April Guild of the Month: Wildfire Riders on Feathermoon

Huge congrats to our second Guild of the Month, the Wildfire Riders of Feathermoon. We combed through all of the entries sent to us over the last 30 days, and the Wildfire Riders came out on top -- not only do they run some exemplary raids, but they are a shining example of fun and interesting RP, and we really enjoyed their one loot rule, too. Read on after the break to find out what it is, and what kind of people make up April's Guild of the Month.

In addition to being featured right here on the site, Wildfire Riders also picks up a raid pack from the good folks at Swagdog.com, who offer hats and t-shirts custom printed with your guild and character information -- the perfect piece of clothing to pack up for BlizzCon later this year. And speaking of BlizzCon, Swagdog tells us that they're going to be there yet again (last year they were giving away custom mousepads), and that they've got some more customized guild gear in the works, so stay tuned. Thanks to them for helping us sponsor this contest -- go head over to their site now to make your own custom guild shirt or hat.

And of course we're now opening up nominations for the May Guild of the Month. To enter, send us an email (no more than 200 words please) to guildofthemonth@gmail.com stating why your guild deserves to win. Please note that you must be from the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) and age 18 or older, as them's the legal rules, and also note that even if you sent us an email last month, you must re-nominate your guild if you want to be considered again. You can send us the same message if you want, but we've got to keep everything current, so please re-send. Official rules are still here, and this month's deadline will be midnight on June 13th.

Wildfire Riders is another small guild (with only about 25 active members), and it's led by Tarquin, Threnn, Delion , Bricu and Chryste/Genise, as well as two players named Ceil and Kuoshiro who are currently taking a break from the game. The guild actually began a few years ago as the result of a server-wide RP event -- there was a player named Uthas taken in by a guild called Greymane Exiles, former inhabitants of Gilneas who decided to support Uthas and what appeared to be his campaign of peace between the Alliance and the Horde. A few months later, after numerous events, fiction on the forums, and even an IRC event, Uthas was unveiled as actually trying to infect both Alliance and Horde with a new Forsaken plague, and in the aftermath of that revelation, Wildfire Riders was formed as former Greymane Exiles turned mercenaries, with their characters all having been betrayed by Uthas and his plot.

The guild organizes events both in game and in real life -- they have a meeting in an ingame tavern (usually the Pig and Whistle) about three times a month, with various NPCs rolled up as lowbies. Their events run the gamut of things you can do ingame: "trials, weddings, pub crawls, boxing tournaments, RP-raids into Old Naxx, murder mysteries, fake deaths and some intra-guild conflict (all in good fun, and often with the Order of the Rose, another excellent Feathermoon RP guild)." Two of the guild's officers also organize a RL event called the West Coast Feathermeet, which for three years now has had the denizens of Feathermoon hanging out, eating BBQ and talking World of Warcraft. If your guild is looking to run a successful event, in or out of game, they recommend being organized: they usually have a script, and while they're ready to part from it if someone else presents a good idea, usually the more structured an event is, the better.

But just because they're RPers doesn't mean they don't raid: Tarquin runs a community called Totally Raids, Inc, which organizes PvE progression both within the guild and on Feathermoon as a whole. They do RP-friendly raids, with characters talking during trash or in between pulls, but they're not casual: they've taken down Sarth 3D and are currently making their way through Ulduar.

The guild has also been notably drama-free, and they say that the goal with drama is always to settle differences respectably and peaceably -- everyone in the guild is an adult, and they all treat each other as such. It probably helps that their size is so limited, and they don't recruit new players. All of their members are recruited slowly -- they might show up to an event and get to know the guildies, and then get invited to an OOC guild chat channel. If they're in there for a while, then the guild asks around if anyone has a problem with that person joining, and if not, they get invited. That way, they can organize big and open events without bringing a lot of unknown people into the guild itself.

And finally, we enjoyed their one and only loot rule: "Don't be a dick," or DBAD, as they call it. They ask everyone in the raid to consider what everyone else wants and needs when rolling, and usually a /random 100 roll is enough to deal out gear fairly. People who aren't big on theorycrafting are pushed towards people who are, so that none of the classes is begging for a piece they really shouldn't have. And we're told that anyone who obsesses about loot is given a /gkick early on anyway -- anyone in the raid for themselves doesn't belong in the raid.

It sounds like a terrific guild, from the in-depth RP to the high-quality raiding, all pretty much drama free. Congrats to Wildfire Riders on being awarded our April Guild of the Month! And of course if you think your guild is worthy of being spotlighted next month, send your 200-word nomination in now to guildofthemonth@gmail.com.