“Word quickly spread about the regular raids on guild halls. This news dampened enthusiasm for smaller guilds and added headaches to the larger guilds. Comparing notes let everyone figure out that the raids were based on total guild membership initially. The added nodes found at guild bases weren’t going to be a free lunch after all.”

  Except from “Gaming Exceptionalism – There’s No Such Thing as a Free Guild” by M. Free Man

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 2, 08:15

  Torgon and the other guild leaders headed into the guild hall and set up shop in the management room. “Alright everyone, we need to decide on what buildings we need to prioritize and there are quite a few options. I’ll share the options we have.”

  The system screen displayed “Welcome to the Guild Hall Construction Tab. A Basic Guild Hall has 4 Defensive wall slots, an upgradable Keep an upgradable gatehouse and 4 General Construction slots available. The path to advance to a Common Guild Hall requires 2 Defensive and 2 General Buildings at a Basic level.” The layout of the Hall featured a simple square curtain wall with towers at each corner and a single slot for a gatehouse. The interior has a bailey with four areas in each corner for general buildings and the center of the space contains the keep.

  “Available Defensive Structures:

  Ballista Tower:

  This structure contains a fast-firing ballista that is good for large numbers of enemy troops. Each Ballista can fire a shot every 15 seconds at the basic level and will do a significant amount of damage to troops on the ground. Construction Requirements: 1000 Basic Stone, 1000 Basic Wood, 2.5 Basic Core Units. This tower consumes one unit of wood for every 10 shots. The base damage increases with increasing quality of wood. This structure does single target damage with a base of 50 to 100 damage to a single target.

  Catapult Tower:

  This structure contains a catapult that fires stones at a medium rate. It is suitable for engaging slower moving targets or enemy siege weaponry. Each Catapult can fire a single shot every 60 seconds at the basic level and will do significant damage to large enemy targets or massive damage to individual troops. Construction Requirements: 1000 Basic Stone, 1000 Basic Wood, 2.5 Basic Core Units. This tower consumes one unit of stone for every 5 shots. The base damage increases with increasing quality of stone. This structure does 250 to 500 damage to a single target.

  Trebuchet Tower:

  This structure contains a trebuchet that hurls stones at a slow rate. It is suitable for engaging powerful single targets. Each Trebuchet can hurl a single shot every 120 seconds at the basic level and will do massive damage to anything it hits. Construction Requirements: 1000 Basic Stone, 1000 Basic Wood, 2.5 Basic Core Units. This tower consumes one unit of stone every shot. The base damage increases with increasing quality of stone. This structure does 500 to 1000 damage to a single target.

  Gatehouse:

  This structure controls access to the Guild Hall. It offers an oil vat that a single defender may use to pour various substances onto attackers attempting to breach the gate. Initially it offers heated oil that causes burn damage and creates a zone of small damage over time effects in front of the gate. Construction Requirements: 2000 Stone, 2.5 Basic Core units. This tower uses basic alchemical oil. The base damage increases with increasing quality of oil. This structure does 50 to 100 damage in a circular area with a 20-foot radius. It adds a burn stack that lasts for 15 seconds and inflicts 10 damage per second to any creature caught in or moving through the heated oil. The oil pool lasts for one minute.

  The base damage for each defensive structure is increased by 5 for every level of guild building or defensive structure and increased by 1 for every 100 levels of housing structures.

  Available General Buildings:

  Library:

  This structure allows the organization of collected research materials. Guild members may purchase skills of a rank equal to the rank of the building using Guild Contribution Points. The locations of dungeons, towers, treasure and other locations in the world may be discovered through research. Construction Requirements: 4,000 Wood, 4,000 Stone, 10 Basic Core Units.

  Crafting Hall:

  This structure provides the basic tools for crafting of all types inside its walls. It provides players with a bonus equal to the level of the structure for all crafting attempts inside it. This is a multi-level structure, and each floor may be built and upgraded independently. The number of players served by this structure is equal to 20 per upgrade level per floor. Construction Requirements: 1,000 Wood, 1,000 Stone, 2.5 Basic Core Units per floor.

  Trading Hall:

  This structure provides access to NPC markets for commodities such as food and building supplies. Excess supplies can be traded or purchased here. Caravans and trade routes can be unlocked via this structure in order to maximize the wealth generation of guild-controlled territories. Construction Requirements: 4,000 Wood, 4,000 Stone, 10 Basic Core Units.

  Tamer’s Hall:

  This structure provides pens for vanity and combat pets. Players can trade Guild Contribution Points for Capture Tokens that can be used to capture creatures in the world and bring them to the Tamer’s Hall. Once in the hall captured pets can be registered to be permanently purchasable as adorable companions for the Guild Hall and have a limited number of uses as a Combat Pet which can assist players in fighting. Some might even be suitable for independent roles as Guild Hall Guards. The base structure provides 10 pens per floor, and it allows unlimited underground floor expansions. This is a multi-level structure, and each floor may be built and upgraded independently. Construction Requirements: 2,000 Wood, 2,000 Stone, 5 Basic Core Units per floor.

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  Mercenary Hall:

  This structure provides the ability to hire guards and weapons crew for the Guild Hall and controlled territories. At higher ranks, hirelings for adventuring parties become available. The quality and quantity of available mercenaries increases as the building increases in rank. Construction Requirements: 2,000 Wood, 2,000 Stone, 5 Basic Core Units.

