(H) New Guild Idea

Hey all.

I don't know how many people actually check this forum anymore but I'd like to get some opinions and thoughts on this guild I've been pondering for a couple of months. My experience (and interest) of roleplaying has plummeted due to various reasons. I've had a very successful guild in Path of Dawnchaser and I was very disappointed when Warlords of Draenor was released and we ended up with 3 active Tauren players from having around 10-14. The Pandaren fared well for a time and I decided to break them off, being that Path of Dawnchaser was supposed to be Tauren-heavy and Tauren-influenced so I thought it felt weird having Pandaren running around calling the shots on behalf of a Tauren guild, but then even that went downhill.

We had fun. I love Path of Dawnchaser and Falling Leaf, but I really feel like this expansion has just murdered roleplaying through culling the remaining playerbase with its general terribleness. We've seen an exodus of people leaving DB (et al) for Argent Dawn. I personally can't get myself psyched up about roleplaying and my own guild when my members either (a) Don't care anymore or (b) Aren't enough to do anything with.

Maybe that sounds bad but it's a bit of a downer when 2-3 people (including myself) turn up to an event I've been planning for a week. It loses its "epic" feel, to me at least, and having to call in other RP guilds to fill up an event is also a bit of a bummer. Of course, other guilds are always welcome at my events, but naturally you want to see some interest / numbers from "your own."

This is nothing new. I'm sure everyone who has ran a guild has experienced it. But I like this server and I've had great times here. My friends are here. Exi and Thawon are doing a kickass job of keeping RP alive. Silvermoon is active as always but the rest of the Horde is a bit lacking, outside of Exi's events.
We have RP-PvP. We have good communication with each other these days. Horde are working together more instead of having events for "my guild only" and ignoring outsiders. Alliance is willing to PvP with us and there's not really any drama about it. It's good. We have potential. DB is not dead.

But anyway... the idea. I've mentioned it to a few people already and I've had mixed responses but it's the same chance you take with every guild. It might fail. It might be filled with drama. Etc. etc.


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< Guild of Kalimdor Races > (Placeholder name)


Background:

The Horde on DB has always been a bit mixed. A lot of mercenaries and things and guilds who are clans/tribes/etc. There's been, during my time anyway, not so much emphasis on "The Horde" and that we are the Horde. It's all been a bit individual. The race-specific guilds have been cool and it's what I love about roleplaying... but I feel like it's not working anymore, at least not for me, because of a lack of players. Of course, I have chosen to RP two of the least popular races (Pandaren and Tauren). Blood Elves have always fared well, since they're the most popular race, but the others tend to struggle and a lot of race-specific guilds die off quickly.

Orcs of the Red Blade were sort of part of the Horde, though they mostly wandered and did their own thing as a tribe, I don't remember all that much "for the Horde!"-ing from them. There was a lot of focus on themselves and their past and, unless you were an Orc of the Red Blade, it was hard to get into.

Path of Dawnchaser was more about the Tauren and Thunder Bluff, putting their issues first and trying to RP true Tauren, who are generally peaceful. They wanted to help the Horde while maintaining the truce between the Horde and the Alliance (guild was established, after all, around the Siege of Org.)

Falling Leaf tried to put the Huojin first and the Horde second, but still wanted to forge a place for Pandaren in the Horde. It's sort of what I wanted. It worked well, apart from a lack of numbers, but the main problem was the inevitable Naruto fanboys that wanted to play Shado-pan and Ninjas in a guild that was for Huojin Pandaren.
We're the Horde, not neutral. The Shado-pan are neutral. It just didn't work. But people didn't listen, even going so far as to "trick" me and saying "My character is not Shado-pan..." until they were at a guild meeting and announced they were. Can't really take that back ICly... and when I told people OOCly, they weren't interested in RPing anymore -- they weren't interested after a time anyway because the guild wasn't a Shado-pan guild and their stupid choices severely limited their character.

