Month: May 2013

Sneak Peek 2 – Officers!

Kurn / / guide, guild

The other day, I put up a post asking for feedback (thank you!) and allowing you all to download my first sneak peek at a section of my Kick-Ass Guild Master guide. More than 300 downloads later, I thought, hey, why not put up another sneak peek?

So, here you go! Sneak Peek 2 is from my Officer module. It’s all about you, as the guild master, rebuking an officer for a variety of reasons.

http://kurn.apotheosis-now.com/officers-sneakpeek.pdf

And if you’d still like to download the other sneak peek from my How to Recruit module, you can do so here:

http://kurn.apotheosis-now.com/howtorecruit-sneakpeek.pdf

All told, the full guide (which is about two-thirds of the way done) is already over 37,000 words long and covers a variety of situations dealing with setting up the guild (module 1), recruiting for the guild (module 2), officer issues (module 3) and I’m currently working on community management (module 4). Still need to write up how to plan for expansions (module 5) and how to quit without killing your guild (module 6).

If nothing else, this has been a blast to write. Enjoy the sneak peeks and I’ll probably add another one (from community management) next week.

Naming Stuff and Sneak Peek

Kurn / / guide

All righty, I’ve been working on this guide to being a Kick-Ass Guild Master and I find that I need your input on a site name.


survey service

So, please take a second to vote, pretty please! And if you think all of those names suck, please post your suggestions in the comments. :)

And now, here is a sneak preview of a portion of Module 2 of the Kick-Ass GM Guide: How to Recruit. It’s all of Step 3 in the Finding Recruits section.

http://kurn.apotheosis-now.com/howtorecruit-sneakpeek.pdf

Enjoy!

What's New with Kurn

Kurn / / apotheosis, guide, guild, healing, ramblings

Hi, folks! I have had a heck of a weekend, first watching my brother (aka Fog) get married and then skipping his reception to fly to Toronto where I stayed overnight before grabbing a flight to Newark, whereupon Daey and Toga picked me up and then I got dropped off at the lovely golf club where Majik was going to get married — and I was a bridesmaid.

I’ll write up a post later, I’m sure, about meeting Daey, Toga, Dar, Kam and all the others, but I’m still exhausted from my 4 airports, 3 flights and two weddings in the span of 72 hours. (Add 11 hours of sleep in that time span to get a really good idea of how tired I still am.) Short version: Everyone was awesome and excellent and the 21 hours I spent in NY were not enough.

Also, I have a short recording from the post-reception afterparty that I will be using in a super special BONUS episode of Blessing of Frost! It is hilarious and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it.

In the meantime, I’m still writing up that how to be a kick-ass GM guide. Not done yet and I’m at nearly 27,000 words for the whole thing. The first module (about actually starting a guild and getting things in place) is just over 5,000 words and I think most modules average 5,000-7,000 words, although the How to Recruit module is almost 11,000 words and I am still adding to it, because recruitment sucks a LOT.

Anyhow, this is really going to be a complex, in-depth, modular guide and I hope you guys will enjoy reading it and learning from it as much as I’m enjoying writing it.

Oh, speaking of the guide… From this weekend’s post-reception afterparty: Dar told me that Daey was telling her that the only thing I need to include in my guide section about loot is “/roll”. Oh, Football. Never change.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this game called Healer that Megs pointed me to. Dar and I were talking about how we missed healing and I said that this game was really the solution to healing without playing WoW. It’s very, very similar to WoW healing and there’s even an Onyxia-type encounter. Dar ended up playing the game on my iPad post-afterparty for like, 20+ minutes and this game is the sole reason she actually wants a tablet now. (I think the game is only available for iPad, not iPhone or any other platform.) Time to start up a Tabletfordar fund. ;) The game is really neat and I quite enjoy it. Check it out if you have a healing itch. (Note, it’s $4.99, but I think it’s pretty well worth it.)

Okay, I should wrap this up as I have some errands to run and, clearly, lots of guide-related and Blessing of Frost-related work to do! Enjoy your 5.3 patch day, folks. :)

Answer…

Kurn / / guide, guild, ramblings

My previous post asked you guys if you might be interested in a guild master’s guide. The results are in — I got dozens of responses and the majority of them said yes, they would be interested in such a guide, and most of THOSE said they’d pay something for it (although prices varied wildly).

As such, I wanted to let you know that I am now officially working on a guild master’s guide. It will be modular, so you can buy whatever it is you need help with most. There will be samples available before you buy and the cost for each module will be very reasonable, with a bit of a discount if you buy the entire guide at once.

What I’m looking at, as of right now:

– Module 1: Starting (or reorganizing) a guild: goals/timetable of events, rules, structure, policies, loot (if applicable), community.
– Module 2: How to recruit: the entire recruitment process, from A to Z (that’s “zed”, Americans), including a sample application and sample recruitment posts, plus where to recruit AND how (and when) to go that extra mile. (Turnover is also included here.)
– Module 3: Officers: how to choose officers, avoiding drama, what to do with underperformers, how much impact officers should have on the guild’s direction.
– Module 4: Community Management: Troublemakers and dealing with them, cliques, morale, fun events, real-life circumstances, guild alliances/mergers, social media, exposure.
– Module 5: Expansions: How to successfully plan for an expansion (this mostly already exist on the blog, but I’d refine it somewhat).
– Module 6: Passing over leadership without killing your guild: How to quit but let your guild live on.

My NEW question to you guys is if there’s something that’s not covered above, what would you most want covered and in which section would you want it? Or does the topic deserve its own section entirely? Similarly, if there’s anything you think I’ve listed that REALLY doesn’t need to be in the guide, chime in.

(Bear in mind that I’m trying to leave raiding out of it entirely for the moment. I have another idea about maybe writing a raid leader’s guide, even a role officer’s guide, but let’s see how this goes, first. ;))

Feel free to let me know in the comments or via email (kurn [at] apotheosis-now [dot] com) if you want to remain more or less anonymous. With any luck, I’ll have a first draft for all modules done in the next two weeks and then sometime after Majik’s wedding (Blessing of Frost listeners, I WILL TRY TO GET HIM TO SING!), I hope to start releasing stuff. So now’s the time to let me know what you really want to see included!