The Pyrewood Racket
We are a heavy rp guild focusing specifically on criminal roleplay. The theme falls within organized crime but we are not white collar crime—it’s not intended to be glamorous!
Active mostly in the evenings/at night.
Aiming to create and remain involved in as much organic RP as possible.
Members should be comfortable with dark themes, tension and conflict in story.
18+ ONLY - this is non-negotiable, both for the player and the IC characters themselves.
For more in depth information/breakdowns: pyrewood.shivtr.com
We are both recruiting and looking to have more organic interaction with other crime guilds/groups!
Points of Contact:Elizabeth Howard (Tendentious, GM)Tommy Warwick (Jaelor or Cõrvus, Co-GM)Josie Fox (Josiefox)
IC Hooks
With criminal RP it’s not practical to be lingering around with banners and yelling out advertisements. We do however make use of assumed reputations, IC rumors, and the like to open the door to being approached!
Note: This is to open up interaction, but would not be solid evidence to be used against everyone, by guards or the like.
The name 'Pyrewood Racket' isn't entirely unknown in Stormwind. Prior to the three years of peace they had been present. While they don't openly confess to their activities, they're recognizable at times by tabards and the like. The Racket largely withdrew from Stormwind during the three years of peace, and returned 'recently'.
Some individuals may have their names associated with the Racket, by rumor, reputation, visibly having worn the tabard, or business.
Josie Fox has been the host of the Racket Rumble since its start. Josie's also among the more upbeat members, often around in the city and interacting with a number of people. In addition to this she's a known tattoo artist and a go-to when someone asks for a fence.
Elizabeth and Samuel Howard are names that might be known through other old Gilnean rebels, and simply for the fact the Howard family seems to run the show.
Lachesis Evermourn (more commonly known as Key) spent the three years in the city, continuing to represent the Racket as well as continuing her ongoing business in totally legal substances™ such as dusts (for the shady types, she's a recognizable dealer, in short).
OOC Information
RP Styles & Disclaimers
As mentioned above, this is not white collar crime, nor is it intended to portrayed as a glamorous lifestyle ICly. Our RP is intended to focus on realistic criminal activity and themes, interwoven with the fantasy aspects of the game. Naturally magic always has and always will play a role in the WoW universe, and as such we make good use of that. While a universe with magic provides the potential for better recovery/healing through the use of that magic, it doesn't make the criminals themselves anymore stable or 'safe'. Just as it would be in the real world, anyone getting involved in a criminal organization is by default putting themselves at substantial risk for harm. It's important to recognize that a criminal guild will not be having pillow fights on Friday nights.The following themes can appear in this kind of RP:
• Horror writing/scenes
• Gore
• Manipulation
• Mutilation
• Brutality/Cruelty
• Psychological instability/mental health issues
• Death/Murder/Suicide (rare on that last one, but you never know)
• Torture
• Physical/emotional/verbal abuse
• Substance abuse & addiction
• Prostitution
Realism in crime:
• Discipline is not like a write up at work. It can range from verbal telling off to beatings, mutilations, or the like.
• Broken moral compass means a potential for complete lack of ‘fairness’. Fair ultimately ends up being what the boss or officer has made it, essentially.
• Acceptance of consequences is expected. This doesn’t just mean internally. If you’re caught in public, start a fight, or something like that, we don’t want our guildies arguing or dodging consequence OOCly. Keep it as IC as possible. Coordinate OOCly if you prefer to avoid more severe outcomes, people are usually happy to work with you.
• If a criminal organization wants to stay afloat they can’t hand off information to every single fresh recruit. Different ranks have different access to information and relevant rp. If you’re the type that prefers immediate access to everything and anything ICly on day one, this may not be the guild for you.
• Criminals are unstable. Conflict and abrupt reactions don’t always have to make sense.
• Arguing with a higher up, calling out leadership decisions, arguing how things are run, insulting members and so on can all result in outright attack. Bear this in mind!
Availability & Scheduling
In general we're looking for people that are around fairly frequently to create a fluid organic environment and story with some level of consistency.As mentioned above our primary times of activity are evenings and nights, as is the case with most of the server.
