[A-RP] The Crown Confederacy — A Stormwind Project

[Albrecht-argent-dawn (Albrecht)]

Crown Confederacy

This project intends to bring a level of dynamic and interactive roleplay back to what has been a very static Stormwind, through the establishment of a civil infrastructure IC, and a community of guilds and interested parties OOC. Through this project, I hope to portray a narrative of a Stormwind with all the worries of war, and to share that narrative with everyone who wishes. I feel like there are huge gaps when it comes to the concerns of a powerful city-state at war, with provincial territories in a state of long-term neglect, trading for its food, and with a massive influx of foreign races which, while they may be welcomed/forgiven by the King, I am not convinced the common people would be universally accepting of. Our characters’ lives are more interesting and more engaging when there’s dynamism and interactivity to the world, and the only way that can be consistent is through a shared narrative. Engagement is the primary goal of this project, to create as many hooks and plots for as many characters as possible.

The only way this is possible at any scale is for players to represent low to mid level politics. I completely understand this requires a level of trust, but I hope those who know me and the others who are working on the project are doing so solely out of a wish to revive what has been a fairly static and boring Stormwind.

As time goes on, controversial things may occur in the narrative of this plotline, conducted in a thoughtful and planned manner. Individual characters are absolutely free to disengage from it if they’d like, but I want to encourage as many people as possible to engage with the happenings around them, whether for or against. Conflict is the essence of roleplay, and conflict can’t be created on a wide scale without trust and respect. Part of the reason to form this community is to develop that trust and respect OOC through interaction with one another, and the discord is publicly open for anyone to come and chat as well.

For the purpose of storytelling, slowly building up this community will be vital. Membership will not be open — I see it as very important to keep this to guilds who can have meaningful interactions with each other, and who we feel fit the mould. That isn’t to say that it’s a closed group — we’re trying to create a shared narrative, and anyone is welcome to join the public section of our discord, read the rumours & gossip posts, and generally chat about what’s going on.

CONCEPT:

After reading some of the thoughtful responses to the previous thread(s) about the issues with Stormwind as a roleplay hub, I began to think about a means to fix the problem — a way to create stories for broad groups of people again, storylines planned by leaders for the enjoyment of their members spanning more than just one guild, or more than just a couple of weeks spent at a campaign. A shared narrative and the dynamic of interaction between guilds has always been what I’ve enjoyed most in this game, and my fondest memories of it will be the hustle and bustle of people going about their various agendas. To create this will, as always, require a degree of trust in the storyteller, but the plan with that is just to create situations and conflict within Stormwind in a plausible way for the community to react to, and engage with in meaningful ways.

The Confederacy will largely be separated by distinct factions that build the general frame of the city’s community. These are:

• Civic administration

The public sector of Stormwind City is a requirement to fulfill necessary roles for the city’s overall function. Government affairs, policing, education, and all the rest are predominantly comprised of civil servants doing their civic duty to the realm. Under the auspices of the Crown Confederacy, the Directorate of Regional Security has been dusted off, and Cpt. Albrecht von Asch charged with an effort to bring offices, groups and communities together to share a measure of collective operation of the city at a time of strife, with the logic that only the military can efficiently organize a city at war. Guards tug at their gorgets — the Lionwatch’s own Captain Ethric Mercer reads the missive notifying him with narrowed eyes.

• Criminal associations

War brings opportunity for the honourless. In times of hardship, it becomes both easier and more appealing to fall to thievery and villainy to keep bread on the table for your family - and for the rich to better burrow their grubby fingers into even richer pies. Theft, brigandry, murder, and fraud have all rose significantly in the recent war-torn months. You either fight against it, or join it while there’s less chance of being caught among the crowds of fellow opportunists.

• Religious groups

Faith is the greatest strength and weakness both of the human people, and I hope to emphasize the actual influence of the Church in Stormwind. Where families lose their loved ones in war, the Light heals what it can with promises of hope. Yet these are tumultuous times, and highly conservative, even controversial ideologies have been rising within the Church, and gaining sway with the common man. Though the city could benefit greatly from someone having a hold upon the Church, that grip is less easily secured than ever — under the flickering light of a flame resurgent, neither bribes nor honied words have had their same impact.

• Military forces (Regional Reserve)

Stormwind City, as a keep, houses military training grounds and centres at all times. With the High King and his main forces predominantly absent in this time of war, a significant garrison must be maintained to keep infiltration and assault from sea at bay. Therefore, created on paper and seconded to the Directorate of Public Affairs, the ‘Stormwind Regional Reserve’ was composed from forces raised in Stormwind proper. Ever since receiving these orders, every soldier has prayed for a tour at the front — only if worst comes to worst should soldiers be deployed to the streets.

