Brave Companions :: GUILDPOLICIES

Brave Companions Guild Policies & Guidelines

Introduction
The Brave Companions are a group of gamers that traces our roots back several years as friends and family sharing our hobby across a mix of gaming.

We played our first MMO with Dark Age of Camelot but did not set deeper roots until City of Heroes. There we expanded. We played in a super group known as the Sentinels until World of Warcraft was released.

We were drawn into WoW where the first Brave Companions incarnation of our group was formed on the Horde side of Whisperwind. We had a grand time but ultimately found ourselves undersized for end game and merged with another group. Most did not enjoy the mentality of the new environment and our group of friends and family attritioned away.

With few of us left at the end of 2005, we planned to pull together the lessons learned from our experiences, bring everyone back, and start anew. The Brave Companions on the Alliance side of Draka were born. We are an original Draka guild, and one of the few still running today.

On Draka, we built a solid and enjoyable community. We grew organically and successfully. We progressed into end game content and for nearly 3 years, from Zul’Gurub to Sunwell, we were near the forefront of server progression while keeping the close-knit friends and family atmosphere.

In September of 2008, we chose to forgo further end game progression on the grounds that fulfilling our community vision and maintaining progression had become mutually exclusive. We spent a few months taking it easy, playing other games, and exploring Warhammer Online. Warhammer was not to be our new home though, and we returned to our roots with Wrath of the Lich King.

Our goal is to maintain ourselves as a mature, active, fun-loving group coming together under the bond of our gaming hobby. We seek to be an organization where community comes first, yet we are able to sustain a high quality of success. We are neither casual nor hardcore. We seek to be only what we are, that is real people with real lives who are skilled gamers wanting to have a good time together. Many lasting friendships have been forged under our banner, and we have enjoyed two incredible guild trips to Mexico and Six Flags Chicago.

If you are interested in joining our community, please see our recruitment forums. We are always looking for people that share our approach to gaming.

Code of Conduct
Brave Companions strives towards a drama-free environment. Members will not use public forums (i.e. message boards, trade chat, private channels, etc.) to post, respond to, or provoke drama. Moreover, we will extend this courtesy to other guilds. Matters of public concern will be handled by guild leadership. We are not trying to censor our members; we want players in our guild who are not inclined to engage in server-drama.

We expect our membership to act with maturity and respect. Whether in text or voice chat, using excessive foul, discriminatory, or otherwise offensive remarks is not tolerated. On voice chat, please be aware that others may have family in the background.

We expect our membership to work for the good of the guild and each other. We promote taking time to help each other with whatever others may need. When you carry our guild name, you represent all of us, and we expect folks to conduct themselves accordingly in a positive manner.

Inevitably, tempers flare and players disagree or misunderstand one another. What helps define a quality guild experience is resolving conflict constructively. Should something negative happen that requires attention, we ask that you immediately contact an Officer. We will do our best to respond quickly, understand the situation, and deal with it appropriately.

Membership Removal
We plan our recruitment to obtain quality people and screen out those that do not believe in or adhere to our values. Inevitably, removal action is sometimes required.

Inactivity
After approximately a month of unplayed time, a member may be subject to removal. If you know you will be taking an extended leave, please contact an Officer in advance. Members in good standing removed for inactivity that return can contact an Officer for re-invitation. Needing to step away from gaming to handle other important pursuits or events is never considered a problem in our guild.

Poor Conduct
Members breaking the tenements of our Code of Conduct, disrespecting others, displaying greediness, undermining our goals or values, or otherwise generally shaming our good name are subject to immediate removal. Depending on the logistics of any given incident, leadership shall decide the appropriate response.

Guild Ranks
Guild ranks and responsibilities are defined as follows with all ranks having the responsibility of contributing to the good nature and success of the guild. Ranks are determined by attendance and request.

To secure the Raider title a player must apply via the guild forums. To maintain Raider status we require a player to maintain 75% attendance over the 90 days prior to the raid, or the character's lifetime in the guild, whichever is less. Given our current raid schedule of twice a week, this would work out to 6 raids in a month. Occasionally exceptions to this will have to be made; however, this is the sole discretion of guild leadership. Monthly attendance checks will be performed. Should a player fall below the 75% required attendance, they will be demoted to Reserve. Should a player fall below 50% they will be demoted to Veteran.

Guild Master
The Guild Master is responsible for communicating general policies, procedures, and direction within the guild. Responsibilities include managing technical infrastructure, recruiting and roster management, resolution conflict, event coordination, and so on.

Officer
Officer responsibilities mirror the Guild Master in terms of setting the direction of guild decisions, recruiting, managing infrastructure, resolution conflict, event coordination, and so on. Officers may be delegated specific tasks or responsibilities.

Raider
Raiders are recognized members of the guild. They are given full rights of play, access to the resources of the guild, and have priority in raid seats and loot distribution.

Reserve
Reserves are fully recognized members of the guild. They are given full rights of play, and access to the resource of the guild. They are second on the priority list for raid seats and loot.

Veteran
Veterans are members of the guild who approach the game more casually. They have access to the resources of the guild bank insofar that a need hasn't been shown by a raider or reserve for an item. They will be considered last when forming a raid, and are third on the priority list.

Initiate
Initiates are newly joined players to the guild. A player may spend several weeks as an Initiate before being evaluated for full membership. We encourage Initiates to be active, get to know us, and let us get to know you to ensure there is a good fit. Initiates displaying conduct not conducive to the policies, goals, or values of the guild are quickly dismissed.

