“Growth for a guild is a double-edged sword. More members mean more opportunities and different paths to power that can be explored at the same time. It also means more risk of espionage and a harder time gearing everyone up. All too often an organization takes on more than it can handle and then implodes.”
From “A Guide to Guild Growth”
Year 1, Month 1, Day 28, 00:15
Torgon’s arrival at the guild base was met by a very frazzled Hyperia trying to direct traffic. Faeries flitted around using magical lights to guide throngs of players around the base. Torgon froze upon seeing the literal thousands of players eagerly exploring the buildings and park. He looked at Hyperia with his mouth hanging open and she just stood there with her hands on her hips and head tilted.
She spoke, “Well Torgon. Do you have an explanation for all of this chaos beyond “A Cunning Plan!”?”
“Umm,” he mouthed. “Now, before you get upset Hyperia. I’m not quite sure what’s going on. People were supposed to join the guild, move their respawn point to Miller’s Crossing and leave the guild. Why is our base filled to bursting?”
Hyperia closed her eyes, pursed her lips and mentally counted to ten before speaking again. “We have had in excess of 20,000 players join the guild. Of those 20,000, slightly under 4,000 players have left to join various other guilds, go independent or form their own guilds in Miller’s Crossing. The remaining players, more than 16,000 of them mind you, have expressed their heartfelt and sincere desire to remain members of Risk of Injury.”
Torgon’s brain locked up briefly before muttering, “Ah, shit.”
“Ah shit indeed Torg.” Hyperia continued, “I tightened up the permissions for the buildings when people started pouring in, but we need to decide now whether we try to accommodate them, or we start booting them out with a thanks but no thanks.”
Torgon closed his eyes again, running quick calculations in consideration of the possibilities afforded by the influx of new members. He ran his hand through his hair and listened to the lively noises of a guild hall bursting at the seams. “Let’s keep them. We can make it work. Our guild contribution system will let us figure out who is worth keeping over time. We don’t have any vulnerable secrets that can be exploited by spies, and the best part is that the game play for the new peeps was so terrible we can make their lives better.”
Hyperia huffed, “Fine. Our current ranking system is taken from a sect model. Everybody joins fresh as a recruit. Recruits have access to the library, training yard and gathering base materials in the guild base and outlying territories. They can move up to an Outer Member with enough contribution points. Outer members can spend their GCP on non-basic items we have in our guild vault, the recruits are limited to basic items. Outer members gain access to farm higher tier materials at the base and other locations plus the ability to buy battle pets with contribution points. Yay spiders,” Hyperia shuddered.
“Next, we have inner members. Inner members have earned enough GCP to get access to the crafting hall for general crafting but not the specialized areas. Finally, we have core members. They can use the specialized crafting rooms and the research hall. When we complete blueprint research all the siege weapons and improved rarity blueprints will be locked down to higher ranking members. In addition, we’re putting out guild rules that will make players unlearn all blueprints tied to guild research upon leaving the guild without approval from leadership.”
Torgon lifted the corner of his mouth in an approving smile, “I assume there’s leadership tiers?”
Hyperia nodded, “Just three layers right now. Officers, Section Heads and you, our beloved and careful leader that never acts in a precipitous manner dumping hours of extra work on people without so much as an oh by the way.”
Torgon scrunched his eyebrows and asked another question, “Where did our current members fall in the tiers? Were there many people not contributing?”
Hyperia smiled warmly, “Everyone made it to at least an inner member position with the majority as core members. The children outpaced the adults in contributions.”
“Fantastic!” Torgon motioned for Hyperia to follow him as the two moved towards the specialized crafting halls. “The base raid on the 2nd of next month is going to be a huge pain. I like the challenge though. Do you think we can expand the raid groups out in the broken hills to multiple teams of a thousand?”
Hyperia nodded again, “Yeah, it won’t be as fast as the smaller teams, but we were already power leveling the newer players. The new recruits can get a couple of levels in a couple of days while adding a ton of experience to their combat skills. We can kick anybody that won’t listen or causes disruptions with the formations. You do realize that’s going to just encourage everyone to stay and maybe even get more people to join.”
Torgon shrugged, “The reward for doing excellent work is always more work. This is the fun part though. We can take people who want to learn and teach them. We can shape them into fierce and motivated warriors who will protect rather than maraud.”
They arrived at the crafting hall and Torgon quickly moved to the weapon crafting area, claimed a table and began to arrange his materials. “Now, I am going to craft for a while like I had planned to do before I was so rudely interrupted.” Hyperia laughed and waved as she moved out of the room, heading to her own tasks.
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Torgon wasted no time and began alternating crafts of uncommon level 10 bows and long swords. He sank into the quiet meditative state of repetitive crafting. His hands moved unconsciously, the touch and feel of the materials guiding his movements in shaping the weapons. He drifted while crafting and listening to incoming reports from the guild. Every item he successfully crafted made the guild just a little stronger.
During his time crafting, the guild was not idle. The newest members streamed into the areas around Miller’s Crossing, braving the darkness to pursue quests and fight creatures. Hundreds took advantage of their newfound access to the guides on the Crypt of the Lost and eagerly tackled the dungeon. The auction house and the various market stalls in Miller’s Crossing saw their traffic levels more than triple with the influx of people. The town felt crowded and lively, on the verge of a celebration breaking out on every corner.
