Renown

As you advance the goals of your guild through your ad ventures, you become an increasingly important part of the guild's activities. You might rise through the ranks, eventually taking up a position at the right hand of the guildmaster-or even becoming the master yourself! Your status in your guild is measured by your renown score. As you increase that score, you gain the opportunity to advance in the ranks of the guild.

When you join a guild as a starting character, your renown score with that guild is 1. Your renown score increases by 1 when you do something to advance the guild's interests, assuming that other members of the guild are aware of what you've done. Each guild's description in this chapter includes a discussion of its goals and your role in pursuing those goals, which your DM will use to judge whether you earn an increase in your renown score.

The various ranks within the guilds describe the range of tasks you might perform, from testing experi mental Izzet weaponry to leading a squad of Boros sol diers into battle. When you're assigned a mission that in volves an adventure-leaving behind your guild holdings and putting yourself in danger-and you complete that mission, your renown score with that guild increases by 2. Chapter 4 includes information for the DM about mis sions appropriate for your guild.

Other tasks that don't involve adventuring can also im prove your renown score. You can use the time between adventures to improve your renown within your guild by performing these tasks, as well as by socializing with prominent people in the guild. After doing so for a total number of days equal to your current renown score mul tiplied by 10, your renown score increases by 1.

At your DM's discretion, you might also have a re nown score in a guild you don't belong to. You can't ever formally advance in rank within another guild, but a high renown score can earn you additional contacts. favors, and other benefits. This option can be useful in an intrigue-heavy campaign where the adventurers spend a lot of time trying to influence the leaders of vari ous guilds.

BENEFITS OF RENOWN

As you gain renown in a guild, you gain certain benefits. Most benefits are guild-specific, but there are general benefits that apply no matter which guild you belong to:

Renown 3 or Higher. When you have a renown score of at least 3 with your own guild, you are an established and respected member of the guild. Other members of the guild have a friendly attitude toward you by default. (Individual members of the guild might have reasons to dislike you despite your renown.) They pro vide you with lodging and food in dire circumstances and pay for your funeral if needed. If you are accused of a crime, your guild offers legal support, as long as a good case can be made for your innocence or the crime was justifiable.

Renown 5 or Higher. When your renown score with any guild reaches 5, you gain an additional contact within the guild. This contact might be a character you met during your adventures or someone who seeks you out because of your fame. Your DM will assign you a contact or have you roll on the Contacts table for the appropriate guild.

Some guilds-notably Azorius, Orzhov, and Boros have well-defined hierarchies that characters can as cend through as they improve their renown scores. Other guilds have positions of honor that characters can apply for if their renown score is high enough. Not every member of the Selesnya Conclave aspires to be a sagittar (an archer assigned to guard an important guild location), but any character who meets the prerequisites can apply for the position. Ultimately, the DM decides whether a character qualifies for such a role, with acer tain renown score as a minimum requirement.

Several guilds provide a salary among the benefits of renown within the guild. The salary is described as sufficient to maintain a lifestyle of a certain level. If you earn a salary, you can live at the specified lifestyle with out paying the normal daily expenditure. See chapter 5 of the Player's Handbook for more information on life style expenses.

A prominent position in a guild often allows you to call on the services of lower-ranking members to assist you in your work. When you do, they are assumed to be loyal followers who help you to the best of their ability. Some of them are assigned to help you for the duration of a single task or mission, while others are under your permanent command, staffing a laboratory, workshop, or garrison where you are in charge. Depending on their role, they might help you in dangerous situations (like combat) or flee from them. You might assign them to perform tasks in your absence, which could include un dertaking research. looking for witnesses to a crime, or carrying out a small-scale raid, for example, depending on their role and capabilities. You carry the responsi bility for their lives and welfare, ultimately, and if the guild decides that you are abusing your authority and mistreating the members beneath you. you might lose renown. lose your rank or status in the guild, or even be cast out of the guild.

