Topic of the Fortnight Club - Organizations

[Polycarp]

Welcome to the Topic of the Fortnight Club!

We will be starting off this particular fortnight with the topic of Organizations.

[ic=Organizations]Not all power lies with a government.  Organizations of like-minded people have exerted power and influence throughout history, sometimes even enough to challenge the authority of kings and parliaments.  People like to belong to communities of those whom they have something in common with, whether that common thread is occupation, belief, or social status.

Trade Associations are organizations primarily concerned with a certain occupation and the practicing thereof.  Knowledge of a trade means power, wealth, and status in many societies, and guilds functioned as a means of controlling the spread of this knowledge, keeping the "secrets" of the trade confined to a certain clique of practitioners.  Such guilds may be amiable fraternities of craftsmen, but they can also be powerful, secretive, and wealthy cartels that control whole cities (or even countries).  Guilds may have ranks that take years to move through, with each rank allowing the member access to new secrets and bestowing new privileges upon him.  In modern or futuristic settings, unions may be more prevalent, groups that advocate for the rights of workers of a specific trade (or all trades) and control access to certain professions.  Depending on the society they exist in, unions may be all-powerful or quite weak.  Magic itself can be a "trade," and wizards' guilds (or the equivalent) may carefully limit access to their mysteries just as a bakers' guild does.

Military Organizations are groups devoted to a more specific occupation.  Rulers throughout history have hired mercenaries, who may organize themselves into mercenary groups or "bands."  They may be viewed as honorable or dishonorable, and if powerful enough may be of serious concern to local rulers.  Orders of Knighthood (or, if your setting lacks knights, a similar class of warrior-aristocracy) may exist as harmless social clubs for the nobility or as powerful coteries of independent warriors.  A military organization may function like a guild, limiting knowledge of its techniques or availability of certain weapons or equipment, or more like an academy, teaching its arts to those willing to pay.  An adventurer may even have to be "organization approved" or licensed to carry a certain weapon, especially in lands where such organizations have a great deal of political sway.

Religious Organizations may be present wherever religion exists.  Sometimes, the religion itself is an organization, with an ecclesiastical hierarchy leading up to a "high priest" at the top.  Other religions may have organizations within them, composed of groups of the faithful interested in a certain topic or mission.  Some religious groups may be militarily inclined as well, consisting of warrior-priests (or just faithful warriors) dedicated to fighting the enemies of the gods (demons, etc.) or the mortal enemies of the faith.

Finally, Secret Societies hide in the shadows.  Well-known guilds and military orders may have elements of secrecy, but a true secret society is itself hidden - usually for good reason.  Some are criminal organizations or guilds of a less savory nature, like a thieves' or poisoners' guild, while others are mafia-like gangs of criminals that extort money and goods from honest folk.  Religious organizations can be secret societies, especially banned cults or radical splinter groups from major religious who must remain underground to escape persecution (or hold their twisted rituals!).  Secret societies need not be nefarious, such as a group of warriors or rebels committed to standing up to a hated tyrant, or a group of magic-practitioners who just want to practice their art in peace without being burned at the stake.

Organizations, especially secret ones (or just organizations with secrets), are classic material for adventure hooks and story plotlines.  So what are you waiting for, a secret handshake?[/ic]
[ic=Topic Wranglers]

Vreeg's Coachwhip has given us an example to show the kind of template you could use for describing your organizations.*Luminous Crayon has shared with us the gift of laughter, as well as the Heirs of Mieras.*Phoenix has unleashed the Inquisitors upon us![/list][/ic]
[spoiler=TFC FAQ]
What is this?
This is the Topic of the Fortnight Club. If you've ever been unsure as to what part of your setting to detail next, consider using our suggested topics! Even if you don't want or need a topic provided to you to direct your creativity, you can still use the opportunity to read other people's work on the subject and talk with other authors about how they approach the topic in their particular world/setting.

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What/when will the next topic be?
The next TFC thread will hopefully be posted on or around Sunday, August 30.[/spoiler]

[Lmns Crn]

This is definitely an area I need to do a lot of work on.  Looks like I have some direction for the next couple of weeks.

[Polycarp]

I'll be working on this as well - you can never have too many organizations (well, maybe, but I've certainly never reached that level).  To start with something, however, I'll post something I did a few weeks ago, one of the first organizations for the Clockwork Jungle I've done a write-up on.  

