Make (canon) Guilds great again!!

[Maecius]

I should probably note that we're going to be folding all the "focal" and "non-focal" guilds into a single subforum (probably today) called "private guild forums."

The focal/non-focal differentiation hasn't actually been used by the DMs in years.

You can probably discuss them more appropriately as "canon lore" and "server lore" guilds.

[Steve]

Whether Guilds are more open or closed is one thing; I'd hope that in all instances there is means to be a part of them, or interact, if the RP gets started.

How Guilds are for members is what I'm fishing for, looking for ideas and solutions to make them more interesting, special avenues for RP that interacts with the world around them.

[Sun Wukong]

We spy players from the shadows and watch how they interact with the game world and other players.

In otherwords, the Thieves Guild goes around trying to fugue players by increasing the number of mob spawns.

[Young Werther]

I must be in a server guild bc my pirates don't get cannons
.

[AlfarinIcebreaker]

I have to say I've been dissapointed with the dwarven activity. My main is a high level slayer, but I rarely see any dwarves online, let alone organized events through guild. Maybe I'm just in the wrong time zone, though, being an Euro player.

[Steve]

I have to say I've been dissapointed with the dwarven activity. My main is a high level slayer, but I rarely see any dwarves online, let alone organized events through guild. Maybe I'm just in the wrong time zone, though, being an Euro player.

Are you not on the Private Message List for Kraak Helzak?

Because through PMs and Forum posts, Kraak Helzak has been having weekly Player driven events either Friday or Saturday nights Euro time, for nearly 3 months now.

[AlfarinIcebreaker]

I have to say I've been dissapointed with the dwarven activity. My main is a high level slayer, but I rarely see any dwarves online, let alone organized events through guild. Maybe I'm just in the wrong time zone, though, being an Euro player.

Are you not on the Private Message List for Kraak Helzak?

Because through PMs and Forum posts, Kraak Helzak has been having weekly Player driven events either Friday or Saturday nights Euro time, for nearly 3 months now.

Nah, I've been removed from the forums when they did the clearout about a year ago, since then I was away for awhile, rekindled my play times just recently.

[SoThereIWas]

but I rarely see .... organized events through guild.

I know what your saying, your a bit disappointed from the lack of events open to the public from organized groups. There are a few that do them here and there, but it's not a common sight to see with the many.

Can't say much about Dwarves, other than they tend to be a albino unicorn sighting as far as player characters go as of recently :p

I as a player had to try and reach out a bit, sometimes with more effort than others, but with the many that have alt accounts... it can be hard at times. And we all tend to get busy as people.

[Eclipse9]

We spy players from the shadows and watch how they interact with the game world and other players.

In otherwords, the Thieves Guild goes around trying to fugue players by increasing the number of mob spawns.

Unfair and inaccurate statement.

[Steve]

Nah, I've been removed from the forums when they did the clearout about a year ago, since then I was away for awhile, rekindled my play times just recently.

Well mate, I'm hear to tell you that if you want to re-join the KH guild, you just need to reach out (to me or Hammer Song) and we can at least bring you back to the private Guild...and hopefully, if not already done, your Slayer or a new dwarf could swear oath to the King, and you'll be given a Guild key. I mean...we're trying to kick life back into a recently-once-Focal Guild (Hi Big Mac!!) and can use the help to do so/better so!

[AlfarinIcebreaker]

Nah, I've been removed from the forums when they did the clearout about a year ago, since then I was away for awhile, rekindled my play times just recently.

Well mate, I'm hear to tell you that if you want to re-join the KH guild, you just need to reach out (to me or Hammer Song) and we can at least bring you back to the private Guild...and hopefully, if not already done, your Slayer or a new dwarf could swear oath to the King, and you'll be given a Guild key. I mean...we're trying to kick life back into a recently-once-Focal Guild (Hi Big Mac!!) and can use the help to do so/better so!

Sure, would love to. Thanks.

[Sun Wukong]

We spy players from the shadows and watch how they interact with the game world and other players.

In otherwords, the Thieves Guild goes around trying to fugue players by increasing the number of mob spawns.

Unfair and inaccurate statement.

I wish.

[Touri]

Maybe there should be a rule against holding a position of power in more than one guild per player.

This is really a "great" idea and I haven't heard it for the first time. I just wonder where you would take the new leaders from?

