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| Medieval Court |
In every community someone takes leadership, or at least power. In smaller social organizations power and leadership are usually tied together. And, as the social structure grows, more positions for leadership or power are created. The size of your community will help in determining the power structure you should use and the complexity of it. In many situations there are more than one structure developing, which is another consideration.
There are always exceptions to how things develop. This is going to be a discussion on general terms that can be used for understand some of the possible socio-economic power structures and how they might be best applied for your setting.
Basic structures where leadership and power are combined are in societies where there are smaller groups of people like a family unit or only a few families. One person, usually becomes the dominate leader. There might be others who share some of the power, but there is going to be one person deferred to when it comes to making decisions for the group. You are probably already thinking about the typical structure of a family. One parent is the dominate leader, the other shares in some of the power and responsibility and the children are responsive to the leadership.
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| A ship's captain |
As a community grows, so do the responsibilities of leadership. This leads to additional power structures being developed or utilized and more levels. Small towns of history provide good examples of some of these changes. A community council of elders is utilized. Other times a family becomes the town leaders, either by taking control or by consent. Because there are more people involved conflicts of interest arise and there usually is a need to have the person take decision making to the new level of judicial decisions.
Some of the new roles move from leadership positions to positions of power. Power is the ability to enforce. This can be done in a beneficial or malicious manner. In earlier times there were a number of power bases within societies to fill different roles.
Leadership and power was settled into monarchies. A ruling family not only took leadership, but also the right to enforce the law. This sounds bad, but it depends on how the two are combined. Monarchies, just like any form of leadership that has power can go for societal gains or personal gains.
Knowledge roles of leadership and power were also centered in guilds. Some of these carry over into our current society. They may still be called a guild or have taken on other names. They might not even be as organized, but the same functions still exist. When people are certified to be able to do a certain job it is through this form of mechanism. These can carry into futuristic settings, the Navigators' Guild of Dune is an example.
Power bases can be strictly for the good of a group or an individual. By good here I mean self-serving. Most fantasy settings have thieves' guilds and assassins' guilds. Very similar in structure are the gangs of modern day. The names have changed, but the function is still pretty much the same. The choice and method of activity is what really makes the difference.
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| Wainwright Guild Symbol |
Power bases can be overt and covert within the community. Even the ones mentioned above are examples of both, but there are secret societies with large memberships and small. Adding a coven to a gaming location creates a secret power structure for possibly for fewer people within the community. But, their actions could have far reaching consequences.
The power structures you choose can make for entire series of adventures for your party members. This is easily seen with the idea of rooting out the evil. But working up through a guild structure can create all sort of political intrigue, just like working up through the king's court.
Leadership and power structures can also feed into one another. The leaders of one organization might be working with or competing against others. Guild wars, gang wars, labor strikes are examples of these types of conflicts. Also, remember that the ruling Baron, Duke, Councilman, Mayor, etc. probably have someone else they are subject to.
One final point is power is fluid. Throughout our own history we can point out where power has risen in a group or individual and then moved on to another. Sometimes these can happen in violent ways while other times it happens calmly. But, change happens. If you don't like the way the structure is playing out in your setting, it can change.
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| A covert power |
You are probably already thinking about the groups with leadership and power for your location. Each area where leadership and power are going to be focused could be further detailed. In fact, each could, and do, have volumes written about how they obtain their roles and maintain them.
For gaming purposes, having an understanding of who has leadership, and who has power, is usually enough to get you by. The longer you use the location the more notes you will develop and the more defined it will become.
If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.
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