GUILD NEWS // Issue #1, June 2018

[Guild News]

^{Issue № 1 | 30/06/18
theme: nostalgia}

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_{I gotta say, writing is hard but when you look back at something you really put the effort into, it's an enjoyable thing to read.}

^{– @Valorous}

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introduction

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Like a phoenix through the flames, RPGN Guild News rises again! Wait, that one's been done already.

Jokes aside, Roleplayer Guild's official source for all the hottest (okay, maybe lukewarm) news is back once more, with a fresh coat of paint and a well-needed system update to boot. Having been all but abandoned, the imaginary robots are working the hardest they've ever worked, ensuring only the raddest articles and columns make it into our new and improved issues. Don't think they're doing their job well enough? Read on to find out how you can complain!

Since this version of Guild News is very fresh, expect the structure and content to evolve with time, as the algorithms (aka the people who send feedback on how it can improve) determine what needs to stay, what needs to go and what needs to be added. Want to play a part in the evolution? Don't like a certain column? Think my face is stupid? Drop a PM to @Guild News or @Mara on what you think should be changed! Please keep in mind that your message is more likely to be seen if it is clear, concise and — here's the big one — constructive. Send a message that is anything less than Fonz co- I mean, "new rules that abandon poor Fonzie cool", and I will curl up in a ball and cry myself to sleep.

However, you might have no qualms about this humble enterprise. Maybe you just want to just discuss things that are mentioned in the issue. What are you waiting for? Post right here in the thread! Nobody's stopping you. A lively thread is a happy thread.

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advice column

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To kick us off, here's a little Guild tip from yours truly: be sure to check the date of the last post and a roleplay's join status before expressing interest/submitting a character. The sad truth is that, while there are many prosperous roleplays with large player counts, some roleplays die after a month, a year, or never even get out of the interest check stage. If you take caution before posting in one that catches your fancy, you can save yourself from disappointment, eh?

Got a tip you think more Guildies need to know? Submit it to us for a chance of it being featured in the next issue, or post it below and make a discussion out of it; whatever floats your boat.

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roleplay spotlight & check this out

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Do you know of a roleplay or interest check that you think needs more exposure? Hoping for a few more party members before the adventure starts? Send a link and a short summary, wrapped up in a nice little PM, to @Guild News or @Hero and we might feature it! Roleplay Spotlight & Check This Out are fortnightly installments, one standalone and one in the monthly Guild News, unless in cases of severe roleplay droughts. Note that you can't submit roleplays (or interest checks) that you are a GM or Co-GM of. Attempts to cheat the system will be dealt with... swiftly.

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writing contests

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While Roleplayer Guild is quite literally named after the main focus of the site, that is not to say the only writing-related task that goes on here is roleplaying. Thanks in no small part to @Frizan, RPG's Writing Contests made their return this year — an excellent resource to flex those writing muscles or reignite the flames of inspiration. Each contest is as follows: every month, the Contest Mod, Frizan, will post a thread containing the rules and a writing prompt, and a thread for discussion of the contest in question. Once the specified deadline is met, users from the site will judge the submissions and give their votes as to which should win, while offering critique and suggestions for improvements. Obviously, people who handed in submissions can't vote on each others' work, but they can offer critique.

Now, there wasn't a June contest due to Frizan recruiting more Contest Staff, but you can find previous contests in the subforum at the bottom of the site. Get reading to prepare yourself for next month!

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community discussion

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By now, roleplaying and the Guild must come like second nature to us. Logging in and checking our notification boxes every day is just as normal as brushing your teeth, Nutella for breakfast or coffee at work (disclaimer: may not be an accurate representation of your daily routine). But what was it like clicking on that icon for the first time, staring as an unfamiliar "role player guild" loaded up? Would your life be any different if you'd never gone through registration? What was it that reeled you in and convinced you to stay, be it for a week, a decade, or anything inbetween? Hell, had you ever roleplayed before joining the Guild? Answer as many or as little of these questions you want and make a discussion of it down below! Feel free to offer your own prompts for discussion and mix things up, anything to get people talking (in a productive and polite manner). Like before, a lively thread is a happy thread!

