Where to start with a guild?

First of all I'd like to point out that I was not sure where to put this topic, but I decided to put it here.

So I'm wanting to make a guild but each time I make one, it just crashes. I'd like to know if there are any good tips for starting a guild? All I know is to search for other guilds that may be the same kind of guild, and not to make the exact same one, unless you want to compete with that guild or anything. Please do help, I need it. :<

Well I think the first thing you need to consider here is why do you want to make a guild?
I might be missunderstanding and all, but from the way you are phrasing this it seems less like you want to see some rp concept come into play and more inclined towards just being the boss of something/someone.

A guild should be created because you have a idea or concept that you really want to play out and share with others, not because you want to lead folk... thats how I feel atleast.

Oh... and if you create one you need to actually spoonfeed it events, promote it like all hell and recruit members like crazy to compensate for people constantly quitting or going inactive.

*Nods* Yeah, you should listen to Ralegh. Hes a veteran. Just look at that avatar. Thats the face of a true and hardworking GM.

First you need to take a look at yourself.

Do you have the the time required to form a guild at your hands, and do you have the patience?
Forming a guild that'll last takes a long time. If you're the kind of person that disbands a guild after a week or two you'll likely not be successful, you need to be able to take a hit and stand up again.
Also, how much experience do you have? Are you a strong leader that people can look to for help?
"Learn to obey before you command"

Secondly; is anyone there to help you with it from the start? If yes you can split up the tasks, such as letting one take care of advertisement & recruitment, while another takes care of the initial events to give people something to do from the very start, and a third could fill out the concept, giving them history and such. All should however share their thoughts and inputs with eachother, it's important to get different opinions.

If not you'll likely have to do even more work yourself in the start. Try to form a strong core of the guild as quickly as possible.
The beginning is always harsh, but that's what forms the fundament for the guild, and after a while (Likely a couple of months or so) things should calm down.



Remember, guilds with more focused aims (For example a guild that focuses on Gnomish Engineering) have a smaller target audience. This is similar to marketing.
The entire market is the roleplaying community as a whole. There are several sections within this market, and these sections can be defined by age, humour, attitude, interests and the like.
If you were to sell a product that's for volleyball you'd have a large target audience, as a large section of the market is interested in this sport. The more indepth you go into it the more focused towards specific sections it would become, as each section holds sections within itself. Let's say that you began focusing on beach volleyball, then you'd likely get more people from that specific section, while losing people from other sections.

So let's say that you were going to make something that focuses on the Alliance military in WoW. You'd have a large section and wide variety of players joining. Things may not get as personal and individual focused, as you'd get a bit of everything.
Then you narrow it down to for example the artillery of the military, which is a fairly small section. People who are interested in engineering and the like would flourish, and you'd get to go deeper into one specific subject. On the other hand you'd get few members, and at times there might not be much going on.

Therefore you need to decide for yourself what you want; do you want a wide concept and many members, or do you want a focused concept and few members?
It's possible to find a balance too, and the varying smaller sections hardly ever hold the same amount of people. If you were to focus on for example knights you'd likely have a larger audience than if you were to focus on artillery.



Remember not to focus events and all attention at yourself, that quickly becomes boring for everyone else, and it's not fun to just sit, watch and be a means towards another's personal glory. Give the members things to do, give them chances to decide, let them get their time in the spotlight.




I don't have time to add more points right now, but I will edit this post and add more once I have the time.

By your post in the TTH thread, i am not sure if you still plan to start your own guild or not. In any case, i'll give it an attempt to answer your question.

1.) When you start a guild, start it slow.

2.) You want to have several -reliable- people who want to do the kind of Roleplaying that your guild concept is aimed to. Main characters, not alts: You need active players. You do not need to make them officers, but ask for their help. Most players do not want the responsibility that comes with Leadership, but are more than eager to help in other ways, should you ask for their aid. It could be simply by Dungeon Master an event, or give ideas of what the guild could do.

3.) When you have around 4 reliable, active members willing to contribute to the concept, giving their help when you ask, you have the "Core" for your guild.

