joining another. The way I look at it, guilds like Thieves, and Dark Brotherhood for example, are in secret. The key is that people shouldn't really know I'm in those guilds except the members themselves. The only thing I could see is a quest from a guild conflicting with the rules of another. At that point I can see you making a choice, but otherwise, I'd like the potential to join all guilds.


Although some of these things add realism, maybe a little too much micromanagement for me. If there was only one joinable guild, I could see this... but when you have a five or six, maybe more joinable guilds (not sure how many at once yet), it would require a lot of time to maintain them all. Could become tedious really fast.


To be honest, I never really took advantage of Guild Master rewards in Oblivion. The first time yes, but I would usually forget to go back and continue to collect rewards after that. The amount would have to be worth it, and quite frankly, it really wasn't in Oblivion. At that point I hand quite enough money that an extra 200 here or there wouldn't make a difference. However I want what ever reward system to make sense, so even if it's only a little ever in-game week or so, that would be fitting.



I'm always pretty happy with just taking over, or using the current head quarters. Also whatever furnishings are usually pretty decent. A way to customize would be ok, but it would be more of a gold sink if you've run out of things to spend money on.


I'm not sure how the companion system is going to work in Skyrim, but if you can use others as companions, this wouldn't really be a huge benefit. Unless your own guild members agree to go on a specific (dangerous) quest that other people refuse. The AI is hopefully smart enough to realize what you're doing, so if it goes against the guild, they should be able to detect it, and refuse.


I'm going to say yes, but I don't know how I feel about the rival guild idea. Random events in the game world, and against common enemies... The whole guild vs guild is something I'd have to get used to if it's implemented that way.


I sort of like this to be automated. I like to leave things undisturbed for the most part. If I take a person away from chopping wood to work for a guild, someone would have to replace that person chopping wood in order to maintain economy. That sort of thing. In Oblivion Dark Brotherhood for example, when members needed to be recruited, they were automatically generated for me. Although in saying that, I'm certainly not opposed to this idea, I think it's pretty neat.


I like this idea. As a Guild Master, you should have an idea how your guilds doing, who's all in it. Not sure how you would use that info, maybe it might help you to decide what area you should have your 2IC focus on. Regardless it's nice to know info.


I think that might be going a bit far by allowing a player to initate wars between guilds. There might be enough tension around Skyrim anyway...


Well if you're unable to be Guild Master in conflicting guilds, I could see this as an option.

"You deceide your own level of involvement." - Fight Club

I agree with your post. For people uninterested in being in all possible guilds or leading them because it is unrealistic, there is the option of just not joining them, or not finishing the quest lines. But at least the first time through the game, I want to experience as much content as possible. I want to know what's out there. If I want to roleplay, I'll save it for a later playthrough. But for the most part, I don't play the game to roleplay. One of the things that annoyed me most about Morrowind was that I had to invest serious time into three different characters to see all the content in the Houses. The main problem was that progression in Morrowind took a long time, at least for me, and the combat was clunky. It wasn't appealing to have to drag a character through the early levels just for the sake of seeing all of the game's content. It felt like too much of an investment for what was essentially a content tourist playthrough.

A lot of this should be alleviated in Skyrim. Real-time combat makes leveling more enjoyable for me. Not only that, but the overhauling of the leveling system seems much more streamlined and continuous. There's no way to not gain levels. Both of those things, at least for me, will make the early levels in particular be immensely more enjoyable. I didn't like spamming block and heavy armor right out of the gate to gain some extra health.

That was not a tangent. Because leveling is that streamlined and combat is so much more accessible, I think I would have more patience for content-locking choices in Skyrim. Creating a character sounds like it will be much less painful. If guilds have stat requirements for advancement (which I think they should), I know I won't be putting character progression on hold while I go raise Restoration ten times. Should every guild have a "one or the other" rival? I don't think so. If there are no exclusive guilds at all, I won't feel like the game is worse for it. But if there are exclusive guilds, I'll be much more willing to start a new character to see all the content, now that Bethesda has addressed the things that would have made that undesirable in the past.

But don't split it three ways, please. Three characters to see all the content is gratuitous.

^^^ THIS

Guilds should have questlines like in TES4, but after finishing them, you get till 2nd in command rank, if guildmaster is killed during questline other member who have been in guild for years should take place, not someone who joined week ago :down:
After questline is over, generic quests like in TES2 begins, that effect your ranking dynamically
Finished quest +reputation within faction
Failed quest -reputation within faction
Ignoring guild quests for a long time (~1 game month) -reputation
etc.

