A city of Nobles and Guilds

A tale of two cities if you’re feeling pretentious.

This document is a practically pre-built system of competing families in a D&D

environment. It assumes that the city is mostly like a medieval one (nobles and
notables, the former slowly waning but still secure and controlling the
surrounding land). To make it interesting for players, there is a faction system
(that is independent of alignment) and the players can influence it. I assume that
they hold senior positions in the Adventurer’s Guild but you can choose to insert
them elsewhere such as being the allies of a noble family or favoured by the
ruler.

I have left notes to apply this to Waterdeep in The Forgotten Realms setting but
none of them are essential to make it work.

The factions

The conflict will be one of values and of what should determine someone’s worth
to society.

People’s beliefs can be placed on two scales: "nobility is the mark of

superiority" and "people should be valued by their military prowess and
achievements as opposed to their capital or mercantile achievements".
Note that the opposing groups don’t hate each other, they just feel that their
opposite isn’t worthy of respect. This creates two overlapping conflicts with some
people who don't care about one or the other. This makes nine categories:

Pro-noble Indifferent Anti-noble

Militaristic Noblesse d’épée Blackhand Army

Indifferent Country nobles Others Thieves Guild

Capitalist Noblesse de robe Whitehand Artisans

-The noblesse d'épée is military and noble. It is composed of the old fashioned
nobles with a high sense of honour. They are exempt from tax because they pay
the "blood tax": they are required to fight any threats (monsters, outlaws and
enemies) and to train from a young age. In times of peace, they each defend
their own lands but fuse into great armies when the ruler calls them to war. They
tend to be arrogant but Lawful. They value bravery, honour and military prowess
and believe these qualities to be found mostly in those of noble blood. They are
disdainful of the Army corps that are led by commoners.

-The Blackhand Wizards are military. They used to be recruited near-exclusively

from the noble class but the chaos of the Second Sundering prevented them
from doing this. As a result, a majority of the senior wizards are noble but not
the majority of the wizards which has led to internal tensions. For inspiration,
you can read the later books in The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan.

-The City Corps are military and reject nobility. This group includes the sappers,
artillery, city watch, personal guard of the ruler and any other specialised group
(like Waterdeep’s Griffon Cavalry or a skirmisher/adventurer group). They value
discipline, camaraderie, authority and military prowess. They believe that the
noble “blood tax” should be replaced by a normal tax that pays for a standing
professional army but have only made small gains in this direction.

-The country nobles are a large faction but the players will see little of them as
they scarcely leave their country estates: they manage lands, mills, bridges and
roads and are required to defend their land if need be; they collect local taxes
and Waterdeep's taxes. They tend to enjoy hunting. Families work like modern
day companies, seeking to increase their collective power by obtaining positions
or through marriage alliances.

-The Thieves Guild are practically all commoners and value what is needed to
survive. They can be hired for assassinations but they make most of their money
through racketeering the poor and the occasional heist on a rich noble or
merchant. They are universally disliked and have no official standing. There is a
large bounty for the identity of their Guildmaster.

-capitalist and noble: the noblesse de robe, the managerial nobles. They control
some of the top level guilds and are lobbying to have requirements to gain guild
positions, government offices or power (two quarters of nobility).

-capitalist and neutral: the Whitehand Wizards. They are the doctors and
commercial minded wizards. New organisation, a splinter from the Blackhand.

-Artisans are capitalistic and anti-noble: the mid-level guilds, the merchants, the
artisans. They seek to undermine the nobles and gain influence.

Other groups
-the clerics. This will depend strongly on your setting and the role of the gods in
your story or player backstory. You can choose to have them be united, divided
by different reasons for conflict, or indifferent. Remember that although gods
might not take sides, prominent church members might or rich patrons may push
the church to take a side. One approach is to have three or four churches take
sides but the rest being indifferent. The “Gods” section below assumes this and
the Forgotten Realms setting.

-the ruler. The choice of the system of rule is a game-changer so choose

carefully. If it’s a monarchy, you need to decide what kind: with a court, who
delegates a lot, of divine right, a leader, a child, popular, of one of the factions...
One situation is that the king was purposefully chosen to be weak in order to let
the factions fight it out freely (this has often happened historically); strong
leaders on the other hand keep things civil. Otherwise, consider doing a Shojo.
Collegiate systems of rule are also possible (plutocracy or aristocracy depending
on who has the upper hand) or even democracy (in that case, err towards the
complex and sub-optimal systems like the Florentine one to keep with the “lazy
lords and corrupt guilds” vibe). Finally, to make a city distinctive, you can make
them a Fisher King: their wellbeing has a magical effect upon the city.

