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| The Office in the Field: The Eyes of the Spire at War | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 19 2012, 01:53 AM (215 Views) | |
| Rhaelene | Apr 19 2012, 01:53 AM Post #1 |
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Loyal
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Greetings all. The recent Borderlands campaign has highlighted the different expectations everyone has of roleplay within the Office when it gets embroiled in large-scale realm RP. The fact of the matter is, we all like different things when we get together in WoW. Not everyone likes RP PvP (understandable when the Alliance play so very fast and loose with the rules and conventions of this in order to feed their "we iz teh good guys - we never looze" train of thought), and not everyone wants to leave alone a realm event when it opens so many doors for new and interesting roleplay with people and guilds that we would not normally interact with. And let's not even go there where people's epeens are involved; there is arrogance and self-entitlement dripping all over the place on both sides. And then there was the reality of the placement in Seredane; hours dragging into days of doing bugger all for a couple of hours of the Office doing things. I understand why some of us felt the need to just walk away. No-one can be blamed for that. The thing is though, realm events do create opportunities; they forge alliances and friendships that pay off in the future, create surprising new roleplay that because it involves new faces is rarely stale or expected, and they help attract new people to the guild when they see how we do things and how much fun we have being the mailed fist in the velvet glove. The Office of Allegiance needs a function in wartime as well as within its own borders. And next time an event like this comes along, we'll be ready. What I'm proposing here is a set of wartime procedures that the Office activates when the threat from without is as great as the threat from within. The same thing was done in reality by the German Gestapo and the British GCCS (later to become GCHQ and its many MI departments), and later by the NSA and the KGB during the Cold War. These groups may not have been military units, but they had their place in open and covert wartime; both on the front, behind enemy lines and back at the rearguard. The plan would involve the Office immediately, upon declaration of the Horde's intentions to open a campaign against the Alliance or a move to defend against Alliance aggression, sets into motion a factfinding excercise to assess the level of threat to Quel'Thalas; essentially whether joining the campaign will serve the Spire through observation of its "loyal subjects" in the field or whether there are chances of the conflict reaching the High Kingdom's borders. If the First Seeker assesses the risk as high enough, the Office publicly (if not it actually - this fragmentation is purely for the benefit of whoever in the Horde is watching) breaks into three units: Shield, Saber and Cowl. Sabre forms a small tactical offense and defense group. Formed primarily out of the Office's Peacekeepers, this unit joins the forntline battleforce of the Horde at war. Being the strongest martial element the Office has at its disposal, they are thus offered to the campaign commander as crack stormtroopers, ready to hold lines or tear into the enemy. This is solely on the surface; the true motivation of Sabre is not only to punish the Spire's enemies, but to observe the Horde war machine from the inside; to seek out traitors, dissenting voices, criminality like war profiteering and potential enemy spies. Cowl is the mobile covert actions section of the Office. Using the most capable, if not physically powerful, fighters at the Office's disposal, it forms a cadre of invisible warriors ideally suited to the kind of battles no-one back home hears about; assassination, espionage, sabotage. Cowl may be called upon to support Sabre in field actions, but its primary function is to be unseen - it does not march to war, it slips over borders into enemy territory and dances back without ever being seen. The Horde does not know of Cowl's existance at all: on the surface, members of this unit belong to either Sabre or Shield. Extreme secrecy ensures extreme security. Shield uses knowledge as a defense against our enemies. Formed out of the Office's intellectuals and non-combatants, it focuses its powers on solving the problems a sword cannot; it decodes and deseminates enemy intelligence, it interrogates enemy spies and sympathisers, it creates projections and battlefield scenarios for generals and leaders, it researches new methods of warfare (while investigating defenses against them should they ever be used against Quel'Thalas) and creates disinfomation to sow confusion among our foes. Trading on the combined knowledge of mages and sorcerers going back centuries, these are among the sharpest, most