blueandwhite

Nice work on your church. The general shape is fantastic and the detailing really makes it look sharp from every angle. I really like the small buttresses that run along the sides of the church. They really break up the walls nicely without being too ornate. It's also nice to see a good-sized church that isn't labelled a cathedral. This is a perfect size for a church, and it looks like it would fit nicely in any medieval village.

Personally I prefer the lion torsos facing forward. It means I'm not constantly fiddling with arms to hide the faction logo when I'm posing figures for a MOC. As for an army, I kind of like the idea that each guild member builds their own personal band of men (or women) to support them. Medieval armies weren't very uniform anyhow so I don't see why we should aim for something like that. In short, lion torsos forward; rag tag band. To the architecture: I suggest that our northern lands near the border be more traditional castle builds; grassy plains and traditional European castles. Further south things become more Middle Eastern with Crusader styled fortresses. In the central desert our mystic friends hide in the vast mountains of sand; their fanciful towers and homes only viewed by a select few who have managed to survive the unforgiving desert heat. If we're feeling playful enough, we could even consider adding a parody medieval gambling town to our map; the mysterious "Lost Vegga".

It's good to be here Flagg. I've been grading my minions this week so times have been tough. As for the city guard, I don't see the need to turn their torsos backwards. Just because heraldry doesn't belong to a single guild doesn't mean we need to go to great lengths to hide it. The lion shield would make a nice piece of city heraldry. Our guys would stand out by the virtue of having dark blue arms so it's not like they'd be mixed up with any other guild's lion knights. Moreover, other guilds are openly adopting different pieces of heraldry. I kind of like the idea of a rank and file city watch with a specific emblem to identify. Beyond that I think we should have many different groups. Undead mummies in the far south, mercenaries and thieves, personal guards for high-ranking officials. These guys can be a bit more unique. The city watch should be cheap and readily available. Other guilds may use the lion knights but we should do it first. As far as the Kaliphlin Guild is concerned, the only true lions are Southern Lions !

Pick the guild you're interested in, sign up for that guild and present your guild member. It's that simple.

I'm interested in this as well. I'm also wondering how many VIP points you need to get the invite.

LEGO's traditional Factions aren't bound to a single region. There may be a group of Crownies in the North, South, East or West, just as you may find Lions, Falcons, and any other faction in any of the four lands. Also, even though there are fewer humans in the South, it doesn't mean that it's devoid of human inhabitants. Build and have fun with this rather than trying to create rules which restrict your creativity. I think you may be overthinking the whole guild thing.

Garnett Maccusswell, the Desert Lion reporting for service. A proud combatant durring the Battle of Tower Bridge at Brickfete, Garnett is a ruthless and unforgiving tactician, more renowned known for his cruelty and bloodlust. His code of honour forbids him to harm an unarmed man. To overcome this apparent weekness, Garnett will force a weapon into an opponent's hand so that he may slaughter them without remorse. Brother to the great Lord Maccusswell of the central lands, Garnett was second to his brother in everything but cruelty. Garnett was banished to the South after a failed attempt on his brother's life; his reputation seemingly ruined. Despite the banishment, Garnett thrived in the desolate Southern climate and eventually earned a reputation for himself for his skills as a combatant. At the Battle of Tower Bridge Maccusswell earned the trust of Flagg and became one of his most trusted generals. Maccusswell's men also respect him. Although he is ruthless and needlessly violent, he is unusually civil to the peasantry; possibly owing to his own insecurities as the younger brother of Tristan Maccusswell. Despite his personality flaws, Maccusswell is loyal to the South and to the Kaliphlin Guild.

I would imagine you could build an underground mine in any of the regions. As for me, I'll be joining the Sand People in the South as they seem to be a bit short on members. A bunch of Stormtroopers have scared off potential recruits with their crazy blaster skills!

While the four guilds occupy lands in the North, East South and West, I suggest that the first order of business for each guild would be to create their own name. For example, Lion-dore of the East, Orclepuff of the West, etc. Similarly, the guilds could name the four nations to make things a bit more interesting. Right now what we really need are four guild masters; preferably members who will oversee the actions of their guild, ensuring that guild activities are regularly updated. Perhaps ISC can get a guild master nomination thread going soon. The other suggestion I have is to setup a guilds sub forum. Each guild could then have a pinned thread for guild discussion with news and updates being posted by the guild master when appropriate.

I think it's been established that no guild will hold a monopoly over a single faction. This would be incredibly frustrating for newer builders who have a harder time amassing figures. It also limits battle scenes as guilds bicker over who has the use of a given faction. Heck, what if I'm simply interested in building a castle for the Wolf Pack and I'm stuck in the Crownie/Black Falcon Guild? As far as I'm concerned, guilds shouldn't own factions. Flags or a watermark are more than sufficient to separate the guilds.

This is starting to sound really exciting! I'm wondering if each guild might receive their own portion of a world map (North, East, West, South) to add their MOCs to and build their own nation? All types of historical buildings and fantasy structures would be fair game. I envision maps with a wild west town, an ancient city or two, a dark borderlands, a fantasy territory and so on. I would also suggest that each member could contribute one existing MOC to get a good start on their maps. By the end we would have four vigorous territories with dozens of new MOCs, stories, battles, and reviews.

