SOUNDS LIKE MY KIND OF THREAD.
Okay so first, given that they probably have never run a guild, business, or group of people and nor have you, you should have them join one instead.

Depending on their level of commitment to the nitty gritty, you may end up just throwing them into the deep end if they're running it.

>>43583887
>It appears most guilds were for artisans or merchants. How would a mercenary guild differ?

The mercenary guild would need to be in a region that had demand for hired killers - like a kingdom in the midst of a years-long civil war. A quiet peaceful kingdom has no need for mercenaries. The guild headquarters would probably be located near, but not in, the most active area that wants their services.

>Did guilds ever have legal "trade exclusivity"/a monopoly in their town/city? How much did government get involved with guilds?

Yes, this is the definition of the guild. They were the only people who were allowed to do 'thing' and you got in big trouble if you came into their turf. Their monopolies allowed them a bunch of wealth. The amount a government got involved is case by case, sometimes they weren't involved, sometimes they were. Its up to you to decide how much the local government has their fingers into things. But realize that with the advent of guilds, a middle class was formed for the first time in European history - so they had a LOT of power. They took power away from the nobility and the crown, and generally speaking so long as they paid their taxes had autonomy (for the most part, but again, it depends on the region and the guild in question).

>In an empire, how common would guilds or mercenaries really be? Would imperial law try to squelch the mercenary trade, especially if officiated through a guild, out of fear of local nobles exploiting it?

Again this goes back to demand. An empire retains its power most likely through a set of people who swear allegiance to a recognized ruler - each one capable of fielding a small military force (like the holy roman empire, and like Game of Thrones Westeros). If this is the case, why would they need to PAY anyone to fight something for them? They have men-at-arms who can already do that for free (they are paid in other ways and not directly out of the noble's pocket). A mercenary is someone who -

>>43583924
That's a fair. I was getting excited about a sort of hero-trade simulator/fantasy baseball type of game, but maybe I need to hold my horses before I get too far with it.

>>43584005
Joins a conflict for money, so a noble would need to have a weak army, or not enough troops or doesn't want to risk them to hire mercenaries. But mercenaries are 1. expensive (you risk your life), 2. fickle (someone can outbid you, and turn your mercenaries against you) 3. will not get the job done if its too dangerous (Will probably take off sooner at the first sign of trouble than your own men, as a Noble).

Now, if you have an empire like ROME, then you're looking at a senate and an imperial army - or later a Caesar and am imperial army. In both cases, you still have a powerful army to take care of trouble - and these soldiers are paid, and well-trained. So why do you need mercenaries when your army can do?

So, most likely an empire doesn't need mercenaries, as they have other options (unless the empire is plagued with problems like a weak military. A dying empire may rely heavily on mercenaries).

>Did guild members ever pay dues? Did they just have to pay in performing certain mandatory services? Or did a guild just take a cut of every job they did?

This is up to the mercenary guild to figure out. They will decide for themselves how they recruit members, how the guild is supported financially, and their costs and associated cuts. Look into a union to see how they do things, they're the closest we have to a guild these days, only much smaller.

>>43584063
Now that i'm done sort of going over why YOUR IDEAS TOTALLY SUCK. let's go over why they totally don't at all.

Your idea of a mercenary guild works fine, you just have to stick it in the right place. An empire really wouldn't need one because they have martial might so strong ... so strong ... ugh, so strong that they were able to form an empire in the first place!

So who does? Where would a mercenary guild form?

City states, my man. City States would have smaller armies because they are basically city-size empires, and probably hate one another a bunch. So, a mercenary guild that operated between them makes a bunch of sense.

The city-states would not want to spare risking their much-smaller and harder-to-replace military members, going to war with the other city state next door - so they'll probably hire out to mercenary guilds.

And city-states would probably famously have bidding wars trying to buy the services of mercenaries, and out-buy the services of mercenaries, which means there would be a bunch of cash flowing around - which MEANS A GUILD WOULD TOTALLY FORM. A guild is a way of organizing an entire sector of labor behind a set of rules and regulations, but its not cheap.

You need a few ingredients for such a thing: money, demand (city-states wanting to harass one another), autonomy (no one is going to tell you how to run your business TOO much), and enterprise (someone to organize it all). Then its just a matter of getting everyone joining the guild or getting knee-capped (guilds were a way to protect your business from competition, and they could get like mafia sometimes).

>>43584112
If city-states aren't your thing, and you really want to hang on to an empire idea, then you could have a mercenary guild forming at the edge of the empire, where bandits, monsters, and small towns need martial protection but don't have the means to do it themselves, and are too far from the powerful core of the empire to get the imperial army in to save-the-day.

In this case, it's more like the wild west, with not a lot of governmental oversight, and possibly even the ability to bully small towns (since you're the guys they hire to kill monsters and deal with bad stuff, they probably cant do it themselves which means the mercenaries have all the power). And don't forget even if the PCs are nice guys, most likely the other mercenaries in the guild are not. Nice people generally dont make a living out of murdering monsters and bandits, you know?

So, you could do a campaign of them joining a mercenary guild, seeing the abuse at the edge of the empire, and cleaning it up, kicking out the trash, and running it themselves and trying to turn it into a good respected establishment.

In this case, the mercenary guild would have power, money and regulatory ability - that is, when someone isn't following the rules in their guild, they send joey the barbarian to knee cap them and bring them into line. And pay his dues.