4.) Now that you are a guild, start doing things as a guild. It can be simply casual roleplaying between eachother in an inn, where you plan your future IC. It can be Dungeon Mastered events, with one of you acting as the DM and storyteller. It can be interaction with other guilds and groups, making yourself known through Roleplaying.

5.) When you are actively roleplaying as a guild, even with that small group of 5, only -then- you should start worrying about the actual Recruitment Thread.

A good guild is not weighted by their size, but their activity and quality of the Roleplaying they offer. You as a Guild Master have the main responsibility to ensure that, but do not shy to ask help, opinions and feedback from your members.

Thanks very much for the comments, I'll take them into my account and look at them a bit . Also, what is a dungeon master?

Inran/Skarain wrote:A good guild is not weighted by their size, but their activity and quality of the Roleplaying they offer. You as a Guild Master have the main responsibility to ensure that, but do not shy to ask help, opinions and feedback from your members.

Words to live by. <3

Never -ever- start a guild because "I want to be a guild master".

Start a guild because you have something to do. Something to give.
Do it because you've got this GREAT idea you wish to share and have other people experience with you.

Do it to share experiences with people, not to get respect and power.

This can't stress this enough.

What do you want the guild to be? What do you want it to do? What do you want it to become?

A guild is like a character. It needs motivation, goals, history and development. It needs interaction.

what is a dungeon master?

Have you ever attended adventures where a person is describing the environment in raid or in raid warnings, roleplay invisible enemies or other Non-Player characters?

A Dungeon Master or DM is the leader and creator of such events, where the DM creates the environment, the mood, the enemies, the plot and controls everything that is not player-controlled.

Another point that came up in a discussion with another RPer:
You need to prioritize RP over the rest of the game when you're the GM. That'll help people realise that RPing with the guildies regularly is a priority. Continuity is important in RP, as character development is pretty pointless if nobody's around to see it. Being there for another through ups and downs, hell or high water... It's the good stuff.

I'd greatly recommend having your guild's HQ somewhere where new players will bump into you while leveling. That's a decent way to get their attention (such random interactions got me started back in the day). New mains in the guild will help keep it fresh and populated.

Muzjhath wrote:Never -ever- start a guild because "I want to be a guild master"

It certainly doesn't hurt if you actually enjoy being one, though.

I never did, but ended up founding/leading a guild anyway and I can't say it's always been an enjoyable experience.

Inran/Skarain wrote:

what is a dungeon master?

Have you ever attended adventures where a person is describing the environment in raid or in raid warnings, roleplay invisible enemies or other Non-Player characters?

A Dungeon Master or DM is the leader and creator of such events, where the DM creates the environment, the mood, the enemies, the plot and controls everything that is not player-controlled.

Ah, yes. I've done these, even made up some myself. ^^

I had a certain idea with my guild, and had a few thoughts of what -could- happen in the future with it. I want to make big RP such as war with my guild, but I guess I am not even ready to hold a guild up. I don't think I have enough free time to do it so, I guess I won't be doing it. Thanks for all the comments, will keep them in mind if I ever attempt to make a guild again .

I might write up a proper post tonight but running the Blades at its biggest bought up a fair few points:

• Having a core of trusted, reliable people who understand and care about the guild, share your vision for it, and are online regularly, is essential. Ideally these would be your officers. Must be able to mediate in conflicts impartially, emotionally mature preferrably.

• Avoid indulging or getting dragged into gossip, if issues come up tackle them openly and without taking sides.

• Only take on a guild if you have the time and energy to do so. This is more manageable if you have team of other dedicated officers to pick up the slack when you need a break, or else you'll burn out quickly no matter how much you enjoy rp.

• Keep an eye out and be wary of people who feel entitled to power or want officer status regardless of whether they have the time or suitable attitude for it. They're out there and they make running a guild miserable.

• Set boundaries. Enthusiasm is lovely, but for instance...I had an overenthusiastic officer calling my mobile on my sister's wedding day asking if two new applicants were okay to join. Not cool. Make sure you don't expand too quickly, and make sure it doesn't eat up your real life!

Most of these are to do with avoiding GM burn-out. There's other questions to ask at the start which previous posters have bought up, about finding a niche or concept and how big you want your guild to be.