When it comes to events, however, our days of choice aren’t generally particular. More often than not we’ll check for interest first and then schedule based on the availability of those interested in participating. This is to ensure as many people can make it as is possible, though it’s not always perfect.
If a fresh recruit is offline for 2 weeks, they may immediately be removed.
Who we're looking for?
We've taken our time refining our systems, as our guild is the result of a recent overhaul and revamp. This is the first time we're more open recruiting rather than selectively here or there. We're interested in players/writers that are interested in being involved in the early stages of story while the Racket is trying to properly 'establish' itself in the city. Early recruits may be involved in the developmental stages of the larger organization/guild. We take member ooc input into consideration when we're refining our systems and set up, rather than a strict leadership only system.The core of this guild is a group of people with an OOC investment not only in the guild itself, but in working together as friends. As stories change, it’s not uncommon to see us further organizing fresh story to keep the same players included. We are not looking for guild hoppers or the types that treat a guild like a revolving door (leaving and returning repeatedly).
If you want to check us out before committing to joining, just let us know you’d like to rp around us and get a feel for us. We can easily accommodate that, even in event environments if we know it’s needed!
Guild Goals
Our biggest goal has always been and will always be the facilitation of criminal roleplay in an organic setting as often as possible. In the past there have been times during which several criminal organizations were active simultaneously in the city. Over the years it's dwindled, but we would love to see this genre of rp thrive again. It is with this goal in mind that we're constantly looking for ways to help support this.We do spend time in the city for this and have also hosted events in the city to make things as organic as we can.
In addition to the broader goal, internally we maintain the goal of helping facilitate character development for our members as much as we can. We allow any and all members to post and/or host events/jobs with the guild. Personal plots are simply labeled as such at times and something akin to a ‘help wanted’ poster can even be worked up, should someone ask for it.
Food For Thought: Crime RP
This is by no means 'mandatory' to read to join our guild, just a little snippet for folks to think on if they'd like to read it.In general, the way criminal rp is handled can vary pretty heftily. If we remove ourselves from the glammed up versions and consider it within real world settings, it’s much different.
If you look at the expectations like loyalty, or the warnings that disagreement can lead to an attack and question why your character would put up with that, it’s a good question. The answer is usually necessity or leverage.
It’s rare someone works in the underground by pure choice because it’s appealing. It isn’t. Criminals, especially those involved in organized crime, are at constant risk. Think about things like real world mobs; people misstepping and being found without a head. (Don’t worry, we’re not taking heads, but this is just an example of how gruesome it can get.)
Perhaps the character hasn’t been able to get what they need with basic work, or perhaps they’re from somewhere that it’s just not possible. Like Westfall. They won’t let vagrants into town, let alone give them a job. Perhaps the organization has leverage and uses it to get work out of someone, or maybe they have something your character wants access to and they’re willing to break rules for it.
There are characters that have various goals that they can achieve more easily using any means available, rather than staying within the legal guidelines set out for them. And of course in some cases there are psychological reasons someone gravitates toward crime.
Whatever the case may be, these people lead stressful lives. Think Peaky Blinders, where laughing at a brother resulted in razor blades to the eyes.
When considering whether or not you’d like to participate in our RP, bear in mind that while there are quiet days where people are just partying and doing stupid things, it is not focused around ‘slice of life’ styled rp. It isn’t intended to be ‘cute’ or ‘quirky’. These are heavy stories, with heavy consequences, and complex impacts and variables.
Additional External RP Opportunities
Though a large number of people on the server have taken to NPC sources providing a large variety of their goods, we remain interested in seeing IC business between players that create an opening for organic interaction, be it friendly or in a dispute.We’re very interested in being the source of a supply for someone, a service like smuggling or handling hot goods, or buying from others to be a source for own supply. Feel free to ask about this, we’d love to see this sort of thing.
We’re also open to both allying with other shady groups, or fighting with them. So long as the basic understanding is present—we never angle to seriously harm a guild on an OOC level through an IC ‘war’ or fight.