Blood Pact and cross guild RP

(Originally posted on the AO forum)

Ello.

Been discussing abit on the Plague channel about the state of RP and the makings of events on this server.

I've been playing around on other RP servers to see whats goin on there and I was amazed to see how much that actually goes on on the other realms.

I've seen player run bars which actually had tons of visitors, contests and festivals, RP pvp skirmishes that actually works as intended even a restaurant with its own menu.

And what do we have on SSL? Next to nothing. Nothing happens here, basically it cant be called a RP server anymore.

Now I know that most of the AO is content with staying put with their in-guild RP, but it would be so awesome to see something actually happen on this server. Something more than just p2p RP. Not saying that p2p RP is great, but we all could probably agree on that a well organized event with several people involved can be damn fun and exciting.

So, how to make this happen?

Well, Plague in itself is truly a great resource in itself if used properly. There we have all the people/connections we need to start whatever we want. But we need someone to be the spark, to be the mosquito that stings the lazy donkey.

Teeboppity has the Goblin Gazette forum that was intended to create cross faction RP. It died pretty fast. The difficulties to arrange cross faction Rp are many and as long as we cant seem to be able to do anything cross guild within our own faction i don't think big scale cross faction Rp is a something to think about now anyways.

So talked with Tee and he suggested reforming the G.I forum to a Blood Pact forum where we could perhaps plan together cross guild RP and events.

However only creating a forum in itself isn't enough to make a change. We need to specifically appoint people who agree on working on this and actually can be bothered putting their heads together to create something for others.

It seems to me that the well used "Create your own RP!" argument, though it is a good argument, has had some negative side effects as it doesn't actually support event based RP. We need those individuals who don't mind organising stuff for others.

So back to the Blood Pact. As it is now it is merely a High Ranking political yada yada showoff thing in my opinion. The meetings consists of the 4 guild leaders talking about quite uninteresting things while the rest watches half asleep.

I believe it would be a good move to make the Blood Pact into something more then just a meeting ground for the 4 leaders, but make it into something real, a working institution. If all the guilds could appoint diplomats/ambassadors for the Blood Pact who also administrates the reformed G.I forum and make an effort to spark public events and cross guild RP.

If we still want to be concider this an RP server the RP'ers need to make an effort to create some RP and who better than the Blood Pact? The joint meeting ground of the oldest most respected (and almost only) RP guilds on this server.

All I want is you to lift your eyes and look beyond the Guild Hall and the Kitchen and perhaps realize that there could actually be some great immerisve world RP to be had.

So in short - Make the Blood Pact mean something and find the people who are willing to create the lost links between the guilds and see if we actually can make something happen on this server worth postin on the SSL forum about.

Well said, Quintilius!

I for one would like there to be more RP events that actually involve players in an active way. One day, I would like players in other realms to read about a cool cross-faction RP event that happened on Scarshield Legion, and for them to wish they had been involved.

I will certainly try to offer whatever ideas and support that I can and I hope that others will also put on their thinking-caps. Let's generate some cool ideas and have some real debate about this.

I agree with everything said. I just have this horrible feeling that there aren't as many RPers on Scarshield as on other realms. Although, I have found shouting 'For Scarshield!', or 'For the Horde!' as we launch an atack in a BG has the peculier effect of us actually winning (or at least inspire some effort).

Maybe the whole RP needs a catalyst. Although as you rightly said, with the current RP Guilds not actively working properly together, such an event seems unlikely.
The closest I've seen is this Sunday just passed, with The Alliance attempt on TB. That certainly united everyone. I can't imagine the Alliance doing that again in a hurry though.

Well, i don't know if any of the HoZ (apart from Ashya) know about our attempts to run the Broken Keel in Ratchet and the small events we in the Extreme Angling Club have been trying to set-up, but to be honest, its not going swimmingly at the moment.

The idea was to try and adress the problem mentioned above by giving the SSL rpers a specific place and time where they could socialise (as Quint said, the BP was a bit dull really, and a bit exlusive to the larger well established guilds).

So, there i am, every thurday night between 21.30 and 23.30 server time. I make posts on SSL forum and i broadcast on /plague. Generally speaking...i'm lucky if anybody shows!

