Plates and houses
How far you have come, and what you are good at
Two things, kept separate on purpose. Your PLATE is how far you have come, and everybody has exactly one. A HOUSE is a craft, and you are in as many as you have earned something in. Most people are high in one house and starting in another.
- 1ClayRegistered
You came, you signed on, and you have said what you want to work on.
To reach it- turn up four times
- pick something to work on and say what it is
- 2CopperRegistered
Safe with the tools. You can be handed a job and left alone with it.
To reach it- tool safety signed off, in any house
- 3BronzeRanked
Reliable. You take a quest and it comes back done, without being chased.
To reach it- Apprentice in one house, then Apprentice in a second
- 4SilverRanked
Trusted. You carry something across a whole arc and others plan around you.
To reach it- Journeyman in any one house
- Apprentice in two others
- 5GoldRanked
Relied on. You hold a standing job and if you stop, somebody notices that day.
To reach it- Master in any one house
- Journeyman in another
- 6PlatinumChartered
You hold a contract. Paid work, at your age, for the hours you do.
To reach it- Gold
- a standing post held through a whole arc
- 7MithrilChartered
Staff. You run quests for other people and teach the plate below you.
To reach it- Platinum
- you have taken somebody else from Clay to Bronze
🐦Raven
Making, tools, repair, invention
Ravens use tools. Fine work and clever fixes.
Apprentice- get your tool safety signed off on the hand tools
- sharpen something until it cuts, and prove it on wood
- fix one broken thing and give it back working
Journeyman- measure, cut and join so it holds under load
- work out what the materials cost before you cut anything
- take something apart, find the fault, and put it back together
- make a jig so a job that was fiddly becomes repeatable
Master- build a tool or a fixture the Hall now depends on
- take in a repair from outside, quote it, do it, and have it accepted
- teach the Apprentice set to somebody who is not your friend
Post: the bench
🐻Bear
Food: the garden, foraging, preserving, the kitchen
Bears are about getting through winter.
Apprentice- clear a bed and put it to sleep for the winter
- get garlic in the ground in October, for a July you will not be here for
- cook one meal for the room from a written plan
Journeyman- carry one bed from autumn clear-up to spring planting
- preserve a harvest so it is still good in February
- read your own soil and fix one thing about it
- plan and buy a week of meals to a budget, and hit it
Master- run the kitchen for a full arc
- start seed indoors in February and get it into the ground alive
- teach the Apprentice set to somebody who is not your friend
Post: the kitchen
🐾Mountain Lion
Tracking, awareness, precision, noticing
The most patient thing in this forest.
Apprentice- follow one animal's tracks two hundred yards and say what it was doing
- sit in one place for twenty minutes and write down what changed
- name five things by their sign alone, without seeing the animal
Journeyman- keep a sit-spot journal across a whole arc and show what changed
- cross open ground without being heard by somebody listening for you
- find something on this land nobody had noticed, and prove it was there
Master- read an area and brief a group on what is living in it
- track something through wet ground and bad light, and be right
- teach the Apprentice set to somebody who is not your friend
Post: the watch
🦅Red-tailed Hawk
Navigation, weather, mapping, the long view
A red-tail sees the whole valley.
Apprentice- know where north is without a phone, anywhere on this land
- read a map and walk to a point you have never been
- call tomorrow's weather three days running, and score yourself
Journeyman- navigate off the property without a phone
- draw a map of part of this land that somebody else can actually use
- read the weather and call a go or no-go on a real plan
Master- plan a route for a group, with the bail-outs marked, and run it
- be the one who calls it when the weather turns
- teach the Apprentice set to somebody who is not your friend
Post: the wayfinder
🐺Wolf
The pack: expeditions, kit, taking a group out and back
Wolves cover ground together.
Apprentice- carry your own kit for a full day out and have everything you needed
- pack for somebody else and get it right
- learn the head count, and run it yourself twice
Journeyman- plan the food, water and kit for a group day out
- make a shelter that keeps you dry overnight
- look after somebody else out there when it stopped being fun
- run the camp jobs on an overnight without being asked
Master- lead an overnight, out and back, with a plan and a bail-out
- take responsibility for a group who are not your friends
- teach the Apprentice set to somebody who is not your friend
Post: trail crew
🌙Coyote
Making a thing pay: trade, pricing, improvisation
Coyotes survive anywhere by improvising.
Apprentice- make something people actually want
- price it, and say why
- sell it to somebody who is not related to you
Journeyman- keep the books for a whole arc and know your margin
- take something we already make and add what raises its price
- run a stall or a drop, against a target you set beforehand
Master- take a product from an idea to money across an arc, and show the numbers
- find a customer nobody had
- teach the Apprentice set to somebody who is not your friend
Post: the market
🦌Elk
The land: seasons, heavy work, the build, stewardship
Elk are the big seasonal work of the land.
Apprentice- build one garden bed start to finish
- light a fire and put it out properly
- move something heavy safely, with other people
Journeyman- frame something that stands up
- carry a piece of the build across a whole arc
- hold a standing job on this land so well that nobody has to ask
Master- take a build from a drawing to done
- hold the ground through a whole winter
- teach the Apprentice set to somebody who is not your friend
Post: the build crew
Certificates
Reach Master in a house and the guild issues a certificate for it: what you can do, the criteria on the back, and the name of the person who signed it.
It is issued by us. It is not accredited by anybody else and we do not pretend otherwise; what it is worth is what you can actually do, which is the only thing it claims.
Reaching up
You can take a quest up to one plate above your own. Reaching is the
point; nobody has to tell you no, because the board already says it.
Holding a post
Posts
Some jobs here are not taken off the board for an afternoon. They are held. A post is a standing job with your name on it, and while you are on it, it is yours to get right.
- How many places a post has depends on the work. The build crew is bigger the year a house is going out of the door.
- You hold your place for a whole arc, which is about eight weeks.
- When the work needs another pair of hands, a place opens. It goes up on the board like anything else.
- Holding a place through a whole arc is what takes Gold to Platinum, and Platinum is paid.
- How many paid places exist depends on what the work is earning. We do not invent jobs.
Every house has one. Ask who is on it, and what is open.
If you only have a year
Plenty of people arrive with one year left. A year is enough to master a house and take the certificate for it, and enough to reach Gold, which means you hold a standing job and people plan around you. It is not enough for the top of the ladder, and nobody is going to pretend otherwise.