I'm still iffy on having members align themselves by theme preference. I would rather see fantasy fans, historical fans, western fans, outlaw/bandit fans and any other type of fans floating around coexist peacefully. Every guild needs their resident army builders, elf warriors, and history buffs. Honestly, why does a guild have to be built around a single theme or identity? Do we really need a guild dedicated to mages? I hope we see four guilds full of a diverse group of fans who bring different strengths and interests to their guild. If a fantasy contest comes up, the guild will have some interested participants. If a history challenge comes up; again the guild will have some champions to represent it. If this is really about building the community, then the guilds need to be inclusive rather than exclusive. The last thing I'd want to see is the History forums devolve into a bunch of cliques that spout childish banter in every thread. If we end at the point where guilds are simply being dropped, the whole experiment seems pretty much null and void.

Hi Sandy, I appreciate that this thread is really long, but there are a lot of solid hints as to what this is going to end up looking like. Regarding your question, from what I understand, things are still being ironed out. The only problem with having members choose a guild is that the guilds could end up being so imbalanced that only one or two of the guilds actually has enough members to sustain itself. This could sink the project before it even gets on its feet.

How about a guild headquarters? While a watchtower is certainly a nice idea as well, I think it would be great to have guild members design their base of operation first.

I don't think it's been officially stated whether sign-ups are a one time thing, or even if guild membership is permanent or term based. I'm sure that everything will be ironed out over the coming weeks.

I don't think the introduction of guilds would preclude anybody from joining a contest or writing a review. It's simply a way to encourage participation. A number of people (myself included) find motivation when working in a group effort. Building for a guild means that your efforts will help your fellow members which is a pretty big incentive to become more involved. There's nothing to suggest that an individual couldn't enter a contest without joining a guild first.

Blueandwhite beaming signing up.

How about simply nominating four people to be guild masters and let them name their guilds? All other interested participants could then enter their names for a guild draft where the four masters draft prospective guild members for a predetermined time period (say 6 months to one year). Prospective draftees would then prepare an outline of their skills/interests to ensure that the guild masters build a set of diverse guilds with a wide range of different roles. Contests, events, reviews and build challenges could focus on the guilds competing for points with one of the guilds being crowned champion at the end of the term. A new draft would follow shortly thereafter and the process would repeat. If things work out well it might be worth looking into developing specialized guilds during the second term.

There's nothing wrong with having a focus. I am simply of the opinion that if the community were to develop guilds, they shouldn't be used to splinter the community. We already have separate boards which divide posters. Breaking the castle theme into smaller sub-themes might have the undesired effect of driving some folks away. In your previous post you joked about the houses in Harry Potter. Ironically, treating a guild the way Harry Potter treats its four houses actually seems like a pretty good idea to me. If a guild starts to lag behind the rest, new members could simply be drafted into the weakest guild in attempt to keep things balanced.

Grandpa? You're only seven years old while I'm a classic! And on the topic of falcons; one lone falcon hardly makes an army. I have the classic falcons, lion knights, black knights, forestmen, wolf pack, royal knights, knight's kingdom I and fright knights backing me. Heck, even the Crownies, and new Lions wish they were hanging out in old grey castles. You've still got a ways to go before you can be king.

I think the problem with a guild system built around factions is that many builders readily build across all of these factions (outlaws, fantasy, dark fantasy and classic medieval fare). The idea of being tied to a guild based on these criteria may pigeonhole builders. Personally I think that having nondescript guilds that compete against each other would be preferable. There could even be a draft where members who express their interest are drafted into one of the four guilds. Hopefully this would help bridge the different elements of the castle theme rather than divide them.

I've been following this thread with considerable interest. The idea of a map is fantastic. While we have a MOC index, this would be an amazing way to highlight some of the great historical MOCs on these forums. I'm wondering if the plan would be to have a single world map, or whether it might be better to break it down into nations/factions. This would make it easier to include more MOCs on the map. A single world map could link to different nations which would help ensure we don't run out of space on the map too quickly. When presenting a MOC, the builder could indicate what realm their work belongs in so it could be placed on the nation/faction map. I would also suggest having some unmarked territories for future factions, as well as a large territory for individuals who create their own factions (sort of a free-form nation). I would suggest that we focus on existing factions as keeping track of fan-made factions could prove too difficult. As long as there is a territory or territories for fan-made factions then I think everybody would be included. A second suggestion is the possibility of joining a builder's guild. We could have four or so separate guilds with different members. Members would earn points for their guild for posting MOCs, reviews, tutorials and participating in contests. These points would go towards building their guild's reputation (possibly represented in the form of tags). This sort of competitiveness would probably help generate some more traffic on the forum as members work to help their guild stand out from the others. Anyhow, I really look forward to seeing where this goes. So far it looks like the beginning of something big.

Sorry, but old-school fans know better . Hail to the king baby!

But I'm a classic. The times need to get with me !

This all seems a bit odd to me. Despite any suggestions to the contrary, I only come in grey.