There is no Internet access from Norrath ;)

Just kidding, but: where possible, it is suggested that as little reference to outside-of-game materials is made as is feasible.

Many quests are impossible to complete without reference to walkthrough material: but it's always preferable to rely on the knowledge of in-game characters who may know the lie of the land.

Maps can be useful, but they have a way of making a world seem smaller than it is. I remember a day when, as a small boy, I was lost in a wood. I had this feeling - scary at the time, but poignant in retrospect - of being miles from anywhere in a vast wilderness. I was disappointed when I was later shown a map that showed the roads totally encircling the tiny copse...

Maps can be wrong. It's even more frustrating to follow wrong maps (and bad 'loc' numbers) than it is to be lost in the first place. 

Submitted By: Seefar  

Lonewolf models itself on Guilds from other fantasy lands such as Nehwon and Discworld. The City of Qeynos itself has its NPC Guilds: Lonewolf aims to be 'just another Qeynosian Guild' - with the difference that players can belong to it.

A Member's alts are NOT members of the Lonewolf Guild!

The "one-player-one-toon" policy (see below) means that, from the point of view of the Guild, a player's 'alts' (alternative characters) are simply other characters in the game world. As alts are not Members, they are not entitled to any of the benefits of Guild Membership. They are treated just like any other character in the game - and this means that the Guild can help them, as it will any other character (within reason).

Please try to maintain the illusion by not referring to alts in the "Guild Hall" (Guild Chat).

Members are requested to refrain from 'alt-switching' (changing between in-game characters) in support of Guild activities - but of course are entitled to do it for any other reason! Although the presence of a particular character class can be helpful at times, alt-switching is often a waste of valuable playtime for all. In most cases, good teamwork more than compensates for a perceived lack of any particular skill. Members are implored to think not of how one of their alts might be better equipped to handle a given situation, but to focus instead upon how their Lonewolf character can help achieve the objective.

This swings both ways: Members are urged NOT to ask Members' alts they may know about to switch to their Lonewolf alt! It is each player's choice which character they play: bear in mind that alts may have obligations to other Guilds. Having 'secret alts' is a way of escaping from the smell when it gets too bad! :D

Guild Chat is the "Guild Hall"

Guild Members of any Rank are welcome to drop into the "Guild Hall" if they're free to meet and shoot the breeze. Unlike many other Guilds, Guild Chat is kept free of things like level-up notices and the like, to improve the 'signal-to-noise' ratio. Guild Members are encouraged to create a separate chat tab for Guild Chat, so that it can be easily ignored when the Guild Member is busy elsewhere (and also so that the chat is available for later review, when Members ARE free to visit).

The aim is to remove distractions while grouping, allowing players to focus more easily on the team (having a separate Group Chat tab helps with this, too). It's difficult being in two places at once: Guild Members can be in Norrath but not be "in the Guild Hall", because they're busy elsewhere.

Most Guilds tend to group together a lot. Not that this is a bad thing... but it does tend towards an inward focus. There's this irony to being a member of a large Guild: if you're the only one in such a Guild who's online, it can feel like there's nobody available to group with, even though there are people everywhere.

Once the Lonewolf Guild achieves a certain critical mass, needed help will be always available, whatever the time of day or night. But, as a Member you should never feel obliged to participate any more than YOU want to / are free to / have the time to.

Mentoring is used - a LOT

All Guild Members are encouraged to explore mentoring: in Guild groups, all Members mentor 'the little guy', to emphasise teamwork.

Some will argue that mentoring "grows weak toons", but the Guild maintains that it does exactly the opposite: it creates strong characters. Only one character can be 'the little guy' at one time; so the other group members will gain XP more slowly (until their turn to be 'the little guy'!). Sometimes mentoring boosts XP for all - especially when fighting 'otherwise-greys'. In the long run, mentoring enhances the strength of the team, and the skills of the individuals within it.

Submitted By: Seefar  

The Primary Objective of the Lonewolf Guild is to provide a Force for Good within Norrath, to help all other players of EverQuestII - especially new players. Welcome! We hope you enjoy Norrath!

The Secondary Objective of Lonewolf is to explore mentoring, and to test the theory that if all the characters in an EverquestII group are the same level, they can better complement each others' abilities.

There are no Writ Quotas in Lonewolf. There is no obligation to participate in Guild activities.

The Guild has a "one-player-one-toon" policy: only one "alt" (alternate character) may be a member of the Guild. We ask all players to respect this policy; anyone found to be in contravention of it will be pelted with rotten tomatoes :D

Promotions are easily attainable - for those who are Good :) If your character is of Evil Alignment, to attain promotions you will first have to complete the Betrayal Quest - the Guild will help you all we can in this! ; advancement within the Guild is achieved by the completion of promotion quests (see the Guild Ranks section).

For those who wish to group, the emphasis is on teamwork, adventure, and the search for FUN! Points are considered... mostly pointless :) In a good team you should find you have a good eXPerience :D

It is hoped that one day, the Guild will acquire the critical mass necessary to provide a truly effective Force for Good within Norrath.

