Firiona Vie Roleplaying Comeback Experiment (Very long post)

Hello everyone! Llux Von`Lich here from firiona vie server! Queen of Darkfires, a guild that had a successful 6 month run last year until real life forced me to leave the game for a while. But I did the right thing by merging my members to another guild before taking my leave.

Well, I am back now, and looking to rebuild Darkfires. But this time I'd like to try something different, which requires an experiment to see how possible the idea will be, which is why I'm here on this forum instead of the guild recruitment forum. I'm not recruiting just yet, not until I do this lil experiment! Teehee!

But first, let me tell you a lil something. When I came to FV back in early 2011, I came for the roleplaying, seeing how it is a roleplaying server. I soon realized after moving my mains to FV that the server is free trade and that no trade items are nearly non-existent, minus a few quest items here and there. That was a huge bonus for me at first and remained a bonus for a while.

But after being on FV for the past few years I've realized that it isn't a bonus at all. Free trade became a roleplayers kryptonite! Very VERY few people actually roleplay on FV as it was/is intended, though I must say that RP was alive and well when I first transferred, and I had a blast back then! These days, folks just come for the lack of no trade gear and the gobs and gobs of endless plat available. Roleplaying died out because of it, leaving only a handful of actual RPers.

So with that said (I could go on but I won't), I'd like to perform this experiment to see how many folks enjoy roleplaying and would like to see it make a comeback to FV in a way that FV never seen before, even when RP was still thriving. But I'm not even going to attempt it if there aren't enough people interested in being a part of the comeback.

I've got a plan A and a plan B for Darkfires should plan A fail (this experiment will be the success or fail for plan A). Plan A is to rebuild Darkfires as a hardcore neutral LARPing progression guild! Yeps! That's right! A live action roleplaying guild that focuses on progression (not raiding, though that may be a possibility in the future with the right player base). A guild where guild chat is "In Character" (IC) only and chat channels are used for "Out of Character" (OOC) chatter. A guild where absolutely everything is done through roleplaying and only roleplayers are permitted to join the guild.

LARPing in a game you say? Yeps! I might log on one day and say something like "I just got word through bard mail that the sarnaks are invading the scorched woods and the residents need our help!" So we form a group and we go kill sarnaks for exp while staying IC the whole time and make up our own plan course of action from there. Another day I might log in and say something similar and put together a questing group, or a farming group, or perhaps even a raid! Basically, everything has a scenario behind it, whether it be based on EQ lore or completely made up like a good DM can do. Basically playing EQ D&D style! DMing our own stuff as we see fit!

Aside from the RP aspect, the guild will focus on progressing through ALL content rather than just some of it. The goal is to fill up our achievement windows wif lots and lots of blue completed cheese (my abbreviation for achievements) regardless of the rewards. In an RP guild, it's about the fun rather than the reward, though rewards will come to those who are loyal. We don't want people who are just in it for the reward and the speed in which we obtain said reward. We're not in a hurry and we're not in a race to get to the top faster than other guilds. I believe in doing it right and doing it well, and my ability to do so is uncanny, which is why I've always been a leader in EQ since 1999 and lead multiple successful guilds instead of guilds that were "just another guild on the server" type of thing.

Soooo... This experiment is to see how many folks I can gather who want to be a part of this new and exciting idea that could potentially bring RP back to the server as it is intended! Below is the basic scenario for RP in the kingdom of Darkfires.

Begin Scenario:
You are a citizen of Norrath seeking refuge in a new home and you are welcome into the neutral kingdom of Darkfires, ran by royalty who sees the citizens of the kingdom as equals regardless of race or diety. Everyone has their story and their fight and families to take care of. They fight for what they believe in but also have the ability to realize that they're not the only ones who do so, therefore peace can be kept among the races that reside within the kingdom, for we are all living beings with a purpose who are just trying to make a living while remaining loyal to the Queen.

The Queen is fierce but compassionate, strict but lenient, hateful yet loving, and seeks to provide for her kingdom. She is feared but also loved, and her actions and skill speak louder than any words she can yell out. To be a citizen of her kingdom is to be completely loyal to her in addition to the kingdom.

The kingdom of Darkfires is constantly threatened by outside forces seeking to destroy the kingdom and leave it in ruins. It is the Queen and her citizens jobs to protect the kingdom from such blight. At the same time, it is also our jobs to help watch over outside forces who are friendly to us and do our part to keep the forces who seek to destroy under control. A good kingdom helps more than just itself.

Like any kingdom, there is always that one arch enemy who never dies and always returns. In this case, our arch enemies are the gods, for it is they who gave birth to or created the blights that threaten all kingdoms, not just ours. Even the Queen herself has abandoned her god and chose her own path and destiny. No longer will she or her citizens be controlled by the rulings of the gods and their armies. No longer will we be told and forced to hate those who are not like us, no one will ever say a dark elf is required to hate a high elf and so on. Freedom is more preferable in the kingdom of Darkfires and is well worth fighting for.