-If you are set in Waterdeep, consider using Laeral Silverhand as Open Lord. She
is entirely neutral in all this, believing that all strands of each spectrum are
required in order to have a functioning city. She is universally respected, both for
her wizarding abilities and moral character. As a result, she is able to unite the
factions whenever necessary; none of them resorts to violence because they
trust her judgement. Finally, she is a Chosen of Azuth: so long as she is in the
city, Detect Magic and Identify can be cast as cantrips and crafting magic items
can be done in half the time it normally would.

-The feckless are those that simply live off their capital without providing any
benefit to society: they are schemers with little to gain, they enjoy parties, leech
off their extended family and are usually young.

The guilds
This is the important part and can function independently of all the other parts of
this doc. I'm using a tweaked version of the ranking from the Guilds of Florence.

Major guilds by ranking

1 Judges, lawyers, and notaries; 2 Merchants, finishers and dyers of foreign

cloth; 3 Whitehand Wizards; 4 Bankers and money-changers; 5 Silk weavers and
tailors; 6 Physicians and pharmacists; 7 Furriers and skinners.

Middle guilds by ranking

8 Butchers and graziers; 9 Blacksmiths; 10 Shoemakers; 11 Master stonemasons

and wood-carvers; 12 Guild of Freemen.

Minor guilds by ranking

13 Vintners; 14 Innkeepers; 15 Curriers and tanners; 16 Olive oil-merchants and

provision-dealers; 17 Saddlers and harness-makers; 18 Locksmiths, toolmakers
and braziers; 19 Armourers and swordsmiths; 20 Carpenters; 21 Bakers and
millers.

Details:

All the guildmasters of the major guilds are nobles except for the Silk Weavers.
By contrast, all of the minor guildmasters are commoners except for the
Saddlers. The bankers are closely associated with the Church of Waukeen,
another money-lending institution. The Physicians have a long standing rivalry
with the clerics, their main rivals. The Furriers are a long-standing ally of the
Freemen: they regularly buy the skins of exotic monsters slain by them. The
butchers are disdained by the nobles as “unclean” and so they have a famous
dislike of each other. Artists (sculptors and painters) tend to be folded in under
the Stonemasons, explaining their wealth. The Locksmiths have a secret deal
with the Thieves Guild (which, being illegal, is not ranked). The Saddlers
overcharge the Griffon Cavalry for factional reasons but the Swordsmiths have
succeeded in avoiding disputes and being friends of both the noble and common
fighters.

The Adventurers’ Guild

The Guild of Freemen is the guild for “mercenaries, adventurers and
archaeologists”. Explain that the previous guildmaster went missing in action and
is now presumed dead. As a result, the guild has gone into a state of disrepair
but the party would be awarded the post if they curry favour with the ruler or
complete a quest.

Placing the players at the head of this gives them a power base from which to
play the political game. I would strongly advise using the Fortresses, Temples
and Strongholds module created by /u/the_singular_anyone on Unearthed
Arcana. Consider giving the players a guildhall with a tavern from the start and
including a hidden tunnel to a dungeon of monsters to clear out (allowing for
later expansion).

The families
This is a list of names, mostly taken from the Order of the Knights of Bath. The
coats of arms of all the different families are available on Wikipedia here. I have
given many a few lines of fluff so that you have a fallback should you need it or
to provide plot hooks. These only hold if you are using the guilds but are fine
even if you aren’t using the rest.

Ashmore. A merchant family in command of the Guilds of Tailors, Butchers,

Vitners and Inkeepers. They purchased titles of nobility under Neverember only
to have them invalidated when Silverhand returned to power. They are still bitter
over this and seek to undermine the status of nobility. Led by a matriarch.

Lancaster. Noblesse d’épée. Their extended family hold most of the higher
military posts within the city. There is speculation as to whether one of them is a
Masked Lord of Waterdeep. Hold a bitter feud with York.

