Competition is always good

Depending on the guild structure, it may not, in fact, be competitive. The medieval guild was intended to reduce competition in order to ensure every member of the guild had a living. In return for accepting all the bad aspects of the structure -- chiefly associated with the aforementioned lack of competition -- the guild policed its members in terms of quality and promised to keep prices from being exorbitant.

Medieval guilds don't fit nicely into our modern notions regarding markets, which makes sense when you consider that capitalism is relatively new phenomenon.

Do everyone have to join a guild, or can he/she go "rogue"?

In a gaming context, that's wholly up to the LM, obviously. Historically, guilds paid rulers to exist and, in return, had the power of the ruler to back up their monopolies.

Note, of course, that we're assuming that a guild structure exists in Dale. There are certainly other possibilities and it bears mention that the medieval guild owed some of its structure to the influence of the Church. Without the Church, it's easy to imagine guilds looking different, if they'd exist at all.

Sorry, this is clearly a weird tangent, though perhaps it will facilitate our imagining of Dale!

I for one am happy with the concept of Guilds existing in Dale. They add an extra layer of organisation/authority within such civilised communities, and to the benefit of RPG campaigns are often the source of adventures & sometimes competition for Player-Heroes.
See earlier in this thread where I introduce the Gondoliers Guild of Dale. Members of this guild would primarily serve the community as cargo transport and ferry/taxi service, but also as town-guides, message-service and even assisting in dousing fires.

What other guilds are likely in Dale? Those that immediately come to mind include:
Toymakers Guild (of course!)
Woodwrights (inc. coopers, wainwrights, boatbuilders, carpenters, etc)
Smiths (black-, lock-, armourers, etc)
Jewellers
Chandlers
Masons & Miners
Barbers, Healers & MidWives
Entertainers
CheeseMakers!
.... and so on ...

Perhaps an Adventurers Guild (burglars? treasure-hunters? rogueish-sorts?)
"Ahem, professional armsmen, scouts and agents if you please!"

LMs may consider that King Bard (or a delegated courtier) acts to regulate guild activity - by authorising guild charters, posting delegates in guild meetings, even having a say in who the Guildmasters are??
Alternatively - perhaps the development of guilds is currently unregulated and giving the King a mighty headache, as competition in the prospering town breeds strife & opportunities for malcontents to thrive...???
There's plenty of scope here for LMs to create interesting NPCs and factions, as well as creating a more detailed& textured setting for their Player-Heroes.

Some nice ideas Cheesewyrm. I would probably go with no guilds in 2946, completely unregulated. As the years go on, guilds will form and become regulated. Eventually there might even be a 'closed shop' situation.

Tinkers and other itinerant tradesmen might find it acceptable one year to simply set up a stall at 'the Gathering', only to return the next year to find guild membership required and enforced by local meatheads(from the Guild of Meatheads of course).

Low level social adventure ideas abound in these sort of environments.

I like both your ideas CheeseWyrn and Halbarad, great stuff!

Some other folks' ideas regarding Dale and its commercial interests:

http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=238273

Hi Tensen01, how's it going with this? Any progress? I'm sure I speak for many of us that we're really looking forward to the final map and supplement.

Just wanted to say, outstanding job. Really great looking map, with a lovely 'feel' to it. I'm rather jealous of your skills, and your group!

Personally I believe if someone takes the time to create this kind of thing they're perfectly at liberty to step outside canon if they wish - it's their game as much as anyone's.

Rich, unfortunately I'm having some software issues at the moment that are preventing me from working on the map, which is thus preventing me from working on the PDF.

As soon as these issues are resolved I'll start working on it again.

Hey there Tensen, are you still accepting submissions for s and NPCs?

Something wrong with my editing. That should read 's and npcs'.

Hmmmm......something fishy going on. Locations and NPCs.

Sure

yes Halbarad, there is definitely something fishy in the editing on this forum.
In a recent post I too had weirdness occur when I included the word [I][/I] in my text.
Weird!

There it goes again!
word is:
l o c a t i o n
(had to space the letters out to post it)
What's with that word in this forum??

Let me have ago.

Where is the of the cheese, you dastardly wyrm?

Nope didn't work for me either.

I still want to know where the cheese is though.

Tensen

This is really well done. I'm pretty good with Illustrator, but Photoshop has always mystified me.

I wish I had your skills, I would definitely make my Magic supplement look a lot prettier

Location

Appears to be working, at present.

The cheese is .... in my belly!
bwahahaha .... burp!! (gorgonzola dragon-breath)

Thank you.

Sadly I am unable to work on it due to a Memory leak in Photoshop that I can't seem to fix...

Have you tried Adobe customer service? When my authorization code didn't work for CS5.5, they were more than helpful to get that sorted out.

My group won't be back in Dale for a while, so I'm in no hurry, but what's the status of this? I hope it's not died a death!

I was wondering the exact same thing this Friday just gone. I'm glad you resurrected the thread, Ovid. I hope that the work on this can be completed as the map is brilliant and I was really looking forward to the support supplement.

I second that, I love the map.

Sorry, haven't been on here since my game ended.

I honestly can't say whether this will ever get finished or not. The game ending has pretty much killed all motivation I had for it and I haven't even thought about it for a month or so.

Sorry

Cant you find a contractor? just a thought

That's a shame to hear Tensen. I can completely understand how it can upset and demotivate. It'd certainly have that effect on me.

If you have any information collected up, and you're happy to, then you're welcome to send it to me and I'll attempt to finish it off for you. You already know the work I've done (PDFs) and love I have for TOR so it'd be in safe/respectful hands. I'll PM you my email address just in case.

Oh man, what a pity such quality material not to be finished. With some good vibrations maybe it will.

regards