Picture the scene:

... the call goes out for assistance to defeat General Drull in Bloodskull Valley for the Heritage Quest "The Return of The Light". More players please! More players, please! ... instead of hours of waiting and interminable haggling over how it is to be done, a Lonewolf team appears on the scene within minutes, sets up for mentoring at, say, level 26, and a short while later: Drull, in his best full-colour splendour - bites the dust, yet again :D

Submitted By: Seefar  

Gandalf has fallen in Moria :(

Frodo and Sam have left the Fellowship to follow their own path.

Boromir battles valiantly in an attempt to save Merry and Pippin from Saruman's half-orc Uruc-hai warriors. Separated from his friends by the narrowest of margins, they are close enough to hear his trumpet call yet just too far to provide succour. Boromir redeems his honour, proving his heroic quality in his final battle against the Dark Forces.

Aragorn urges the remnants of the Fellowship on in an attempt to rescue the two halflings: "Let's hunt some Orc!" he cries, and the sharp eyes of Legolas gleam in eager anticipation.

"Hold up," says Gimli the Dwarf, "it's going to be a real struggle for me to keep up with you guys - dwarfs are natural sprinters, you know, we're not built for long distance. The mage is dead atm, let me switch to my conjuror, he's got longer legs than this toon. Hmmm - he's currently parked the other side of the mountains so it may take him a while to get to you... oh, and I'm not sure whether he has Moria access or not..."

Any questions? ;)

There is no "I" in t-e-a-m. As someone once said to me, there is no "U" either - which is quite correct. There is, however, a "me" and a "mate" - but a team is not simply a group of individuals. An effective team is more - far more! - than the sum of its parts.

When adventuring, it's vital to be able to quickly identify your friends and be aware of their capabilities (and quirks!) to understand how best to act in a given situation to support the team's activities.

The purpose of the "one-player-one-toon" rule is to minimise confusion within the Guild. Members are encouraged to get to know the abilities - the strengths AND the weaknesses - of other Guild Members, to promote teamwork. A good team has an abundance of redundancy: if the tank is on the loo or the healer is on the phone, the other party members can more easily adapt to the situation when they know each other well.

Note that "one-player-one-toon" does NOT mean that a Guild Member is barred from having alternate characters: in fact, if you're not already a Member and have an unguilded alt, join us to try playing a slightly different flavour of EverquestII :D

Lonewolf Guild Members are requested to play their Guild character as though it were separate from the others. This is a suggestion only: it is not (cannot be) strictly enforced. The idea is to encourage members to interact with other players within the game - not just other Guild Members - in pursuing their aims. A Member's alts are not part of Lonewolf (and may well have obligations to another Guild). Help is always welcome: but Members are asked to consider first what their Lonewolf character can do to contribute. Switching to an alt to help... well, sometimes it does, but to be frank: sometimes it hinders.

Need better armour or weapons? Go on a quest, see what the broker has to offer, talk to an Armorer/Weaponsmith - in or out of the Guild - to determine whether what you seek can be made.

Need food or drink? Make friends with a Provisioner. Ask your friend what raws they seek, and set yourself The Quest of Gathering a Batch of Raws; mail the batch to your friend - and drop all of the "unwanted" stuff harvested on the way into the Guild Bank, to share!

Submitted By: Seefar  

Nobody likes rules. But some are necessary: whether we drive on the left or on the right, we must all agree to cooperate if we are to get from A to B.

1. It's a game - Play Nice. Your priorities as a Lonewolf Guild Member should be in the following order:

• Real Life always comes first
• Focus on the Group that you're in
• Keep in touch with your Friends
• The Guild comes LAST :)

2. Members of the Lonewolf Guild are ambassadors for the Guild.

• be courteous to others
• consider that not everyone understands English
• remember that misunderstandings are common in on-line communications
• always try to think "did s/he really mean that the way it sounded?" before reacting
• respect the wishes of others to play the game in the way they want to play

3. No obscenities, please - children may be present.

4. Focus on helping other players, not on Guild Status Points and Phat Lewt. Help everyone that you can when you can, if you can.

5. Think of Guild chat as simply another chat channel: ignore it if you are busy elsewhere. The best ways to try to contact another Guild Member are:

• for urgent matters - private tell (/tell)
• for lesser matters - Norrath Express (internal mail)

6. Try to play by Gibbi's Rule: "Don't Die!"

7. There is no Spoon. There is no Try. There is no Rush :)

Submitted By: Seefar  

In EverquestII it is possible to use the '/role' command to indicate to others that you are "roleplaying": but this term means different things to different people. To me, it just means that a player is attempting to play the role of the character in the game world and reacting to the environment as though it were real. Rather than taking time to figure out how to manipulate the (sometimes flawed) physics of the game's engine, using that time instead to admire the (often awesome) scenery. Trying to get a 'feel' for how things work, instead of looking at all the numbers.

One thing I do is to turn off the Experience bar (the default toggle for this window is alt+x). That way, I focus less on the number of points I need to gain the next level, and more on the group and having FUN! It's not a grinding chore to "ding a level", when this happens it's a pleasant surprise :D

I don't pay much attention to the numbers. I fight the dreaded lagmonster with the toggle under:

Options > User Interface > Name and Chat Bubble > show overhead combat feedback

There's a thread in the Guild's Public Forum entitled "In the spirit of getting to know each other better", where Members can describe their own Lonewolf characters.

Being a member of the Lonewolf Guild does not mean that you are obliged to "roleplay" (whatever that may mean to you).

Submitted By: Seefar