# So You Want To Start a Guild

# Introduction

So you’ve been considering making a guild. Great! Snowhaven is always looking out for unique subcommunities that foster bonds between players and help build memories that you will treasure for a long time.

However, building and maintaining a guild isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. This document is designed to help you decide if creating a guild is the right choice for you, and if not, what your alternatives are. It is not mandatory reading, however it may help you greatly in reducing disappointment down the road.

# Why Create a Guild?

Here are some good reasons why you might want to create a guild

• You have a unique concept that is based on a niche other guilds do not cover
• You want to create a smaller, focused guild as compared to a large guild, and use your size to have specialized treatment for your members
• An existing guild that covers that niche is inactive and you would like to fill that gap

Here are some less than ideal reasons why you might want to create a guild. These reasons, if combined with some of the above, can be fine, but on their own they are usually not a sustainable plan for a guild.

• You just want a place for you and your friends to hang out
  • Running a guild solely for casual meetups is not the best platform due to the massive amount of associated paperwork. Consider getting a house or joining an existing guild together.
• You want to start it based on a meme concept
  • While having fun is great, “meme” or generally joke concepts tend to fade in appeal very quickly, and you will be stuck with the burden of a guild
• You think being a guild leader will allow you to get rich quickly
  • While having a guild with many modules certainly helps improve DTD success rates, you should not treat the guild’s finances as your own. This is embezzlement.

# Commitments

Creating a guild is not just about yourself or your friends. It is also about your newbie members who are getting their first impression of the server through your guild, the active players who commit themselves to your guild through donations, and the staff who support your guild from its creation to handling all your processing needs. Many people invest in the success of your guild, and there are consequences for a mismanaged guild.

As such, the biggest trait a guild leader must have is Commitment. This comes in the form of two aspects: Responsibility and Time.

There are many duties a guild leader is responsible for. Below is a non-exhaustive list:

# Administration

• Paying the weekly tax punctually and accurately
• Logging requests such as purchases and permissions
• Appointing new representatives to handle guild work
• Designing and submitting guild appearance and description to staff

# Maintenance

• Recruiting new members and putting ads on the bulletin board
• Keeping track and managing guild coffers
• Deciding what modules to purchase

# Management

• Making announcements when votes are needed by members
• Removing inactive members
• Setting disputes between members
• Clarifying questions from members
• Coordinating revival funds for members
• Deciding when, if ever, to disband the guild

As you can see, there are many leadership aspects a guild leader needs to handle. This leads into the second point.

# Time

Lack of time is the greatest killer of activity. Even if you are extremely passionate and are sure you can make time in your schedule, there are always unexpected factors like family responsibilities, work getting busier, or medical emergencies.

Luckily, there are ways to mitigate the impact of this problem.

• Give some time to think carefully before creating a guild. Impulsively creating a guild, while fun, will hit you as soon as Monday rolls around and you find you are too swamped with work to manage it at all.
• Appoint representatives to do smaller-scale work like accounting and recruitment
• Prepay your taxes in advance. While you may lose out on some gold this way as this does not account for members who leave later, you save yourself time.

# Choosing Your Founding Members

The five (or more) people you start with are critical to your guild’s success, as they quite literally set the foundation for your guild. Ideally, you should pick members who match the tone of the guild you are setting up and who you know very well.

Here are some good ways to recruit members

• Invite people you have been actively chatting with for at least several days
• Invite people you have been actively roleplaying or been on games with
• Invite Active Players to join your guild

Here are some bad ways to recruit members

• Going to the tavern and yelling about who would be interested in joining your guild
  • You will likely get a mixed bag who you won’t know very well. Many are also likely to be newbies who aren’t committed to the server, and might flake.
• Inviting the first person who agrees to your idea in #guild-ooc
  • Sometimes, people are just being polite when they agree to your idea, and their affirmation does not necessarily mean they themselves are interested in joining. Consider how they are like as a person before reaching out to them later

# Choosing Your Method of Governance

# Single Leader

This is the most common setup for guilds. One person is in charge of all aspects of the guild, but may appoint representatives to manage some aspects.

