Adventurer's Guilds

Like the guilds for potters, bakers, or shipwrights, adventurer's guilds are organizations or companies which organize, protect, and govern certain kinds of workers, in this case those whose "work" is exploration, monster fighting, and valuable item recovery.

There are two general models of adventurer's guild, mutual aid and for profit. The older, more widespread kind is the mutual aid sort, usually formed by an adventuring party or parties which have achieved some success and choose to share their expertise with others, giving them a place to meet, organize, recuperate, store wealth, and share and receive information. Members pay dues, and get certain benefits in return. Most major cities have such a guild. It is usually run by elected officers, and in some members actually share treasure.

The more mercantile sort of "guild" is more like a company with employees. They actively seek out promising treasure finders, hire them for a wage, give them proprietary information on where treasure might be found, and expect them to produce gain in a timely fashion. They are run for the profit of owners or shareholders, but can also pay employees well. These are becoming more and more common, and sometimes clash with the more traditional guilds.

Adventurer's guilds, especially the for-profit kind, are known for having colorful names. Famous guilds include The Wolves of Poheath, Six Blades and a Wizard, Gathola's Hammers, The Ooze Patrol, The Dungeon Delving Society of Ploi Drajit, and The Legion of Llandos.