• Judiciary

The Judiciary is a more difficult question. Casual roleplay for a judiciary guild is next to none. Asking jurors to volunteer inevitably leads to jurors with a vested interest volunteering. There’s a system of balloting that we’d like to try, whereby everyone (who can be found in an hour) in Stormwind at that time is given a number, and we draw three numbers — whichever three void elves get their numbers drawn are the jurors for that trial. If this doesn’t work, we’ll likely go with NPCing it.

There are obviously some gaps in the aforementioned, and I’m eager to see whether the community rises to fill some of them — some more criminal RPers would be especially cool, but for the framework feels

MEMBERSHIP:

The plan is to open up a discord for Stormwind RPers (or anyone who is interested in the project) to check out the latest rumours and gossip, upcoming events, or just chat and mingle OOC. I think this is an important part of creating more of a community in Stormwind, as OOC familiarity does translate IC whether we like it or not, especially when it comes to conflict and controversy, the creation of which is a large part of what this project is about.

For the same reason, membership of the community itself will be initially closed, so that GMs and their members can get to know each other and make plans together, whether in cooperation or conflict. Slowly opening it up to more members thereafter will be the best way to keep the project stable. That said, there will no doubt be exceptions, and if you feel you have something to contribute — well, needless to say immediately begin doing it in-game! But definitely do get in touch with me: Btag Faustus#2567 or at the discord below.

Discord link:

https://discord.gg/3PAvQYY

Finally, I believe there’re a lot of RPers to whom the idea of a living, breathing hub is a really positive one, and something they’d like to take part in, but are jaded to Stormwind RP — I’d encourage you to come back, get involved, give it a try. It can only work if people engage with it.

[Divish-argent-dawn]

Now this, this is epic!

[Hanazu-argent-dawn (Hanazu)]

nice⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

[Desartin-argent-dawn (Desartin)]

I hope it works Albrecht, I do. It is always nice when someone is willing to put effort into a community, but sadly many in stormwind do not read the forums, or care as much about playing in the setting. But that said, I do wish it the best of luck!

[Dudflex-argent-dawn (Dudflex)]

So you want to essentially save Stormwind from Mundane RP?

Good!

[Alvy-argent-dawn]

Epic, time to save the world.

[Galford-argent-dawn]

Sounds Glorious

[Kump-argent-dawn]

Pretty epic Albrecht! This can really improve Stormwind if executed well and goes well; and i am looking forward to it and wish best of luck!

[Galford-argent-dawn]

@Desartin-argent-dawn

I hope it works Albrecht, I do. It is always nice when someone is willing to put effort into a community, but sadly many in stormwind do not read the forums, or care as much about playing in the setting. But that said, I do wish it the best of luck!

There’s a good variety of options to potentially spread the word to the Stormwind RP community, most likely people will be drawn to such gatherings and overtime hopefully start getting involved/inquiring more about the project itself. You’re right it, it won’t happen straight away, but with consistency and development this project has some very strong potential.

[Banrhun-argent-dawn (Banrhun)]

Very ambitious but also well thought out. Good luck.

[Distantpeak-argent-dawn (Distantpeak)]

You sexy swine. This may draw some of my chars back soon.
Best of luck!

[Irelsia-argent-dawn (Irelsia)]

Lo, though times are dark, the Light shines.

[Nelox-argent-dawn (Nelox)]

Modern problems require modern solutions.

[Teocalli-argent-dawn]

What do you mean by that?

[Perroy-argent-dawn (Perroy)]

This but unironically

[Dudflex-argent-dawn (Dudflex)]

@Teocalli-argent-dawn

What do you mean by that?

It means they believe this is just a tool for certain guilds to enforce their will, which is always a possibility when things are enclosed from public decisions. But this looks too carefully planned and too open to everyone for such a thing to happen, as stated in one of the paragraphs they want an open discord where they can mingle and everyone can get affiliated, which is the right thing to do, if everyone knows each other they are more likely to become friends.

[Obilot-argent-dawn (Obilot)]

Yes, it has exclusion smeared all over it. Just like it has always been with similar projects. If ever, RP on this realm needs to become less regulated, not more.

[Perroy-argent-dawn (Perroy)]

@Obilot-argent-dawn

Yes, it has exclusion smeared all over it. Just like it has always been with similar projects. If ever, RP on this realm needs to become less regulated, not more.

Which server did you play on before you moved to AD?

[Dudflex-argent-dawn (Dudflex)]

But that doesn’t seem to be the case, reading through it, it seems more a kin to world based events in Stormwind to stop stagnation. but of course, they also have that discord, or you can message them your concerns.

[Gobbert-argent-dawn (Gobbert)]

The Lion finally awakens.