LOSING RENOWN

If you commit a serious offense against your guild or its members, you might lose renown within the guild. The extent of the loss depends on the infraction and is left to the DM's discretion. A character's renown score with a guild can never drop below 0. If your renown score drops below the threshold for a rank or privilege you have attained, you lose that benefit. Even if you regain the lost renown, you might find it more difficult to again secure a position or rank you have previously lost.

STYLES OF MEMBERSHIP

As you're playing a character associated with one of the guilds, think about your character's relationship with the guild. Guild members can be grouped into four cat egories, depending on their motivations and priorities: loyalists, opportunists, rebels, and anomalies. Which one of these descriptions best fits your character?

Loyalists join a guild because they firmly believe in the guild's ideals and want to advance its goals. Their membership in the guild is a badge of identity for them. They're typically of the races and classes most strongly associated with the guild, and their personality traits and ideals fall in line with the suggestions in this chap ter. An idealistic human or a minotaur paladin in the Boros Legion is an example of a loyalist.

Opportunists join a guild based on what they can gain from becoming members. Every guild offers its members something-whether concrete benefits such as opportunities for wealth or more subtle, intangible re wards such as social status-and getting that something is the primary motivation for this type of character. Op portunists often pay lip service to the ideals and goals of the guild, looking out for themselves first and the guild second (at best). A selfish human fighter who uses mem bership in the Boros Legion as an excuse to bully and steal from others would be an opportunist.

Rebels love the guilds they're in but don't conform to guild expectations. They might be good-hearted idealists trying to bend a shady guild toward nobler pursuits, or they might be selfish egotists hoping to direct the guild's actions toward promoting their own interests. Most reb els are typical members of the guild in terms of race and class, but they vary from type when it comes to person alities and ideals. A Boros legionnaire with tyrannical tendencies who thinks the Boros should enforce justice with an iron fist would be a rebel.

Anomalies are individuals who join guilds contrary to all expectations. Their race or class (or both) is out side the norm for their guild, but their personalities and ideals fall perfectly in line; that's why they joined. A vedalken paladin in the Boros Legion, or an Ordruun minotaur in the Orzhov Syndicate, would fall into this category.

MEMBERSHIP AND INDEPENDENCE

Some adventurers do exactly what they're told, spending their careers doing the bidding of their guild superiors. Most adventuring characters, though, prefer more inde pendence. You can roll a d6 or choose from the options in the table below to establish a reason for the freedom enjoyed by your character.

 

d6	Reason for Independence
1	I've been around long enough that my guild lets me do what I want.
2	I've been chosen for special assignments because I'm just that good.
3	I've been singled out for special assignments because somebody up the ranks hates me.
4	I'm moonlighting, and I'd get in trouble if my superiors knew what I was up to.
5	I've been put at the disposal of another guild because my superiors want to help them.
6	I've been put at the disposal of another guild because my superiors hope I'll fail.

CHANGING GUILDS

If events in your character's adventuring career war rant it, you can abandon membership in one guild and join a different one. Once you leave a guild, you can rarely go back.

Your DM decides what requirements you must meet to join a new guild. Some guilds welcome new recruits and make the process as simple as possible, while others require a demonstration of loyalty.

When you change guilds, you lose all the privileges of membership in your original guild, including the back ground feature granted to you by your original guild and any rank or position you have achieved in that guild. You also lose access to your old guild spells, unless they are already on your class's spell list, among your spells known. or in your spellbook. Except in exceptional cir cumstances, your renown score with your original guild becomes 0.

Your old guild expects you to return your guild insignia, and your new guild gives you one to replace it. You gain the privileges of membership in your new guild. These include the background feature granted by your new guild, although your DM might decide that it takes you a while to gain the full benefit. For example, a character who leaves another guild to join the Gruul Clans doesn't immediately know the ways of the rubble belts, but has to gain that familiarity over time. You also gain access to your new guild spells.

Your new guild doesn't give you any benefits that assume prior knowledge or experience, including profi ciencies. starting equipment (except your guild insignia), and contacts.