The two events we've organised were also sparesly attended (although i'm proud to say the people who did show up all said they really enjoyed them ).

So, i'm hoping for an invite to your little guild renaming party to establish a few more contacts for anglers and maybe we can thrash out some ideas about how to shock some life back into SSL rp.

Our forum: http://theeac.freeforums.org/

and the SSL threads: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=2405612516&sid=1 (notice, only one horde run place (Gallows end tavern isn't actually being run by anybody afaik)

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=2405527359&sid=1 (bumped weekly with promotions etc.)

Slight update:
Since I originally posted here, the situation seems to be heading on an ever steeper decline of rp activity. I've tried with Whrae and Lyranne, but excluding those who seem always to participate, or at least try and break the ice (like Quint, Chowlawu, Ryleen, Gellion, Thanora, etc), it's becoming really hard to rp with anyone.
Partly; I blame the last patch with dailies and endgame in general really hitting the greywolves in particular (Alas, I don't no what the situation at the Ashen Order et al is). It just seems few are bothered about rp, and instead focus on getting all epic gear and whatnot. What with Whrae and Than getting married in just under a month (the 11th of May to be precise), our hope is it'll act a small catalyst, though I fear that even if there is some spark ignited, it may only be for a short while.
But regardless, I hope that things start happening soon, and I look forward to whatever it may be.

Since i like the idea about cross-faction rp i wanna post here too.

I had some sad attempts with cross-faction rp wich where pretty cool

And about rp on SSL i wanna mention its not dead but without anything constant people arent paying much attention to it...

I would like to post a rp-pvp event idea wich i created many many time ago and used in my old rp-guild succesfully and on a private server also as a rp-pvp event ofc with 50+ players

*gasp**cought*
The Gurubashi Tournament

Sounds in first case pretty simple as a rp-pvp tournament in the Gurubashi arena but its a bit more harder (at least to organize)

1. How its supposed to work: You sign up as a gladiator at the organizers (me, friends etc) or just come as visitor. After you signed up as fighter in the event you can choose fight simple duels in the arena take some "special arena battles" or participate on a tournament (depends if one is organized).

People stay on all sides of the arena comment the current fight eat some roasted gnome and have fun in rp. You can also of course bet on your favorite fighter and win or loose money.

2. Rules: When you enter the arena you have to listen to some simple rules to not ruin the event.
a) Not enter the arena when there is a on going fight. IF you do so the security will come in and take the chance to kill you (5 lvl 70 who are in 1 group and watch out for such people-they will not attack the fighters only the intruder)
b) As you enter the event follow the rp server rules.
c) Please listen to the event manager so it can be organized and not a total disaster.


Following those simple rules is promising a nice and smooth event

3. Battle styles: Of course there are several different battle styles:

a) Simple 1v1 fight-all tricks are allowed (potions/bandages/cooldowns) but you cant leave the arena-fight to the death.
b) 2v2 -same rules as abouth.
c) 3v3 and 5v5 nothing new but still interesting.
d) New Blood Fight! Its for newcomers to the event who have no ranking ( ranks will be listened a bit later) just 5 people in a Free for all match-grouping is not allowed (to avoid this the fighters dont know to the last moment who are there enemys)
e) Handicap match- its a 2v1 fight.
f) Last man standing- a simple fight wich is a huge free for all match-it consists 10 players.
g) Time fight- the maybe most hardest type of battle. Its a 2v5 match but in the begining it starts 2v1 , every 30 seconds 1 member of the 5 man team enters the arena and aids hes partner.

Trick for 5 man team- Stay alive 30 seconds until teammates come in.
Trick for 2 man team- Kill as fast as possible the enemy before more come in.

!!! Special rule!!! : Stealthers can join only as 5 team mate the battle or they have to enter without stealth.


I will post the ranking ladder a bit later and also all the minigames and rp wich you can do there.

I have done this event several times and it works smoothly and great. You can come to manage your gladiator as gladiator , as visitor , organizer , healer, security gard or whatever you like as still you follow the rules.

The tournament prizes are pets, rp gear , some cash ( only on tournaments) and cool ranks and a active ranking ladder+ a lot of fame if your the champion

Anyway it has worked fine before if someone likes the idea or wanna comment it please do so.