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conclusion

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Guild News has had many iterations, hiccups and hiatuses in the past, not to mention rowdy hooligans getting drunk, but we're not giving up on it just yet. We've still got life in us, and like any good (stubborn) captain, we'll go down with this ship. Luckily, there's no holes in sight, probably due to all the duct tape coating the walls. Or maybe it's the fact we're not really out at sea yet.

However, a ship can't thrive without a dedicated crew. If you have journalistic skills and a passion for the Guild and its community, drop @Mara a PM with a job application and a nice bundle of flowers. There's no set template, you just need to include three key things — the sort of role you're looking for (designated interviewer, editor, co-writer, etc.), what you think you can bring to the team, and why you'd like to join. Go ahead and mix up the formula a little, too! Tell us about yourself; share your hobbies and interests, pets, favourite colour, and so on. After all, we're real people, not just images on a screen.

Here's to almost 11 years, Guild. May you live for 100 more.
_{ps: we promise there won't be as many "submit this!" questions in the next issue. promise.}

[ArenaSnow]

Holy shit, this actually exists

[NuttsnBolts]

Great work guys and thanks for reviving the News. Looking forward to seeing many more editions to come.

[Guild News]

Holy shit, this actually exists

@ArenaSnow

Of course it doesn't.

[DeadDrop]

where is mahz...

[ArenaSnow]

where is mahz...

@DeadDrop

In your heart. Mind. Soul. Pants.

He is omnipotent. He is everything, he is everywhere.

He. Is. Mahz.

[vancexentan]

In answer to the community question I have roleplayed before the site though if you can call what I did roleplay was rather poor. My first set of experience was a dumb 'faction war' style roleplay on youtube. I was thirteen at the time and made quite a few enemies but in my defense the only thing I had done before was rpg bioware games like KOTOR. The mods were ok people but there were some assholes. I myself include myself as one but I once again plea that I as out of my element, and no one actually gave me a real 'this is how you roleplay' sort of deal so I sunk, and swam my way through. While I won't got into the specifics I eventually left, and joined that specific roleplay about four times roughly. In the end i am still of the opinion that it was poorly handled, unfriendly to new players, and heavily biased. The battle system, if what you can call that clutter as a system, was handled entirely through quick posts on chatrooms.

It was awful. I may have contributed to that in my own way but that is the past, and I'll leave it where it should be. I have had no contact since I last left the group and I think at this point that is for the best as that was an uncomfortable part of my life I'd rather leave behind.

After, and during my switches from that roleplay I also joined a star wars roleplay which was handled fairly well by the mods. But the players...they were also shitty people we all god modded, and bull shitted our way through a 'faction' oriented system like the Jedi Order, Empire, Yuuzhan Vong, and other factions people never heard of like the corporate sector, who was headed by a guy who made everything about the soviet union and at one point even threatened to kill me in a real life which scared me as a young growing up adolescent kid. The roleplay spluttered, and flailed around in a poor excuse of life until dying roughly around 2013 or so. The real life politics brought up were stupid, and no one actually knew what was happening in battles as details were vague in a post by post system. By the time that was done with it was dying, and despite my own ideas, and efforts in trying to help keep it afloat like sectioning off the few remaining factions into specific systems. It died a sad slow death. I am still subbed to the head mod on youtube though he hardly makes content anymore. He was a really cool guy who handled all the bullshit really well from my recollection but even he had his fair share of bs when it came to the empire's redundant amount of super weapons.

And then I came here not sure what expecting I had to learn a whole new style of roleplay. I fell in with a group on casual that now largely doesn't exist from a fairy tail to a naruto setting and the god modding by the gms were pretty shitty. I was not, and still am, not a very good gm but I still don't make blatantly overpowered characters for the setting I base myself in like some of the people in that group tended to do. Though I did at the start do something like that because, as I said, I lacked true roleplaying experience, and as I'm sure you can tell by reading I didn't exactly have the best roleplaying background up until that point.

