mccoyed

I had this idea that Nocturnus is still war-torn with pockets of fierce fighting as different factions try to get up on each other. Rather than being a unified Guild like the others, recent events have left Nocturnus fractured into a bunch of small principalities, fiefs, and strongholds where no one knows who they can trust anymore. I have some ideas about how the rest of Historica might react to this (peacekeeping, rebuilding, border security) now that the other Guilds are united behind the queen... but my ideas may be too big and consequential to implement until we know more about where the story's gonna be when Book 3 launches. I'm sure the powers that be would work around/with any stories builders make that they like, but I imagine the Book 3 launch story builds are being set up right now and one of the reasons for the long wait was getting all the planning for that done. I'm strongly considering joining Nocturnus and returning to the story of Altiera the Exile or something new. I'm also tempted to go Kaliphlin but it's hard to justify leaving Mitgardia for potentially years until the next Book. :P

Var-leer-ee-oh. Kal-if-lin. That's how I say 'em. :P

Thanks SK. Hopefully get the Home one soon too but I decided to go a little bigger for my next build...

Great scene and staging. My favorite part is the bell! Also love the use of that Ninjago hair.

Dude, I'm 32 and my daughter is 14 and about to start high school. There's a real possibility that I'll be a grandpa by the time I'm 37 or thereabouts.

Yeah, I think about Yureishima and Nocturnus as potentially being similar. Yureishima won't be canonized as a Guild (and shouldn't be since its political divisions mimic the guild structure) but it still exists and can be built up even though it'll never be official. I half expected someone to say "whoa there with the Yureishima stuff, mccoyed" but no one did so I feel like it can exist in a non-Guild gray area alongside Varlyrio (up til now) and/or Nocturnus (if it is closed). I also really like what we're saying about unity. Historica has reached a new moment, true, but the Guilds are more prone to in-fighting than fighting each other these last few years so I think it would be good to focus on each Guild's contributions to the greater Historica. With Nocturnus still wrapped up in its own turmoil, it makes sense that they are too chaotic to join the others in a new unity (yet). That means maybe a story reason for Nocturnus being closed is that its borders are being patrolled and secured to prevent its conflicts from spilling out into the other lands, like Cedrica or Kali. Maybe there's a joint task force created by the new queen to do peacekeeping/observation in Nocturnus to help it get back on its feet?

A big hear-hear from me on this point. ZC has correctly described one of the problems with becoming so entrenched in running things that they can't run without you or when you need to step back. I think avoiding this issue in the future will help keep GoH healthier and we hopefully won't see months of inactivity or stagnant story progression. I like to think I've grown a lot as a builder thanks to GoH. It was the GoH stuff that I randomly found on the internet that pulled me out of my dark age in 2014 and got me building Lego and taking part in RBGs. I think of myself as a storyteller (I do a lot of writing) and I needed something like this to tie my love of Lego to my love of telling a story with it. I go through periods where I lapse in activity, which is normal in this hobby, but I'll always come back as long as there's something to come back to.

Have you asked for volunteers from AG to help? I'm sure there are a bunch of us who can pitch in on the day-to-day running of the game. I understand that EB staff are the only ones who can do certain things (contests, etc) but it's not like you can't be reached for that stuff is it? Otherwise, this is a major flaw in the way RBGs are being run on Eurobricks. AG and GoH are currently suffering from decline due to the inactivity of EB staffers and long-time leaders. Everybody understands life gets in the way but to me it's either take the poop or get off the toilet, Bob. You should cancel AG2 if you aren't willing or able to empower others to keep it going.

It wasn't clear until now! But hey, I also wanted to mention that one of the reasons Nocturnus has less discussion might also be something to do with it, as a Guild, attracting more individualistic, independent builders. Nocturnus is such a broad canvas that people can get really particular inside "corners" of it, while others are overwhelmed by the sheer scope of possibility it offers. Maybe something to consider would be to narrow Nocturnus down a little in terms of its identity among the Guilds. Even if it does't come back in Book 3, might be something to think about. This was also common practice in Andromeda's Gates. It could be a little overwhelming with multiple participants and sometimes several distinct PM threads to keep track of. We also used PMs for the Algus Saga and it worked pretty well!

