Brainstorm: Hubs

We have been lacking a proper hub for quite a while now. So, here's a thread for discussing new hub ideas. I've been trying to come up with some amazing concept myself, but I haven't gotten very far. However, I did come up with three criteria that I think should be kept in mind when making a hub:

1. There should be no owner claiming authority and making up silly rules and throwing people out for silly reasons
   
2. All kinds of characters should have a reason to go there on a regular basis — even characters who don't drink or can't afford restaurant food
   
3. An actual reason for characters to interact with each other. I personally find it extremely silly to go up to a group at a restaurant like "hi can i join u", as that is something that almost no one would do in real life either.
   

So far my only idea has been a 24/7 market place where anyone could go to sell and buy things whenever, but I'm sure there's a better concept out there, somewhere.

Well, a tavern works a lot like a pub would, people under the influence are also more likely to talk to eachother(depending on what kind of drunk they are) Then again. I think a market would be better for that, even so. I don't ever really talk to strangers at the market irl.

Both Ironforge and SW are too big for the rp community these days tbh. If the new hub was outside of the main cities I think we'd be better off and the apparent lack of rpers would not be noticed as badly. One also has to take into account level, so somewhere close by to starting zones or at the very least a place lacking hostile mobs would be good.

Charlie wrote:Well, a tavern works a lot like a pub would, people under the influence are also more likely to talk to eachother

Myeah, however there are plenty of characters who will never be under the influence.

Charlie wrote:I don't ever really talk to strangers at the market irl.

True, it'd be kinda limited to interactions between the vendors and the customers. And many wouldn't start a conversation with a person they just bought a cabbage from.

I'd like to give some input, don't know if it's anything others would like though.

- Outside capital cities and their surrounding settlements, we have good reasons for rp in capitals already and well SW and IF are already hubs of some sort.
- It needs a plan and ic reason to set up, or it will be just dwelling with no reason at a location and quickly becomes pointless, if there is no guiding story for staying somewhere.
- I suggest making a plot to start some venture to a location, which may change along with the advancement of the story, just no clear plan where it all ends, but develops along with time and ideas there arises.
- Campaign that has no ending point kinda set up, except not rp-pvp but a rp campaign.
- Difficult to find what it might be to work for all players.
- Just got a thought of something like guild cooperation and individuals alike and they would all discover a plot that would suit the guild or ideas of an individual all brought to together and see what could be done and which would suit who. A challenge sort of, that everyone tryis out something and everyone would be accepted to take part on the chosen plots. Like cooperation and using the ideas each group or individual has in its interest.

Simply put my thought would be to bring forth different ideas everyone has and bring them together, and maybe choose those which has most value in the opinion of most and start them in a coordinated way. I think only one hub is not enough to bring interest, but several could be used so there are many to pick from and so players find some choices. They don't need to be very large any, it's enough to give a nice variety and good reasons for players to rp in.

I know what my current idea for a hub is. At Northrend, Westguard Keep and around the area for some investigation rp and what might become there, also rp-pvp possibly at some point. This would include xrealm events due to there is no rp-pvp guild on Horde on this realm currently.

Link to the thread of the idea I have in progress and it is open for anyone to join: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

An idea I had floating around is basically a place for "adventurers" to congregate before heading out on "missions' - Think Monster Hunter. I am sure there are enough people who have been dungeon masters and/or want to be dungeon masters to the point where there can be some more "casual" events because if I'm honest, I couldn't give a ha'penny for "the senate council god crusade needs to do xyz" or whatever - It doesn't need to be something big. Perhaps someone has run into cultists or bandits or demons or even just a really scary murloc and wants some help - provided rolling rules are made clear before the start of the event it could make for something quite nice. Or maybe it wouldn't. I don't know. It would be the sort of thing I can get my characters involved with because as of right now Steyen basically hates everyone he doesn't know and isn't going to head to a tavern to have a drink.

It would be entirely up to the dungeon master to use it to extrapolate their own story and how deep (or shallow) the story surrounding the event would be - provided people aren't afraid of being a dungeon master and pushing things forward as such.

You do know an "adventurer" isn't a full time profession right.

perturbo wrote:You do know an "adventurer" isn't a full time profession right.

Yes - but given the state of the game et cetera it wouldn't be outlandish for people to take it on part time / as a secondary income or whatever - It's not like there's job stability in Azeroth right now.

Reyxor wrote:I think only one hub is not enough to bring interest, but several could be used so there are many to pick from and so players find some choices.

Thing is, we're such a small server that we generally can't even "fill" a single hub. And when new people come to the server asking where to find RP, it'd be nice to be able to point them to one place where they really could semi-reliably find RP every day — as opposed to sending them on a hunt across Azeroth to find which hub is currently active.

Reyxor wrote:Northrend, Westguard Keep

It would be hard to come up with a reason for a civilian from Stormwind or Khaz Modan to go to Northrend to hang out.

And both of your ideas for event stuff sounds good for... event stuff, but we should keep in mind that a random RP hub should be a mundane place where anyone from a civilian to a death knight from the two kingdoms (since no one lives in Kalimdor these days) would have a reason to visit every single day (if that's how often they want to partake in random RP OOC).

Another thought I had is just using the Lion's Rest — I think anyone can have some reason to go to a park, such as reading, lunch, picnicking, yoga, sleeping, chilling, troubadouring, preaching, handing pamphlets, board games, selling something or staring at Varian's corpse.