Painted Skulls so far is the only guild that is really FOR THE HORDE! and Exi is doing a brilliant job. Only "problem" is that it's Troll-only. But they do a great job with all the troll lore and much to my character's despair, they roleplay proper, angry trolls that wanna kill stuff and do creepy rituals. Poor Baji.

Blood Elf and Undead guilds have been very much race-orientated and not "for the Horde" but that's also fine. They're not really part of the Horde like the Tauren, Trolls and Orcs are. And that works. My only problem is that there's far too much emphasis on Silvermoon. That's fine -- if you're an elf or undead -- but the rest of us have a bit of an awkward time hanging out there.

Shatterskull Marauders is a mercenary guild (right?) that has been very individual, and that's okay. I don't have all that much experience with Blood Wolf Clan outside of being bullied by Grim and Grodok, but they have ICly been quite individualistic in their slaughtering of Alliance. They're part of the Horde... but they don't give a shit, right? (Correct me if I'm wrong).

So that brings me to what I thought this guild would be about: The Horde. The "true" Horde: Orcs, Tauren, Trolls, Goblins and Pandaren. Those races that occupy Kalimdor. Let's not forget that, technically, Silvermoon and Undercity are neutral.

Also with all the race-only guilds, if people aren't "maining" said race, it can be difficult to maintain activity in a guild, where as a guild with multiple races can provide a place to dump your main (i.e. Orc) and still watch Tauren RP and eventually people might just decide to roll a Tauren and try to join in. Everyone can see the guild calendar. You can see who is online. No forcing people to join RP channels (such a bother at times).

With ORB gone, there isn't that much choice for Orcs outside SSM or BWC and I haven't really seen any Goblin roleplayers around since The Flying Bolts disbanded. Tauren are only really found in Himo and Path of Dawnchaser, but they are unfortunately few. Trolls are doing well with the Painted Skulls, and I don't want to take away from that and I've already rambled on about the Falling Leaf enough.

Silvermoon does well but Kalimdor? Not so much. Orgrimmar is god damn cool. Durotar is cool. The Barrens is cool. I had talked to Moneyfix and Rargnasha since the Siege of Orgrimmar started about bringing RP back to the Barrens but the announcement of Warlords and Draenor as a new area kind of hindered it. "We're all going to Draenor," and, for better or worse, it happened.


Concept:

Kalimdor races only. Idea to bring RP back to Kalimdor / Orgrimmar and actually have a roleplaying guild that follows the will of the Horde and, in essence, is the Horde.

It would be a "military", or structured around the Horde's military(?) with room for civilians and individual organisations. Ranks would either be related to the Horde PvP system (scout, grunt, blood guard, etc.) or race-reflected (Grunt, Huojin, Brave, Bruiser, etc.) and other titles / ranks / groups would be used/shown with RP Addons.

Example; you may be a Tauren Priest with the 'Brave' rank, but your actual rank via TotalRP would be 'Seer' or 'Medic'  -- or whatever you want to be -- a Shattered Hand Orc rogue? A Huojin Monk? Guild ranks and organisations would be IC and player-made. Perhaps there's a squad of Huojin rangers? Shattered Hand assassins? Tauren Druids or Mages and Warlocks who discuss the leylines and magical disturbances?

We would follow the lore. We wouldn't ignore it. We would have set days for RP in Orgrimmar (or whereever) but also events where we are actually fighting the Fel Iron Horde, or in the future, participating in the battle against the Burning Legion. RP on the "mainland" needs to be maintained, however, for recruitment and activity.

Race-driven events: Perhaps the Huojin wish to show the others their martial arts and arrange a regular dual of honour or training session. Perhaps the Tauren want to tend to the wildlife in Ashenvale or the Orcs want to secure their border against the Night Elves.