So that you could actually drown back to lowest ranks, If you ignore guild all the time or fail one quest by another.
During some of these quests you could be transported/teleported to other provinces of Tamriel (loading small, closed maps like in FO3 expansions, but those could be more or less randomly generated, simulating various locations)
For example guard city from raids (wildlife, bandits, necromancers, and so on)
Bodyguard duty
Collecting rare ingredients
Committing thefts
Murdering people
And so on (I hope you get the main idea)

This would prolong gameplay for a long time

I just hope as guildmaster in this game you actually have more to do and more responsibilities than what Oblivion had. It really didnt even feel like you were a guildmaster in Oblivion because with the Fighters guild for example, alls you could do was tell that Dunmer guy in Chorrol what you wanted your fighters to focus on in missions, and you had a small chest on the 2nd floor to check like once a week.

Guild mastery? No. Not of all guilds and not even of one. But hey, this does not exclude the other points! Sure, you can become a high-ranking member, be part of the mage council, thieves' elite, or whatever, but actually being the single person responsible for the entire guild in Skyrim would be both anti-climatic and impossible to implement right, because if it were, rather than chasing dragons, the player character would be confined to the administrative paperwork and large-scale politics 'till the end of her days. HOWEVER, it's not like a councilor or second-in-command would be entirely cut off from power - quite the contrary - but at least wouldn't be as dependent on it, which for the Dovahkiin would be a much larger benefit than total authority and responsibilities thereof.

What if the Colourful Animal 'leading' the Thieves' Guild is really just a myth and the whole power is unequally divided amongst the guild's many rivaling crime lords, because no single person could possibly maintain all of it?
What if the 'Archmage' is just a weak-willed figurehead, out of convenience and habit ferociously protected from being deposed, but at the same time constantly manipulated, threatened and mind-controlled by the council of magi to enact their plans without having to bother with the formalities and getting their own hands dirty in the process?
What if the vampiress who has been the Listener of the local Dark Brotherhood for the last four hundred years has made herself so essential to the organisation's continued functioning that deposing her would turn it all into rubble in a matter of weeks... yet she still must rely on the (slightly more expendable) rest of the Black Hand to get many important things done?

I really don't think political power is a binary thing available solely to the single person at the top. If done properly, being an actually influential high-ranking guild officer would be much more rewarding (and plausible) than claiming the utterly void honourary title of a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitle94ctt9bsmafc like it has been done so far.

I love my role as archmage and take it very seriously (at least in as much as one can take a position in a game seriously), so I will gladly answer. I think you should add a poll to this though.

:swear: Bah. :grad: My skills in the arts your guild specializes in are more accomplished than those of any of your current members, my powers are greater, I know your deepest secrets and have destroyed your deadliest rivals. . . and if you don't award me with guild mastery this instant I will destroy you as well! *mumbles* "tell me I can't be guild master, after all I've done for you sons and daughters of b****es, I'll burn this m****** f******er to the ground and your nay saying assets with it" :flamethrower: :nono: bliviongate:

Busywork shouldn't be just for the Guildmaster. It should start to ease you into the paper work when you start hitting those higher ranks. Like for the fighters guild.

At low ranks you get asked to go on easy solo missions or asked to join teams to go out on a slightly harder one.

Slightly higher up, you could get asked to lead a team on a mission or get some slightly more dangerous solo missions when compaired to the ones at lower ranks.

Higher ranks, such as a Guild Hall head (which I really want to be), would get estreamly hard solo missions on rare occasions, but would often spend more time creating teams to go on missions. Creating teams would be simple, and I hate to say mini-game but that's basically what it would be. You'd get a list of available guildsmen and jobs that need to be done, and you'd have to try and make the best teams to get as many of the jobs done as possible. You'd have to do it once a week. If you forget and miss a week it would be okay, but if you miss three ingameweeks you'd be knocked down a rank.

And finally the Guildmaster. They'd basically just play the minigame, twice a week. Once on monday and again on thursday. Miss it three times, and ya get the boot off the possition, but not the guild in itself.

To finish the main quest for the guild, you would only need to get to the slightly higher up ranks. The highest ranks such as the guild hall head or the guildleader would be optional. The minigames should be different for the mages guild's and assassins guilds as well. And people should know who you are if you get a high spot in the guild

see with the whole being the head of the guild I reckon it should have its own questline, which can not be started til certain requiemnts are completed, such as normal guild questline, getting to like level 30-40, getting one or two skills to 100 which matter to the guild, guild rep should be a number with the person needing like 1000 rep (basically a huge amount of rep) which is the total you get from the main quest is only like 100-200,to get to thrid in command (which would be like 500 points plus a unque quest). Then the guildhead quest would be really long and hard, and really grand like (murdering guild killing off a king or something) And finally having to chat, duel or plain murder the guild head which should be hard in its own right unless hes already dead inwhich you have to have the same thing. That way it would fell like you basically saved the guild and became guildhead.
On topic: Making a choice of which towns and cites would have the guild would be intresting, and also being able to make your own headbase, using a guild or making a new one (like the houses in morrowind.) Also haivng maybe certain guild places that might not like you dew to lack of funds or help might cast off your own guild to make a new guild (like a new mage guild) which you might have to sort out or you may have alot of guild falling to the new guild.

