21.4 CARTELS
Cartels allow for the creation of unique designs for trade skills that are amenable to custom designs: tailoring, cooking, forging, jewellery, bookbinding, artisan and tattoos.
There are two types of cartel:
1) Affiliated Cartels : Each city and commune has a cartel for each
of the six trade skills that allow custom
designs. If you have the trade skill, you are
automatically a member of that cartel if you are a
citizen of that city or commune. The Trademaster
(leader of the cartel) is always elected by the
cartel members.
Special for Affiliated Cartels: If you forget a
tradeskill temporarily, and you're the trademaster
of a city or commune cartel for that tradeskill,
you will not lose the position (or membership in
the cartel). You do lose it if you forget the
skill permanently.
2) Private Cartels : Any clan may be turned into a private cartel.
These cartels function exactly like a clan in
every respect. However, they also are able to
create designs which are usable by any member of
the private cartel.
Owners of private cartels can purchase design permits,
official documents from the Reviewing Panel, which
allow the cartel to submit one more public and one more
private design per year. These can be bought at the Hall
of Clans and Cartels for 500,000 gold sovereigns. They
must be registered for a specific cartel at the same
place.
Syntax:
BUY DESIGN PERMIT
REGISTER DESIGN PERMIT FOR <cartel>
*** NOTE: The Design Permit DOES NOT upgrade a clan to a
cartel. See HOW TO FORM A PRIVATE CARTEL for instructions
on doing that. ***
The custom cartel designs that either affiliated or private cartels develop can only be crafted by its members.
The command to see a list of all cartels is CARTELS (though secret private cartels will not be listed).
How to Form a Private Cartel
----------------------------
First, you must have control of a clan which you wish to upgrade to cartel status and have 500,000 gold to make the upgrade. Go to the Hall of Clans and Cartels which is located off the road up Avechna Peak and FORM CARTEL OF <trade skill> FROM <clan>.
Custom Designs of Cartels
-------------------------
Cartels may create custom patterns and designs which can only be crafted by members who have the trade skill. Creating such custom patterns is a long process and by default cartels may only design three such patterns a Lusternian year. It is the sole responsibility of the Trademaster to submit the designs on behalf of the cartel.
Needless to say, because of the time-consuming process in amassing these designs, older private cartels that have developed a long line of unique designs can charge hefty membership fees.
Designs for Public
-------------------------
Occasionally, the administration may decide that more designs for a trade skill are needed for the general public. These are 'freebie' submissions that the Trademaster can make, though it is understood that these designs would be available for anyone with the trade skill. This is optional, and cartels are not obligated to submit designs for the public.
Cartel Commands
-------------------------
As private cartels are also clans, they use all commands that are available. See CLAN COMMANDS.
To use one of the cartel's custom patterns, as long as you are a member of that cartel, you will see those patterns listed under the normal commands to see design patterns.
There are only a few commands for the general members of a cartel:
CARTEL <name of cartel>
- This will list who the current Trademaster is, what members are
currently online, and what design the Trademaster is working for the
current year. Also, if there are optional designs for this period,
you may see how many there are and how many the cartel has submitted.
CARTEL <name of cartel> DESIGN
- This will show you the progress of the design in development for
current year.
CARTEL <cartel> CATALOGUE [<design>]
- Will show any design the cartel created.
- If no design specified, shows the entire catalogue of products
designed by the cartel.
With private cartels, the clan leader may designate a clan member to serve as the Trademaster of the cartel. To do so:
CARTEL <name of cartel> TRADEMASTER <person|ME|NONE>
See also TRADEMASTER.
