Guild of Darkness is primarily a Live Action roleplaying system. As such, we believe that the coolest things should happen during official events. Character and story progression should therefore be limited to these events. However, for the purposes of creating a living world that exists even between events, there are some options available.
Occasionally, your response may include additional consequences – good or bad, based on actions you have taken during events. This is not something to expect as standard as we prefer to deliver consequences during events, but there are lore reasons why sometimes this may be the best avenue to introduce them.
Actions that are not possible
You will not be able to create crafted lammies for use in game or perform rituals as part of a downtime or research action. This is to preserve the live nature of the game. You can use the applicable skills to do alchemical or arcane research, but will only receive information from any such action, rather than the items or powerups that potion crafting and rituals can provide at events.
You cannot join more than one taskforce or mission team unless given prior approval by the game team – this will be only in extremely rare circumstances.
Research
Important note - the biggest change here is that to participate in research you will need a Library Card. These can be obtained via Guild NPCs who can give access to either the general Guild Library or their own personal collections. And there may be other sources of Library Cards out there outside of Guild resources if you can persuade the right people...
You will need to acquire the Library Card IC and return it to Emily or Hazel by the end of the event. The card will state the name of the approving NPC, the library you are granted access to, and your own name. We will then contact you after the event to gather additional details about your plan
This can be a solo action, or you can decide to build a research squad to increase the amount you might be able to find out. You will need to be able to tell us who is participating, any relevant skills, and your topic of interest. Please note you may only choose a single topic of research, if you provide a list of multiple topics, we will only provide information on the first topic listed. We may also ask for additional information, such as what you currently know on the subject, and any unusual angles you are taking on it.
An important point to bear in mind is that your time and resources are limited – so don’t try to do too much! Delving deep into the history and lore of the werewolf pantheon for nine months is likely to get you a more detailed response than if you want to look into every pantheon that the Guild knows of in the same amount of time, and specialising further and researching just Coyote would likely give you even more detailed information.
Downtime
This is a group action and is a fixed, not free-form structure. As part of your working for the Guild you have the opportunity to join a task force or mission team. You can choose to join one of the listed taskforces provided by the game team or sign up to one of the additional missions available at events. You can only sign up to one downtime action, but you can do research alongside downtime.
At each main event, there will be a Missions Board for Taskforces and Missions where you can IC sign up and write down the skills you are bringing to your chosen option. Feel free to discuss plans with others at events and build teams together, but once the event is done, no more signups will be able to be added to the board.
Joining an existing taskforce
The current fully funded taskforces that the Guild has are the following:
1. Team Morning Light – Investigating the New Gods (Initially Ixtab only, this has expanded due to the discoveries of other New Gods)
2. Team Sanguine - Ordo Dracul investigation
We also have some retired taskforces, retained here for historical record, but these are no longer available to join:
1. Team Crimson Moon – Tracking and investigating the Silver Hand (retired due to inactive status of organisation)
2. Team Black Dawn – Tracking Father Caleb (retired as Father Caleb has been taken into custody)
3. Team Aurora – Investigating various cults that are of interest to the Guild (retired to be replaced by more targeted teams when specific cults are discovered)
4. Team Vine – Forming bonds with our new Fae allies and exploring the Green (retired now that Fae Affairs exists, more specific missions may follow)
5. Team Welcome Party – Goblin and Troll integration into the Guild (retired now that Fae Affairs exists, more specific missions may follow)
Missions
Alongside the taskforces, there will be smaller missions available as well. These will be more local issues reported by concerned citizens in Grand Alliance member states, and will include the recommended number of participants, the recommended skill sets etc.
It is possible to fail a mission if you do not take the required minimum numbers. There is a sliding scale of success that you can achieve based on which of the recommended skills are represented in your team. Missions are designed to build out the world of Guild of Darkness and give you an idea of what your day job likely consists of, while opening up potential plot hooks to explore further in main events should you so choose.