Title:
Expanding Guild Organization
Summary:
Right now, guilds are organized with positions from 1-100. When you join a guild you start at the bottom and pay/get promoted up. The senior members hear all messages of the lower level members.
Change the hierarchy to allow for multiple branches reaching towards the top.
Allow messaging within branches that do not get sent to all higher positions.
Details:
Founder can assign elders to lead branches of a guild. Full members or initiates can choose (or be assigned to) a branch in the guild. Their progress in the guild would then be within this branch. Interaction would still be possible with other branches, but general communication would be restricted within the branch. Elders not involved in that branch would not receive the messages of a branch they are not part of. As founders lead everything, they can choose which branches to receive the messages and which not to.
Basically, the guild would have micro guilds in the guild itself. Each with it's own hierarchy within the larger guild's hierarchy.
Benefits:
Guilds can have positions which are very distinct in their functions. They need to be separate, but cannot be separated into multiple different guilds as communication between the parts is fundamental to the purpose of the guild.
In a guild which has very distinct members, such as a guild intended for assisting item repair. Discussion among the adventurers is not relevant for nobles, but in order for it not to be received by the nobles, the adventurers need to be elders, which is just wrong.
This will make guilds more usable by allied/federated realms. Not all messages will need to be passed between the bankers/generals/judges/rulers.
Possible Exploits:
By having messages not being passed all the way up the chain, rebellion can be planned from below. If this is a concern (and not just a fun new way of creating conflict) all messages passed in a branch could be accessed by any elder when they visit a guild house.