These are some of my thoughts for maturing our guild and starting anew in Tale 4.
What should the Guild Provide?
It is distressing when some members expect unilateral contributions from others. I've seen this manifest:
The single best approach to solving these issues is to use the wiki to clearly lay out expectations of the membership and in turn for membership to propose guild actions such that the guild can openly discuss pros and cons. Such issues should be assigned to specific guild leaders to provide the executive leadership. For sanity's sake, I think some Elder/Patriarch duties should be clearly distributed. Among these:
| Category | Representative Duties | Description | Examples |
| Membership | Recruiting Mentoring Promoting | Accepting new members Providing overall guidance Based upon Merit, Contributions, and Value | Checking Guildhouse for new applicants and approving Most senior guild members do this BUT some are more inclined and others are more informed Currently tenure-based and being passed over can cause hard-feelings due to subjective criteria |
| Events | Guild Support Advancement Socials | What needs to be done? | Compound Maintenance, Storehouse replenishment Promote 'greatest guild good' activities Fumeology, Beer, Wine, Gastronomy, Acro, Wedding Parties & Sculpture/Venery/Mosaic/Opticon Tours |
| Policy | Guild Initiatives | What should the guild coordinate to achieve | Egypt Leadership, Region Support/Research/Resources, Expansions, Services |
In general, developing players want to 'do it all' and experienced players realize that not only is this futile, but it's terribly inefficient for all parties involved. The party line has generally been, "Don't worry about it. We'll provide X and you just make bricks and boards." For developing players though, this is terribly frustrating and boring with no real explanation or obvious payoff for the chore.
To that end, I'd like help publishing a guide as to what members can do with their early to mid levels while tackling the steep learning curve of ATITD. We would explain a few of the dependencies to illustrate WHY going off on their own serves little purpose and to provide a plan as to how we might help them achieve their interests and provide value to the guild.
Level 1 - the quick-start guide on the wiki is pretty good. Build your compound.
Level 2 - Queue up Initiation into Worship on the wiki. Designate a Mentor, follow a script, get it done.
Level 3 - Build your sculpture so you can start collecting non-guild votes (as you need 21). Maybe we could provide a kit?
Level 3 - Build your Thoth (kit?)
Level 3 - Build your obelisk (Queue up a guild project for the Test?)
Level 4 - Acro, Leadership Initiation, and Harmony Initiation. Do a walkabout while your Sculpture is still collecting votes
Level 5 - Still on walkabout - do your Vigil (provide a contribution of clay/silt?)
Level 8 - Bureaucracy. Queue up a pilgrimage.
Level 12 - True Leadership, Safari (Provide Rabbit Kit since falcons are easy).
Level 15 - Plantation (Provide Plantation Kit). Designate tenders and tendees.
Level ?? - Funerary Temple (provide a Starter Temple Kit).
Level ?? - Life (provide a Starter Aqueduct Kit).
In turn, the guild should come up with a plan to track member contributions to 'earn' these kits... tuitions, if you will.
It's not my intent to tell people how to play, but it is useful to understand how how a new member's needs are likely to evolve and be prepared for them. Also, I'm not necessarily suggesting that these kits be the actual entire materials list for the Tests, but might simply be the tools necessary to advance them. It's also helpful to suggest to members how the guild can best help them so their expectations are reasonable.
It should be expected that someone who accepts X kit, will eventually replenish that kit for future members; i.e. a new plantation member shuld return the silk cloth.
We might also have kits for promoting guild cooks, miners, etc.
Hey Ap: Are we allowed to leave comments or do you want to chat ingame about it?~Amrissy