The Rebuilding Phase

So far, so good - almost a week later and we haven't lost anymore members, got a few applicants, and even have a potential guild merger on the table.

what!?

Guild mergers are scary. Recruiting people is one thing. Starting a new guild is one thing. But taking two full guilds - two websites, two GMs, two entire officer teams, four tanks, too many healers - and smushing them together is an entirely different thing. However, we are one boss away from hitting mythic and, being behind the general populace of mythic raiders, recruitment might end up being tough. Merging might be a necessity rather than an option.

Druids and Dragons

For Christmas we got a board game called Mice and Mystics. It's a game where the players work cooperatively to win against the story and plot laid out in basically a guide book of instructions.

We called it D&D Lite - it comes complete with game pieces, map tiles, playable characters and 'character sheets', and instructions on what to fight and how the dungeon is supposed to be played out.

After completing the first chapter of Mice and Mystics, some of my friends wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons. We had an experienced DM, but the rest of us had never played. Aside from me, none of them had even really been exposed to it before. Over the last week or so, we made up characters, our DM created a campaign and we played for the first time a few days ago.

The Light at The End of The Tunnel

went 5/7H, clearing three new bosses as a guild

We made good progression last night. We had barely raided at all the last few weeks due to the holidays, and the tension has been rife in the air the entire time.

As I've mentioned, my guild's been struggling a bit. It's never a comfortable feeling, and having gone through many similar situations before - two of which caused the ends of my previous guilds - a familiar sense of dread creeps into the picture. We have stabilized since the catalyst implosion and things are looking on the bright side for now. Unfortunately, I've experienced this situation before, too, and it didn't end well last time.

The PUG Stigma

Up until around the middle of Cataclysm, I was always in really good guilds. I had only been in two ever, but they were full of good people who played well. The prospect of a guild group was always better than considering the idea of bringing random strangers. Picking up a pug seemed like a worse option than not even going to the dungeon.

you probably boosted that character

Then, my second ever raiding guild declared that they were no longer raiding and I took a break from the game. The third "guild" I had ever been in came into the picture soon after I returned, and it was the first time that I found myself in a place where a guild group was not guaranteed to be good. The crazy thing was, those players - players I found myself actively avoiding grouping with in favor of pugs - still considered pugs to be poison.

vile creature

Oh Glorious Caturday

Hail, and happy caturday! I've been uploading pictures of my babies on instagram, like millions of other people, so if you want some regular updates on how cute Fishcake and Toonafish are, check them out here.

This post is short, late, and not well constructed! See you Monday!

I'm not sure this even counts as a Caturday post

Professions IRL

Crafting is a pivotal part of any good RPG, MMO or otherwise. Now, that might be open to opinion, but crafting is an incredibly common feature of games, and it's one of my favorite things to do in them. Games that center around crafting and creation are some of my favorites.

this one also has dragons

I enjoyed crafting so much that I started practicing crafts. This started a few years ago, though I've only really started creating worthwhile things recently. I started with bracelets at first, then a year and a half ago I started building models. I got into painting miniatures, I've started to get the hang of leatherworking recently, and I've been dabbling in chainmaille.