Thanks for sharing your story, ZC. I can't say my four years since joining GoH has been as intense as yours, but I appreciate an opportunity to see past the EB poster and into the real guy. We all have our own stories and it's good to remember that.

Very clean and tidy, as always. I like that it seems you could make a few alterations and stack a bunch of these around a baseplate to create a town or neighborhood. Is this one of your rare builds with no interior?

Bob, if that's the case then the responsible thing to do is step down and let someone else take over. Why should all the AG players sit around waiting for you to have time? Delegate, my good man. Delegate.

Would be great to have an update for this now that GOH Book 3 has been announced.

I think Nocturnus needs to do a bit of a roll call here. See how many people we can drum up to keep this Guild viable for Book 3.

Previously... Luna - 3187 The Skylanes above Aristarchus City It's been a while since a particular pair of Kawashita operatives have seen each other. Bonnie, who was once called "The Mechanic" and renowned for her technical skills with exotic weaponry and cybernetic prosthetics, has been retired ever since the retreat from Andromeda. After what he discovered on Mars, Koro felt it was time to look her up. "It's not that I'm unhappy to see you, Koro. It's just that, after the way you left it..." "Look, I'm sorry. After Orinshi I knew it might be a very long time between visits and I just didn't want to leave you hanging." Bonnie feels a little skeptical. "You must think I'm really quasarin' stupid, Koro. We're both professionals." "C'mon. You didn't really want to sit there waiting for me to get all beat up before getting to see me. What kind of relationship is that?" "Maybe you should have let us figure that out." "Maybe." Koro throws up his hands, conceding. There's an awkward silence... "There's more to it, isn't there?" "Ain't there always?" "Did you finally catch a break in your investigation?" "How did you know about that?" "Raven and I talk all the time. I've probably got better security clearance than you do, these days." "I thought you were retired." "Well. Semi-retired." "Okay then, yes. There's been a lead. I won't go into details about how I found out, just your average boring spy junk, but it's starting to look like an inside job." "Does that surprise you?" Koro becomes uncharacteristically thoughtful. "I don't even know any more. The whole Andromeda thing was such a clusterbrick. Opsecs blown left and right, people going rogue or defecting, second guessing every body at every level. Kind of makes it hard to be the company's #1 Killbot, you know?" "Reminds me of the turmoil around the Belt Resource disputes in 3052." "You read too much, Bonnie." "Whatever. Why tell me all this, anyway? You could have just played the stoic assassin who doesn't trust anybody." "You're about the only person I do trust, Bonnie." This catches Bonnie off guard. She goes quiet for a while, thinking about something. Koro is oblivious, naturally. "Umm... What about Blue?" "Hard to say." "I don't see how. You've been traipsing around with her for a year." "Wait... are you jealous?" "What the quasar? No! Look, let's change the subject." "Uh huh." "Why don't you come over for a... tune-up. Old time's sake." "Whoa. You are jealous!" "Shut up. You in or not?" "Don't have to ask me twice." It's hard to tell because of his robotic face, but Koro is grinning. Get that look off your face, you tin can." Bonuses and Builder's Notes:

Narb and I have worked together before. If you guys gave him the go ahead to run Varlyrio, I wouldn't mind backing him up. With the way lower pressure of GoH's lack of time-sensitive game elements, I think a lot of AG leaders who've gone quiet could be pulled back to GoH as their primary RBG due to the limbo AG is in.

Great looking dragon. Reminds me of a few I've seen on Flickr lately.

All right, that all seems reasonable. Who are you looking at to support Ska and run Varlyrio and/or Nocturnus then?

