Guild Reform

[xinoehp512 he/him]

An important thing to remember is that the guild spying is tied mainly to the person's account, which means that it is tied to the Avatars, whatever that implies.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

29 minutes ago, Ookla the [your choice] said:

unless the DA has some secret ranking system

We do indeed have an incredibly complicated ranking system. In fact, it’s so complicated that no body understands it except for the head of the ranking department. 

Unfortunately he disappeared a few years ago when an accidental black hole was formed inside of a cookie he was eating, so as of now we are kind of lost. 

[+Sorana she/her]

40 minutes ago, Ookla the [your choice] said:

The thing is, most guilds don't see a need to have leadership in the same sense of the GBs. Sure there is a stated leader, but nothing really is affected by it.

We also have a in character pm with the council, or at least with those loyal to TFA that also have a character.

And yes, of course for us it is more important to find good way to represent leadership than for other guilds. Because our hierarchy is a central point of the GB's.

I just wanted to mention it, because especially regarding a characters death, and the short time we spent in an era at the moment, would lead to a lot of instability and end with members creating characters correspondending their own rank. As Althea, Mr Amber, Hellbent and Solace (to be discussed) are. Because we need a way to continue to plan be it in rp or out of the rp.

Edited December 7, 2018 by Ookla the Clueless

[MetaTerminal he/him]

Here’s an idea: there are two ‘versions’ of guilds. One is the ones that the Avatars are in - these are the OOC PMs and threads, and the way we count ‘official guilds’. An avatar can be in up to three official guilds (four at a stretch). The characters that are linked to avatars can be in the guilds that their avatars are in; if a character wants to join a guild, that avatar has to join as well. But, a character does not have to be in every guild that the avatar is in; an avatar can be a member of the Sentinels and still have characters that aren’t. In that way, avatars could also be considered ‘leaders’ of their guilds, without having their characters need to be in charge.

Of course, that would require someone to track avatar’s affiliations outside of their characters. That wouldn’t necessarily take a lot of work, though; just designate someone Official Spreadsheet Coordinator and have everyone announce/fill it in. That does mean opportunities to have secret members would be limited, but I’d think that the amount of story mileage to be gained there is questionable. 

What this means is that avatars can create plans for the future of the guilds without restricting their characters to a leadership role. An avatar can be the leader of a guild (and perhaps control the character that is the in-RP leader) but still have lower-ranking characters. Laurelai is an excellent example.

Edited December 8, 2018 by Ookla the Cited
Avoid unnecessary redundancy

[+Ark1002]

I still won't leave my guilds.

[MetaTerminal he/him]

How many guilds are you in?

[AonEne he/him]

23 hours ago, Ookla the Paragon said:

There's about four who have very limited involvement in the RP, but hang around anyway.

Am I one?

[Archer he/him]

41 minutes ago, Ookla the Real Voidus said:

Am I one?

Yes, you're one of the awesome people who hang out with us even though you don't RP much. I assumed you already knew that... 

[AonEne he/him]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Paragon said:

Yes, you're one of the awesome people who hang out with us even though you don't RP much. I assumed you already knew that... 

I wasn't sure what you were counting as "limited involvement". I mostly just chat with people. It's why I'm the GBWHIPS. (For those not in the know, it stands for 'Ghostblood Who Helps Important People Sometimes".)

[+Sorana she/her]

@Ookla the Cited

I like that idea. It would give the Avatar's more meaning, and we could still use the guilds to strive for a plot, while at the same time we could reduce the amount of secret pm's.

[+Ark1002]

17 hours ago, Ookla the Cited said:

How many guilds are you in?

...

Well, there goes the next hour...

14. Alleyverse guilds. More outside of that.

Edited December 8, 2018 by Kidpen

[Archer he/him]

Proposal:

End first-person spying (infiltration of OOC PMs). We still plot the destruction of, and steal secrets from, other guilds, but do it in-character. I think I've got support for this, so any objections?

I should mention Mac's proposal while I'm here. Make guild leadership fully in-character. As part of a renewed focus on doing as much in-character as possible, your character's position is the same as yours. To use myself as an example, Klo would try to recruit people into TUBA. If he gets killed, my next guy would have to work his way back up to that position. (I know people will probably find ways to fast-track the process, but it still works as a way of introducing consequences). 

OOC PMs still exist, and can be used for sketching out plots and stuff (see: increased planning discussion), but the emphasis is on acting as much in-character as possible. 

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

I'm screwed. My life is a lie.

[old man moomba he/him]

*quickly glances at GB pm* I'd say it's about 40% planning and 60% unrealated stuff

[Darth Woodrack he/him]

So, I my have missed something, but I find the idea of limiting the amount of guilds a person/character can be in is just stupid. I apologize for my rudeness, but that is my belief. If their are guild that do not oppose one another, you should be able to join both. Or, if a new guild starts that your character would be perfect for, but you are already in 4 guilds, you can't join it. So, if the guild let's you join it, you should be able to join it. 