  Stables:

  This structure provides the ability to produce mounts for the Guild. Players can trade Guild Contribution Points for mounts that have been nurtured through the stables. Potential mounts can be captured, found or purchased throughout the world. The base structure provides 10 stalls per floor, and it allows unlimited underground floor expansions. This is a multi-level structure, and each floor may be built and upgraded independently. Construction Requirements: 2,000 Wood, 2,000 Stone, 5 Basic Core Units.

  Adventurer’s Hall:

  This structure provides access to exclusive and valuable daily guild quests that can be taken by guild members. At higher ranks the quality and quantity of the quests available will increase. Construction Requirements: 2,000 Wood, 2,000 stone, 5 Basic Core Units.

  Wizard’s Tower:

  This structure houses and powers teleportation rings to linked zones. Each floor can support 1 portal per level of upgrades. This structure establishes fast transportation to minor cities or guild areas of influence not properly managed by control points. This is a multi-level structure, and each floor may be built and upgraded independently. Construction Requirements: 1,000 Wood, 1,000 Stone, 2.5 Basic Core Units per floor.

  Training Yard:

  This structure provides areas for combat practice and system tutorials for weapons training. Targets for ranged attacks, sparring yards and training dummies for spellcasting are available. No damage occurs to players training in the yard. The space available increases as the rank of the Training Yard increases. Construction Requirements: 4,000 Wood, 4,000 Stone, 10 Basic Core Units.

  Torgon regarded the glowing representation of the Guild Base before asking a question. “System, can you clarify the point values for Basic Core Units, also, can you convert between ranks with Core Units?”

  “A Basic Lair Core provides 1 Unit. A Basic Dungeon Core provides 2.5 Units. A Basic Raid Core provides 5 Units. A higher rank core unit provides double the units for rank below it. Ten units of a lower rank can be combined to give one unit for the next higher rank.”

  Hyperia asked, “System, is there a way to add more General Construction Slots?”

  “Each earned rank for the Guild Base provides 2 Defensive and 2 General Construction Slots. Additional slots may also be earned through the completion of quests or control of certain locations in the world. Please note that new buildings will unlock at higher guild base ranks.”

  “If we’re stuck at four slots for a while we need to think carefully about what we build. Obviously, we need the library but that still leaves us three slots to consider for several buildings. There are the defensive buildings too with the raid coming up.” Dusty looked at the others while they all considered the dilemma.

  Torgon rubbed his chin before replying, “I think the library remains the top priority, then we can fill the turret slots. One of each type and then a second trebuchet would be my preference. As for the general slots, we absolutely must build the crafting hall and I’m not sure how many expansions for that we will need.”

  “I like the adventurer’s hall. Easy quests for everyone offer more ways to advance.” Ovarrix chimed in.

  “The training yard. System weapons tutorials for the kids and anybody we recruit will let them get better faster.” Allestor passionately interjected. “Our only advantage right now is our experience and training in other games. We live here. Having a place to hone our skills and the skills of our guild members is invaluable.”

  “I think we should do the training yard and the tamer’s hall.” Dusty continued in a resolved voice. “The training yard is great for all the in-game reasons, and the tamer is perfect because we have a ton of kids. More pets will be great for morale and who knows, they might even end up being useful to us too. We can figure out how to get more slots or make more choices down the road. Everything will be useful at some point and to some degree but right now, we have a bunch of children that could use more entertainment and responsibilities.”

  “Unless there are any serious objections, we’ll build the library then work on defenses. After all the towers and gatehouse are up, we’ll start with the crafting hall, then the training yard and finally the tamer’s hall. We’ll expand the crafting hall and tamer’s hall as needed while we build up and prepare for the next major expansion. I think this will take us all a long time, but it’s a general idea.” Torgon continued, “Let’s take the whole freaking guild out today and start looking for dungeons or raids or anything we can set up farms at to get core units. We need too many to rely on finding lairs people haven’t run. We need to work on combat in any case with the base raids coming up. We have six full groups with slingshots plus our group. I think we can run a total of 30 groups currently. That’s a substantial force. We’ll gather all together, rush through town, hit the woods and then go deep so that we’re hard to follow. What do you think Dr. Masters?”

  Eileen sighed heavily. “I think my ethics professor will take out a hit on me. Taking kids into an area where there’s danger to them just to train them for more danger? Why not. They aren’t completely safe here and it’s not like we’ll have much choice.”

  Allestor grinned and slapped her on the back. “That’s the spirit. We’ll teach them the ways of the ambush and how to do unto others before they can do unto you.”

  “Don’t worry Dr. Masters, we’ll be very responsible and do our best to protect them.” Ovarrix said with a feral grin of his own. “We even have a fresh scouting group ready with some of the youngest kids and one of their older siblings. They discovered that they were earning general skill experience by running around the guild base playing Freeze Tag. I think that means we’ll be able to find and level running and jumping skills.”

  “I’ll make the announcement.” Torgon’s eyes unfocused as he sent the message across the guild channel.

  “Attention all members of Risk of Injury. The entire guild is deploying to the open world today in search of dungeons, adventure, danger and bad people to kill. We’ll work in our assigned groups and practice fighting formations. We need the work before the raids in a few days. We’re going to live up to our guild tag today and see if we can have some excitement. Gather by the portal, we leave in 15 minutes.”

  Soon, over 150 people were gathered, more than half of them children who still remembered how to form orderly lines. Food and potions were distributed and then it was time. Torgon proudly led the assembled forces of Risk of Injury into Miller’s Crossing.