Sounds like a great idea, Shadowtroll. If you can organize it, I'll gladly help you with it. (Maybe bring my journalist character, Samantha Gizzlesprock, and write an article for the Goblin Gazette about it.)

I would love to since its not even very hard to organize (If you know how )

But well there is a major problem I dont wanna play for the summer wow thats why i am just posting on forums for fun but i will be ( i think so) this august or september back on SSL.

Anyway maybe someone else wants to use this template but dont forget to mention me

And about the goblin gazzete - you know why dont create it as a item? So people can read it IC?

Just over the mail to a alt and then back to your reporter - make a copy of this msg click and go to the Orgrimmar bank make a macro and sell the latest news for 1silver !!!

Like this i have created a lot of rp storys , mostly wanted posters Was pretty funny and there are still some very rare pieces of Shadowtroll Diary wich i created sended to a alt (lvl 1 banker ) and gave to random people in Orgrimmar

Wait 2 days and you get whisps about your "diary" Was fun

Well, seems that quite a few things have changed (though not all for the better) since my last post so an update would appear to be in order.

Since the original post was about the BP, i'll adress that first.

Of the member guilds themselves, despite the AO's recent 'race day' event which was not really attended by anyone outside the guild (and resulted in me getting several whispers regarding Vex's 'inapproprate' rp), they still seem to be keeping their rp firmly behind the walls of their guild hall. However, that is their choice, and I for one will no longer be trying to change that.

The House of Sylvanas seem to have plenty going on...but again, i only seem to find out about this stuff after the event and usually in /plague as their forum is not particularly active.

The Greywolf tribe has now started having the same sort of problems that affected the Theatre with respect to the guild becomming divided between raiding and rp. The rpers always seem to feel the raiders are neglecting the rp with events and guild meetings becomming sparsely attended by the raiders.
Whilst the raiders feel that as they are still rp-ing whenever they aren't raiding, that they are still doing their bit.

The Theatre of Cruelty itself is now down to a small core of casual rpers. All those with aspirations of raiding have finally gone and these few remaning are online so infrequently that it no longer surprises me that some thing the guild has disbanded.

The Heritage i think is now growing in reputation and respect. More people are starting to realise this guild not only exists, but has some damn fine rp going. My only fear is the dreaded PvE has already reared its ugly head and i just can't bear the thought that, as with so many others, this guild will suffer for it.

As for the Goblin Gazette, with Quint having 'quit' and Tee joining the Haven and no longer (from what i have observed) visiting the forums, that leaves me as the Admin of the 'press room' forum, with no idea how the actual 'Gazette' bit works (i'm pretty au fait with forums now, but blogs are something else entirely!). I think Gufang (ToC) can do stuff with it, but work keeps him offline a lot so stuff needs to passed back and to through the forums.


All that said...it seems that, somehow, we are making an impression on the rest of the community.
The nights at the Broken Keel are now quite popular and i finally got people attending both the Tuesday and Thursday nights. The lfrp channel has taken off, and manages (most of the time ) to say at least rp-related.

The only thing still to really reach its full potential is the 'We are Legion' forum. I still only have 21 members but as long as i keep plugging it (and other people are welcome to try too), i think we might just get there in the end.

I guess what i want to say is, that after the lure of the summer sun and new games like AoC passes, I'm hopeful SSL rp will be stronger than it was when Quin first opened this thread.

Well, the whole raiding things still really doesn't appeal to me, but I know that enough people want to go, that I can't really just sit back and do nothing. To be honest though, right now I'm suffering from RP OD. It's not helped by the fact that all my RP is conversation - and not event - based. Additionally, there's how bad I feel with Barz and the many alts being deleted. The GWT has problems because they fear that people like me, who are in the Guild and well, say unkind things about the state of it, are the ones responsible for said problems. However, I only highlight the fundamental flaws in a Guild that has lost so much focus, that the Raiders don't RP and us RPers are left to sit idly by, doing nothing. Most of the raiding members that are bothered about RP ( Tás/Neld, Gellion, Hinun, etc ) have all created alts elsewhere. That should tell the Guild something is wrong. That's what I fear happening to the Heritage. I'm okay with doing 5-mans because they don't take too long, and they are actually fun ( for the most part ), but the thought of having to stick to a regime of <insert day here> being 'raid night' galls me slightly, additionally, even if I was fond of the idea, I go to the Broken Keel whenever i can, I have the Heritage meeting on Monday, and the GWT meeting on Sunday, leaving just Wednesday and Saturday with 'downtime' ( which is still spent RPing ). I know the situation is little better for many others, and honestly, I think RP events are the way to go. *crosses fingers that and event happens soon*

Yay! events!