The dawn of a new day brought its own set of problems. Hyperia broke Torgon out of his crafting flow and presented him with a series of posts from the official forums. Torgon cocked an eyebrow as he read through them. “They’re saying that we started the fighting and that we are forcing people to be gatherers and crafters for our war machine? I love the projection, accuse the enemy of doing what you’re doing so they can’t respond effectively. It's a standard tactic for Cassie and the people she works for.”
Hyperia grinned, “It’s so standard that it’s not getting much traction. They shot themselves in the foot by making a lot of posts with edited in game footage which were automatically removed by the game administration and tagged with huge notes about attempts at faking video. The posters were banned and now they’re being ridiculed by a lot of the terminally trolling people. There is a lot of astro-turfing going on and their membership are all vehemently defending them. Outside posters and the people involved are sharing their views, but they have muddied the waters. Everyone not involved is just getting popcorn rather than picking a side.”
“Everybody loves a good show,” Torgon agreed. “Have we noticed any material changes to their stances?”
Hyperia laughed and spoke, “We certainly have. They’re making their players go out in larger groups and they have people watching the borders of the Miller’s Crossing zone. They think that you favor sending in smaller elite groups of people to harass and hit soft targets, which you absolutely do Torg.”
He shrugged, “It works and we almost never have the numbers.”
“Indeed it does,” she nodded. “They’re trying to push hard for the broken hills on the assumption that most of their members are higher level and better geared than our new recruits. They are correct in their thinking but it’s time limited. Our best exceed theirs by a good margin and the new players are motivated to advance fast.”
Torgon stood up from the workstation, stretched and spoke again, “It’s the foundations. Their foundation is outside money and the desire to make more and have more control. Our foundation is living here and making sure our lives don’t suck. Needs will drive people farther than wants.” He sighed and thought for a moment, “We have to get into the broken hills with scouting teams and find the dungeons. We need to expand the base. Getting the library to give us common skills lets us deal with their numbers advantage even if it’s more like 5 to 1 instead of 50 to 1 now.”
Hyperia’s eyes twinkled, “I knew you would say that. I already have teams formed. You get your own team of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed children eager to follow our legendary guild master into the wilds.”
He laughed and waved his hands to encompass the entire base. “I don’t even care. It will be fun.” They left the crafting hall and moved to where the scouting teams were gathering. Hyperia and Allestor were also leading teams while Ovarrix and Dusty kept running the larger farming raids. Torgon looked over his own group, seven children and two older teenagers. They stood straighter under his gaze, eager to impress.
Torgon looked to the side, “Hype, how many large teams and how many scout teams are we running?”
She gestured, “We have a dozen ten-man scout teams, large enough to deal with monsters and the occasional hostile player team and then four groups of 500 players out farming. Most of the newer players are getting up to speed in the Miller’s Crossing area, but we’ll start adding them to the teams in rotations. Those groups should expand into thousand-man legions to handle anything PVE or PVP they run across.”
“Perfect!” Torgon moved over to his team and motioned for them to wait while the others departed. “Can I get some quick introductions with your focus on abilities? I apologize, but I haven’t worked with any of you directly before and it will help us in the long run.”
The smallest girl stepped forward first. “I’m Pattie Pixie and I’m a scout.” She pointed down to her legs, “Since I got these legs, I’ve loved running everywhere and finding things. I am most experienced with ranged weapons and have a basic healing touch spell for support.
The oldest present, a large boy of around 17 stepped forward. “Larry Houdini is the name and Casting is my game. I have bolt spells, a short strength buff spell and a healing spell. I can do some unarmed combat and melee fighting. I wrestled in real life.” The other older teen, Simon Phoenix Arizona, handled primary tanking and a younger girl, Lillian, would be the backup tank.
The other five were a mixed bag of crafters training their combat skills. Kaylin the Blue and Slightly Amazing Jonathan focused on alchemy and pursued combat healing when they were forced to. Derrick the Hammer was learning smithing and the use of all bladed weapons. Kip the Durable gathered and loved using an axe while the final member, Stana Lee Ann crafted armor, skinned animals and used a bow.
Everyone in the team besides Torgon was level 8 or 9, with two of the higher levels nearing level 10. Half the team had good practical experience while the rest were eager and willing to try out the combat side. Torgon found himself satisfied and even a little impressed. “Thank you for the introductions. I’m sure you’re all aware that I’m healing and ranged dps. We’ll be moving fast, fighting when we have to and we’ll do our best to avoid getting bogged down. We’re looking for anything unusual, whether that’s a big concentration of monsters, a lot of gathering nodes or ideally, new dungeons to explore, we’ll mark it all down to go into the guild codex in the library. We’re going to stay out during the night tonight as well just to see how things change when we’re scouting. Everybody ready?”
After seeing the affirmative nods, Torgon led them towards the portal arch to Miller’s Crossing. They passed through and ported directly to the outpost in the Broken Hills. They distributed the amulets and left the safety of the wooden walls to explore the unknown.
