The Tradesman's Inn

I'm still interested in the idea and I think within DF a 7-10 member 'House' made up of a mix of crafters, harvesters and combat is a good size for a micro-group independent of any future city holding clan.

If enough other houses are formed they could in time join to form a clan acting independently and in concert as the need arose and ultimately, aspire to holding a hamlet.

I'm going to continually modify the top post as things arise to consolidate ideas in one place.

Thorsen Belthize

I have just recently started a trading/crafting clan. If any of you are interested our website is http://illiastradingcompany.webs.com/. I personally think it will provide a funner aspect to the game. We will be FOCUSED on crafting, but will also do pvp, raid, etc.

Note: The main difference between a crafter guild and other guilds is going to be the expectations and agendas. Not necessarily what type of players make it up (fighters, warriors, crafters, etc).

I do love the idea of Merchant or Trading "Houses" and that could really add to some fine RP and backstories over time.

I'd be interested in finding out more about this, some way down the line after launch - perhaps something like this could be looked at later as an offshoot from other, larger Clans... would allow for strong alliance and support that way (especially at the beginning, when such an entity would be weak getting started)

Great, great idea though and I'll be trying to keep an eye on you and this idea. ;)

If you want to make an official 'plug' for your clan, feel free to do so! Just tell us how you plan on working and what you will be all about etc (Race restrictions? Territorialists? etc etc). :)

I'm more than interested in this as well and would be happy to provide resources and gold from day one to make it happen.

Now that things are less 'vague' I'll give this some more thought.

Both this idea and the Alliance one had merit in a vacuum but don't necessarily translate well to reality.

Harvesting isn't quite what I expected and throws a wrench into everything.

Thorsen Belthize

This is my first post, and I must say this topic caught my attention above all others.

If I may add something to the crafter/harvester/combat ratio ordeal.
I think some of us are forgetting about the NPC hireling/pet system. I imagine that a tough merchant capable of affording the best NPC guards or summoning powerful minions might actually be powerful force to reckon with on the field. Even a pure harvester/crafter has to have a few combat skills, invest in status effect and crowd control skills to aid your minions I think you'll do fine, and a full force of merchants and player controlled combat oriented players using this method(or similar) in a unified clan setting could potentially go head to head with full combat guilds by using the strength of numbers. Of course this is all just speculation, as I have yet to be able to get into the game. But like a game of chess i'll keep reviewing the board until I can get into the game and make a move, so to speak.

the one thing i want to know is what is up with the city building. i for one am hopping to build my clan a nice heavily defended city with assess to the sea.+ and make it into a trading empire. so if any one has any info on that please post it