Arelith

(FYI: I spoke with DM Starfish before putting this up, so they are aware of the situation, and they asked me to post here)

My character (Nadjia) lives in the Arcane Tower in Mayfields, and it's a lot of fun. Great maps, lots of housing, lots of RP opportunities, etc.

What is less fun, is how the "Arcane Guild" is set up.

So, at the moment, there are two guildhouses there. One is controlled by the Earthkin Arcanum and has been for aaaaaages. Nothing wrong with that, they're having fun and doing good stuff.

The other though, was originally for the Wardens of the Arcane Tower. And it includes every single other property in the Arcane Tower, as far as I am aware, not just the properties behind the locked guildhouse door.

This is, let's just say, problematic, with the guild mechanics set up how they are.

Issue 1: Someone could buy the guildhouse, and evict every other property owner, even though they're not behind the locked guildhouse door.
Issue 2: Whoever owns said guildhouse is responsible for the rent of leased properties AND/OR upkeep of vacant properties for every single other property in the Arcane Tower.
Issue 3: The other property owners can walk straight through that locked guildhouse door and take whatever they want from the guild storage and from the placeables in the guildhouse open area, which would totally be within the rules for them to do.
Issue 4: Maintaining a high enough property ownership level to be the guildhouse owner is nigh on impossible due to the sheer number of properties involved. At times 50% of them have been vacant.

So, this is feedback, because this feels like an oversight that could lead to bad behaviour, as well as being an oversight that reduces what could be a functional guild space to being a big empty hall that no-one can afford to own and maintain for more than a rent cycle or two.

My suggestion would be to change the guildhall properties to only be those behind the locked guildhouse door, with all other properties to be treated like any other settlement property.

I get why the quarters were all made to only be held by arcane classes but considering how often there are empty rooms perhaps loosening that up would help as well. Most times it seems like your Wardens are not arcane classes. Maybe even a very small handful of rooms behind a locked guild door could be for non-arcane as well? Hire a guard for your squishy self and they can live in the same building.

Yes I know this doesn't fix the problem you mentioned but it would help alleviate the stress of taxes on an empty guild.

Do you have any monthly cost numbers? It is hard to form an opinion without them.

I used to have a PC in the Wardens of the Tower some years ago. Things were real simple back then and I don't understand why, if everything is really as you described it there, the Tower was changed so radically.

As far as I am aware, there aren't any guild houses in the Arcane Tower. Even the Arcanum one is not a guild house. The Warden's Hall plaque gives you access to the long room at the back, the gated area at the front and I believe the gated area in the Apex (but that may have been from before). The Tower was updated out of the Warden's Hall guild house mechanically but the layout was never changed to reflect that. No one (aside from DMs) can evict anyone. If the Warden's Hall plaque is supposed to allow you to evict people (which would be outrageous) then it must be bugged because that hasn't happened during my time playing Datura.

The Tower is still under its old layout which can be confusing because its not under that rp or those mechanics. I'm sure the areas will be updated eventually.

-S

Seeing that all the property plaques tell you that the rent is the responsibility of the guild owner? And the warden’s hall plaque is the only guild plaque I know of?

I would say that you are incorrect in this one

The arcane tower has a property that is connected to a lot of child quarters and drains peoples gold fast if they are unaware. The state of the property will be assessed and addressed when time permits. But it is on our list.