As I said before, after all the effort I have put in on their behalf, they will either grant me mastery of the guild (and I will be a benevolent master, truly), or, there will be no guild. Because I will destroy it. Not a guild hall will be left unravaged. I don't like that idea. I don't want to do things that way. . . but so help me!!!!! :flame:

I think you are confused about what a guildmaster does. Why would a guildmaster be the best fighter, if they can even fight anymore? Guilds have nothing to do with nonsense like that. If you're running a deskjob for years, of course you aren't going to be in fighting shape.

For an example, a general controls his army. Could any modern general possibly beat any private he commands in hand to hand fighting? Not a chance. Good thing they would never have to.

still reckon my idea works it out but is made for people who play it like a boss for ages.

I might have posted this before, but here goes. I don't much like the idea of being a guild "master", as I find most top leadership positions are heavy on administrative duties. I push enough paper at work, and the last thing I want in game is to be managing budget line items, approving expenditures, creating purchase orders, or mitigating drama between members. On top of that, all the guildies would be AI driven, and completely incapable of mimicking a real person's behavior, no matter how hot Radiant AI is. That said, I think the guild system could do with an overhaul in the following areas.

1) Increase the number of factions (examples below)
- Political & Religious factions suitable to the setting (like Morrowind's Great Houses)
- Merchants and / or Bankers guild
- Bandits and Highwaymen
- Craftsman's Guild
- Pauper's Guild (aka The Order of the Hobo)
- Witch Covens
- Imperial Civil Service

2) Add a reputation mechanic in place of "rank"
- All factions will have a reputation meter. While you can "join" and gain "rank" in some factions, others won't be "joinable"... you'll just be able to gain reputation with them.

3) Make reputation gain slow moving
- So that (4) makes more sense.

4) Add semi-random repeatable quests (in addition to normal quest content)
- Repeatable content gives you something objective based to do when other quest lines are completed.
- Example 1: Mercantile Guild needs to transport some goods to another city. Meet the caravan outside city walls and escort them to location XYZ. Random bandit encounters along the way leveled according to value of the caravan. Alternatively, you can raid the caravan on behalf of the Bandits faction
- Example 2: The Mages Guild (or whatever it is now) is always in need of alchemical ingredients. You can keep doing fetch quests to gain reputation with the occasional superior potion as reward.
- Example 3: The Fighters Guild (or equivalent) has been contracted to escort a wealthy merchant to ___. Complete the escort for increased reputation with Fighter's Guild AND Mercantile Guild.
- Example 4: (anolog to 3) Fighter's Guild has been contracted to shake down a wealthy merchant for some gambling debts. Get the money for an increase in reputation with Fighters Guild AND Theives Guild (or whoever controls gambling) but decrease with the Mercantile Guild.

5) Create a matrix of Guild relationships whereby progression in one creates anti-reputation in another
- Some guilds would be polar opposites (Mercantile vs Bandits)
- Some guilds would be naturally suspicious (Fighters vs. Mages)
- Some guilds would have no relationship linkage (Fighters & Imperial Civil Service)
- Advancing in a Guild would increase "anti-reputation" in polar opposite guilds, and also suspicious guilds (but to a lesser extent).
- Gaining too much anti-reputation may get you thrown out of a Guild.

6) Build quests to reduce anti-reputation
- In cases of guilds that are not polar opposites, build quests into the game that give lore satisfying reasons why you advance in both
- Example: Mercantile and Thieves guilds are naturally suspicious. If you advance far enough in each you open up quests to broker an agreement between the two. Perhaps bribing local nobility to legalize gambling and bring it out of the underground. Thieves and Merchant guilds would corner the market on the gambling and run it as a joint venture.

7) Add unique rewards / perks to the progression
- Not just material rewards, but perks such as vendor discounts, body guard companions, permanent / semi-permanent buffs, etc.
- Example: Enough reputation with Imperial Civil Service grants you access to a mount that runs X% faster.

I didn't say I would target only the leader. I said, if after all I have done the position is denied me, all in the guild who I could access would suffer. All the guild halls would resemble Bruma after Mannimarco got a hold to it, if they hadn't the grace to install the mage who defeated Mannimarco, despite my being a master of all the schools of magic, and learned in all the council's secrets, as well as in much lore and secrets that lie outside of the purvue of the council.

In political matters, it is often NOT the long time loyalist who rises to the top rank, though it does happen that way. Often, however, some brilliant star rises through the ranks at a meteoric rate, passing over often disgruntled compatriots (or coworkers) who feel more entitled, etc. etc. This really isn't news, nor is the senority = leadership position formula the categorical truth of how things happen in real life.

If you don't want to lead a guild, don't take the position. For those of us who do desire the role, it should be avaiable. . . and if it isn't, woe unto the damn guildmembers who think to keep it from me.