Bottom line is, just find a situation where mercenaries are needed - remember they are essentially just glorified murderers. Then know that since they do a violent job, they're probably not nice guys, throw in a little mafioso thieves guild atmosphere, maybe a little bribery, or bullying folks for protection money(this is all on the side when they dont have real work to do), and then them actually doing mercenary work where they clear out mines of kobolds, run bandits out of town, kill the necromancer and the zombies she's trying to raise etc...

and voila, you have what a mercenary guild is most likely to look like in dnd. (or whatever)

The closest thing to a mercenary guild historically would be Fencing Schools, such as the German Marxbruder and Federfechters, who were authorised to license students as masters of the sword (or other weapons, the English Company of Masters of the Art of Defence required bouts with a polearm to be considered a Provost, and to be ranked a Master you needed to demonstrate skill with eight weapons), which would usually entitle you to higher pay rates in mercenary companies (Landsknechts with these skills were ranked as Doppelsöldner, like those who fought in the front rank, or who were skilled marksmen)

>>43584199
>>43584112
I certainly don't need the empire, in fact I was considering the main setting to be a bustling port city on a chain of relatively lawless islands. A lot of smugglers and pirates. So the fringe idea works.

But, I was also thinking the province in question doesn't get a lot of assistance or has a lot of anti-imperial sentiment. In fact, I wouldn't mind if it had managed to cede itself from the Empire. This would lend to recent, violent war, and a need for martial protection.

>>43584478
A recent war also means lots of veterans looking for mercenary work

>>43584478
Yup, you're thinking the right way, anon. Just make a climate where they're needed, and the whole thing will write itself.

Keep cracking away at it, you got a real solid premise for a great campaign.

What kind of interesting handouts can a Mercenary guild game have?

I'm thinking like sample contracts. Or something like a Writ of Marque, except for killing orcs instead of pirates.

>>43585941
Trophies of battle, fake finger or ear maybe?
Medals
Weapons that are of significance to the guild
Contracts are good, maybe frame the first one they ever get?
The guild equivalent of a Mission Statement

I like the way Final Fantasy Tactics Advance did it. You could bring guys with you, or send them off to do non-story important quests.

In a TTRPG, I'd have the NPC roll a single skill check, opposed by the highest one that would be found on the quest at hand. As in, if it's a recon mission, they would roll Stealth vs. the highest Perception of everyone in the area they're scouting. If they fail, make a chart to see if they get hurt, injured, or die. And the PCs get half the regular reward or something, whatever their guild tax is. Something like that.

>>43586127
Mission statement is a good one. Do the guys on the quest keep all the loot they find, or is it brought in and shared? What happens if someone is injured? Or killed? If there's a disagreement about how to handle a situation? Neglect of duty? How much are dues?

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>>43585941
Possibly something along the lines of other towns have small mercenary guilds as well, maybe even just three npc parties of low level goobers for most cases. Each town allows citizens to post requests, and the merchants carry mail so they carry along "bounty" notices and the like, so they also carry mercenary contracts. They work as a first come first serve style, so you might even be able to have npcs show up to contest a contract, or to fulfill contracts that the party passes up. Can have the group either take over these small town town merc companies in buy outs(even if the buy-out is equipping and training them better, or it has to be more of a "hostile takeover" whatever floats the boats) or allow them to grown and floursih on their own to create allies, rivals, competition, or rebels against the rebels.

Sounds like a fun set up.

>>43584361
>Marxbruder
>[Translates literally to Marx Brothers]

Welp, I guess I have a name for a comedian's guild.

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>>43586181
A good rule would be they get to keep anything they can directly use, like a better weapon or a armor, or a magic ring, etc. Everything else they contribute to the guild armory for tokens, which they can then use again to trade up for better gear, weapons, armor, etc. or sell their tokens back for extra gold, or they can give them to someone so they can join the guild and immediately have a full set of gear. Like having your employees hire more employees by putting their shares in to do it.
Injury would mean they'd get the best medical treatment available, or they can pension out into a support job, like armorer or ostler, whatever duties they can handle.
Death would mean their widow and orphans would be given a stipend from the guild, and any children/spouses/relatives could be offered stable boy jobs or kitchen help, etc. to supplement that.
As for disagreements, there could be guild ranks, and seniority, also they could choose to place one person in charge for small missions, and so on, and establish a guild judiciary to handle things beyond that.
Dunno about dues, maybe just set a fixed amount, and anything they bring back they can set against their dues? And at the year end, all the extra above their dues comes back as a tidy little bonus.

Threatening other mercenaries to not operate on your turf would be something you'd have to do in a guild.

Maybe a rival mercenary group tries to establish itself and you need to stop them (how you stop them is entirely up to them, murder them, scare them away, or get them to join you), or a group of people selling their mercenary services "underground" to avoid your guild fees and regulations.

A guild requires monopoly.

>>43584005
>Did guilds ever have legal "trade exclusivity"/a monopoly in their town/city? How much did government get involved with guilds?
>Yes, this is the definition of the guild. They were the only people who were allowed to do 'thing' and you got in big trouble if you came into their turf. Their monopolies allowed them a bunch of wealth.
This is partially wrong. Guilds began as a loose associations of specialists intended to organize some local rules of proper business. Strong guilds (like the ones in free cities that basically became one of the ruling institutions of such a city) could enforce as many rules as they wanted, including trade limitations and/or tariffs on their goods.
Many guilds didn't reach this status as they were not important enough for local economy. And local landlords often promoted independent producers or foreign trade to limit growth of guild influence.

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