experienced minds in the Horde - once again, on the surface at the disposal of the Horde war machine, but underneath watching the Horde itself. After all, disinformation works both ways when the only force you serve is the Spire... Now, the reality in play of this would be that Terrestra would, if a realm combat event was starting up, either throw the Office's lot in with all the rest of the guilds taking part, or not. This is obviously going to be based on our interest, the numbers available, the validity of the event, etc. At this point, an event will take place to break the Office into Sabre and Shield (Cowl of course only being known to the Office and perhaps a select, unquestionably loyal section of allies and of course the Spire). They would then depositoion to the battlefield as required. Sabre takes part in and creates roleplay on the front, Shield at the rearguard. No-one though is forced to participate in RP PvP - it's completely optional, and as most of the time Sabre would be working with other guilds, numbers will be made up. Alts within the Office can be used to participate if required, or operatives from Shield might assist providing ranged support, healing, etc. Internally, observations and OOC conversations with other guilds would create internal events for the Office members; observing a potential Alliance sympathiser, a corrupt noble, some untrustworthy mercenaries, etc. Prisoners could be interrogated using the Office's extensive knowledge and multiple techniques for getting to the truth, and stolen enemy intelligence can be decoded and revealed. Naturally, the campaign events will also add to this, making sure that this time around, roleplay happens every night, not just a couple of times each week, and it always plays to the Office's strengths and motivations. Cowl however, offers the chance for some really interesting and fun event ideas. Imagine that Cowl is given a mission to take under cover of darkness a sizeable bribe to the pirates stationed on the caost south of Stromgarde to buy their support during a coastal battle in Hillsbrad. Stromgarde however is Alliance controlled. The mission is to get to the pirates without being caught inside a time limit. The Alliance knows we're coming, just not the destination, how or where from. They have a timeframe however, and must patrol to try and catch Cowl in action. Since the mission takes place at night, Cowl goes in, on foot, under cover of darkness. In this situation, the game's "invisibility" mechanics can be used, with the Alliance flushing us out with patrols, flares, traps - you name it. We can use decoys, counters, but are forced to go on foot slowly. Time ticks by, an impartial observer waits at the pirate lair, and if Cowl gets past the Alliance in time the pirates will lend their support. If not, the mission is scrubbed and no support is won. Both sides are against the clock and having to use their brains, knowledge of terrain and game mechanics to outsmart each other. And none of the winning and losing will come down to numbers or leet gear and epix. Shield and Sabre can involve themselves in missions with Cowl, albeit as support or as originators of the mission - Shield providing dummy Horde battle plans for Cowl to drop behind enemy lines to mislead the Alliance about future strategies... the posibilities of this model are huge, and they most importantly ensure the Office remains the Office during the realm event. This however is just the barest bones of the concept; over the coming days, through consultation with the rest of you, I intend to fine-tune this model and rough out some of the more complex aspects of this (liaising with other guilds for instance). However, at this point, I leave the floor open to the rest of you. Tell me what you think, and where you would like this concept to go to next. Thank you for listening. Edited by Rhaelene, Apr 19 2012, 02:01 AM.
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| Ahiruna | Apr 22 2012, 10:03 AM Post #2 |
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Agent Dawnsong
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I agree that better planning in the future is needed to cater for everyone. We would do well to have a formal procedure like this proposed one, but even now it will need some refining and discussion so that it suits everyone as well as everyone having an understanding. There was, with this event, an underlying issue. On a daily basis three, at a push four, people were coming online and many more were on alts, participating in the event. I personally don't think that's acceptable and is the height of rudeness. We cannot possibly plan events if people's priorities are elsewhere. |
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| Celo'thal | Apr 22 2012, 12:25 PM Post #3 |
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Sounds like a lot of fun and filled with different storylines that could possibly break out. I smile at the thought of so many different things to do.