Raiding
25-man content is the focus for Brave Companions. We are not a competitive progression guild. We will endeavour to complete all current end-game content, but do so in such a way that is congruent with our goals, community and available time.

Group Composition
Priority in raid groups is based on:
a) Building a balanced group. We need a certain number of healers, tanks, and dps.
b) Guild Rank. Raiders will be taken ahead of reserves, who will be taken ahead of veterans.
c) Responding to the in-game calendar. All other things being equal, if reserve A accepts the invitation and reserve B doesn't reply to the invitation, and both show, and both fill the same role, reserve A will be given priority.
d) Performance. Underperforming raiders will be sat for better performing raiders on new content and difficult fights regardless of B and C above.

Looting Practices
25-man raids:
Brave Companions utilizes the EPGP system addon. For more information visit the website www.epgpweb.com . In sum, the system awards Effort Points for completed encounters. Each item has a Gear Point associated with it. The division of these two numbers ( ep/gp ) produces a priority ranking number which is used to determine an individual's entitlement to an item.

Each guild rank, save for Initiate, is free to accumulate EP and spend on gear. Gear will be awarded in order of guild rank priority. Raiders - Reserve - Veteran - Initiate. This means that the highest priority raider will be given an item ahead of reserves and veterans, even if one of the reserves and veterans has a higher raw priority in the EPGP system.

The following limits have been placed within the system:
Min EP = 2500. This is the value a member must exceed in order to be considered for loot. This value functions as an attendance check and a preventative measure where new members need to meet this value before they can loot an item.

Base GP = 400. The Base GP value is implemented to prevent new members or inactive members from monopolizing loot systems with a standard GP of 1, thus giving them an incredibly high priority.

A more detailed explanation of these limitations is available here.

When entering the raid force as an Initiate the following sanctions apply: An Initiate will be unable to accumulate EP for a period of two weeks while their personality and skill are under review. After the two-week trial period is over they will be able to accumulate EP but start at 0. GP for items given in the trial period will still be counted. This is done in an attempt to normalize their starting position in the system.

EP will be awarded according to the following:

25-man (normal): 500 per kill. 750 per first kill. 1000 per first kill of end-boss. 750 per end-boss kill.

25-man (heroic): 650 per kill. 900 per first kill. 1150 per first kill of end-boss. 900 per end-boss kill.

GP deductions are handled accordingly:
25-man current tier (ICC right now): Main spec items will cost the GP value which the add-on provides. Off-spec items will not cost GP. The rationale is that an individual's main spec priority should not be hindered for an item which is likely to see very limited use. Furthermore, items which are handed out as off-spec are done so only as a last resort before DE

25-man previous Tier (ToC/Ony): Half the value in the mod for mainspec, no cost for off-spec.

Tier Tokens
Tier tokens are open to all those who are eligible to receive items within a raid. The only stipulation being that we ask those rolling for the item to have, in their possession, enough emblems to turn-in for their set piece that night. If the set piece would represent a clear upgrade for the individual, but they are still a few emblems short (and they could be collected during a following raid, or running the heroic daily) then an exception may be made. This is at the discretion of guild leadership.

Tier 10 armor tokens will cost players 250GP

Trophies of the Crusade will cost players 100GP.

10-man raids: We will roll on items during 10 man raids. If you win a contested roll, you will not be able to win another contested roll that evening.

Crafting Materials
High-end crafting materials (epic gems, Crusader Orbs, Primordial Saronite, etc) will be directly deposited into the guild bank. These items are available to players to use to craft the high-end pattern drops. Should a player wish to avail of this, s/he must make contact with a member of the guild leadership who will review the request. The granting or denial of these materials is the discretion of guild leadership.

Patterns will always remain in the guild should pick-up members be required to facilitate a raid’s formation. The items are to be made available to guild members at no additional cost beyond what the materials cost. That is to say, one member should not profit from crafting an item which the entire guild assisted in acquiring.

Limited Intelligent Distribution
Limited Intelligent Distribution (LID) exists in our system as a core element of our historical success. To that end, and notwithstanding the rules above, guild leadership reserves the right to restrict or direct items when it benefits the raid effort. Players do pay GP cost for directed items.

A final aspect of LID is tank priority. If deemed worthwhile by guild leadership, EPGP exceptions may be made to strengthen lead tanks. Tanking oriented loot may thus be directed to lead tanks without them having the highest priority value for the item. When possible, such items are communicated in advance.

Miscellaneous

Colors & Standards
The guild colors are gray, white, and blue. The guild symbol is an eagle. All guild tabards, insignias, and such are designed in such a way as to match these standards.

Alts
We do allow multiple characters per player into our rosters. They are designated as a special alt rank and tied to their main with a player note. We ask that you please do not fill the rosters with unplayed alts as they make the rosters unmanageable. Alt characters unplayed for more than a few weeks may be removed without notice. Should you wish to play that alt again, a re-invitation is always available.

We do not allow alternate characters to raid. Should a player wish to switch their main character they may do so under the following sanctions: Players will lose all accumulated EP to that point (there will be no transference). The player will keep their existing GP. Additionally, the new main must have gear appropriate to begin raiding the content (i.e., all the triumph badge pieces to start ToC/ICC).

Closing Comments
Above all, please remember these are games we play. Each of us plays and pays to have fun and enjoy our hobby. These are also games of deep social interaction and require a group of people working together constructively to be successful. When each member makes the effort and takes active personal measures to make the Brave Companions a quality guild, we all benefit.