Healer's Guild

[oaknott]

A thought has occured to me as a result of postings on another thread (regarding aging)

How do people feel about a guild of healers who, to all intents and purposes, run the mediaeval/fantasy equivalent of a medical insurance company?

Alignments would have to be lawful, with healing only available to members with paid up premiums.

The guild would be largely Lawful Neutral

Good members might have a hard time refusing to heal non-members, so guild rules would limit what they could do,

Evil characters (with access to healing spells, I guess that's possible?) could rp trying to avoid "paying out" on legitimate claims - and anyone who has had a claim denied by their medical insurance will know exactly how evil these people can be...

I see the guild as providing a number of services at different levels of member ship:

copper member ship:

healing by cure spells of various sorts

silver membership:

removing disease
curing poisoning
restorations etc

gold membership:
raise deads,
rescues,
ransom deliveries

Platinum membership:
recovery of mortal remains
resurrections

Clearly these services would only become available when the guild had sufficiently high level officers to provide them, so it might be a while before gold and platinum memberships would be offered.

members would merely have to pay the money and get the benefits.

Officers of the guild, the ones who provide these services, would need to be healers, of course, but also any adventurer type character could join as part of the recovery team.

there might even be the possibility of some DM led events to rescue/recover other players?

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

[urgualamand]

Great idea.

My char Caliliad would like to join up!

[Ebannon]

I think the general idea of a healer's guild is fantastic but I can't think of how an insurance company would be useful/practical in the game without significant meta-gaming.

Cons:

1. Healing: If I'm correct you would need to seek out your "insurance agent" to get them to heal you... so you get low on health and leave whatever dungeon you are in, transition four or five screens hopefully not crashing, find your insurance agent, RP the claim process, then maybe get healed. In the mean time you could have pressed the 'r' key rested and received full health for free.

2. Death: You die in the Bandersnatch lair... so you wait for 30 minutes hoping that an adventurer stumbles past that will, deduce that you are
'insured,' seek out your insurance agent for you, find said insurance agent, and convince that person to come res you. Unless youfudge it and use tells (which I have no problem with but it would undermine the premise of the guild).

Pros:

3. Level-draining or persistant curses: this is where I think it would be useful as theres no potions or things that can restore a character from these effects.

4. Paid Buffing: another great potential use... however I'm not sure if this is outside the healer's guide premise.

[stoned-raider]

Just my 2 cents here (since I don't have a healer anyway feel free to ignore me):
Why not make the guild a little more idealistic? Heal for free and hope for donations instead of healing only those that paid. Besides, isn't that what Caliliad was all about anyway?

[Blackthorn]

I realize I haven't been on in a while but do intend to return as soon as I have more time so here's my copper on it.
It would seem to me that a healers guild might be a bit contrary to what most churches would teach thier young clerics. what happens when a follower of that healers diety is in need of healing but has not paid the guild? if the healer refuses to heal said follower he has just betrayed the people that give said diety the power to grant healing through said cleric. would the diety continue to empower some one who places earthly gain before the welfare of his congregation, and just what happens to the dues collected? are they placed in the ciffers of the officers and the heales paid a wage for healing?

[Shorn]

Im just going to throw this out there.

In the interest of RP, I think if we are in a world where, say, people can raise dead and slay dragons.

I think they can come up with a spell that informs them if people under their protection have fallen, or need aid

[urgualamand]

Besides, isn't that what Caliliad was all about anyway?

True , and not true. But this is all only OCC support to a great initiative. Of course if this Guild should find out who Caliliad is worshiping then they might kill him themselves. Anyways.. thats all up for RP, I just wanted to support a good initiative

Now go hide.. shoo!

[Anen]

I think this is a really interesting idea, and as a faction, it has a lot of underlying power to keep it going. Healing, and the various other services a healer's guild could provide, make it a faction that has a real purpose on the server (provided the faction can stay organized, and retain enough members to keep it useful to others).

But I also think the faction would need a strong RP purpose, not just a practical purpose. A good story associated with the rise and mustering of the group would not only make it attractive to new members, but would also keep the faction going. The lethal blow to every faction is a lack of purpose, both RP-wise and practicality-wise.

A few thoughts,

I'm not sure I'm a big fan of the insurance/premiums idea. While it sounds interesting, especially in how it would be implemented, I'm concerned that the concept might be a bit restrictive in its application. I think the key is to keep things simple, and easy for characters to get into. One idea that struck me was a simple fee to be charged per cure/spell, a standard fee that is to be applied to all members. A portion of that fee (let's say, 25%) would be given to the Guild's Treasurer for faction improvements (a guild-house, communal supplies, etcetera).

Good members may feel comfortable in giving away cures in the hopes of receiving some kind of donation, but habitual charity of cures might result in an ejection from the guild. If one member is giving away cures, then it would undoubtedly kill the prospective business of every other member.

Evil members could also feel comfortable in charging for every heal, and perhaps adding extra fees given the situation ("This is awfully dangerous! Because you dragged me in here, I'm going to have to charge an additional 100 crown hazard fee!").

I think making it a para-military organisation might also help -- not only would you gain some extra muscle from paladins and fighters, but you would also have the extra steel to undergo your own rescue, emergency response missions/tasks.

I'm reminded of the Knights Hospitallers, a holy order that rose during the Crusades that's primary mandate was to heal the wounded and sick of the pilgrims and knights that visited the Holy Land. A Healer's Guild might not need to be so holy, given the campaign, but something of the like might not only be an effective way to curry interest, but also make it quite a robust, long-lasting faction.

