NPC Guilds
Overview
In the original game design, players could join NPC Guilds as members of a specific trade organization, such as miners or tailors, or just for roleplaying purposes. The NPC Guild system and membership was seperate, completely apart and had no bearing on the player guild system.
The system was never fully implemented but was to include 10% discounts on goods sold by NPC vendors within a guild to the members. Guild insignia-specific house signs were created for town buildings as well as player homes to signifiy NPC guild membership. Guild halls to foster a sense of community within each guild were created in various towns as gathering spots and were often the location of the NPC guild's leader, the NPC guildmaster. The towns were selected for each guild to signify their thematic influence or presence, such as the Miner's Guild being located in Minoc due to it's close proximity to Mount Kendal. A player could only be a member of one NPC Guild at a time. To join a different NPC guild, they would have to first resign from their prior membership. To join an NPC Guild, a character had to find the NPC Guildmaster, request to join and then pay a 500 gold membership fee.
Only the Thieves Guild was ever actually fully fleshed out for characters to join, enabling them to steal from other players as well as to purchase and use a disguise kit. Joining the guild includes a set of requirements regarding character age and Stealing skill level. Unlike other NPC Guildmasters, the Thief Guild Master roams all over, ostensibly always one step ahead of the authorities, and never remains in one location for long.
Some of the NPC guild halls are quite massive and grandiose. Today, they often serve as settings for quests with intriguing characters.
NPC Guilds
Below are the NPC Guilds and their associated subguilds. Subguilds were intended to focus on a specialized trade or area of knowledge apart from the main guild. Had the discount system been implemented, all members within a guild would have also received discounts from subguild NPC vendors.
- Guild of Arcane Arts - Alchemists and Mages
- Guild of Barbers - Barbers and Hairstylists
- Society of Clothiers - Tailors and Weavers
- Bardic Collegium - Bards, Musicians, Storytellers and Performers
- Society of Cooks and Chefs - Cooks and Chefs
- Order of Engineers - Tinker and Engineers
- Maritime Guild - Fishers, Sailors, Mapmapers and Shipwrights
- Merchant's Association - Merchants, Innkeepers, Tavernkeepers, Jewelers and Provisioners
- Minging Cooperative - Miners
- League of Rangers - Bowyers, Animal Trainers and Rangers
- Society of Smiths - Blacksmiths and Weaponsmiths
- Society of Thieves - Beggars, Thieves, Assassins and Brigands
- Federation of Rogues and Beggars
- Guild of Assassins
- Society of Thieves redundant or typo?
- Warriors' Guild - Mercenaries, Warriors, Weapon Trainers, Weaponsmiths, Soldiers, Guards and Paladins
See Also
- Guild - The player-controlled basis for group organization in UO.