Just that.. in a fantasy standard D&D-type game setting; if there is such a thing as an "Adventurer's Guild", would it look like a stuffy victorian social club? A golf/country club? A Frat house? A paramilitary training base? A secret society? A bureaucratic office? The Hall of Justice? A hiring agency?
What should go in there?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditJust that.. in a fantasy standard D&D-type game setting; if there is such a thing as an "Adventurer's Guild", would it look like a stuffy victorian social club? A golf/country club? A Frat house? A paramilitary training base? A secret society? A bureaucratic office? The Hall of Justice? A hiring agency?
What should go in there?

RPGPundit

In my world, the Adventurer's Guild is a members-only bordello.

-clash

A den of debauchery, with a large trophy room.  Quiet upstairs library for the magic-users.  Secret escape routes when the Man tries to bust the place up.

Well in my mind it would be a combination of paramilitary training ground, secret society, and a really nice tavern.

Definitely some variation on a Gentleman's Club.  Lots of comfortable space to stretch out and talk about your last great adventure while making contacts for your next.  Good food, good drink, good smoke, and like-minded company.  "Guild" is, after all, something of a misnomer.  If adventurers went on strike who would care?

It could secretly be an intelligence gathering apparatus of some agency. Using adventures and depending on their wagging tongues about their journeys and findings.

It could be cynical power grab. Draw capable characters in, get them into debt with the organization, with the only way to get out being to work off the debt. They could have a shadily granted monopoly on the sale of found goods.

They could be a running because of a mandate by the powers that be in order to build up a potential cadre of conscripts just before war. Could be secret but might work better as an out in the open thing, going on adventures would be the patriotic thing to do.

Edit: egad, my grammar is atrocious. Forgive me, I'm home sick.

A slightly mercenary network, out to watch each other's backs. They keep a tab on rumours and lore circulating around, so before you go on a mission it's a good idea to check in with them to see what they know. If you're a fully paid-up member, it's a damn good idea to check in with them anyway - they'll send rescue parties after you if you don't come back after a certain period of time, and they'll help you get your just desserts if the guy who hired you withholds payment - or outright betrays you.

Here's a thought - all/any of the above.  I could see adventurer guilds of very different types existing in a single setting - the frequency, number of members, goals, etc. altered by the scale of Eberron versus Wilderlands. They could even be in competition, providing a source of conflict for characters.

Look at me, all story-telling and shit.  Next I'll tackle how the Adventurer's guild deprotagonizes inversely proportional to GM authority.

Or something.

I have to agree with James about there being a large variety of guild types.

In a long running fantasy game my players set up an adventurers guild out of an old tavern they acquired.  Basically they organized expeditions out to various ruins or checked out unknown locations on old maps.  The guild got part of the rewards from the adventure and provided support for injured folks when they got back.  Heck a few time they sent out rescue teams when other groups disappeared.  

They had a basement filled with various objects and books.  Many they were trying to either decode or figure out what they did.  The magic users pretty much sat up a subguild to help each other out in research and all that.

Plus the tavern front was reopened so there was always ale flowing and parties held when people came back from successful trips.

I liked how some ancient Greek taverns would have notice boards for Merc companies hiring and were seen as neutral ground (up to a point).

The worst AG I ever read in an RPG was the one in Dragonquest 2nd Edition - you paid your 5% yearly tithe, any arguments were settled in arbitration by mages using 'true speech' compulsions and the party signed a contract to regulate the sharing of spoils

Somewhere there is a quiet cafe with small tables and cups and things. A man in full-plate is interviewing for a job, seated opposite a hooded stranger. It isn't going very well. The hooded man is trying to mouth the word "check" without letting his face be seen.

Elsewhere there is a pizzaria that holds weekly trivia games. It doubles as a covert intelligence agency. The questions and answers serve as a means of communication. There's also a discount on drinks so long as a local sports team is displayed on the big screen.

Lastly, there is a door set into the second story of a public library. There are no stairs inside.

It should look exactly like the King's Muskateer's headquarters in the 70s film version of The Three Muskateers. Except there's probably a labyrinth tunneled out below, and maybe some cages for weird monsters. There's no tavern on the premises, but the one across the street does a brisk business with the adventurers and the wannabees and hangers on.

An inn or tavern.  Adventurers are constantly just showing up.

Think of the type of building that service clubs occupy today - big, boring, with a 70s smell to them. An Adventurer's Club would be little different, except it would have a sitting room and an active bar. Old, retired adventurers would sit in the corners and talk about the "good old days" of dragon slaying, wench seduction, and horde collection. Younger members would check the job board and avoid the older members. Once a month, there would be a club meeting, attended by almost exclusively older members, where nothing of real importance is occurs. And once a year the club would hold its election where the old crusty's canvass the membership to win the titled positions in the club. The club would support the community through donations, sponsorships and contests and seek publicity for doing so.

Quote from: RPGPunditJust that.. in a fantasy standard D&D-type game setting; if there is such a thing as an "Adventurer's Guild", would it look like a stuffy victorian social club? A golf/country club? A Frat house? A paramilitary training base? A secret society? A bureaucratic office? The Hall of Justice? A hiring agency?
What should go in there?

Nothing.  I don't think that an "Adventurer's Guild" belongs in a standard D&D-type fantasy game setting any more than Victorian dress, golf courses, modern colleges, military bases, government bureaucracies, superheroes, or temp agencies do.  Secret societies?  Sure.  But those should be things like religious orders (Knights Templar), illegal guilds (the classic Thieves Guild), and creepy magical societies, not social clubs for anyone who loosely calls themselves an "adventurer".  

In fact, I think many role-playing games have far to many organizations and structure and could use less of them.  I think there are so many of them because they make it easy to be lazy for both players and GMs, who can rely on the cookie cutter shapes that they provide.  But I think settings are far more interesting when everything isn't organized and I really don't need cliches from the Victorian and modern era in my fantasy games.