Make (canon) Guilds great again!!

[Touri]

Thank you chad878262, Asmodea and Zyx.

I am sorry. I wrote "ignored", because it is how the player may feel. Though, I sent in a guild requests and it got ignored in the past. I am not sad about it as this just can happen out of many reasons. And I porbably didn't push enough or send a reminder. For sure I believe that the DMs try to answer every request. I just wanted to say that you shouldn't be disappointed and give up too early.

I think often the player's expectations of this persitent world, the game, the other players, the guilds and the DMs are much to high. This mirrors in threads like these here at the forum. If you do this for many years you will maybe learn that you often get disappointed. So lower your expectations and you will get surpised more often.

[Steve]

So far, our recipe consists of:

- 3–4 players with main PCs in a guild/faction
- at least 1 player, most likely the "leader," having only this toon
- don't get bored
- keep the DMs updated

I'm probably missing a bunch.

So canon guilds have a greater affect on the Server environment?

We have hundreds of Players on BGTSCC, which could translate into 25–30 guilds with min. Players, or less guilds but with greater population, but we don't (it seems).

Is it more enjoyable for Players to RP outside guilds? Or, do guilds come off as stale and inefficient, so really they are nothing more than a paper thin association?

[CleverUsername123]

(deleted)

[Nemni]

Why do people join a guild? Usually it is to further some cause, or perhaps a culture. Players stay involved if there are goals and ways to achieve those goals, even if just temporarily. How is RP/story generated from that? To me the clear answer is just conflict. A guild struggles to achieve something, the world pushes back (DM lead). Or a guild struggles to achieve something that another guild struggles to prevent (Player lead).

I think the second sort of conflict is far better because there are never enough DMs, and most things that guilds actually want to do would be IC resisted by at least 1 other guild, usually far more. Thus to make guilds active I think there has to be meaningful player conflict. But so far that seems almost impossible to truly promote, for various reasons. And that's why guilds often feel more dead/stale than living/active, imo.

[Steve]

Well I can imagine a scenario where if two "opposing" guilds had something of value to achieve, or acquire, and had to somewhat "fight" over it, with DMs overseeing the levels of achievement on both sides, it could be very, very cool to involved in.

But as has been said, once the "conflict" is resolved, often the Guild drains out.

So it's kinda like developing a constant stream of these "seeds" to drop into Guilds. Or, for Guilds themselves to know they can submit undeveloped but desired seeds to DMs, which could help by fleshing out the idea, as well an manifesting it.

I'd also be interested in reading about what guilds, especially canon guilds, have been achieving as of late, as long as that info wasn't meta-usable, of course.

[ShineDown]

Maybe start limiting the number of new guilds.

[Sharrans]

We are already great. What are the rest of you doing wrong?

[Tekill]

Leadership- Its a 'Time and Energy' issue. The time and energy just to build and grow a faction. If you stretch yourself out as a leader you will get results, but it looks really hard from what I have seen. I will say though some leaders have made it look fun.
Player lead activities would be imporant in order to keep folk interested in a guild. Players are faced with certain limitations to overcome such as trying to interact with a world that does not respond or react back. Its a challenge to keep things interesting. The leaders are often stuck with that job.

The Cannon- Its a big part of the problem. There is so many fricken options for players and for guilds that all of us are splintered into a landscape of constantly falling snowflakes.

Friggin DMs- We cant complain about them until the give us the bill. Then we complain!
And for god sake, dont start tipping them...why does everything/one require a tip these days?!

Perhaps in order to make Guilds great (tremendous...just tremendous) again we have to examine why we bother with guilds in the first place.

We could perform a bit of an experiment.
All those interested in this thead (that have posted or have been following along) could all try and agree on joining a guild, or even help create a new one to join. Or do somthing in game to promote or seriously engage your existing guild.
From the comments hers so far, there are lots of decent leaders. And this thread shows that there is a lot of interest from players. So I say we all take our toons we are playing and get involved in some faction RP.
In about a week or two, report back here with your findings or experiences.
I would like to see how it would alter gameplay if we all suddenly and at the same time really tuned into Guild RP. Would it help create a more tangible sense of purpose and meaning for our toons?
Okay les try it, on the count of three: 1, 2, 3 - go!
OR
We can all agree to all join the same guild - LETSALLBEREDWIZARDS!!!!

[Steve]

It is exactly this issue of Guilds being run by a single leader/player, that caused so much woe.

If that leader/player quits or whatever, the guild/faction dies. Doesn't help that many DMs are "stolen" guild leaders!

The majority of guilds/factions that I've started, for example, were precisely made with an idea and desire for there to be no leader, for it to be a round table, some form of anachro-democracy. But experience has shown that if I stop playing regularly—or I get poached to DM —the guild/faction dies/died.

This is why it seems so important that some form of NPC guides every guild, so that if the leadership has to drop out, the importance and validity of the guild can carry on, because the NPC lives on...meaning any current or future DM can work that NPC to the benefit of the guild.

A small but good step forward, I'd say. Is anybody listening?

[Cult of the Dragon]

It is exactly this issue of Guilds being run by a single leader/player, that caused so much woe.

If that leader/player quits or whatever, the guild/faction dies. Doesn't help that many DMs are "stolen" guild leaders!