Exactly why I simply chose to take a break from WoW for a bit. I checked back to see if there were any events and such, but the people I came into contact with at Seradane the times I did come back made me want to stay away until the very end, so I could simply RP with the rest of you guys. It may sound a little too secluded for a lot of people, and it may sound terrible that I don't want to RP with anybody outside of the guild. I don't wish for it to sound like that, but the people I met while RPing there put me off big time. All in all, the events the guild had were great and I can't wait to do more and just randomly RP around Silvermoon with a few people/people of the guild. Apologies that I didn't appear more often to each of you, but the place was bordering Goldshire to me, in my mind. |
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| Varendil | Apr 22 2012, 02:02 PM Post #4 |
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Scryer Emberheart
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I'm inclined to agree with Ahiruna. Rhae's ideas are brilliant and procedures should be put in place, but there's not much we can do if people just run off onto alts at the slightest provocation. |
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| Rhaelene | Apr 22 2012, 06:50 PM Post #5 |
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Loyal
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I think that is the key to this though: if people feel the Office is "functioning as designed" within an event like this, playing to each person's character's strengths, and they aren't just filling a gap on the line in RP PvP, they'll be less likely to run to alts in order to avoid the event or feel like they can be a more appropriate part of it in another guild on an alt. |
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| Sariatha | Apr 22 2012, 07:46 PM Post #6 |
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I like it, those are some well thought out and interesting ideas. Speaking only for myself, during these kinds of realm wide events I'll sadly not be very active at all with the Office because as the most active Bladesong officer I'd have a responsibility to be with them. But if this gets taken on board I can see it giving variety and enjoyment for folks. OOC communication with guilds will really help I think. Talk to GM's and officers and ask them if they're down with you guys investigating leads or even talk to individual members about "creating" leads to follow up on. |
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| Terrestra | Apr 23 2012, 11:19 AM Post #7 |
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The Hound
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I approve fully. Prior to the next event of this nature, we'll be going ahead with this strategy. Due to the fairly obvious comparisons, Officers will retain their officerships over the equivalent positions, am I correct? However, each will operate more independently? |
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| Nienna | Apr 23 2012, 09:17 PM Post #8 |
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Fanatic
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I think this is awesome. I certainly like that such a great idea has come of this event rather than a shrug and a suggestion that it's 'not for us'. That said, we need to be aware that there will be some for whom these sorts of events are not for. Hopefully, this system will allow for them to find it more accesible but should that not be the case we should consider how we would maintain the guild should more than one member not want to travel. Now Nie would be perfect as someone to stick around for such characters but as I'm sure you have noticed, my work cuts into my playtime so I think that some secondary means of providing at least a little RP for such players would be useful. Perhaps this needs only be that we assign slightly more in City missions before leaving to try and counter this but with Silvermoon rather empty during such events, I think this may end up moving us back to where we started. Also I second Sari's comment on OOC communication, not only will we have more to do if others know what we're looking for but events like this tend to be a hot bed for OOC offence where it's not needed, a heads up to other guild leaders will help with this. Other than those, I really do like the idea and don't think there is much to add without having a go with this format next time and seeing what other issues come up. <3 |
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| Jessiel | Apr 24 2012, 04:36 PM Post #9 |
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For my part, I am fully guilty of this. My apologies for that. I didn't think Borderlands would've suited Jessiel at all as a character, he is no soldier and so focused on my other character (who was in Borderlands). In retrospect, I should've tried to more determinedly find some way to get Jess involved as well, but it also didn't occur to me that one character here or there would've mattered based on the activity of the guild on other events. I'll read through the other bits and comment more, this was saying sorry, yes, I did this! :-/ |
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| Jessiel | Apr 24 2012, 05:33 PM Post #10 |
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I like the outline Rhae has made. Perhaps the lack of activity was partially because many of Office characters (all non-peacekeepers, more or less) are not soldiers and such not so interested of being as another unit in a war. Propaganda, crypto, all of that could be fun to do with Jess. The challenge mostly lies in using these kinds of existing big realm events as framework for our own guild plots and not rely on the "official" plottishness so much. Blackguard/Bladesong faces the same for next two weeks as first there's resupply and then being plagued - I think some minor unofficial plots are in the works. |
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