I went from casual to free for a bit where I actually FINISHED A ROLEPLAY, though that was less the gm and me forcing the group through the mud in some bull shit convoluted plot that somehow worked. It ended rather abruptly on a cliff hanger and the rp follow up on my shoulders died. I then went to casual, and sometimes to advance where I lurk today.

That's pretty much my story i'd say if I never clicked on that join button in want of an actual rp experience I'd still be a shitty roleplayer. I'd have no idea where I'd be exactly now if I didn't join but that's something alternative timeline vance can deal with.

[mickilennial]

But what was it like clicking on that icon for the first time, staring as an unfamiliar "role player guild" loaded up? Would your life be any different if you'd never gone through registration? What was it that reeled you in and convinced you to stay, be it for a week, a decade, or anything inbetween? Hell, had you ever roleplayed before joining the Guild?

@Guild News

I was invited to roleplayerguild by @Pachamac, who has since [as far as I can tell] retired from the medium. At the time our role-playing forum we frequented was in a slump; activity was low and interest was stagnating. I’m not sure how he found the site but in 2012 he mentioned it to me offhand which led me to registering on the site in March 2013, though I wouldn’t join my first roleplay until the summer season.

After joining @Master Bruce’s Ultimate DC, I found myself surrounded by people I felt inspired by. I would actively continue writing on RPG after the game teetered out and I started exploring the site in its other avenues. I brought friends from other sites to RPG, I met new ones who I bonded with through Skype conversations, and generally started getting an idea of what the community was like throughout my various interests. If it weren’t for these people constantly challenging me my prose would’ve remained where it was – my improvement would not have been possible without meeting these people who made me invested in a role-playing community again, a concept I thought was something I would only have in the past tense. I thought my RPing days were nearing their end, but they were only beginning to be revitalized. I am really thankful for that. I've stayed commited to RPG since. I've made a lot of social mistakes and blunders, but I've stuck with the site through Guildfall, The Great Migration, Site Politics, and everything in-between. As I get older that's not going to change.

In short, RPG saved role-playing for me.

I’ve been role-playing for almost two decades, so play-by-post role-playing wasn’t a new concept to me. When I started participating in the hobby I was in middle school and really just wanting to find a medium to write interactive stories in; I wanted to go beyond writing on interactive fanfiction websites (this was a thing back then), guestbooks stories, and chatrooms. A few days after 9/11 I was pointed to a role-playing subforum on Sonic HQ. I was awful, but I loved every minute of it. I guess I never stopped. In a lot of ways September 27th, 2001 is an anniversary date for me.

January 12th, 2012 is another anniversary by the same measure. The date I joined RPG as “Gowi”.

In 2018, my RP “circle” is huge. Way bigger than it ever was in my days role-playing on Sonic the Hedgehog forums, the Gaia Online message board, or any of the smaller unrelated sites I frequented. I’m glad I met these people and I’m glad I’m part of this community.

[AlteredTundra]

By now, roleplaying and the Guild must come like second nature to us. Logging in and checking our notification boxes every day is just as normal as brushing your teeth, Nutella for breakfast or coffee at work (disclaimer: may not be an accurate representation of your daily routine). But what was it like clicking on that icon for the first time, staring as an unfamiliar "role player guild" loaded up? Would your life be any different if you'd never gone through registration? What was it that reeled you in and convinced you to stay, be it for a week, a decade, or anything inbetween? Hell, had you ever roleplayed before joining the Guild? Answer as many or as little of these questions you want and make a discussion of it down below! Feel free to offer your own prompts for discussion and mix things up, anything to get people talking (in a productive and polite manner). Like before, a lively thread is a happy thread!

