You’ve already gotten some great advice in this thread. The only thing I would add is that there will come a time when you’ll need to kick someone. I’m sure I’m not the only GM that doesn’t feel awesome about this process. However, it is necessary, especially if you plan to have a guild that progresses.
If you set requirements, make sure that you hold people accountable. One of the quickest ways to lose good players is to let them see you not kick slackers or to see you play favorites. That said, always make sure to remember people have lives. So, have people let you know when they are on vacation/sick, and keep a list.
Speaking of communication, guild chat is incredibly unreliable. So, you should make sure you have reliable outside game communication. I set up a private forum for my guild. Some people use Discord or Facebook. If you want to keep it really simple, you can use a mass PM on this forum.
Lots of great advice here so the only additional thing that I didn’t see mentioned already (though I skimmed so forgive me if I just missed it) would be to setup an additional area for your guild to communicate as communication is key and, sadly, the in-game chat is severely lacking. This could just be your own guild chat page here on the forum or, and this is my personal recommendation, set up a Discord server for your guild. They’re pretty easy to setup, free and easy to maintain.
Other than that, I think the other posters have you covered. Welcome to the wonderful (and sometimes stressful, lol) world of Guild Management. If you ever have any specific questions about running your guild or setting up Discord, feel free to PM me and I’d be glad to help where I can. Good luck and have fun!
Edit: And I immediately noticed after posting that @Ashasekayi mentioned this exact point in her post right above me! Lol. We can all guess who hasn’t had enough coffee today. (This guy)
Have fun! If running the guild gets too stressful then stop. This is meant to be a fun activity to do. You can always choose to step down as guild leader or change the way the guild works.
Thank you, Eso! I was just going to put that in as advice myself, but you said it well.
And… As much as you treasure each person in your Guild, make sure they know it’s still a Guild and everyone is subject to the rules; that if the rules (which would best be agreed upon and well understood by all members) are ignored or violated, that there are and will be consequences.
Sounds a bit mean, but I think you’ll garner more respect for sticking to your guns and showing you can make the hard calls when necessary.
Yup, some fine advice from some fine GMs here. I definitely echo the point where it’ a game and it’s meant to be fun, once it starts becoming a chore that’s where people start losing interest and leaving/complaining etc.
Yes, people have real lives and you should make allowances for people going on vacation, having crunch times at work, family matters etc. If this happens once every couple of months that’s fine, but if it happens way too often (I’ll leave you to be the judge of that) then you need to speak to that person and see what’s going on.
I just started a guild a little over a week ago and wanted to thank @Vanessa202 for creating this thread because the advice put here by everyone is very helpful to me as well as anyone else starting out.
I would also like to thank everyone for posting their advice. I have been in 3 guilds and everything posted here was part of each one and benefited the players as much as the guild itself. Awesome stuff.
Good luck and have fun!