Plus it's a really pretty place.

However, yet again, there may be a lack of reasons to talk to people.

What about a weekly recruitment drive in the Cathedral District, sort of like jobs faire irl? Basically all the active guild leaders or at least a representative have to attend and advertise their guild ICly. (put up your banners or how ever you feel like doing it) And the rest of us can be there to interact with the various guild leaders and/or members, out of general curiosity, instead of having half-forced tavern interactions. (not that I have an issue with tavern RP) Even if your main wouldn't attend, you could still use an alt to just make the server look busier and try an entice potential new RPers.

Aziir wrote:weekly

Again, not a bad idea, but this is an event and not a random RP hub

You could try making a whole district of a city a hub and maybe switch it up week by week.

Just a random crazy idea but basically instead of consolidating things into one pub one would try to populate a whole district sort of with trying to get some shop owners to open up in a district, the pub there maybe getting some attention and have possibly some other reasons to gather in that district for like one whole week as a sort of hub before moving the hub about in diffrent districts.

Like for example in old town you can try and increase "guard" presence in various ways like a armorer shop, news of a rise of annoying beggars, rumors of increase of demonic activity there (spies and whatnot) and just let it run wild.

Same goes for other groups, taverngoers might mostly stay in the tavern but maybe give a notice for a reward for most fish caught at the cannals that week at the council in that district, give people a reason to go to a spot and do something and perhaps interact.

In some way groups may clash with each other if you gather enough various people, not in a hostile clash but a clash of RP maybe the guards might find something "fishy" about those fishers.

Maybe even host some event in that district that week, or just do small things.

Of course that can apply to any city you just add a theme of the district to it. I mean you could have a whole week of recruitment as well in a district just guilds gather and try and nab people or show off a bit what they do like a presentation and set up stalls or something every day for a bit. (doesn't have to be one guild every day can be various amount of guilds on various days)

That's though just a city hub kind of an idea, people usually just lack a reason to have a place be a hub you got to give quite a few people a reason for it to be.

Ooooooh, now that's an interesting idea. Though it would take a lot of work from most of the community, but I do believe most of the community would love to do more but haven't managed to come up with things they could do.

Also slightly concerned that we might struggle to have enough people to both set up shops/whatever and also find customers in them, possibly resulting in everyone going to a boring old tavern again, but this certainly has potential in my opinion.

Kind of why you try to start small no need to go out, just like in a rp pvp campaign people have a reason to make a "Hub" in the zone they are fighting, from just cassual talking and resting to smiths, healers, civilians that do behind the lines work (cooks, workmen, etc... )

Same idea really but people just need a bit of iniciative, of course mostly it happens in a natural way but for that you need a constant flow of at least a certain amount of people in a spot every day like guilds and random rpers, but DB hasn't had that for quite a long while now so you do need to give people a push if you want a hub here.

Could always use brawl pub ¿? Just an idea as it's a place that is pretty much open to anyone who isn't city guard looking too much into it from what I can tell

Can have legit dealers, illegal dealers, betting,  money sharks, con artists, dark magic trade you name it the place is as close to lawless as you can get while being civilised enough to have people stop deaths happening in the bar

Long story short its got a lot of room for Various character types to find reasons to be there

That could be a fun idea, although then we'd still need several separate hubs as that doesn't sound like a thing the goody-two-shoes can go to...

Okay, so I might have something. Maybe I'm just good at patting my own back, but I haven't found a drawback to this yet. Feel free to poke holes in the idea, seeing as I'm lacking the clarity myself:

The idea is a server-collective farm. The location can vary, but it should be easy to get to with a minimum of rural surroundings to interact with. Using this farm as a hub, it'll urge the citizens of Azeorth to support the war effort in their respective areas of expertise. The initial farm could be the one within Stormwind or the one beside Lordamere lake.
The shamans could summon rainfall, druids enhance the seeds growth, mages could temporally shifts the plants forth in growth et cetera. This was just using the example of growing crops and could be expanded to equally essential crafts. Not a grain of magic in you? No problem! People are allowed to pyt whatever skills they have to use, whether it's a gnomish device that mimics sunlight or your best pointers for productive ploughin', there ought to be room for you.

"But what if we're criminals? Wouldn't we rather want to use the time for our own benefit, then only governing the do-gooders of the server?"
Not quite! Imagine you're waging a war against an insurmountable horde of magically empowered fiends. I'd be pulling every straw within reach for just the slightest advantage, which might just include putting the prisoners of the stockades into forced labour. (Maybe there'll be need for guards to keep them around and shoveling.)

"But why would I want to do shovel dirt IC?"
You don't. It's more of a ramp for greater and better things with the friends you make whilst shovelling the dirt. I realize this won't bring many members to the edges of their seats, but it might just give us a place to go for that casual RP itch. Also I've concluded it might run better without a moderator, not requiring an online official to set things into motion. It's chief function is drop-in and drop-out casual RP, allowing new RPers to find activity and for established RPers to socialize.

TL;DR
The Alliance urges it's citizens to further the growth of basic commodities in response to the legion war. Philanthropic denizens of Azeroth and prisoners forced into labour will lend aid in bolstering our warehouses. We'll rub shoulders as we use our individual skillsets to do some pretty mundane tasks, all in the service of the greater good.

That was my two cents. Have a good one, DB!