I am interested in joining a PVP/RP guild but have not found one I have quite fit in to yet. I have always enjoyed the thought of starting my own guild and wanted to know if anyone else was in the same boat.
If anyone is interested in starting an RP/PVP guild (I am open to any concepts for theme), let me know because we might be able to do it together.
Just going to be honest, but being from a RP-PvP guild I can tell you that Moon Guard isn’t a very friendly server for that playstyle. Most of the roleplay community cringes away from PvP and if your RP-PvP is geared towards the Horde, they are going to cringe away even more.
I don’t understand it, there should be room for all, but it is what it is on this server.
Seconded.
The complete aversion to everything PvP in favor of D20 has made this server unfriendly to those who want RP-PvP.
And they’ll tell you “well d20 is more fair!” and other things, but they ignore that PvP is just more interesting to some than looking at numbers roll and emote battling.
If you want RP-PvP, Season of Mastery does come out on Tuesday, so roll on Mutanus, the unofficial RP-PvP server. I’m sure you’ll find more RP-PvP than on Moon Guard.
RPPvP guilds are rare on MG. Good luck!
I feel like it was something that was more accessible in the past before rating gates on PvP gear were a thing, though the RP community has indeed been shying away from anything other than pure RP and roll systems for a long time now. I too miss the days of big server RP-PvP; but as others have stated, I doubt it’ll ever return in its previous form. Perhaps you could create a guild that becomes home to a niche group who are open to it. Still might be a tall order though.
In any case, good luck if you decide to push forward.
I am someone who would love to be part of a RP-PvP guild but sadly have not found much of it present on MG. I remember once thinking that the PvP event someone advertised for was actual PvP - imagine my surprise when I realized that the PvP was just different ways to /roll.
Good luck to you, though. I really hope your will be successful in your quest… and if you do get the guild up and running, or come across other RP-PvP guilds (that actually PvP instead of using roll systems) I’d love to know!
Rp-pvp was one of the reasons i originally wanted to get into rp haha, imagine my disappointment when even faction wars were being done in roll systems
I would love to see more RP-PvP, as I’ve never enjoyed roll combat and have always thought that RP in WoW functions best when working alongside gameplay elements, rather than trying to superimpose tabletop elements onto it. It may seem like a lost cause, but there is definitely interest out there, as evidenced by this very thread.
I wanted to elaborate a little more on my previous post with more specifics about the difficulties that RP-PvP faces as a concept.
I feel as though the scene began to truly suffer with the advent of sharding to prevent zones from becoming overwhelmed during expansion launches or world events. Prior to sharding, big server RP-PvP campaigns could be executed with the knowledge that all participants would be in the same phase and able to take part. Sharding, while necessary in many ways, directly impacted this and fragmented participants in a way that effectively killed these kinds of campaigns.
In addition, from my recollection, there were always issues with coordination. On many occasions, groups would bring more or less than the agreed-upon amount of people. Participants and/or trolls who were not a part of the main group would often interfere. Even when campaigns went off relatively smoothly, there were a lot of questionable things going on and suspicions of bad faith. I say that as someone who took part in a few of these events myself. It was difficult enough to manage such large groups of people across the faction barrier as it was, but these challenges made it that much harder.
Of course, there are always issues when it comes to gearing. While gear is somewhat within the realm of control, a more serious issue of class balance tends not to be. Another large part of RP-PvP is usually dueling, and everyone who has ever PvP’ed knows that PvP is not at all balanced for 1v1. Both of these issues interfere with how strong players feel their characters should be and outright give ridiculous advantages or disadvantages in many cases.
Many RPers have taken to envisioning their characters as being more than what game mechanics can represent. This goes a bit hand-in-hand with the previous point, but it’s worth mentioning on its own that there are a lot of people who don’t like to be limited by the game itself for better or worse.
Lastly, the general attitudes of the greater PvP and RP communities often mix about as well as oil and water. There is definitely overlap as evidenced by the replies to this thread, but a large proportion of each side simply wants nothing to do with the other.
Now, all of this doesn’t mean that D20 and roll systems are perfect. On the contrary, there is plenty wrong with them. If you ask me, too much is left up to good faith in character representation, reasonable limits, being open to losing, or showing weakness in freeform combat. D20 itself is too random in many cases and often creates ridiculous outcomes when the dice decide to be particularly unkind. Many attempt to use complex systems of modifiers, established abilities, points, bad luck protection, and bonuses to mitigate this; but it’s still a challenge to make work even in the best of circumstances.
So yeah, it’s a messy topic. I for one love PvP and RP-PvP myself while still recognizing these issues. If any of you who are interested in starting something up take the plunge and give it a try, just keep all of these issues in mind as you build your community. Maybe do what you can to minimize some of the problems like running arenas and RBGs to keep everyone on the same footing gearwise. Maybe don’t lean too heavily into dueling as a main form of competition and instead play around with wargames (if that’s even still a thing…not sure if it is) to allow people to play to the strengths of their classes and abilities in a more-appropriate group setting.
Anyway, rant over. Soapbox relinquished. Just a little food for thought. 