The Arbalesters' League is some kind of cross between a mercenary group and a veterans' organization that looks after a community of foreign mercenaries (and their families) in a faraway land.  I was trying to answer a question: What do military organizations become when the war is over?  What do mercenaries do in peacetime?  In this case, the answer is "get tangled up in politics," but you could go other ways with that as well.

[Gamer Printshop]

I wish I had time to read others' settings more, but buried in Kaidan at the moment, trying to get it out the door...

Organizations, before I list any, this is my "plan" regarding organizations in Kaidan. Forgive the preface to the answer, but it helps you understand what I need to do to create organizations of Kaidan.

The Thousand Heresies.

The imperial court, shogunate and the temples of Zao the state religion (maintained by Sohei monks which are really paladins) promote the belief that the endless cycle of reincarnations is the eternity that all souls must travel. Following this belief and not being in conflict with that belief is doctrine.

Counter to this, the noble lords themselves break from this "system", by escaping the endless cycle, but doing necrotic rites and conferring undead status onto themselves in order to nolonger be able to die, thus maintain their status quo at the top of the social castes. This act though heretical to the reincanation cycle, as a practice among the ruling caste, their heresy is never spoken of.

The heretical belief that one can find salvation by discovering and following the path to enlightenment is the only true means of escaping the Wheel of Life, going to the Pure Lands, and eventually Nirvana. The Boddhitsatva Heresy as it is known.

These are just two more obvious heretical beliefs. The truth is that every institution and organization follow their own heretical beliefs and very often certain heretical rites can be actuated and provide some tangible benefit to the followers of any given organization, all provided by the same artificial Wheel of Life construct created by some dark power at the founding of the empire. This artificial cosmic construct is flexible, and indeed gives benefit to different belief systems (accomodating) in order to receive absolute commitment from its believers to give it power and perpetude.

Thus the Yakuza (Hinin caste) and the Ninja (Commoner Caste) have their own wildly heretical beliefs regarding the Wheel, to which they receive benefit - spells acquired, protections inherited, etc. The Wheel bends to any belief with the recognition of its eternal cycle.

There are many secret orders among the samurai, the guilds, even within the nobility. The hengeyokai (animal shape-changer barbarians) too have enabled powers connoted by the Wheel.

With each organization I build for Kaidan, I need to create unique heresy enabled by the Wheel, and defiant against the imperial doctrine of the Wheel. We'll see if I can manage that.

GP

PS: I just got back from Gencon Indy, 2 hours ago. I took my nephews to their first Gencon, had a good time.

[LordVreeg]

This is a very difficulty topic for me to tackle.  Not for paucity of thought or lack of data, more the opposite.
After all, my Magnum Opus was described by Tybalt (from here, in his time very prolific) as the "World of Factions".  Both the game system and the fluff are wrapped around a huge, multilevel, interrelated system of factions/guilds/schools.

And there are factions within factions.  Churches are factions, and the knighthoods within them are subfactions, and sometimes there are subfactions within those.  Exempli gratia, My Church of the Green Mother in Igbar is a faction, inside of which is the Cult of the Serpent Queen, which worships Vernidale differently (a throwback to the Earleir Churchof Circled Snake and Spider, and the later Argussian Faith of the Serpent Queen) than the outside of the faith professes, and within this group is the "Terrors of the Knife", the hidden assassins of the Serpent Queen.

And for the GM with a twisted, laberynthian mindset, this is a primary outlet for creativity.  If you want to run a game with political tensions, these factions create much of the adventure.  In the same example, Vigior Sheering is the 2nd ranking member of the Serpent Queen Cult and the head of the Terrors of the Knife.  He is also a Castellot (political movement supporting the old Argussian government) of an Istar family (The IStar are the older, wealthy clans in Igbar.  He is a past Master in the multinational Mages Guild, the Collegium Arcana, (and an active member of the elixeriest branch) a dabbler and minor partner in the Winfire Trading Guild.

Such Factional detail and the relationships are detailed elswhere at nauseating (to some)length. So I doubt it is much use to go into the details here.  I will say that the system that supports this is also created with the Factional structure in mind.  Each character, when created, choosed their guild, whcih determines what skills they are good at, but also instantly identifies them and places them within this factional world.
George, a long running character in the Igbarian group was slain convincingly last night, so George's player started rolling up a new character.  He rolled up a strong Gartier (Bugbear), so he went martial, but many of his choices were based around which guilds (in this case, knighthoods and churches) would support the kind of personlaity he was creating)  He went with a Bone Knight of Orcus, but also an initiate of Geryon of the Wild Hunt.  
Which in and of itself means nothing, but all the PC's of the Guildschool system spent inordinate amounts of time politicking and existing within and for their factions/guilds/etc.

