Factions & Renown - Creating an Adventurers' Guild

To ensure in-game collaboration throughout the entire project, we decided to create an adventurers' guild for our gamemasters campaign where we take turns being the dungeonmaster. We started out simple by simply having a concept that would tie us together, but as the game progresses it has occurred to me that we should expand on the guild.


Name
Initially we came up with an abundance of names for the guild (you can see the list at the end of the blog). To choose the name we decided to hold a vote. One person abstained, and the name of the guild became "The Order of the Black Phoenix" with 60% of the votes.


Logo
A few suggestions to the logo has been created but so far the closest we have gotten is a vague description of the logo, which will be added to the blog at a later date.


Contracts
Every in-game member of the order signs a contract to the order. It has been suggested that there are two different contracts that work differently. The details of each contract still hasn't been worked out and will be added to the blog at a later date.


Rules
We haven't really looked at the rules for the order. The whole point of the order is to tie together different characters in-game and give a reason why we're playing together. I have therefore compiled the first three rules. There was a fourth rule about stealing, but it was vetoed by the group.

1. Every party member must be part of The Order of the Black Phoenix to participate in the campaign.

2. Every player gets a vote. Usually a decision will have to be unanimous, but when a decision must be made it is the majority that decides.

3. Any in-game member of The Order of the Black Phoenix who physically harms another member is automatically thrown out of the order. This is done out-game so the question of proof in-game doesn't matter.


Ranks
We voted unanimously about using renown in the game as part of The Order of the Black Phoenix. Although we've agreed to use the renown variant rules as described on page 22 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, we haven't created ranks or benefits. Here's my personal suggestion on ranks.

0 Renown: Novice
1-2 Renown: Mercenary
3-9 Renown: Adventurer
10-24 Renown: Hero
25-49 Renown: Master
50+ Renown: Grandmaster


Renown 
The rules state that you earn renown by completing missions or quests that serve the order's interest. You gain 1-2 renown at the same time that you are awarded experience points. If you want, you can create additional requirements to earn a promotion within the order, but currently we have no additional prerequisites.

One of the obvious rewards of renown is that if you have a higher renown than another member of the order, then you also deserves a higher respect. If this is between a PC and a NPC, then the lower ranked NPC is more likely to hear out the characters.

The most interesting rewards of renown are perks and haven't been created yet. This could be anything from contacts, adventure hooks, safe houses, merchants, trade discounts, followers, access to potions and scrolls, favors, ability to call for backup or a small army, take custody of a magicla item, access to a helpful spellcaster, or access to special missions only available to high ranking members of the order. These perks will be added on this blog at a later date.

A last note is that it probably should be possible to gain additional renown between adventures as part of a downtime activity, as described in chapter 6 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.


List of names
Fellowship of Exodas
Knights of the Guild
Order of the Blue Flame
Silver Team
Team Midgaard
Team Unicorns of Awesome
The Battered Door (Adventurers' Guild)
The Black Griffon (Adventurer's Guild)
The Black Network
The Companions
The Crownward (Adventurer's Guild)
The Golden Gauntlet (Adventurer's Guild)
The Iron Giant (Adventurer's Guild)
The Order of the Black Phoenix
The Red Dragon (Adventurers' Guild)
The Silver Seal (Adventurer's Guild)