End Scenario...

As you can see, there is much enjoyment to be had beyond the normal ways of FV or any other server for that matter. Darkfires comes with a fully decorated and logical RP playground in the Darkfires neighborhood located in terminus. It features a castle citadel with a battle watchtower theme, an elaborate marketplace, indoor/outdoor tavern, a weapons armory and mount stables, a druid themed forest, a kelethin inspired sky city, a couple of houses, and of course the royal castle (the guild hall). Most of it is already done and has been for some time now, but I'm still working on a couple of revamps to improve it as well as adding a couple minor things that play into Llux's personal storyline.

The biggest thing about this idea is to completely abandon the thought of following EQ lore 100% at all times. As I've mentioned before, being a DM isn't all about following one certain thing. Real DM's possess the ability to create their own scenarios. So in Darkfires, you may see a lot of things that don't follow EQ lore. While the EQ lore is good and all, I prefer to design my own stuff. And lets be realistic, we all know that certain races are enemies of other races, but in any movie, tv show, video game, or whatever, there are always the "good" people from those races or whatever who disobey the norms and don't hate others. Take Romeo and Juliet for example, or anyone who flips from one side to the other or abandons both sides. I am a dark elf on the majority of my toons, but I don't play them as the hateful race they're suppose to be. And what happens when people deviate from the norms? They flock together!

That is what Darkfires is, it is the place where those people flock to when they abandon their homes or are banished from their homes. Darkfires is the kingdom where those people can be accepted so long as they're loyal and vow to be peaceful with the other citizens. Not all dark elfs are evil, not all ogres are stupid, not all trolls are smelly, not all light elf races are high and mighty and hate the dark races. Much like real life, Darkfires is a place where acceptance is common place and those who bully or discriminate are not welcome. If any ooc discrimination is caught while wearing my guild tag, you won't be wearing my tag for long. No matter who you are, where you come from, what gender you are, what gender you are attracted to, or anything else, you are welcome in my guild as long as you do not discriminate or bully other players. Play by the rules or say goodbye

Lastly, I have also created a public roleplaying chat channel for RPers who wish to join in on the fun but also wish to remain loyal to their current guilds. I see no reason why someone can't RP with us while staying in their current guild. I know I'm kind of reducing my potential population by saying that, but what kind of leader would I be if I imposed limits on who can have fun with us? The channel info is RPKingdom:roleplay

((If you speak out of character in the RPKingdom channel, please use the commonly known brackets at the beginning and end of your sentence like I am doing right now. These are widely known in many games as the official OOC identifiers.))

I want to thank you all for taking the time to read this long post. I think I've fully explained the idea, and you can all trust in my leadership ability if this idea ends up taking off. Lets bring RP back to FV like it should be! You in?

Thanks again! I'll check in on this thread and answer any questions that folks may have. I don't expect a bunch of fast replies. RPers are few and far between these days from what I can see, so I know it'll take time to be heard here.

I find this interesting even tho im thinking about what will be fun for the new progression server agnarr have you thought about doing a rp guild there? i might be interested in joining if so... but even though i think the story you have for your guild is good. I wonder if it doesnt just lead towards a ending and then there is no more rp after that? i wonder why you dont just have the progression as part of the rp instead of being a footnote as aside from the rp there is progression planned. I would suggest a engine for using experience gained from doing the progression things as a sort of quest in which people gain levels to advance what they get from doing the quest but it takes a certain amount of experience and thus elevates how many challenges each quest has to advance their level. and i would call the story itself a quest that can be connected or disconnected from the progression so that where it begins and ends is decided by each person.

Count me in if this takes off. Llux is the best guild leader I've ever known.

Will this be new characters, or can existing characters join in (a high elf exiled from Tunare, a warrior who has forgotten where he came from!).

I love to RP, I was an accomplished DM/GM in AD&D way back as early as 1981 and have been enjoying it every sense (even raising my 25 y/old daughter to love it as well!)

Le me know what's acceptable, and if possible and my health permits, I will join you in this experiment. (I have missed the RP on FV. I was one of the first 500 players on the server!)

Anhari, anyone is welcome to join as long as they're RPers

RedSonja, Thank you

Zarkolov, rest asured that the premise behind the guilds construction will not end if this idea becomes a reality. If it does not, I'll be rebuilding under my plan B (which I won't utter unless it happens). Plan B has nothing to do with RP, but be assured that it will provide FV with something it will want. I do not intend to go to the new server though, I am highly committed to my mains on FV.