Ok in case i come back is there anyone who wanna help me organize the *look up* posted event ?

http://theeac.freeforums.org/outline-for-the-ratchet-expeditionary-force-t85.html

http://wearelegion.forumakers.com/the-brainstorm-f13/the-mid-summer-fire-festival-t109.htm

http://wearelegion.forumakers.com/the-brainstorm-f13/horde-multi-guild-event-t108.htm

These are just a couple of event ideas and a new 'coalition' of guilds that we were thinking of introduing.

Sadly, i'm not reall that great at comming up with event ideas. If ppl pitch something atme i'll picitup and run with it, but the inital ideas need to come from somebody else (and before anybody jumps in...most of the ideas i post usually come from Vex. he just asks me to post them because he thinks 1) too many ppl think he's an idiot forum troll and 2) he's just not online enough.)

The PvE vs RP dilemma is a serious one it seems. It's hard for me, as the leader, because on one hand I really want to try the PvE aspect of the game (I've been playing this game for more than two years without ever entering a raid instance - not counting my solo visits in UBRS and Zul'Gurub, but those don't really count), but on the other hand I want to keep the RP going on, and don't want the Heritage fall apart because of raiding (the way it happened to ToC and GwT).
Still, I think, if we do it in a clever way, the PvE raids can be integrated in the RP plotlines. We managed to RP in the 5-man instances; why can't we RP in the raid groups too?
And nothing is forced, Lyranne. If you don't want to raid, you don't have to raid just because you think the raid group needs you. It's a game, and you have to play it the way you enjoy it.

Well, I am interested in trying out raiding for the same reason as Snicka. I just feel I'm missing out on part of the game. But my interest is mostly just getting to see the inside of those places once or twice, I mostly don't care much about gear and stuff and it certainly won't be more important than rp.

I found this post WoWInsider; it deals with the conflict between raiding and roleplaying:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/11/18/all-the-worlds-a-stage-raiding-and-rp-dont-mix-or-do-they/

For the record, I am not especially keen on raiding either. My PvE skills are simply not up to it, at the moment, as my flat-mate (a Forsaken priest) keeps scornfully reminding me. But I would like to experience some of the raid instances and trying to RP a raid sounds like a great challenge.

I posted the thread about doing Karazhan because Bwangoo expressed an interest in doing it. If there are enough guild members who are interested then it would be fun to attempt a RP raid to Karazhan, even if we can only defeat some of the mini-bosses and perhaps a main boss or two.

Personally I see dungeons and raids as a different type of opportunity to RP as a group. Nothing more. I think that most of the guild members who like to do instances and raids have found ways to do that outside of the guild group, or by enlisting the help of a couple of guild-mates, and that's great.

Of course, I have to assure you that I do NOT want to turn HoZ into a raiding guild. It is, and has always been a roleplaying guild, and we shall not give that up because of raiding.
But still, as I've mentioned before, I want to see this aspect of the game. My gear isn't good enough yet for Karazhan, let alone Zul'Aman, but I want to visit these dungeons before WotLK comes out. (Not to mention that I really want to get an Amani warbear as an RP mount... I would look so impressive on it as a Warlord... *sigh*) And, as Zanick said, it would be more fun to do with guildmates than some strangers, because I know you and like you much more.

Well when i was leader of the Bloodsail Blackhands i managed to keep rp and pve both alive.

Many guilds disband because of this but its not that hard really all what you need so people can satisfy there pve interest and still continue being in a rp guild is damn good organization.

I had people wich asked me for a invite into the guild because its rp-pve and not only pve or only rp.

Later as a officer in LoTH i managed the same (to be honest there where not that many rp people but still enought for some random rp and some events) . Its really kinda tricky but if ALL want rp and pve then it shouldnt be that hard.

All you need is a good leader who can organize a guild and with pve xp.