York. Noblesse d’épée. Their extended family hold most of the military posts in
the countryside. Nephew is rumoured to be a werewolf. Hold a bitter feud with
Lancaster.

Capulet. Managerial nobility. They control the Guild of Merchants. In a feud with
Montague.

Montague. Managerial nobility. They hold the rights to most of the ports and
roads in and out of the city and use this to pressure the Capulets where they
can.

Pirogoeth of Explorer. Noble; their long-lost daughter, Miho, has mysteriously

reappeared but nobody is permitted to see her. If the players meet her/break
into her chambers, she will initially beg them to kill her before she can be
married but, if refused, will ask for revenge. Her family severely underestimates
her navigational skills and she is a genius cartographer with better knowledge of
trade routes than most merchants. The family is well-liked by all and holds mid-
ranks in both military and guilds. They have consciously positioned themselves
as neutral parties in the hope of becoming Masked Lords but fear their
daughter’s shame could ruin that. Coat of Arms: a white-clad witch kissing a
smiling shadow on a field of grey.

Lowe. Of extremely low birth but became rich after some daring ventures. They
are slowly gaining respectability since the youngest sons and daughters became
priests of the Church of Waukeen.

The Lord Bramall. Merchant noble. Guildmaster of Banks. His second-cousin is

the High Priest of Waukeen and, between the two of them, they hold most of the
capital of the city and its holding. The family is famed for their ability to use
usury to their advantage and their doggedness in pursuing debts. The family
lives in the shadow of the larger than life figure of their father.

Evans. Country nobles. The matriarch’s beauty is renowned and the extended
family is recognisable by their distinctive green eyes. She secretly has a
phylactery locked below their castle.

Wass. Merchants and drapers. The head of this family is exceptionally old and
has been defying predictions of his death for the past 30 years. He is also partly
deaf.

Eberle. Managerial nobles.

Williamson.

The Lord Armstrong of Ilmater. Oldest of the noble families, strongly militaristic.
The father and heir are ferociously proud of their lineage but the younger branch
has distanced themselves in order to succeed in the common corps. (Their coat
of arms is a pair of strong arms. Seriously.)

Cassidi

Sir Peter Terry. Patron to the churches of Oghma, Deneir and Milil. The family
head has written a number of novels, treatises and history books and his
daughters are wizards. Possesses a valuable magic sword and is fond of
collecting magical trinkets. Will bankroll the party if they collect artifacts of
historical value (books especially).

Fraser

The Lady Craig of Radley. Guildmaster of the courts. Her daughter is guildmaster
of Shoemakers. The Lady has a strong influence in the wording of the law both
through her experience and because of her project to reform the legal system. As
a result, people constantly seek to curry her favour to have laws reformed in
manners that suit them. She is the most knowledgeable person of the city where
political intrigue is concerned. Her son is of marrying age.

Cooper

Harding. Captain of the City Watch.

Chapple. Popular among artisans and a devout of Helm.

Hine

Oulton (“Old Town”, old-fashioned nobles). Country nobles for the most part but
with a presence in the city to remain informed of the activities of court.

Heseltine

Bathurst

Parry-Evans. City merchants who gained nobility by marrying into the Evans.

Kenny

The Lord Inge

Slater

The Lord Butler of Brockwell Patron of the sciences. (Coat of arms is a brock
badger in a well.)

Graydon

The Lord Ramsbotham

Kerr. Low birth, captain of the sappers.

The Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank

Waters. Bastard son of a merchant who inherited from his father. Rich merchant.

Alcock. The son is a seducer and has been known to spend extravagant sums to
woo serving maids and ladies alike. (pun to be made here)

Wilsey

Wheeler. Appears to be a prosperous merchant, is in fact a smuggler and

Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild.

The Lord Fellowes. Hosts jousting competitions every month.

Rt Hon. Sir John Chilcot

The Lord Boyce

The Lord Walker of Aldringham. Has been blackmailed by the Thieves Guild and
is now deeply involved in criminal activity.

Mackenzie

Wicks (allied with the religious factions)

Squire (merchant or upjumped)

The Lord Wilson of Dinton

Essenhigh

Phillips

Omand
The Lord West of Spithead Very touchy about his name.