The RP and the progression are indeed tied together. Absolutely everything done in the guild will be tied to RP. Some things will follow EQ lore, and some things will be DM'd by myself or another officer or member willing to do it. I'm not going to dictate who can and can't run their own scenarios. The idea behind my vision is to be all inclusive so that everyone feels useful in their own way. If someone wants to DM a scenario, I say go right ahead and schedule it on our website. Our website will be the heart and soul of the guild, and will require that members use it frequently to keep up on schedules, rules, forum chatter, RP stories, and raiding points if we get a good member base to allow for raiding...

Very few raids we can do right away because I can more or less blow through them myself, such as the queen malarian SoD raid, I can solo without heals (I'm a warrior), or the korascian warrens raid, also SoD. And obviously raids older than those. Keep in mind, it's about the RP and the fun, not about the raiding or the reward. Plus, doing older raids gives players a chance to get those old raid achievements that other guilds on FV simply do not go back to do. Darkfires will not be all about high end content all the time. It'll be the first to offer absolutely all of the content in the game.

I think this is a fun idea. Since I came back to EQ from EQ2 a couple months ago I made a pair of high elf role play sisters who love to live in Felwithe. I had thought that RP was at least somewhat alive here. I would be happy to join with them. I love to create alts so I have many so I could easily spare putting the sisters in your Darkfire castle/neighborhood.

I also have an idea for a good dark elf necro who is a friend of the sisters.

I'll give this experiment another day or 2. But the way it is looking right now, I'm not getting enough hits on this thread to form a successful RP guild... It would be just a handful of us from what I can see so far. By all means, if you know people who love to RP and want to see this idea become a reality, have them come post here within the next day or 2... I'd like to start the guild with a minimum of 30 RPers, otherwise I'm dumping the idea and moving to plan B for my guild

Moved to FV in 2001 when it launched for the RP.. and had a very enjoyable number of years there. I loved the stories the group created. I consider returning to the server if the level of roleplay was worth it... Is this the current website for your guild? http://darkfiresfv.proboards.com/

Name sounds familiar. Meledi Bard and Littany D'Thule from Oasis and Stoic Tenacity?

Yes, that is the website, but it is currently being revamped, so I wouldn't take any of the information you might see on it to heart until my friends and I decide the direction we want to go... I started to tailor the site towards an RP guild, but it looks like we'll be going with plan B so I've got lots of work to do to undo the recent RP changes.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to put the site into maintenance mode and disable viewing of all forums until I get everything done, that way it doesn't confuse people

I would like to try this.

I am curious about why the Roleplaying Server also has special No Trade item rules. Is there a reason why the Roleplaying Server doesn't have the normal ruleset?

I mean, a special non-No Trade server is a good idea for those that like it, and so is a Roleplaying Server. But why are they the same server?

Is there some special role playing thing about being able to trade most of your items? There is certainly no role playing reason I can think of that items can't be attuned to one person and not work for anyone else.

You know you can roll play on any server.

That is something that only the powers that be can answer for you Fanra

No trade ties in with roleplaying. There's no logical in-game reason why a crap-ton of items can't be traded to other players.

I think this could be a blast. I've made a character on FV and sent you a game mail.

I really love the idea of having a "GM" of sorts come up with things do, and also the openness to of course create your own adventure.

I want to thank you folks who have shown interest! Unfortunately, this experiment has failed and we will be launching plan B soon. The minimum quota needed to run a successful LARPing guild has not been met. However, I've implemented an RP aspect into the new plans although it will not be the hardcore RPing like I wanted, more of a casual "if you feel like it" kind of thing...

Look for a "Flames of the Dark" thread in the guild recruitment forum in the near future as soon as I'm ready to put it together. Also, I am keeping the public RP chat channel that I created on my autojoins. Please understand that the new plans for my guild(s) are going to keep me very busy most days, however, I do set aside time to enjoy doing my own thing often to keep my sanity, and if I see activity in the channel, I will join in when I can and maybe run a LARPing scenario every now and then when time permits (and if folks are online and willing when I'm ready).

I will see about typing out Llux's storyline on my website before I re-launch it, and the RP forums on my site will still exist and be open to the public. Keep in mind, the permanent scenario for the chat channel is that you are entering the Queens kingdom. Please see the scenario in my OP in this thread for better details.

/join RPKingdom:roleplay
/autojoin RPKingdom:roleplay

Have a wonderful day folks! And don't forget to look for the recruitment post that will be appearing soon!
~Queen Llux Von`Lich

It's a shame it didn't work out a guild i was in many moons ago was a role play guild Knights Templar we were in to role play in a big way we even had another guild that was classed as evil and we had guild wars very often it was sad when they moved to WoW and the guild stopped on EQ i still miss them if any still read the boards my name was is Inarduis Fidelis a Ranger

Update... Please disregard the "Flames of the Dark" recruitment post I mentioned coming soon... My friends and I have decided to go ahead and rebuild Darkfires exactly the same as it was last year... The recruitment post will be for Darkfires instead... I'm heading over there to create it right now