Roleplay & Raiding - Never Go Full Gnome

New Blaugust entry!

Back when I was playing Everquest, leading a guild on Quellious, putting together raids and whatnot, we had the sweetest little guild.  The Adventurer's League of Norrath (TALON).  I didn't come up with the name, my old buddy Brian (Briak) did, and along with his friend Ken (Korak), we founded the guild pretty much right after Quellious went live.  Starting out on Rallos Zek at launch, we were fed up with getting ganked and having our gear looted, so with a new server came a new start.

We had decided we wanted to be a mature family type of setup, roleplay was encouraged, and to get into the guild a new invite had to speak at a guild meeting and tell the story of their character.  It didn't have to be anything long and drawn out.  Just as much or as little as you wanted to put into your character's story, you could do it.

As our guild grew, we were able to take on more content as a guild only.  Without pickups.  You have all been there.  Small guild with some growing pains, looking to enjoy more of the game.  At the time I was mostly playing Tyluroth K`Tarl, my Dark Elven warrior.  Blademaster to Naythos (spell it how you like) Thex, King of the Teir'Dal, Secret Head of the Dark Brotherhood, /cough /gag /splutter.. you get the idea.  Ty was able to tank in some raids.  Our guild was interested in working through Kael Drakkel, so I'd planned a raid for us.

You know how it is to get 20 people in one place at the right time to plan anything in an online game.  It's like herding cats.  From a roleplay perspective, I didn't do any during raids while instructions were done and pulls going on.  I did not want to leave room for miscommunication.  Everyone had their assignments and things were going well until......

Coryn the Gnome (her last name escapes me) decided to go "Full Gnome" on us.  Coryn was a member of my guild, one of our early members.  Along with her boyfriend and their friend they were part of our core group.

It was shortly after we'd got into a rhythm with pulls, Coryn decided to wander off in search of treasure.  Surely the giants of Kael Drakkel just had it lying around gathering dust.  As soon as one fight was complete, while we were regaining mana, I noticed she wandered off.  She soon came back with 2 or 3 giants and was like "Oh my!  Lookie what found me!"

We all had a good chuckle after we tightened up our bootstraps and began to rest up for the next pull.  All of a sudden, here she is again with more mobs!  Well this time I knew something was up.  I sent her a tell to discuss and kindly asked that she stopped doing that.  She replied in character that she was "Looking for treasure!"  I'd still hoped she got the message, however.

Next pull, she goes off and pulls MORE at the same time.  I'd had enough, and sent a tell to her boyfriend who was in the raid with us.  He was all "That's Coryn doing her thing."  At this point, I had no choice but to call the raid over.  After some heated discussions afterwards in which it was put back on me that TALON  was an RP guild and she shouldn't be punished for roleplaying, I removed her from the guild.

This was the beginning of the end of our little group as we knew it.  Because Coryn decided to go "Full Gnome" and stay "Full Gnome" it ruined the enjoyment of several others.  And things were never the same for me in Everquest after this.