One thing I loved about Oblivion was the guilds, being able to join a faction and work your way up IMO was awesome.

However there are a few things that I would like to throw in and they are as follow:

What Guilds will there be??
The guilds from Oblivion will hopefully carry into Skyrim, and with that I also hope to see a few more...
Perhaps the ability to join the guard of a city would be an interesting way to improvise repeatable quests were you settle disputes attack etc...
Joining forest ranger guild, allows you to patrol the frozen wastes as a conservationist, culling beasts and game alike.

Using you status in a guild to attain guild utilities
If you reach a high enough rank, say in the fighters guild you can go out on a contract with a few recruits as a trainer/mentor.
You could also request special weapons, items and armor from the armory.
Mage guild high rankers can order exotic materials and take on an apprentice.
Low ranked thieves are often forced to stand lookout, but later on can command a troop of thieves to do a sweep over an area at a crowded town event with you gaining your 50% cut of course.

Slower Rank gains
I feel that instead of "Hurr complete these 3 quests" the guilds should provide frequent random event missions that help you level a faction bar.
Instead of a quest based rank gain, their should be an influence bar that allows you to slowly gain ranks via quests and different events.
I want it take a fair bit of effort to reach a higher level in a guild, so realistically your level is equivalent to the high ranking NPC levels. (I feel that high ranking members in a guild will have levels implemented, so realistically a high level mage will be much more versatile then a newbie one.)

Thoughts/Questions/Input

I'm fealing really lazy right now and haven't read your whole post, I will in a bit though. Basically what I have to say about guilds: More, longer, and more actual power from guild rank.

I think that by joining a guild, such as that forest guild, you get a unique attribute to call animals for you to hunt.

I would love that my rank in the guild was even known to the citizens this time. After a great effort (I hope) to become leader
:tes:

I liked the Morrowind system I also liked the 'guild wars' in Vvardenfell since Guilds were also pretty new overthere, the Mages and Fighters and Thieves guild only excisted for a couple of what decades on the on going Camma Tong and the Morog Tong who are not just a murder guild like the Dark Brotherhood is ...

Since Skyrim is in civil war I hope they also implent factions in Skyrim just like in Vvardenfell, if you joined house Hlaalu , house Redoran turned pretty unfriendly to you, and house Telvanni would have turned outright hostile towards you if they could do that (imperial law)

I also liked that if you did become 'head' of one of this houses you could build you're own estate .... I never been a high ranking member of the Redoran house but I remember a Wizard Tower for the Telvanni including some servants and a Estate in Hlaalu lands .... (reminds me that my morrowind disc is to corrupted so i need to get a new morrowind disc) ...

I would like if they did the Morrowind Guild Mechanism to Skyrim, I am sure I liked the guild system in Morrowind far better than in Oblivion, were even a fighter could become the arch mage of the university, wich really doesn't make sense ...

But that is me.

I want my rank in the guild to actually matter and count for something other than a title.

I mean, if I'm the Archmage, and I visit some spell maker's shop, he should be flattered! He should be offering me discounts! If I buy a lot, maybe he could put a little sign up like, "The Archmage shops here!"

And I want to be forced to make decisions - I shouldn't be able to join separate guilds that oppose each other or are antithetical to each others core values. Otherwise, it should be fine if I want to join multiple guilds, but I should only be allowed to be the leader of ONE guild at a time. The political fallout from having the same person be the head of say, the Fighter's Guild and the Mage's Guild, would be insane. Neither guild would stand for that - it consolidates too much power in one person and practically merges the two guilds. Real medieval guilds were fiercely competitive. If you wanted to lead another guild, you should have to give up your current leadership.

I like the idea of slower rank gains and random event missions mixed in with scripted quests. I also like the idea of an influence bar that is raised by your actions instead of relying simply on quests for advancement. Maybe you won a lot of arena games, so you start with a lot of influence in the Fighter's Guild, making it possible to gain ranks more quickly, or even start at a higher rank. Maybe you found a legendary magical artifact as mage, and the Mage's Guild offers influence and rank to part with it. Just anything that isn't so mechanical as the "Do 1 Quest, Get 1 Rank" system of Oblivion. It didn't feel like you had to "put your time in" in each rank, that they were all just unimportant stepping stones to the guild leadership.

I also want to see different perks unlocking with each new rank, along with some responsibilities. For instance, in the Mage's Guild, maybe you gain access to a library of spells at a certain rank, but you are required to teach a class once a week or lose influence. A fighter might be required to guard a client once a week, or a thief required to rob a chosen house or pickpocket a certain NPC once a week. What guild is going to keep handing out benefits to people that do nothing for them but take up space on the roster?

Also, I want less free stuff from guild halls. How broken is it to join a guild at rank 1 or 2 and be able to legally empty the building of soul gems or expensive weapons? Instead, each guild should have a shop were members can get items at discount, or have arrangements with local merchants to provide the same to their membership. Only the guild leader should be able to take everything not nailed down, and even then, NPCs should call him on being greedy.

And when you are the leader of the guild, I want some new or random quests or events addressing that. The ability to make decisions on the guild's actions or future. Members should come to you with problems or disagreements. Crisis should arise on occasion. People should complain that it has been weeks since the guild leader stepped foot in a guild hall. NPCs could make power-plays for the leadership, etc.

