Last week’s introduction of the Guilds ran a little longer than I had
anticipated, and so this week, we finish up our look at the occupational
groupings of the UnderWorld. We have three more Guilds to cover-and the
removal of one of the Guilds as well.

First, the removal. After mulling over the topic over the past week
(including some wicked cool suggestions from T.S. Luikart, via email), I’ve
decided to drop the idea of a separate Guild devoted to magic. One of the
factors that goes into making the setting of UnderWorld is the idea of
pervasive magic. I’ve already introduced the idea of the “magical background
radiation” that is everywhere-leading to, among other things, the existence
of the Legendaries. So, bluntly put, magic is everywhere in the UnderWorld.
So, sez I to myself, why limit its use to one Guild? Why shouldn’t everyone
have access?

So that’s what I’m going to do. Magic will be everywhere, and each Guild
will have the ability to touch some part of it. Artificers, for example,
already manipulate it to an extent, through their use of Salvage Tech. There
will be a set list of magical “techniques” (pending a better term), and each
Guild will have one or two of those techniques as their domain. More on this
when I further detail magic (later, I promise).

For now, however, more on Guilds.

In a subterranean setting like UnderWorld, you have to have some people who
are skilled at digging (and more importantly, *repairing*) the tunnels and
caverns. This Guild would be devoted to teaching its members the skills of
both digging new tunnels and shoring up the old ones. Members of this Guild
would know the best way from point A to point B, and if there wasn’t a way,
they’d make one. They’d be experts in structure (both building them, and
taking them down in big, messy ways). Think of all of the nifty stuff that
usually gets attributed to Dwarves in standard fantasy settings, and you
could apply some of that to this Guild. As far as the name goes, I mull
through a few possibilities (Diggers, Miners, Tunnel Men) before deciding
upon Sappers (Sappers were originally the soldiers who dug tunnels from
trenches up to (and beneath) enemy positions-now the name is primarily
associated with anti-mine engineers). I like the term “The Sapper’s Guild”
more than “those tunnel-digging-and-fortifying guys.”

The Navigator’s Guild is the next one that occurred to me-when I was thinking
of a character type like those surly-but-with-a-heart-of-gold Tramp Steamer
Captains of the old pulps-someone to get you where you want to go, and to
watch your back while you’re getting there. Down in the tunnels, there are
rivers (rainwater or sewage-who knows, but I’m not jumping in there to find
out…)-and where there are rivers, there are boats to travel on them (another
image flits across my mind’s eye here: the “Wonketania” -the
oompa-loompa-powered paddlewheel boat in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory”-perfect for the weird-shit-o-meter! Or hey-what about Morpheus’
submarine in “The Matrix?” -also perfect). Travel, though, is not limited to
the rivers…your characters may have a need to travel down below the deepest
tunnels, further than any Tagger has explored…and who better to take you
there than Captain Quinn and his Leviathan Crawler? Basically, Navigators
are the owners/operators of transit devices (Boats, private subway cars,
whatever), who take people where they want to go. They’ll have access to a
vehicle of some sort, knowledge of the routes, that sort of thing.

The last Guild is devoted to information. They deal in knowledge. Sages,
advisors and specialists of every sort, this Guild keeps the maps, the
records, the books and the files. They know things that no one else
knows-they have heard of things that no one else has heard. The world below
is a huge place, with countless tunnels-and each of those tunnels has a
story. This Guild knows those stories, and countless others. Think of them
as the UnderWorld equivalent of the Oracle, Sage and the Bard of the fantasy
genre, plus the NetRunner and Fixer of Cyberpunk. If they don’t have the
information itself, they know where it is hidden, and how to get it. Initial
inspiration for this Guild came from the character of “Father” on Beauty and
the Beast-with his chambers filled floor to ceiling with books, charts,
scrolls and maps. With that inspiration in mind, I name them The Librarians
Guild. Every game needs an academic class of character, whether that is the
Wizard, the NetRunner, the Science Officer, or what have you. These
characters act as vital conduits of gamemaster-provided information, and
occasionally fill the role of providing keen deductive reasoning as well.
The Librarians will fill this niche for UnderWorld.

So, to sum up the “who/what” paradigm for defining characters in
UnderWorld-we have 8 Breeds: Homeless, Freaks, Junkmen, Mole People, The
Lost, Normals, Legendaries and Nomads. We also, coincidentally (really!),
have 8 Guilds: Bravos, Artificers, Monks, Traders, Taggers, Sappers,
Navigators and Librarians. The unintended symmetry of this works out nicely
for a core book. Perhaps, through play, different Breeds and Guilds will
present themselves, and these could form the basis of a supplemental release
(although I would release them all in one book-I can’t stand the “one
group-one sourcebook” model of things. I much prefer a larger release that
suits the needs of all players than a smaller release that appeals only to a
specific group).

Character creation will work something like this: The player picks a Breed
and a Guild, making note of the special abilities, magical techniques and
skills that each confers. The player then picks three Defining Traits-those
things that are the core descriptors of the character. He (or she) picks one
from the list of Traits available to the chosen Breed, and one from the list
available to the Guild. The third Defining Trait can come from ANY of the
lists (it’s the individualized “wild card” factor, if you will). The player
then can choose three “secondary skills” from any of the other Guilds’
lists-these are skills that the character has learned, but not anywhere near
the level of proficiency that a member of that Guild would have. Additional
secondary skills (beyond the initial three) can be taken, but for each one
taken, the player must pick an accompanying disadvantage (game balance rears
its ugly head).

That’s basically it. Starting equipment will be largely defined by one’s
Guild, and of course, anything reasonable that you can convince the Conductor
(the gamemaster) would be in your characters’ kit.

Having taken a look at Character Definition and Creation, next week I’ll go
into a bit more detail on the “Head Count” mechanics-and, space permitting,
we’ll begin to get into the specifics of combat in the UnderWorld.

Until next week,

Gareth-Michael Skarka

GMSkarka@aol.com