ORIGIN:

The Black Company is loosely based on "The Black Company" mercenary group as depicted in the Fantasy Novel series of the same name by Glen Cook. This series was read by several guild members and comes highly recommended. The definition of The Black Company can be summarized in the motto.

MOTTO:

“There are no self-proclaimed villains, only regiments of self-proclaimed saints. Victorious historians rule where good or evil lies. We abjure labels. We fight for money and an indefinable pride. The politics, the ethics, the moralities, are irrelevant. We confess the illusion and deny the substance.” – from: The Black Company – by Glen Cook

PHILOSOPHY:

1. Remain a small guild where everyone knows everyone else.

2. Provide enough of a guild player base that would allow us to enjoy all of the game content of Vanguard. Basically, it would be nice if we had just enough players where on any given night you could log in and muster up a guild group to accomplish something.

3. We are casual gamers …in other words … we don’t have to be the first to get to the end game (Not necessarily last either) but we would like to get there eventually.

4. Our guild is more about presence and community rather than dog eat dog to get to the top. It’s a hobby and meant to be relaxing. Death happens … it’s part of the adventure.


GOALS:

a. Boat(s) "Yar !"
b. Housing
c. Mounts/Flying Mounts
d. Craft Unique items
e. Exploration
f. Power through Knowledge
g. Status
h. Strong Diplomatic Relations
i. and of course Have Fun Playing and enjoy each other’s company in game.

MEMBERSHIP, RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION:

1. All Charter Members are automatically officers unless they do not wish to be officers. In said case, they will be Elder Members.

2. All Members That Joined in the Charter Week (1 Feb 07 to 7 Feb 07) are Elders.

3. NEW RECRUITS: Possible New Members must be sponsored by a guild member. The prospective recruit must adventure with a guild group (at least 3 guildies) at least once. It is the sponsor's responsibility to make this happen. Once this has been accomplished, someone other than the sponsor may move to vote the individual into the guild as an initiate member. The motion must be seconded by another member (someone other than the sponsor or the person initiating the motion). The recruit will be accepted into the guild on a majority vote from all members on-line at the time. There must be AT LEAST 5 Guildies on-line to intiate such a vote. Once accepted, the new recruit will be an initiate member for a period of 2 weeks. It is the duty of the Sponsor to introduce the new member to the guild and to help them get set up on the message board and on Ventrillo if the new member owns a headset or wishes to participate in voice communication. Upon completion of this initiation period the recruit will become a full member as long as there are no objections from any regular guild members. If there are objections during this period by any regular guild members, the reason in question will be discussed with the person objecting and the guild officers and guild leader. If, upon discussing the objection, the person making such an objection has a valid point, the new recruit will be confronted with the objection and given an opportunity to explain their perspective. After said review, the guild officers and guild leader will review the information and vote on the issue. If the objection is warranted, the new recruit will be dismissed from the guild. If the issue is serious enough, said recruit will be banned from any further attempts at joining the guild, otherwise said recruit may attempt to join the guild again at a later date after a probationary period of no less than 21 days. *** A unanimous vote by all officers or the judgement of the guild leader can veto ANY membership vote. ***

3a. ALTS: Alternate Characters - As a generalization we prefer people not have alternate characters for the following reasons:

3a1. Conflict of Interest - your Alt may be in another guild and your time spent playing your character is now in dispute between the two guilds. Also, some unscrupulous individuals use Alts as a method of stealing or spying on other guilds. This will simply not be tolerated in our guild.

3a2. Time/Character Development: It's hard enough to level 1 character, let alone two or more. To be able to keep pace with the progress of the guild and of the game as a whole, it is in the best interest of the player and the guild to focus on one character that they learn to play well. Sharing your time between multiple characters can take precious opportunity away from the guild in respect to goals. (i.e. Say we are training up crafters to make boats and your character is on track and you have volunteered to train up in Blacksmithing to help produce a critical piece of the final product. Everyone else is focused and gets trained to the appropriate level at a certain time. You are dividing your time between characters and as a result you don't reach your goal level at a certain date to be able produce the critical item. You just screwed the efforts of the entire guild in accomplishing the goal and wasted everyone elses time.)

Exception:We understand and we are not saying that you cannot have Alts as many people enjoy playing multiple characters for a variety of reasons. We simply ask that in doing so you adhere to the following compromise: 1. If you join our guild you are joining our guild as the player hence, all characters on the server on which you join either need to join our guild in order to avoid a conflict of interest with other guilds or all characters other than your primary must remain unguilded with only your primary joining our guild. (or don't tell us about your alts, BUT be aware that there are ways to find out if you have alts, AND IF those alts are in other guilds then you will be dismissed from the guild.)

4. Game Attendance: We as a guild do not require you to play any specific amount of time but we do ask that you devote at least a few hours a week to playing with us and to attend guild events. What purpose does it serve either of us for you to be in the guild otherwise.

If a character is found to not have been played for a period of 14 days, said character (player) will be contacted on this message board via a post in THE BARRACKS and a PM on this board. Said player will also be contacted via e-mail if they decide to share it with us when they join the guild. We will inquire into your absence. If after 28 days a player has not been in game, all characters associated with said player will be dismissed from the guild. If said player/character comes back after the 28 days, they may petition the guild to be reinstated pending an explanation of the absence. If you anticipate an absence of longer than a week (i.e. vacation, emergency, deployment, etc.), please let someone in the guild know in game, via PM or post it in THE BARRACKS on this message board. We completely understand that LIFE happens and sometimes things are out of your control. We all have families, children, pets, duties, and responsibilities outside the game which for the majority of us take presedence over the game. In short, please stay in touch and talk with your guildies.

COMMUNICATION:
With ever evolving technology and complexity of today's games, we feel that communication is key to running a succesful guild. As a result our guild has adopted Ventrilo as our prefered means of communication in game. We understand that not everyone may be comfortable with voice communication, you may have technical difficulties running Ventrilo or you may not have the financial resources at your disposal to be able to purchase a decent headset. As a result we are not making Ventrilo mandatory.

Thanks to one of our charter members (aka Spryte) we have a dedicated Ventrilo server to facilitate more efficient communication. So, if you have the means to get a headset, we would ask that you participate in Ventrilo chat with your guildies. It is a great tool that frees up much of your attention that can now be devoted to paying attention to what happens on screen instead of fumbling around the keyboard during combat attempting to tell someone you are about to get eaten by a giant squirelle. Please see the Ventrilo Post on this message board in the Guild Announcement section for server setup instructions.


CODE OF CONDUCT:

1. DON'T BE A POOPY HEAD !

2. No loot whores ... you can be a slut sometimes, just don't go Pro.

3. If you have gear that someone in the guild can use, offer it to guildies first before you sell it on the Broaker or to a Merchant.

4. Guildies first !

5. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

6. Don't Violate the EULA (Especially buying and selling loot/gold for RL money: This especially will not be tolerated)



Thank you for taking the time to read our guild charter. The charter is an ever evolving thing (like MMOs) and is revised as needed. Good Day and Happy Adventures. - Envoy Snaqxs Runecake, The Captain, The Kilted Gnome, Tank Wizard, Leader of The Black Company