Btw something what helped a LOT in my case was keeping the moral up! How you do this.

Karazhan is the most easyest TBC raid and all it requires is lvl 70 blue/epic gear (thought some greens dont bother much) So to keep the moral up just start it! Try even pug groups in the begining after people see that they can pve and rp and even more after they downed 2-3 raid bosses all are happy And then it goes so on

After that you get whole guild raids etc and it will work.

And yes i am pretty proud on what i have done because thought my guilds have gone a lot of people wich started raiding also thanks to me.

So to raid with a in basic rp guild isnt that hard just figure out how many times in week you wanna spend.

1 time a week is good for begginers . But a normal kara guild clears it on 2 times( wich has cleared it before several times).

It's not that I'd feel I'd have to go, Snicka, more that there is a small part of me that wants to go, yet the larger apsect just wants to RP. Truth be told, It'd be nice to have a small breather from the latter, as I would really like to get some rep with various factions. Alas, it's not happening because I'm RPing. That's not to say I regret RP, but more that it dominates my play time.

Lyranne wrote:It's not that I'd feel I'd have to go, Snicka, more that there is a small part of me that wants to go, yet the larger apsect just wants to RP. Truth be told, It'd be nice to have a small breather from the latter, as I would really like to get some rep with various factions. Alas, it's not happening because I'm RPing. That's not to say I regret RP, but more that it dominates my play time.

Well, I guess that's similar to my situation. Rp-wise i have commitments four nights a week but as I also have a social life, weekends are out for raiding, leaving me only wednesday night free...which atm, i like to have as a night where i can just do whatever the heck i want

Unlike just about everybody else playing the game though, i don't really care if i never see the inside of Kara. I've never done any of the pre-tbc lvl60 instances either so its no big deal to me.

Add to that the fact that i royally suck at PvE stuff. I've read the forums of some of the rp-guilds that raid, regarding add-ons, tactics, gear requirements and such...and it just makes me shudder.

And if you think i'm exagerating about how bad i am at PvE, just ask Vex


Anyhow, i guess its not really an issue as Chabat will never get to 70 and i doubt you'll need Vypra seeing as DPS is not something groups are usually short of


As you all seem very commited, i'm sure the rp won't suffer, so i wish you guys the best of luck getting this together and if there are other ways i can help, (Vyp does have 375 alch. / herb and cooking [for yummy buffs]) just let me know.

Well how i said it depends what you guys wanna RP-PVE or only RP , PVE

I can just say all of this is possible anyway i wish ya much luck

We seem to have stryed off-topic slightly (my fault i think ) so i'll quote myself here:

Vypra wrote:http://theeac.freeforums.org/outline-for-the-ratchet-expeditionary-force-t85.html

http://wearelegion.forumakers.com/the-brainstorm-f13/the-mid-summer-fire-festival-t109.htm

http://wearelegion.forumakers.com/the-brainstorm-f13/horde-multi-guild-event-t108.htm

These are just a couple of event ideas and a new 'coalition' of guilds that we were thinking of introduing.

Sadly, i'm not really that great at comming up with event ideas. If ppl pitch something atme i'll pick it up and run with it, but the inital ideas need to come from somebody else (and before anybody jumps in...most of the ideas i post usually come from Vex. he just asks me to post them because he thinks 1) too many ppl think he's an idiot forum troll and 2) he's just not online enough.)

We had a good night at the Keel last night. Plenty of people there early on, including alliance ppl from the Stormwind Council meeting with Munechi of the Greywolf's. Okay, there was a breif period where everybody left, but then it was like a mini guild party of HoZ, with Nenya (who seems to have 'adopted' the heritage ) Vyp, Chow and finally Cloudsong which was very nice

I've been trying to encourage Nénya to think about the post of Forsaken Emissary, as they're a great RPer, and I know from experience that they're a good person in general. Alas, I do apologise for not being overly talkative last night, but I had a /p chat with Walya that lasted a long time, and it was emotionally quite draining. But, at least I was able to get Kemsha and Zan to join the lfrp channel yesterday, so that's good. And, at one point, there were at least 14 people in the channel.

cool, 14. that was a new record right?

When I'll be back (and it's just 20 days from today), I'll join the lfrp channel too.