The majority of guilds/factions that I've started, for example, were precisely made with an idea and desire for there to be no leader, for it to be a round table, some form of anachro-democracy. But experience has shown that if I stop playing regularly—or I get poached to DM —the guild/faction dies/died.

This is why it seems so important that some form of NPC guides every guild, so that if the leadership has to drop out, the importance and validity of the guild can carry on, because the NPC lives on...meaning any current or future DM can work that NPC to the benefit of the guild.

A small but good step forward, I'd say. Is anybody listening?

This is precisely why I've established rotational leadership within CotD. At a certain point, if I get burned out (or another member shows initiative and desire) I will pass the torch both IC and OOC. That means I'll share the credentials of this account and return to being a normal member. It adds creativity and an element of freshness to the guild.

[Tekill]

What is the current situation with active/factions right now?

Zhents active atm?
Did the aurilites get going again?
The church umberlee ever get started?
Red wizards working okay under new management?
Black circle, coven of darkness, cult of the Dragon up and running?
What happened to the orc warband?
Phoenix company still active?
Did Radiant heart make that come back?
I see the odd silver rose player but not much other response from them. They still strong?
I see the Phoenix company administrator in game but I don't hear about PC lately...

I ask because I'm seeing zero guild activity in game.

Did I miss any active factions?
Are factions not really important on this server?
What's the situation here?

[TarnishedSoul]

Candlekeep has stood for over thirteen hundred years in lore; it will continue to function as a lore guild here regardless of what or who gets thrown at it. While I might take a break every now and again, as I had to do because of RL work-related duties (fiscal year-end, and I work in accounting / finance,) I don't plan to vacate my role as a guild leader any time soon. There's too much that I want to achieve IC for the guild; there's too much that can be done to entertain team players.

Guilds are like the stock market - sometimes they'll climb super high, and [insert guild here] is the place to be! Sometimes they crash, and people wonder if [insert guild here] will ever recover. Up and down, up and down, up and down... such has always been the flow of guilds.

Someone posted on another thread that the entire server population is down because of various games, returning to university, and so forth. Keep that in mind when thinking of guilds, too.

[Calodan]

What is the current situation with active/factions right now?

Zhents active atm?
Did the aurilites get going again?
The church umberlee ever get started?
Red wizards working okay under new management?
Black circle, coven of darkness, cult of the Dragon up and running?
What happened to the orc warband?
Phoenix company still active?
Did Radiant heart make that come back?
I see the odd silver rose player but not much other response from them. They still strong?
I see the Phoenix company administrator in game but I don't hear about PC lately...

I ask because I'm seeing zero guild activity in game.

Did I miss any active factions?
Are factions not really important on this server?
What's the situation here?

Hunters of Vengeance is extremely active as of late. Will be for the foreseeable future as well.

Not all guilds run big guild lewt runs that they call patrols.....Some are very active but do so in RP behind the scenes with each other and other guilds. Not all the activity is out in the open for everyone to see.

[metaquad4]

What is the current situation with active/factions right now?

1) Zhents active atm?
2) Did the aurilites get going again?
3) The church umberlee ever get started?
4) Red wizards working okay under new management?
5) Black circle, coven of darkness, cult of the Dragon up and running?
6) What happened to the orc warband?
7) Phoenix company still active?
8) Did Radiant heart make that come back?
9) I see the odd silver rose player but not much other response from them. They still strong?

I see the Phoenix company administrator in game but I don't hear about PC lately...

I ask because I'm seeing zero guild activity in game.

Did I miss any active factions?
Are factions not really important on this server?
What's the situation here?

1) Eternally stuck in the "plotting in shadows" phase.
2) Killed off.
3) Ded.
4) Semi-active, but no serious activity from what I last saw.
5) Dead, dead, very dead. Last one can't really start up ever again, due to some serious metagaming issues.
6) Not really any in game presence. Dead.
7) Active in its own events, not much activity with the server at large.
8) Killed off.
9) Like the Phoenix Company, a few events but not much of a server presence.

-------

Factions only seem to gain traction when there is a large amount of DM support, links with a decent metaplot (anything before 2016), and a strong leader presence. Without these, most seem to fall apart.

Also, a fair few factions are either stuck with a fourm presence but no IG presence (effectively meaningless for the server, since little happens with regard to the IC side of things), or stuck in the "plotting" phase in which nothing is happening but people are talking about doing stuff (which is easier than actually doing it).

Most people don't want to start stuff, they want to leech off what other people have started. That is only natural, there are more people who read books in the world than people who write books, but it does tend to kill off a lot of stuff that could happen.

[Rinzler]

What is the current situation with active/factions right now?

Zhents active atm? -
Did the aurilites get going again?
The church umberlee ever get started?
Red wizards working okay under new management?
Black circle, coven of darkness, cult of the Dragon up and running?
What happened to the orc warband?
Phoenix company still active?
Did Radiant heart make that come back?
I see the odd silver rose player but not much other response from them. They still strong?
I see the Phoenix company administrator in game but I don't hear about PC lately...

I ask because I'm seeing zero guild activity in game.

Did I miss any active factions?
Are factions not really important on this server?
What's the situation here?

1) They're somewhat active, but it seems Australian time primarily.
2) I haven't seen many
3) Not sure
4) Semi-Active
5) Dead, Dead but recent post suggests otherwise, COTD seems active from the forums lately
6) Aaron22 has an Orc Guild of some kind

The rest I'm not sure.