RP-PvP: I love it and it's the main reason I don't really want to go to Argent Dawn. I want to be able to fight with people in the world, roleplayers or not (preferably roleplayers, though). I want storylines and plots. Campaigns with gains and losses in accordance with our server lore. I also want to take a legion of the Horde to Tanaan and sit on an objective and defend it "for the Horde!"

I want to be able to do battlegrounds, Ashran, RBGs, and possibly even raid with a guild (and friend-guilds) and perhaps even roleplay a bit along the way. But most importantly, I want to roleplay and I don't want people to feel alone. A big enthusiasm killer can be logging into a guild where nobody is online.

The community is smaller now and as much as I love race specific guilds (I had two, for crying out loud) I think it's extremely difficult to maintain.


That's more or less what I've been thinking about. There's obviously details to work out but the jist of it is there. I appreciate any thoughts, questions, comments. Hit me!

Horde is structured like a Nation in War. Just look at Orgrimmar.

The Horde is also all about being a big family, a hub under the "outcast" races have flock and gathered.

Keep the doors open for Blood Elf and Forsaken who wants to prove their loyalty FOR THE HORDE! Main emphasis on the spirit of the Horde present on Kalimdor however, the 'Original' races of the New (Thrall's) Horde.

Find a balance in between. The Horde do not strike me as a faction in where Civilians and Soldiers are separated. You fight as a Family, but obviously you'll have someone with battle experience in the lead. A strict military-theme do not suit the guild, in my view.

You can use the PvP Ranking somehow to "acknowledge ones prowess" to chop heads I would say. The amount of respect is tied to the rank. It is 'achieved', not given, not like in the Alliance in where the fancy titles are given to someone who just happen to be born to a Noble family.

Think about how the Warchief is elected. The Strongest, most charismatic head-chopper who has proven themselves worthy to Lead. - Just to give your an idea. That type of ranking, rather than what the puny pink humans do based on birthright.

No-one should be defence-less or to weak to fight. You are 'The' Horde, banded together for survival, tempered by War. There is no such thing as "Civilian". However if someone is wounded or weak for some other reason, the family will protect. That is what family is for.

Also, Find a more catchy name.

Race-themed events in where you show the rest of the family a bit of your culture is also a good idea.

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Just my few cents. Do not have an active Horde toon, so the guild is any case not for me.

Funny thing that just few days ago I was actually playing with the thought of how things would be if some Horde RP guilds were merged into one. I ended up thinking of a guild much like your idea with a "Council" -type of leadership and ranks named after previous guilds like Falling Leaf or Painted Skull. Not that I was very serious with this all or that I would want to merge all guilds into one. But, as race specific guilds are already working tightly together it makes it sometimes feel bit like "losing" the main point of race-only guilds = race-specific RP. But to keep RP happening and events full of participants its mandatory. ... And of course we like to cause creeps on Baji's spine.

So about the actual idea, I really like it. It would fit well and fill Horde RP scene just great. If you'd get many people for it and lots of rank diversity and RP in general it would be freaking beautiful! Which can be a problem as every guild needs to really work on getting them already. Always worth a try!

"Kalimdor Pact", "Horde of Kalimdor", "Mongrel Horde" (see what I did there?) "Blood of Kalimdor" ... Needs something catchy!

Forsaken have been part of the horde for 10 years, blood elves for eight. Calling neither part of the "real horde" and UC/SMC for neutral cities would fairly insulting if there'd be anyone left to be insulted by it.

Pandas on the other hand...

I like your initiative here, I really do. Before forming Venomspine Pariahs I had considered a guild similar to your idea over here. However what makes this guild stand out from the existing guilds? What thing in the guild concept is so cool that it makes players want to join in or even better bring new players to the roleplay? What would be the story behind the guild?

For what I see, racial diversity would be one of the strong points here, for my experience it makes people feel more special and that is a good thing. When making that very crucial first impression, it's the looks that matter. So have a striking name that would fit every race and possible toon that applies. Same with the ranks, you don't want to end up with crappy ranks since that can actually drive players away - I've seen that.