Also, consider the non-game parts- will you need a site? Do you plan on promoting actively, if so how? How will you integrate with the existing scene, what events could you kick off with to come into positive contact with the existing player-base?

ultimately the only thing you Really, Really, Really need is perseverance. you'll hit every roadblock every guild-leader comes across one day or another, the only thing that's needed is to just continue on and try not to make the same mistake again.

Guilds don't last because they have a great back-story, or a great theme, guilds don't last because people are super-duper friends, guilds don't even last because shits just awesome.

guilds last because its worked on day after day after day until years and years have passed.

You don't just get a good officer/caring team together,
You don't just get great events together,
You don't just get recruits because you are recruiting.
You don't just get a big spread across the community because you want it.
Ultimately you can start another guild of the exact same type as other guilds and you can compete very fine with them, there's no need to be a special snowflake guild, or enter a new niche.

All you need is perseverance.

the rest you'll learn how to do. but do know that's going to take ~20 hours a week, every week, if not more.

Also as a small sidenote.

Ultematly the best thing a good GL does, and is. Is stabillity.

Nothing else, nothing more.
Events, order, structure. All that can be developed and given by officers.
An unsteable Guild leader and the guild will fall apart.

Amen to that, Muzjhath. We noticed that ourselves, which is why we split TTH. Several other examples mentioned here are very wise advice to take heed off. I myself was GM as well a long time ago (High Kings Guard, most of you might not recall it seeing it got disbanded during my break in WotLK), and I recall it as being loads of work which took a LOT of energy and time from me, but quite rewarding as well to see the players appreciation. That was one of the things that made it all worth the strain and effort to lead the guild... people in our guild being happy.

But you need a good and trustworthy team, or you will end up getting a GM-burnout sooner rather than later. But when you do have that team... man, it is so damn worth the effort to see the happy members.

Cid wrote:Amen to that, Muzjhath. We noticed that ourselves, which is why we split TTH. Several other examples mentioned here are very wise advice to take heed off. I myself was GM as well a long time ago (High Kings Guard, most of you might not recall it seeing it got disbanded during my break in WotLK), and I recall it as being loads of work which took a LOT of energy and time from me, but quite rewarding as well to see the players appreciation. That was one of the things that made it all worth the strain and effort to lead the guild... people in our guild being happy.

But you need a good and trustworthy team, or you will end up getting a GM-burnout sooner rather than later. But when you do have that team... man, it is so damn worth the effort to see the happy members.

That just saved my will to make the guild, well, I probably will make it. I will be stable, cautious, not too fast pacing and everything everyone has told me here. I will ask a few friends if they want to do it with me though, because as you lot said, I need a few ''helpers'' with it. Thanks once more to everyone .

This thread could serve as a good encouragement-thingie for new guilds in my opinion... Anyone else thinking of a sticky?

You could always use a chat channel, skype and gryphonheart groups to have your own organization. All those three make the necessity for a guild obsolete.

Delegate.  Everyone's said have core players/officers, which is GREAT, but what do to with them? DELEGATE.  Not only does it take stress off your shoulders OOC, but it creates RP IC.  For example if you're a druid guild, you can have someone seeking and training new druids, another officer going around looking for troublespots that need attending (and DMing events potentially), a third acting as an ambassador to various races and organizations, and so on.

Or as a cult guild you could have someone in charge of training magic, one in charge of guarding/setting up wards/overseeing guards, someone in charge of stalking Stormwind for rumors and potential recruits, etc. etc.

It makes RP, it helps your officers make RP, creates RP for others they run into, and for your guild as it brings people in.  It keeps the pressure of doing EVERYTHING off your shoulders.

Aside from that, having a clear IC goal is important in my mind, though it's been mentioned.  There's a load of missing niches on Alliance that could easily be filled: evil caster cultist, druids or shamans, any spiritual guild; zealots of any flavor, mercs (sadly Blades seem gone), pirates, noble houses, anything.  Lots of missing concepts that come and go and are currently "unoccupied."  I cannot speak for Horde as I don't RP over there.