I guess I will also put out there that with the experience I've gotten from playing this kind of a game, the level of immersion gets very sizable.  I know to an outsider this might sound very complicated, but creating a living system of factions has a multiplying affect on the versimilitude of your settings, and this, in turn, leads to better immersion.  SQuire Grobach's PC last night said she was going to the Colishaw Ironmongery to get her WarHammer silverized, since that SMith is a member of the Sceding Tree Umbrella of companies, and the Church of Trade is allied with the Sceding Tree.  That leevl of immersion is gold to a GM.  

[Lmns Crn]

Okay, this is going to be a real newbie question, so brace yourselves.

How the heck am I supposed to organize my organizations (heh, no really, seriously)?

I mean, I have a billion cities and nations and geographical features, and they all fall neatly into categories based on location (by continent, typically), by dominant race, and the like. Tribes, families, and clans break down by race, as do a lot of elements of tradition, magic, culture, etc. (And the ones that don't break down by race break down by location.)

But it seems like many of my organizations resist categorization, because they don't even share common attributes. I can't sort them by location because some are world-wide, I can't sort them by race because most are pan-racial, and I can't sort them by goals and stated purpose because each one would have its own unique classification, and that's not helpful. I suppose I could sort them by size, but that's boring.

I mean, I could list them alphabetically, but I don't think that's particularly useful for a reader.

How do you guys set this sort of thing up, because I am failing at it.

[Polycarp]

How do you guys set this sort of thing up, because I am failing at it.

has[/i] to fit into just one category - list it wherever it's appropriate, multiple times if need be.  For instance, I might file the Knights Templar under "monastic orders," but I could also list it again under "military groups," "orders of knighthood," and so on.  Your list will be longer, but they'll be less chance of someone looking in a certain category and wondering why organization X isn't listed.

I hope that's at least moderately helpful.  A great deal depends on the actual organizations themselves; since I don't know yours, it's hard to be more specific.

[Stargate525]

If you want just a giant list, Alphabetically is far and away the best method. If you want to organize them further, perhaps consider using indexes which sort by type, size, or regional prominence.

Speaking of which, I discovered that I never really described the grain magnates that control the biggest nation in my setting. Something I'll hope to rectify soon enough.

[LordVreeg]

template[/url].

Also...I doubt you are failing at it.  I'm sure you have an idea or feeling in your head that you want it to be, but is not yet.  Just build on it.  That's the only way to get that feeling you want.  Take what you did in the locksmiths, and grow it.  
I'd also go the other direction, and create a population center.  I have found my overdoing the details, especially in knowing the local info in every guild, in Igbar, has really improved my grasp on the factions all over my setting.  So I recomend after setting up some of the top-down, doing a really overdone bottom-up.

[O Senhor Leetz]

In my humble opinion, I think the most interesting and thematic use of organizations was in the Planescape setting's use of the Factions. Transcending things like money, military prowess, or other material things made the Factions unique amongst most other settings and made them both very specific in their beliefs, but very ambiguous in the way they acted.

Having two competing organizations compete for such intangibles such as ideas or beliefs was far more interesting than petty turf wars or business acquisitions.

[Lmns Crn]

LC's Scrap Piece of Paper Post
[ooc]Seriously, this post is faded and creased, and has probably been through the washing machine in my jeans pocket at least twice.

I am going to scribble down some ideas here and transfer them over to the wiki later, when I can make them all pretty.[/ooc]