This is a great idea.  A big "catch all" guild which basically would allow any PC idea to join has huge potential because the player base can be so good.

Want to play an orc tracker?  You fit in.
Want to play a tauren weapon smith?  You fit in.
Want to play a combative troll who fights on the front lines?  You fit in.
Want to play a blood elf trader?  You fit in.

I really do think that, in these times, the number of regular people logged into a guild is what makes it thrive and survive, not having a tiny focus and small numbers.

Where do I sign up?

P.S.   Work hard on that catchy name!   Can you call it simply "The Horde"? Or is that restricted/taken?

Overall a very good idea, however there are problems with this if you plan to go about this how I think you are, which is to form all the guilds into one big one like a kind of super guild? if that's case some guilds might be put off the idea solely because they simply don't want to lose their guilds ideals and general feel like for example The Painted Skulls. Other guilds might be put off due to them already being a very accept all and take all type of guild like for example Blood Wolf Clan.

I would not leave the Forsaken and Blood Elves out of this as they have been apart of the Horde lore wise for a long time and form a large part of Horde RP scene.

You would have to give each race a certain level of individualism, like for example Trolls with their rituals and general way of life. also as to how its lead or who leads should be down to IC reasoning honestly aswell as OOC reasons, of course you don't want someone who isn't very active to be the leader but you do want someone who is well known, has the respect of others and is a natural born leader or better yet Warchief in this case.

But having said all this, I like the idea and honestly its something the realm as a whole needs on Horde side to truly survive from my point of view, but for this to work you would have to sit down and discuss with each guild's leader and one of their officers and/or most active members in the case of some guilds who is well known to most people, so you can see what everyone's thoughts are and try to work with them to see if it can or would work for everyone who would be involved.

I'm open to discuss all this and even help if you want, just give me a shout.

Thanks for the feedback!

I actually had a name in mind, but now I like some of these suggestions

My reasons for leaving the Blood Elves and Forsaken out were because, in my opinion, they aren't really part of the Horde. You don't see many of their NPCs in Orgrimmar... or much of Kalimdor. But I had considered a 'sellsword' rank and maybe in the future something for those races specifically, depending on interest. But the focus would be to make Org / Kalimdor a hub as well as Silvermoon. Belfs and Forsaken are popular races. Silvermoon is popular for RP. I wanna drag the underdogs into focus

Plus, I've never really considered the Forsaken part of the Horde. Sylvanas seems to be more interested in Lordaeron, ignoring Garrosh during Cataclysm and not being particularly happy with Voljin becoming Warchief at the end of MoP. Lorthemar was considering rejoining the Alliance during MoP as well, due to Garrosh, so the Blood Elves allegiance doesn't exactly seem concrete, though they did kick ass in the end "for the Horde!"

I like Skarain's comment that everyone in the Horde knows how to fight and there'd be no civilian rank, but I was just thinking about Pandaren and Goblins, who aren't always roleplayed as fighters. But, yeah, everyone pulls their weight in the Horde. Great idea with earning IC rank through actions instead of just being given it.

I thought there'd be one leader, voted in (also due to game mechanics) and a council indeed, perhaps one of each race / organisation? People who actually want to arrange stuff and be a leader OOCly.


As for the 'story' I thought about something along the lines of:

After the defeat of Garrosh and Vol'jin's appointment as Warchief, the Horde managed to come together once again and feel the previous tensions fading away. Together, they battled against the Iron Horde, Gul'dan and the Burning Legion and came to realise once again that the Horde needed unity. That they were family. Through battle and many loses, the Horde rekindled its former comradery and was focused on maintaining their Horde family and their home of Kalimdor.

Brief version anyway, details to be inserted

Well good thing your opinion isn't put out ICly! Else you'd be a dead panda or just given strange stares.

Spoiler:

We got some good people interested in this and might start it up soon