NEW
Nearly all players starting on Siege Perilous are established veterans from regular shards who are seeking an alternative or more challenging experience. For many, adapting to the different rules and play-style can be quite daunting. Fortunately, for most of its existence Siege has been able to offer a helping hand in the form of a unique guild called Newborn On Siege, or NEW, which acts rather like the Counselors of old. Players are able to join NEW for their first weeks on Siege and the guild will provide them with basic equipment, template and rules advice, a guildhall in which to train, plus the company of fellow newcomers in the same position. And perhaps the greatest benefit of NEW is that it also grants a considerable degree of protection to a player as few PKs will attack such a person and those that do will most likely not loot and/or will offer immediate resurrection.
NEW do not care what any member's style of play is (or rather, will eventually be); they may want to become a knight in shining armour, a damsel in distress, a meticulous crafter or a psychopathic killer. Whilst training in NEW, players will be able to observe and interact with the rest of the Siege population and hopefully choose a regular guild to join. If they cannot find one for themselves then NEW will gladly help place them in a suitable one.
The NEW guild enjoys almost unanimous support from the whole of the Siege community. Most guilds and many individuals gladly donate gold and equipment to NEW in order to help sustain its activities.
Joining
Membership of NEW is open to all those with skills less than GM who agree to the current membership rules available at the guildhall. Established characters who do not meet these requirements will instead be offered help in finding a regular guild.
The easiest way to join is simply to use general shard chat to ask if any NEW leaders are available. If none are on hand, you may be able to find an ICQ contact from another player or from the advertising books which are often left around starter areas.
Rules
NEW has a number of simple rules for its members. The majority of these are concerned with guild communications plus security and maintenance of the guildhall. Other rules govern the members' conduct with other players to ensure that NEW remains strictly neutral, and these are summarised here:
- Never attack other players unless the other party consents (e.g. for training purposes). Members may defend themselves when attacked and/or call for help, but can not act as aggressors.
- Never snoop or steal from other players without their consent.
- Never loot someone else's kills except with their consent.
- Never become involved in other guilds' fights/disputes.
- Always show the NEW guild tag.
Graduation
The standard term of membership in NEW is approximately one month. By this time, most players have trained their core skills to at least GM level and have had time to interact with other shard members and hopefully have some idea of the regular guild(s) they would like to join. However, NEW recognizes that not everyone advances at the same pace and thus there is no formal limit to the length of membership as long as a member is judged to be making some efforts to improve their skills. Of course, members may leave at any time if they feel they are ready to do so.
All members are strongly encouraged to join a regular guild as soon as they leave NEW (or start their own if they have come to Siege with friends). If members are unable to decide on a guild by themselves, NEW will help find one that matches their style and will put them in contact with the leaders of that guild.
Guildhall
Both the size and site of the guildhall has changed during the course of NEW's existence but for the past few years it has been a keep located on the coast a few screens east of Britain (1868x, 1559y; 5º42'N, 38º19'E). This is a quiet area, well away from the vicious Dark Wisps that have plagued many a NEW member in times gone by! A teleporter links the guildhall with the Siege Hub, enabling easier access for those unable to Gate Travel.
Soulstones
In addition to its role in helping newcomers, NEW also acts as a repository for soulstones recovered from IDOCs. Returning players who have lost theirs can search through the storage bins in the hope of finding them.
History
The NEW guild was formed in around the year 2000 by Luxor of the LoV guild. He saw a need to give new folk a little help as it was then very difficult for some to get a foothold on Siege. In those early days the guild was not very high profile and when the Power Hour gain system was introduced, and getting skills to GM became fairly straightforward, Luxor did not feel the need to keep the guild going and it became largely inactive.
With the advent of the Rate Over Time skill system on Siege there was a need for the guild once more. Luxor, however, had announced that he was leaving UO and the guild was taken over by Freja in June 2002. She enlisted four assistants, all sharing the same character (Tengel) as only a Guild Master could add people to a guild people in those days. Under Freja, NEW remained fairly low-key but was nonetheless far more active than it had been previously.
After a year of running NEW and with her key aides having left, Freja looked to take a break and thus it was that in April/May 2003 Shalimar took over as Guild Master, a role which she has continued to this day. Under Shalimar's stewardship the guild has become legendary as the place to go for assistance when starting on Siege. In addition to Shalimar there are a number of co-leaders or “helpers”, experienced Siege players who are able to add players to the guild, provide help to members, and to assist in restocking the guildhall.
The guild's basic rules for members have undergone several changes over the years but are essentially the same as they were back in 2000.