Towns & Guilds is a foundational RPG system focused on fostering player communities and driving a professional in-game economy. It introduces a specialization system where players join guilds—similar to RPG job classes—to access unique skill trees and professional tools.
- Core Concept & Governance (Town-Guild Relationships, Roles, and Hierarchy)
- The GP & TSP System (Guild Points, Skill Trees, and Multi-Guild Rules)
- Contracts & Agreements (Onboarding, Trade Deals, and Technical Function)
- Progression Mechanics (GQs, GSQs, Tool Unlocks, and TXP)
- Leadership & Succession (Acting GMs, Inactivity Protocols, and Chain of Succession)
- Scaling & Balance (Solo/Small Guild Discounts and Anti-Alt Measures)
- Glossary (Quick Reference for Technical Terms)
The system encourages players to form Towns as semi-autonomous hubs of governance and Guilds as professional organizations specializing in trades like blacksmithing, enchanting, or construction.
While designed for collaboration, nothing prevents a solo player from founding a guild. However, the progression is balanced around group-scale activity, making solo mastery an intentional challenge.
- Physical Presence: A guild must have a building in at least one town to be officially recognized.
- Expansion: Guilds may originate in one town but are free to expand to others; towns hold no jurisdiction over guild expansion unless they financially contribute to the deployment of a new branch.
- Diplomacy: Relations are shaped by mutual benefit and negotiated contracts rather than strict hierarchy.
Each guild offers two unique skill trees chosen at founding (e.g., a "Risky Miners Guild" offering Mining and Adventuring trees).
GP represents a player's total professional bandwidth. This soft cap system regulates how many guilds a player can meaningfully participate in.
- Capacity: Players start with 5 GP (Max 9).
- Investment: Joining a guild requires spending 1–3 GP as set in the initial contract.
- TSP Usability: Your GP investment determines how many Tree Skill Points (TSP) you can actively utilize:
| GP Spent |
SP Allocation Rate |
| 1 GP |
50% of total TSP |
| 2 GP |
75% of total TSP |
| 3 GP |
100% of total TSP |
- Guild Master (GM): (3 GP) Token Rank S. Full management, promotion authority, and GSQ submission. Only one per guild.
- Guild Captain (GC): (3 GP) Token Rank A. Recruitment, contract management, and ejection authority. Max of 4 per guild.
- Guild Officer: (3 GP) Token Rank B. Organizational support; mid-level leadership with limited contract authority.
- Specialist: (2 GP) Token Rank C. Trusted contributor with access to high-tier GQs and projects.
- Rookie: (1 GP) Token Rank D. Entry-level member with limited privileges.
- Initiate: (0 GP) Token Rank D. Temporary onboarding role with 33% TSP access.
Contracts are tangible custom items (books/papers) with embedded metadata used to secure multi-party agreements.
- Guild Contracts: Onboards players and defines role/GP. Only Captains or GMs can issue these (Officers may issue Rookie/Initiate contracts). Contracts cannot be edited by the applicant.
- Trade & Task Contracts: Legally binding delivery, service, or trade agreements between players, towns, and guilds.
- Contract-Locked Chests: Special containers requiring a valid signed contract to access, verifying that contents match the agreement before completing the transaction.
Repeatable, role-based tasks that refresh daily/weekly. They grant Guild Tokens (GT) and Tree Experience (TXP). Each rank has access to specific quest pools aligned with the guild’s trees.
One-time critical milestones submitted only by the GM (or Acting GM).
- Skill Unlocks: Permanently opens new abilities in the guild tree for members to allocate TSP into.
- Tool Redeemables: Repeatable quests for tangible infrastructure (Guild Tools) like utility stations or portals.
- Exclusive: Only current guild members can interact with or benefit from these tools.
- Bound & Capped: High-power tools (e.g., Guild Waystones) are capped (e.g., 5 per guild) to preserve server balance. GMs can track active units via a live HUD tracker.
- GSQ Chain Example: Courier Endurance Training (Skill) → Lesser Waystone Deployment (Tool) → Scrollwork Assembly (Tool) → Standard Waystone (Tool).
A temporary status granted to a Captain when the GM is unavailable.
- Designation: The GM assigns one GC as the Acting GM.
- Activation: Automatic after 24 hours of GM absence (threshold is configurable).
- Authority: Can submit GSQs and approve operational contracts.
- Restrictions: Cannot rename the guild, disband it, reassign the Acting GM role, or demote other Captains.
GR represents the symbolic maturity and impact of a guild. It is advanced by completing GSQs across various difficulty tiers (e.g., Rank A requires a set number of Rank A, B, C, and D GSQ completions).
¶ Solo and Small Guild Viability
To ensure fairness, a dynamic scaling system reduces token requirements for smaller groups based on Total GP and Guild Rank (GR).
- GP Modifier: 1–3 GP grants a 35% base reduction.
- GR Multiplier: Rank D applies a x2.0 multiplier to the base discount.
- Max Discount: Capped at 70%. High-tier infrastructure GSQs are exempt from scaling.
- Succession: If a GM is inactive for 3 real-world weeks, Captains can initiate a Vote of No Confidence (unanimous agreement required) to demote the GM.
- Chain: Succession follows the Acting GM, then the longest-standing GC, then the longest-standing Officer.
- Orphaned Guilds: If no Captains remain, members are encouraged to leave. Once empty, the guild is dissolved.
- Tree Version: Players only have one version of each skill tree.
- Access: Requires membership in at least one guild offering that tree.
- Controlling Guild: Usable TSP is determined by the guild with the highest GR (or highest GP investment if GR is tied).
- Unlocks: Skills are combined additively across all shared guilds.
- Alt Resilience: Guild Tokens are bound to the issuing guild and cannot be transferred. Creating alts invalidates small-guild scaling bonuses, making authentic play more efficient.
- TL Permanence: Tree Level is permanent. Even if a player is demoted or leaves, their progress remains.
- GP (Guild Points): Bandwidth currency used to join guilds. Capacity 5-9.
- TSP (Tree Skill Points): Points used to activate specific skills. Capped at 120 per tree.
- TL (Tree Level): Permanent player level in a specific tree. Capped at 30.
- GR (Guild Rank): Symbolic rank of the guild based on GSQ completions.
- Tome of Reverie: Item used to respec TSP allocation.
- Guild Gem: Rare, staff-awarded item for high-tier GSQ milestones.