I am by no means advocating for the adoption of AG style game mechanics. But it remains the case that Book 2 has lasted ~4 years, since I joined GoH and longer. In the last two years, activity has been in dramatic decline (for many reasons). If we want to boost activity and draw people back to GoH and keep them active consistently, we need regular community content. As other RBGs learned from GoH and have demonstrated successfully, community is what drives this whole thing. Community content, for better or worse, translates to administrative organization: the planning and execution of events, contests, challenges, and unlimited frameworks (Age of Mitgardia, UoP, etc). The way this has gotten done here has been "insider" based, which certain builders being invited to contribute to community content, have their ideas explicitly drive contests/challenges, etc. The bedrock, though, is always the stories we individually come up with, share, and build on. The best thing about RBGs is when you can inspire other builders to do a dialogue with you through the "game", by directly referencing ideas, characters, and places from your builds. To me, we just have to stimulate that as best we can. I think the evidence is clear that we need an active "inside" group to make this work. There are two options, roughly: 1. Reform the inside group of mods, guild leaders, lieutenants, etc so that inactive long-time folks are rotated out in favor of active newer folks. This invites rapid, dynamic change and that can be difficult to keep up with. I had a lot of trouble with AG's rapid shifts compared to GoH as I'm a bit of a flake. There are probably other downsides here, too. 2. Reform the organizational structure of GoH itself. This would probably mean going a little less "behind closed doors" and a little more transparently democratic and community-driven in terms of content. This is probably my preference, but there are also some costs to doing that, most obvious to me would be the loss of amazing surprise updates where unexpected builders get to play a central role. This option means giving up the mystery that often makes GoH so fun! There's also trying to do a combination, which may be what ZC is trying to say is happening. I'm just laying out my thoughts, by the way, not trying to rock any particular boats. EDIT: It's worth noting that Lands of Roawia, the closest thing to GoH out there, is also in decline to the point where members are discussing closing it out. It wasn't that long ago that I had to choose between LoR and GoH because both were so active it was impossible keep up with them at the same time! It seems there's a changing of the guard happening with a "generation" of older AFOLs simultaneously slowing down without a robust enough "younger generation" coming in to make the transition smooth. What can be done about this? How do we keep these communities alive? Questions probably every venerable RBG out there have to ask right now.

This all seems fair but the process for selecting "leaders" on GoH has always been somewhat secretive and it might make sense for you guys to ask the community for volunteers and for people who don't have the time to just step down and take a more consultative role (if that hasn't already happened). Another, less radical, option is for the Guild leaders to more frequently communicate and delegate with especially active/organized members of their guilds so that stuff gets done. Andromeda's Gates benefited from this kind of behavior, at least in Kawashita where the company changed leadership two or three times. If it makes any difference, I'll be willing to join Nocturnus if it is light on membership. But you're not gonna know how much interest there is in swapping Varlyrio for Nocty or going for a full five guilds unless people considering a change know for sure what the options are. That's all I'm trying to say about making a decision about the roster of Guilds for Book 3 sooner rather than later.

Fair points re: Varlyrio. I agree with Grover that it would be nice to see all 5 opened up.

Yeah, if Varlyrio is opened up it may change a lot of peoples' minds since it may seem like an exciting new area. That said, is V's culture/architectural background really distinct enough from the other Guilds, especially Kali? My other concern would be people reposting BBoS builds with minifigs swapped around. I don't know if I have a problem with that really, but it might be worth considering.

What islandy guilds are being considered? From the "Safe Haven" challenge?

Those are some good lookin' figs, Henj.

That's a pretty good rundown. Thanks, Rogue. EDIT: I had a thought with regard to trying to get summaries made for the Guild history as well as the risk of low support translating to a cut Guild. Why don't we do a soft challenge to have Guildies promote their guilds for new people and vets who might be looking for a change? It could work almost like a recruitment drive. A chance to promote your Guild via its unique history and flavor while also serving as a way to establish whatever the status quo is going to be for each Guild going in to Book 3.