[spoiler=BEWARE]
Planned-Out Organizations:
- Locksmiths: global secret society dedicated to eradication of slavery
- Battlement Guard (Bluecoats): volunteer militia stationed along the Battlement Mtns; protecting rest of world from horrors within the Wilding Fen
- Heirs of Mieras: not literally her heirs; disgruntled Ithyrian humans who want to find a way back "home" to the Old Country, or failing that, at least conquer some locals maybe
- Red Oath: goblin (primarily) insurgency in Brithen, intent on throwing off Imperial control
- Royal Chreotechnic Order (RCO): v. smart
- Fareda Expedition: researchers doing dangerous stuff in Wilding Fen
- Gold Chains: ultra-traditional sorcerors; ties to Cardan faith, Tiburon govt., Cold Spring Drinkers; concerned with maintaining Conduit balance
- White Chains, Red Chains: radical sorcerors; possibly religious fanatics; concerned with disrupting Conduit balance
- Cold Spring Drinkers: cabal of ancient ur-sorcerors; these guys are all dead, but they wrote you a letter
- (to-be-named): modern inner council of Gold Chains; guardians of Cold Spring Drinkers' letters and executors of their will
- (to-be-named): theocratic wing of Gold Chains; p. much runs the show in Tiburon
- the Floating Dojo: secret, moving school for Irasi sages; rebelliously gives training unsanctioned by Emperor Shirich, trains non-liriss sometimes, doesn't swear fealty to the Empire; goal of breaking Shirich's control
- Bethan Healers: have a divine mandate to soothe suffering; some are Hands but most are just mundane doctors; usually are granted diplomatic immunity due to their non-discriminating peaceful mission
- Rashiliss: liriss expatriates from Formeria
- Kep Falhean: Entamin Republics military forces
- Lorekeepers: librarians of Kath the Fate-Scribe; charged with recording/collecting/archiving knowledge; run libraries and universities
- College of Sorcery: (Kosel Parnath-Dakk); hi, we teach magic cause we p. much invented it, peace
- Arcane Academy: (Melago); hi, we teach magic and we also don't have giants sticks lodged up our butts, unlike some other people, just sayin'
- (I had a name for this but I forgot it): weak-blooded descendants of Damira Clan who survived the Damiran Suicide; weaker prophecy and weaker madness
- Pure-Thought Order: fanatics, perhaps; goal is to purge selves of secrecy/fear/falsehood in order to oppose Sisters
- Itinerant Priests: mobile wing of Lorekeepers; travel in search of cataloguing new knowledge

Stuff that should probably be organizations but I haven't really thought about yet:
- Nar-ei Merchant Lords: Rival pirate factions, I guess?
- Expedition to Underneath: does what it says on the tin
- The Mighty Five: five rival ruling forces in Yolek-Ja (each probably deserves unique treatment, I guess)
- Shaper Bloodlines: Andubei, Thavius, others
- Cults: of Adversaries, etc.
Stuff that probably doesn't quite count:
- Ithyrian noble families (and elsewhere): maybe?
- tribes: some more than others due to clout/scope, I guess (Rokral Farrhal, Tribe Murn)
- Troll Hunters: and such

Man alive, I've got a lot of work to do.[/spoiler]

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote=lc]Heirs of Mieras: not literally her heirs; disgruntled Ithyrian humans who want to find a way back "home" to the Old Country, or failing that, at least conquer some locals maybe[/blockquote]
I laughed so hard at this.  Of course, this means I spend too much time writing factions, but it reminded me of other fractured, feckless factions.

[Tillumni]

the topic made me think of one type of organisation that I find lacking in several campaign worlds.  one that specificly keep an eye on intrusion from other dimensions when travelling between different world is viable.


one would think that someone would smarten up and realise "if I can jump to a different world, then somewhere, there's a world where they can jump to mine, and bring along a big arse army."

offcourse, this is only an issues in campaign world where it have happened, or it's implied that it can happen, such as if spells like Gate or Astral projection, if using D&D system, is not removed.

[Lmns Crn]

All right, my first big content update for this topic is complete. I detailed the Heirs of Mieras first, because it made Vreeg laugh.

the topic made me think of one type of organisation that I find lacking in several campaign worlds. one that specificly keep an eye on intrusion from other dimensions when travelling between different world is viable.


one would think that someone would smarten up and realise "if I can jump to a different world, then somewhere, there's a world where they can jump to mine, and bring along a big arse army."

I'd like to tell you I already thought of this, seeing as how trans-world travel is responsible for a pretty important (though one-time) event in my setting. But I didn't think of it, and I sort of feel silly.

[LordVreeg]

the topic made me think of one type of organisation that I find lacking in several campaign worlds.  one that specificly keep an eye on intrusion from other dimensions when travelling between different world is viable.


one would think that someone would smarten up and realise "if I can jump to a different world, then somewhere, there's a world where they can jump to mine, and bring along a big arse army."

offcourse, this is only an issues in campaign world where it have happened, or it's implied that it can happen, such as if spells like Gate or Astral projection, if using D&D system, is not removed.

Yeah, not very possible in my setting,
but the phenomenon of creating guilds witout taking into account the idiosyncratic bits of a setting is common.  In Celtricia there is the BBN (Bardic Broadacasting Network) which takes into account the ability to scry and send information in scrying pools with other linked members.  But I only created this a few years ago.