For a while now I've been wanting to try a Shadow of the Demon Lord game, but the setting never really resonated with how I wanted to run the game. Instead I thought it might be interesting to play a game that takes a strong influence from Guild Ball. Specifically I was thinking a collection of independent city states that are influenced by the hands of the guilds that run thing behind the scenes.

The players would be commissioned by a mysterious patron to found and run an adventuring guild. It would be a small start in whatever founding city the players choose, but would grow as they level up. I want to break the game in to two separate forms of play: the commissioned adventures the players go on and a political sandbox where the players can converse with other guilds. I would have some kind of reputation system in place to determine allies and adversaries among the guilds. Some example ramifications of this might be cheaper weapons and armor from the Blacksmith's guild, cheaper extensions to your guild hall built by the Mason's Guild, rejection from riding the Railway Guild's trains, or even the Ratcatcher's Guild planting mice your homes. I don't think I'd actually keep the game of Guild Ball for my setting, but I'll leave that to the players.

I'd be looking to start with three to four players, but if it garners a lot of attention I might try to pull on a couple of co-dm's to truly simulate that adventuring guild style.