Hell, on that note, why is it so easy to gain leadership in some guilds? A warrior might gladly hand over leadership of his guild to someone that proved they were a better fighter, but why should an Archmage give up power? Why should a thief or assassin guild have a peaceful transfer of power? Gaining the leadership in some guilds should be time-consuming quests and events on their own, after all the ranks are obtained.

Another ( yet another ) Guilds thread, yet another chance to say Bards Bards Bards Bards Bards Bards Bards Bards ( to the tune of Monty Python's Spam ).

Another guild always welcome anyway.
The college is part of Skyrim lore.
Chance to have quests that rely on speechcraft and information gathering, charm and guile rather than hack/fireball/sneak.

I've said the same things so many times, but if the same threads keep popping up, I'll keep posting.

One in a video game.

"I'm Archmage Shepard, and this is my favorite shop in Windhelm!"

I would like to see something on the scale of Morrowinds joinable Factions and Guilds - we had House Hlaalu, House Redoran, House Telvanni, Blades, East Empire Company, Fighters Guild, Imperial Cult, Imperial Legion, Mages Guild, Thieves Guild, Ashlanders, Morag Tong, Tribunal Temple, Aundae Clan, Berne Clan and Quarra Clan this made it one of the most diverse RPG's I had ever played and gave it more replay value because of it.

I would like to ask, does anybody know the difference between the college of whispers and synod?

I simply don't see the guilds returning as we know them. Many are Imperial institutions, and IF they come back, they should take a backseat of sorts to the new guilds.

That said, there will almost certainly be a guild covering the archtypes.


-Assassins may actually still join the Dark Brotherhood. In this case it would make sense that they would endure the collapse of the Empire; after all, someone always needs killin.

-Thieves Guild is likely out. What will probably replace it is a nordic "Camonna Tong" of sorts, with a bit more leniency towards outsiders that is.

-Fighters Guild is out, I'll bet my money on it. What will replace it? Guards, merc companies, perhaps even Knight orders.

-If there are major political factions out there, you can also bet that they will have you protect their territory.

-IIRC, the Mages Guild has split into the College of Whispers and the Synod. Pretty interesting. I wonder where the necromancers stand, what with the "death" (doubtful) of their King of Worms.

-I'm willing to bet there will be religious organizations to join as well, at least to the Nine. But it's going to be quite a different experience from say, Morrowind or KoTN.

1o Longer quests-trama.

2o Rank depending on skills AND really counting for something.

3o What's the point on leading a guild if I am John Doe for the world? I don't want to lead a guild if that means nothing; being the Archimage only to be called "Scum" by a guard is senseless.

4o Again, I see no point on leading a guild; becoming Archimage, Master of the Fighter's Guild or Master Thief/Grey Fox is rather senseless. I see a lot more senseful to only be able to reach the penultimate step if I'm not going to be able to lead the guild in any way, as before. Getting a room with magical chests is not leading a guild, getting 500 gold a week is not leading a guild.

5o There should be random contracts in fighter's guild, and depending on rank, you should be able to take them OR command guildies to do them for you.

6o There should be options in Thieves guild, depending on rank, to either send guildies on a rush (ala Oblivion's "Vile lair" companion, but hopefuly improved) or select between a couple of contracts to send them or do them yourself (i.e.: "robing a store/house", "stealing something to someone", "organizing some gambling game" or "work as a thug for someone to intimidate/recover a debt")

7o Dark Brotherhood; probably the best trama in Oblivion, way better than anyother guild and (imo) way better than main quest too. I want it to be longer, crueller and deeper, involving if possible in anyway any other guild-trama. And I want random contracts once finished. I really need them; save the money for npcs, I want to kill them, I'm an assassin, I want to be able to fulfil contracts myself.

8o "Mages" Guild (I know is no more, but splited): again, I see no point on leading them; mages are people with high status, and leading such guilds should give us political power, wich they surely won't, so it's pointless to lead them. Being the penultimate rank (the higher we should be able to be), we could well have benefits and options, i.e.: of course discounts with guild traders, we should be able to send apprentices in missions, like collecting materials for alchemy or filled soulgems, we should be able to teach skills (hopefuly we'll need a high skill to reach the top rank), and we should be able to start researching missions, like recovering ancient reliqs, or discovering lore, or even some kind of new spell/perk (i.e.: your studies allow you to improve Fireball spell, costing less and doing more damage) We should have random missions too and being able to either send apprentices or do them ourselves, like exorcize a lair, or stifle a new-rising minifaction in some cave, etc... Surely Bethesda has way better scritpwritters than myself.

So, to sum up, longer quests, ranks counting, real benefits from getting the higer rank and random missions after finishing the story line.

Sorry in advance for any misspelling; english is not my main language.

This... pretty much the whole thing!

Really like the idea of influence that builds up to the next rank, would make for much more tangible progression.

as for what kinds of guilds, well the basic architypes of course, however i would love to see opposing regional guilds, with such as a faction for each hold, or a rebel and loyalist faction, which when joined would lock out its competitors.

Edit: 100th post in just over 6 years hahaha >.<

Pretty much everything white rabbit said