The Lady Stirrup. Guildmaster of the saddle and harness makers. The sons are
famously bad at jousting and the Lady herself cannot enter jousts on account of
being a widow. However, they are still respected among the warrior nobles. They
are students of war and value military science and crafts directly related to war
as noble professions. Patrons to Gondil and the Red Knight.

Mottram

The Lord Janvrin

The Lord Dannatt. Following the sudden death of his parents, has been
squandering the family fortune on constant parties.

Torpy

Band

Stanhope (depressed, sans hope)

Houghton

Normington

The Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (speaks with a comical French accent; épée)

The Lord O'Donnell

Dalton

Wall Country noble who has built fortifications on the border. He is a devout
worshipper of Helm.

Zambellas. Foreign.

Pulford

Vincennes, Galilee, and Napier of Briggs. (Architects of the city; Brockwell funds
their natural science experiments, usually new building tools or defences.
Interested in mathematics but crippled by a lack of skill at magic; are looking to
solve navigational problems without realising Miho already has the solution)

Vruy Blas. Low birth orphan elf but well educated. He successfully impersonated
a dead noble and rose through the ranks through his skill and initiative but he
faked his death when he risked discovery. He has returned to his job as secretary
to a small noble family but works the queen (/Laeral) behind the scenes. He is in
love with her but she has not forgiven him lying to her.

Clerics and religions

If you choose to have only some of the divinities faction-aligned, here’s a
suggested configuration. Otherwise, ignore this section.

Waukeen. Common and capitalist.

Tempus: common and militaristic

Red Knight: noble and militaristic

Gond: noble and capitalistic.

Chauntea: all commercial

Helm: all military

The others are generally not implicated in these politics even if they are active.

Umberlee: special mention. This is the centre of her faith (the Queenspire is
here) and Waterdeep is a naval power. Seeks to promote religion and faith whilst
maintaining her privileged status. Is often seen as the representative of the gods
because she can claim to be favoured by all factions (the sea is needed for war
and trade; it favours the bold).

Azuth: favours the wizards.

The Lords of Waterdeep

If you are playing in Waterdeep, you should decide who is a Masked Lord. The
number of Lords is at your discretion, from twelve to over sixty.

I would advise one from each far corner of my political-alignement chart, the
Blackhand, the High Priest of a god, a country noble and a neutral
guildmaster/respected person.

Here is my proposed configuration:

-High Trident of Umberlee

-Lady Craig of Radley, Guildmaster of the courts (noble capitalist)

-Ashmore (common capitalist)

-Lady Lancel, head of the Griffon cavalry (common military)

-The Lady Stirrup (noble military)

-Mithrandir, Blackstaff of the city

-Vruy Blas. Valet of no importance outside his position of Masked Lord. He

obtained it through recognition of his genius at statecraft.

-Oulton. (country nobility)

What guilds do
Do not hesitate to let them delegate guild work to NPCs or decide that “day to
day” work is done off-screen. If your players are confused as to their role or
want to run the nitty-gritty themselves, give them this list.

1. Write and enforce the regulation on your sector of production.

2. Validate those with experience, knowledge, reputation and who comply with
your regulation. This means deciding who can claim to be a freeman, who can
claim titles of (for example) apprentice, worker, master and headmaster. You
could choose to give diplomas.

3. You can collect your own tax from your guildmembers.

4. Help people find jobs and workers.

5. You are generally expected to provide for your guildmembers who run into
hard times. Some guilds have elaborate charters and provisions for widows and
the rest of it, some just work on a case by case basis.

6. Your guildhall is a meeting place for your guildmembers. Provide with food and
drink.

7. You give permits for use of the Undercity/dangerous places.

8. [Waterdeep exclusive] You are expected to help clear out sections of Undercity
and Undermountain for use but will be paid for it. The previous guildmasters
spent considerable amounts of resources participating in expeditions in the High
Moor.

9. You theoretically represent the interests of all your guildmembers in city

politics and before the ruler. (However, some guilds tax excessively or represent
the best off among themselves.)

Keeping score

For most games the DM will only need to remember which NPCs the players have
met and what their relation is with the most prominent.

However, if the goal of the party is to build a reputation or achieve power within
that city, consider using the Renown system outlined in the Dungeon Master’s
Guide (p22). Have a separate renown score for each faction on the grid. Bear in
mind that the factions are mildly antagonist: it is very difficult to be liked by all
and publicly supporting one faction will antagonise opposing factions.