Archer, there was some foreshadowing for the super lifeless army, which was in the Long War thread. It was to late to change it at that point, but it was their. But, I know that I only got away with the army because they were made for the great game. I am now tying them to a city, to give them a practical purpose. So, armies should happen with foreshadowing, preferably in RP, because of a city formation, or because of a War main plot, which I don't think should happen for at least another era or two. We should all be working together against one person, not all fighting amongst each other. Peace should rule not war.*puts arm around TFA/Mraize(whoever is in charge right now) and Voidus, making sure to cover arm so he isn't spiked by Voidus's back spikes* We should cooperate. And spy on each other. Don't forget that.

Side note: Don't expect me to RP all of Dusk's stuff. I will if it will actually affect a large group from now on, and I will drop hints, but him having almost as many secret projects as Mac, is part of his character. PS. Will be part of his character. PPS. Almost, as in 75%. So, a couple billion.

[MetaTerminal he/him]

The problem with the idea that you should just "join as many guilds as you want" is that I think we're trying to move towards making guilds a more important facet of character and the world; yes, if you're super active in four guilds, working towards all of their goals and want to join another one, then that should be allowed. But I sincerely doubt that even half of the guilds most people are in are doing anything significant. I mean, when was the last time you (or anyone - sorry, Mac) made a contribution to the Craftsmen? (October. It was October.)  Or, to state it another way: name every guild you're in that you contribute to. Like, really contribute to. That you would be willing to kill characters over to defend. If it's more than five, I'm going to eat a bar of chocolate.

The idea of limiting guilds is to make each join a cost-benefit analysis. Do I really want to join this guild and support it long-term? Or am I just joining because it looks cool, and will drop out later? (Ahem.) So, yes, it's not a hard rule, but you'll have to apply for exceptions. And new guild ideas have to be really good to take off. Limiting this number will both increase activity in existing guilds, forge stronger relations between characters and their guilds, and basically improve the RP overall.

I like the idea of RP in PMs, but I don't know if that will make much of a significant difference, and will likely hinder planning, as guilds will want to outline plot ideas and threads and that might be difficult if you're limited to just in-character. I suppose it's down to individual guilds to make those decisions, but I would encourage it if they thought that it was a good idea.

As for the Lifeless army; I don't mind them existing as long as they're not used in a way that is OP. This should probably go in the power reform thread, but if you want to foreshadow a buildup of forces, a few hints really won't do. Like, the buildup of forces for the invasion of Normandy took insane amount of planning to keep secret. Most characters here don't have the ability for that sort of subterfuge. So if an army is going to be used, we should probably know explicitly, in advance, with several mentions in the chat thread/pm as well so we can all OK that it's not too OP. Maybe that's overdoing it, but an army is a lot of power. The logistics alone should definitely be noticed by others. Yes, insane multi-faction wars are fun, but that's mostly because of the narrative and the hijinks, and not the power-arms-race.

[+Sorana she/her]

4 hours ago, Ookla the Paragon said:

I should mention Mac's proposal while I'm here. Make guild leadership fully in-character. As part of a renewed focus on doing as much in-character as possible, your character's position is the same as yours. To use myself as an example, Klo would try to recruit people into TUBA. If he gets killed, my next guy would have to work his way back up to that position. (I know people will probably find ways to fast-track the process, but it still works as a way of introducing consequences). 

Just to state this here as well:

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Not because of the assasinations, but because of the short time we play each era at the moment. It would only lead to people keeping their character, out of fear to loose their position within the guild. And I fear, that this would lead to a another round of a higher powerlevel.

Why don't we make a mixture. Only people with a active character are allowed to lead the guild, or a squad or whatever. One of their characters has to represent their position. If this character dies, they can't act according to that position anymore, but can create a new one as replacement, maybe need to wait a while with that.

[Silva]

8 hours ago, Dr. Dapper said:

*quickly glances at GB pm* I'd say it's about 40% planning and 60% unrealated stuff

Uh...*laughs nervously* those percentages look a whole lot better than TUBA's. 

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

TUBA PM is like 99.99% random stuff. *thinks about the conversation he is having with Silva right now* The remaining 00.01% is us explaining our problems and stuff.

[Silva]

Ax, meekers singing opera is pretty much planning. I think it goes under the .00000....1%.

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

Meekers singing opera and stage managers reciting Shakespeare have to count for something.

[Silva]

Obviously. And don't forget the tomatoes.

[Snipexe he/him]

On 12/6/2018 at 7:39 PM, Ookla the Paragon said:

There's about four who have very limited involvement in the RP, but hang around anyway.

I am I one of these as well?

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

I am of the opinion that we really need a legit main plot. If we're going to end the Era, we need to have everyone together and participating. I think that something like the Era 1 series (CbtS, TotH, DWF) that brings us all together and gets us engaged. Elsewise, this Era will never come to a close. 

[MetaTerminal he/him]

I have an idea to do that through WoD, although that needs a little more work before I’d be willing to air that idea (although I’d probably get to it a little more quickly if people wanted to go down that route). I haven’t kept up with Solace’s shenanigans, however, so those might be a better era-ending candidate.

(Another reason to encourage guilds to come up with goals - it means we aren’t ever lacking in ‘main plot’, as there’ll always be something going on.)