@Guild News

I have been roleplaying on forums across the net for a little over 10 years now, so the Guild was not my first roleplaying experience. Was it my first forum that was roleplaying-centric? Yes, it was. As to how I was introduced to it, I can't remember exactly what it was. I know a few people had told me about it around the same time (they were on two different forums I was active on at the time). What I do know to be a fact is that I joined OldGuild around 2009. I don't know which month it was, but I do know that I wasn't a fully-fledged, active member until late-2011/2012. It wasn't until NuGuild where I for sure became a rising figure in the community. While I'm not as well-known as others, I like to think that people know the name "Altered Tundra" (for better or for worse).

I definitely feel like the writer I am today wouldn't have been possible without the Guild because some of the characters I've made, who ended up becoming main characters in the story I'm currently writing. I'm also a better writer because I've met some of the most talented writers here on the guild.

I have forged a lot of friendships that ended up becoming some of the best relationships I've had. These are amazing people that I am proud to call my friends and am honored to have met. I believe everything happens for a reason. I definitely feel like meeting these people at this point in time was all possible because of the Guild. And, of course, as an extension, it is because Mahz decided to make this site 11 years ago. I can't be thankful enough for all of his hard work for keeping this site up and running out of his own money.

[Dervish]

RPG tabloids when? I want to find out how many marriages are ruined by @Father Hank and @Frizan's alleged drug abuse scandals.

[skidcrow]

RPG tabloids when? I want to find out how many marriages are ruined by @Father Hank and @Frizan's alleged drug abuse scandals.

@Dervish

you should've been here for RPGN's rampant alcoholism

[Dervish]

@Mara And here I am, missing out on the good stuff. Teaches me for being a hermit.

[Sugar and Spite]

>Clears throat
>Straightens bowtie

In response to the community discussion question(s), RPG holds a very close place to my heart. I did do some roleplaying before RPG on some other forums, but the continued to sink fast. I was bored in Math class when I stumbled upon the site, actually. I stalked the forum for a few days, and it seemed friendly enough. So without any further hesitation, I joined up. At first, I was nervous. RPG is the largest forum that I had/have ever been on, and the set up was completely different.

Over the years, RPG has taught me many things. For starters, we all know that my mental health isn't all that great. In time, I have found out that I'm not the only person who feels the way that I do about the things that I do. It sucks that other people would think or feel similarly to how I do, but in a way, it has helped me. Through RPG, I have met some very, very amazing people who have more or less become my support system. (Totally not talking about @SouffleGirl123 right now. Honorable mentions also go out to @jakeb1993, @Chasebloodcrest, and many more that I have come to know over the years. @Lady Amalthea also gets a mention because literally everything she writes brings me pure excitement and joy.) Heaven knows I am more sociable here then I ever have been or will be in real life.

Further more, RPG has helped shaped me into the writer I am today. In the beginning, I was a thirteen year old, cringy little girl doing one line shit posts (not that there's anything wrong with that, as they still bring me joy today), but RPG helped me branch out to where I can write multiple paragraphs for posts at a time. The characters that I have created here have made me appreciate character creation and such on a very deep level. Now I am an eighteen year old who can write things that make people laugh or cry (and my evil ass loves to make people cry, lmao). RPG was my first experience with anything pertaining to GM like things. Having GM experiences has helped me become less bothered by internet trolls, as well as make a name for myself here, rather only a few people know it or whatever.

I own Mahz a very, very large thank you for all that he does for us. And the fact that they guy pays for the site himself...? Wow, my dude. Just wow. I also owe a thank you to literally everyone on the Guild. Some of you guys for being assholes and teaching me to not take shit from anyone; I thank you for helping me form my now thick skin. A thank you to the people that I have never spoken to or written with, for being yourself and helping fill the site with your works of art. And last, but not least, a thank you to my friends and 'family' for offering emotional support, and helping to shape me into the writer that and woman that I am today.

[mickilennial]

I think we should remain productive as a community, guys! Posting negative, condescending things in the newsletter does not fit what the newsletter is about. The staff elected the newsletter to build community like it had before it was put on hiatus, so we should try to build on that instead of condescending it. It's fine to not want to be involved, but that kind of behavior should be at best kept out of this thread.