Actually in three years of holding a "position of power", I have met maybe one player that would voluntary step up and take over a guild as leader. Those who do, are often the one who can't say no. There are just not enough people to keep all guilds healthy in my opinion. And yes, there have been some new leaders in other guilds, but when they notice how hard it is to keep the guild members busy, they often just leave as soon as possible without really looking for any following leader. Others really tried hard and got maybe very disapointed, maybe still not knowing what they did wrong. Probably they didn't do anything wrong.
And you not only have to keep them busy. You need to recruit as well. In this three years Ven conducted the trials of 25 new members. Each member had around three events to pass the trials and get into the guild. Some of them just disappeared shortly after because of several reasons, unfortunatly it often happend without any comment. Some more stay, but only a few stay as active members.
So 25 x 3 events x 3 h = 225 hours of playtime, just for new members to keep the numbers a least stable. If you have 3 x 53= 159 weeks a year it is still 1 and a half hour each week only for the trials. You can see, that it is a lot of time and only a few keep playing their main for such a long time. And this also may be a reason why some think that noone should be a leader in two or more guilds. That may be right, but as far as I know there are only a few that keep positions of power in several guilds. Those I knew of mostly did it because there was noone else who wanted to step up and they didn't want the guild to go completly down. I think a more or less inactive leader still is better then none leader.

That is why I can tell you that in my opinion such a rule won't help anything to keep guilds from getting inactive. It only will cause atctual guilds to go even more into inactivity. Besides you never can tell if it is the same players as a lot of players use different and anonym logins. So such a rule would be hardly enforceable.

One leader makes no guild. As far as I know you need at least four players to get guild status and a guild forum. If such requirements also would count for active guilds, most of our guilds would have lost their status more than once.
Don't forget that the best leader can't do anything if the players are not will to support him by also taking their own initiatives, like for example Steve mentioned with the dwarves. You can call out several task for the members, but mostly such things don't really do well, because two of them will lose motivation, two more have real life trouble and the others can't really meet because of playtimes.

Telling you this, I am very happy with the few members who keep staying with me and the Elder Circle. You are very great and I thank you a lot for the support and the fun we had over all this years. Also over more then 15 years of rp at different persitant worlds, I learned not to get disappointed by the many who can't stay with the grove for out of whatever reason.

So if there is a player out there who is interested in leading the EC and taking Ven's position as High Ranger, please send me a pm. If you like plants and animals, think you will be able to get the support of your guild members, keep them busy, have lots of time for recruiting, forum work and meetings and you want to get disappointed a lot, than you are the right canidate and we can start your new career very soon. This is no joke at all. You surely get some fun too.

To those who are interested in joining the EC, here is a link for the rp contact.

[SoThereIWas]

Touri's long story short is :

You can't rely on others and groups for RP. You must find a way to set it up yourself... even if it's begging on a street corner for gold... It's still RP if others interact.

[Darkcloud777]

I have played on this server for several years and I can say that every focal guild my toon applied for was denied. Last denial just a short as 03/29/2018

What some call exile
others call denial.

Let our silence
Be our decision.

This will be our last reply.

No names given and dont ask me which one it was. Thanks in advance.

I started Phoenix company because I was not the only one who has been in that boat. This is not to say that all would turn my main away. I am quite positive that Kraak Helzak would be happy to allow my main to join if she was a dwarf or a gnome. Sadly this is not the case. Some others might as well, but overall in my experience the Kraak Helzak has been a model of openly accepting members, be them new player or veterans. saddly they are limited by race.

So in reading all of the posts I would like to state that by far and away the one that I agree with the most and highly support is Calodan's:

Maybe it is high time to give Guild Leaders Quasi-DM permissions now. Ability to request NPC builds to use for their guild mates and create stories but not be able to reward their mates. IE can do everything a DM can but can not hand out XP, Items, RP power and such.

Although this is also already possible by making a dummy account and running NPCs from that account. I just think it would be nice if we guild leaders could spawn monsters and NPCs to run stories for our guilds. With a written up summary of our intentions and approval by DM team of course. Just so they know what is going within the realm as all gods should.....

Think about it. Guild leaders are able to take their members to DM maps and other things. This all goes through submission via the DM team. We can then work towards real RP goals that the DMs oversee. Have the new application DMs do this work. New DMs get the biggest work load. Going through guild story approvals, sifting through forum RP, doing biographies and the like while they learn the client.

The leader of the guild "knows" the players and what sorts of plots they wish to pursue. Player driven plots dont need to have uber rewards. They would just be very much be thrilled that their ideas are being given a forum to develop. spawns could be tailored to be challenging without being overpower "because" the guild leader knows what the group is capable of handling. Missions could span over weeks that would be tailored to involve other guilds.

Example: player (insert name) has a player driven plot to find the a family heirloom. The trail leads to Candlekeep where they have to pay or find entrance to the library for a certain book. The guild leader of candlekeep agreed to loan out the book, but only if it is escorted by one of their member to keep it safe. (cross guild involvement occurs with the guild leader offering up a player to assist) . The book would lead them to some mansion deep in the woods where they find the heirloom. (with NPC spawns within the players range and ability. )

That is my take on how to make any guild great. I already push player driven plots. its hard to do with limited player based resources. I would love to be able to provide a true quest tailored to the groups power.