Pros:

• Greater control over direction of guild
• Relatively quicker decision making
• No disputes between co-leaders

Cons:

• Volume of work, especially if the guild scales up, can become overwhelming
• Inability to monitor all aspects of the system closely can lead to gaps and things slipping through

# Co-Leaders

Pros:

• Multiple perspectives are able to cover each other’s weaknesses
• Allows for someone else to take over if someone becomes inactive
• Able to distribute workload

Cons:

• Can lead to IC or OOC disputes between co-leaders due to differing methods of governance or in-character reasons
• Time consuming to make decisions
• Can lead to uneven distribution of workload

Good friends are not necessarily good co-leaders. Some friends are great company to be around, but shy away from leadership positions, whether due to not being a good fit or just not being interested in governance. Starting a guild with friends who are not suited for the role can strain the friendship, so be sure everyone’s expectations are managed.

# Electing Representatives

A representative does not necessarily mean seceding control of your guild. In server terms, this is simply the official way of appointing someone to make decisions on your behalf, and receive permissions in turn, such as pinning messages.

# When to Choose a New Representative

• You find yourself having less and less time and energy to do guild work. You may have motivation to do it, but it ends up being done SoonTM and getting repeatedly delayed.
• Your existing representatives are inactive or not prompt when doing their responsibilities
• Important tasks like taxes is frequently delayed
• Your guild is experiencing a decline in activity

# Recruitment

A guild needs consistent and continuous recruitment efforts in order to stay active. You may wish to seek new members if you observe the following:

• Your guild is experiencing a decline in members
• Members are being inactive and/or not paying their taxes
• Managing the guild is becoming stale

Here are some recruitment methods:

• Put a notice on #bulletin-board and have an application format
• Organize a sparring competition and picking the most promising candidates
• Ask staff to open your guild channel to all and have an open house

The methods mentioned in “Choosing Your Founding Members” also apply.

# Finances

Each guild is responsible for upkeep of their finances; as of now, there is no standardized method. However, the best practice is to create a Spreadsheet using Google Sheets. You may then request permission from other guilds to copy their Coffer aliases.

# Alternatives to Starting a Guild

Maybe this all sounds overwhelming. Sometimes you simply don’t have the time or energy to manage a guild, and that is ok. Here’s what you can do instead.

# Join an Existing Guild

There are already many guilds that cover most major concepts in Snowhaven. While you may not have control over the guild’s direction, you can still benefit from having a small community to engage with and make friends. With experience, you may even be chosen as a representative. Joining existing guilds allows you to pool your resources and members together, making upgrades more efficient.

# Buy a House

If what you’re looking for is a cool hideout to be with your friends, a house could be for you. Houses can be flavored as establishments, and you can buy modules to customize your house just the way you want it.

# Start a Business

The Business document, also found in #advanced-play-rules , provides details on the different types of businesses and how you might start up one.

# Starting an Informal Club/Faction/Sect

If you are not concerned with mechanical benefits, you can have the best of both worlds by forgoing administrative burdens while also being able to pursue your specific interests. Clubs can meet anywhere, such as roleplay channels or someone’s house. You can organize meetings when you want them, or simply keep it as a passive arrangement where you mutually agree to protect each other’s interests. For instance, you might want to set up a sect dedicated to worship of the devil Mephistopheles. Members simply pool together money for offerings, and its activities are roleplay-only.

# Conclusion

Hopefully this document has given you a comprehensive insight into administering a guild. If you read all this and want to start a guild, great! We wish you all the best. This document is not exhaustive, and you are bound to learn things through trial and error. Consider it a learning opportunity and don’t beat yourself up too much. If you feel like a guild isn’t right for you, consider a bullet dodged.

If you have more questions, please feel free to ask in #server-questions . Or if you want to request a certain aspect be covered more in depth, feel free to pop it in #server-suggestions . All the best!