I love RP-PvP, there used to be a few guilds/events based on that theme back on ED during mists/wod.
Felt like diferent shards for War mode on/off and cross realm ruined the possibility but it used to fun having a base out in the world and having to activelly defend it from invaders etc through PvP.
I totally support the idea, we need more RP-PvP guilds and would join if u make it (unless it is super elvish fluffy stuff, then I’m out)
Thank you everyone for your advice and opinions. I would still love to start a guild at some point, but it might not be PVP/RP based on how MG tends to take to these types of guilds. I need to obviously brainstorm some themes and ideas to base the guild around, but I am excited to try it in the future
I honestly can’t add any more to what the others have stated. Other than good luck on the guild
In my experience at least, world PvP died long before sharding. In Vanilla, Hillsbrad and the Crossroads were basically round-the-clock battlegrounds (even on PvE servers) and city raids were a regular occurrence. Battlegrounds and arenas chipped away at it, and PvP gradually became an elite scene with huge gaps between casual and hardcore players and many RPers understandably lost interest. I wasn’t around when sharding started, but it sounds like that was the coup de grace. I don’t think War Mode helps either, because it further encourages the all-or-nothing divide between PvEers/RPers and PvPers and keeps PvP from being part of the living world for people who don’t necessarily want to participate in it.
There’s definitely still interest, but it needs to be more organized now to work. You have to put RP first and PvP second. In Vanilla on my original server (Cenarion Circle, anyone?) we had a group called the Alliance Defense League, which would respond to threats on WorldDefense and have weekly IC meetings. It was really a blast and ended up spurring a lot of server-wide RP.
This honestly sounds amazing and I wish you guys were around Stormwind City for the past days with the endless camping of NPCs. I always run in WM, even on my lowbies, so it’s always a little jarring to be one-shot while browsing the auction house until I realize… durr 
Anyway! Sounds like a fun group that you were a part of ^^
This statement highlights something else that makes RP-PvP difficult. The thing is, a lot of people I knew who participated in MG’s golden days of server RP-PvP campaigns would see this kind of thing as less RP and more just random world PvP that tends more toward the OOC. Years ago I spent a little time trying out Emerald Dream as a server, and the sentiment there was closer to what you describe. There were regular attacks on various outposts and big cities; and both sides would go all out zerging each other, bringing a small IC element into it with yells of “for the Horde” and “for the Alliance” and whatnot. There was some IC interaction before and after these fights, but it didn’t usually go deeper than chest pounding enthusiasm for war and killing the other faction. Hell, the early days of MG back in 2007 had some of this as well. I have my own fond memories of guilds like Couriers of Compassion defending Sylvanas down in Undercity from giant raid groups of Alliance when I was still a wee, inexperienced little rogue. However over time, the RP-PvP scene DID become more organized. Random world attacking and defending became seen more as an OOC, purely-PvP thing. Instead community and guild leaders began to set up campaigns that put the stories and settings first as you mentioned. But then, all of the challenges I mentioned before sprang up and brought that time to an end.
As for war mode, I feel like a lot of the same thing happened back in the day when flagging was the way to initiate world PvP. A lot of people would stand around and do nothing when they saw red names come rolling in. Others would bluewall, i.e. wait unflagged until an opportune moment to then attack from that unflagged state so they’d get the first hit and therefore the advantage. There were those who would flag up and fight legitimately, and it WAS easier and more seamless than having to go to SW to flag up or not seeing those players at all because of the separate modes.
I guess the point of all this is to say that promoting more world PvP and more RP-PvP don’t necessarily mean the same thing. There are obviously a lot of parts that overlap, but there are many parts that don’t. If you and other motivated individuals in this thread decide to push to encourage more world PvP and RP-PvP events/guilds, just know that a lot of RPers these days don’t see joining random world fights or zergs as attractive ways of furthering their characters’ stories. Not to yuck your yum or anything. Just something to keep in mind and a point I remember being heavily discussed in the past especially as it pertains to how servers like ED (with their more world PvP and zerging focus) and MG (with its more campaign-oriented focus) tend to function.
If you or others end up making this please let me know. Moon Guard used to have a huge RP-PVP scene in the Cata-MOP days. Those massive PVP battles in RP campaigns were some of the most fun I’ve ever had on the server! Anyway if you end up making it, add me, I’d love to help!
bnet: CapnBen#1309
discord: Bibi#7240
You’re right that in the golden days of world PvP it wasn’t about RP for most people. My point was just that world PvP was more common and more RPers enjoyed it. For pure RP-PvP you definitely have to put story first and organize things ahead of time with people on both factions, but that’s how it always was. I remember, for example (I’ll never stop reminiscing about Vanilla because I was a kid and it was magical and everything was perfect), a big attack on Feathermoon Stronghold that was organized on the forums (like everything was back then), which was part of a long, server-wide storyline. RP would lead to PvP and vice versa and everything was open to the public. It may have been easier on a smaller server with more of a community feel, and the fracturing of server communities on private websites and then Discords probably didn’t help either.
There was also an incredible amount of lag that made meaningful participation in such events extremely difficult, but mostly we were just happy to be there.