Also, I have a character or two that might be interested.

[Stormknife]

Healer's guilds are tricky things. If you charge, people will just go to Joe Non-Guilded Healer for free fixing up. If you don't charge, you'll be taken for granted.

The insurance concept is just a bad idea, IMO.

So thoughts on how to get around that:

1. Charge for healing, and make like the mafia with any healer you find who isn't charging. But unless you're very selective with your muscle, this has potential to be a Very Big problem. If you're not sanctioned by the Empire, I doubt it'll work very well from an IC perspective either.

2. Rather than charge per heal or use the premiums idea, charge per-job. "You want access to Resurrection while you're going through the Bandersnatch lair? That will be X gold".

3. Expand the guild beyond just being a bunch of healers and their body guards.

[Black Hand Enclave]

I think this is a really interesting idea, and as a faction, it has a lot of underlying power to keep it going. Healing, and the various other services a healer's guild could provide, make it a faction that has a real purpose on the server (provided the faction can stay organized, and retain enough members to keep it useful to others).

Evil members could also feel comfortable in charging for every heal, and perhaps adding extra fees given the situation ("This is awfully dangerous! Because you dragged me in here, I'm going to have to charge an additional 100 crown hazard fee!").

I think making it a para-military organisation might also help -- not only would you gain some extra muscle from paladins and fighters, but you would also have the extra steel to undergo your own rescue, emergency response missions/tasks.

I'm reminded of the Knights Hospitallers, a holy order that rose during the Crusades that's primary mandate was to heal the wounded and sick of the pilgrims and knights that visited the Holy Land. A Healer's Guild might not need to be so holy, given the campaign, but something of the like might not only be an effective way to curry interest, but also make it quite a robust, long-lasting faction.

Very interesting guild concept with a great deal of merit. I refer to the quoted content and would say this in addition. This realm has a variety of Gods and Goddesses that I believe would have no problem with their followers earning coin through mercenary means as long as the Church got its cut. The Knight Hospitallers is a great real world example of swords and plowshares working as one to a common end in the framework of a guild like the one proposed.

The /tell function would be a ready tool for raises and so forth as long as the members are ready to serve when called and the fee for resurrection type services is less than the penalty of the death itself factoring xp=coin ratio as well as gold loss. I think a per instance fee would be better to avoid OOC issues where premium paying characters are on and get killed or need immediate assistance when no guild members are on. Think of it from a pen and paper perspective. We should be using /tell like it is an OOC tool when someone is across the table from us.

[Vahene]

Eh, not so sure I'm with it. I voted that one of my characters would use
it - and my sorceress is Lawful Evil enough that she probably would, but
I just think charging for healing is a bad idea. The thought of it makes
me want to break my cleric out and offer it for free.

K

[Anen]

Eh, not so sure I'm with it. I voted that one of my characters would use
it - and I my sorceress is Lawful Evil enough that she probably would, but
I just think charging for healing is a bad idea. The thought of it makes
me want to break my cleric out and offer it for free.

K

You've got a point — I can imagine that there will be some characters that will be offering free healing just to compete with a fee-oriented healer's guild. I think it's important, then, to offer reasonable prices. We're talking a handful of crowns per spell, or a set rate per excursion.

Perhaps a good rate would be five crowns for one cure light, or 50 crowns for a tag-along for the goblin caves. An evil character might charge a 15 crown surcharge due to the hazards of the adventure (to cover the 25% fee that must go to the guild treasurer). A good character might offer a discount just for the opportunity to go along, or the flat-rate.

Either way, the existence of an attractive, robust healer's faction will not only encourage healer's to get involved in an organised, accessible faction, but may also contribute to the overall population of healers on the server. The more healers the better—and I don't mean clerics, I mean healers. We're talking characters that actively memorize heal spells and stock healing kits. It only makes sense that if you want a good, responsible and proactive healer, that you'll have to cough up some money for it. Healing kits are expensive, and you can bet that most capable healers will be using them.

Either way, it's a cheap way of chartering some healing power for a profitable adventure, and the possibility for RP (which is far more important, in my opinion) is remarkably high.

[Eowade]

If one of the lizard men north of thralls gate starts pitching insurance in a british accent I am taking him out =P

[Rob]

I like the idea. I love clerics who perform the healing role. So, what's better than a healing cleric? A guild of healing clerics.

Competition will be a huge obstacle to the longevity of your guild. You'll be competing with potions, kits and wands which already perform most of your services. Potions and kits being always available and instantly accessible to everyone. There will also limited competition from scrolls for your other services.

I like the idea. I just don't think a healing guild which charges for it's services will be sustainable. I think you'd be more successful with a philanthropic organization that didn't charge for its services.

[Vahene]

I think it would be more sustainable, if it were going to be done, to have
an NPC charge for healing - perhaps put one in the 3 temples we have.
Two of those are in T&C, one in Thrall's Gate, so it gives central locations,
and if you increase the payment by level, it would drain money out of the
current economy, as well as provided a useful service. (Of course, I've
been so busy with school, this might've slipped in and I don't know yet.)

I'm not saying a healer's guild wouldn't be useful, mind you, I just have a
bit of a problem with a group of healers who are (in the case of a cleric,
for example), blessed by their diety to heal, and then charge for it. While
an evil cleric might be able to pull this off with their God's blessing (i.e.
Lochwar), a more good or neutral aligned one might have to do some fast
talking..

Just my two silvers.

K