With this post, I am looking at the professions and guild system of Perilous Journeys. The explanatory introductory paragraphs hold a lot of promise. Simply put, professions are similar to orders in Lejendary Adventures or classes in D&D. The guilds represent an association of like-minded individuals that offers training and looks out for the interests of the members. Perilous Journeys is really flexible in the application of this concept for the benefit of the game. For instance, it is typical to have a thieves guild or an assassins guild in a fantasy game but Perilous Journeys points out that you can have a criminal organization with members of various professions working in one guild together; such as thieves, assassins, and bandits in a criminal guild as mentioned in the rule book. Basically, guilds give a little bit of structure to these organizations but the players are not bogged down in a bunch of rules that try to cover every little detail of the organization.
The GM is left with the responsibility of creating and detailing guilds and similar organizations for the campaign. This should not be a difficult process because it should just involve a name of the organization and the professions that are part of the organization. The only other details that are necessary are any NPC members of the organization. The GM really needs no more information than that. The rules cover how to qualify for a profession and it is straightforward - the character must have the required first ability to be admitted as an apprentice. To qualify for full member status, the character must have a rating of 50 in the first ability and 20 in the other required abilities.
There is one drawback to belonging to a profession or guild. The flexibility of creating any type of character is sacrificed for the benefits of guild membership. The guilds provide training at a greatly reduced or no cost, professional materials, etc. but also require the player to make certain decisions to belong to that guild. The choice is in the hands of the players and it is a fair trade off. If the player chooses to not belong to a profession and guild then the listings can be used as guidance during character creation.
The Professions
There are 13 professions detailed in the rules; technically, there are 15 because there are 3 builds of Cleric detailed depending on what gods the character follows. The explanation of the professions is simple to follow since the entries are split into four sections. First, there is a small description of the profession. Second, the social class recommendations for the professions are listed. Third, The first ability of each profession is listed. Fourth, the final section is a list of 3 or 4 required other abilities for that profession. The professions seem to offer a lot of variety and I think players will be happy with the selection available. If a player should desire a profession not covered in the rules then it should be no problem to either re-skin one of the existing professions or use one as a guideline for detailing a new one such as a Witch. I must point out that I don't feel any essential professions were overlooked in the rules; I was just using the witch as an example.
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After a little more examination of the guild rules, I have decided to cover them in a separate post. I continue to be impressed by Perilous Journeys. It has taken a system I thought unplayable - Lejendary Adventures - and made it the center of my immediate gaming attention. I look forward to my continued examination of this rules system.
