Role-Play Setting (Rules)

You are expected to role-play in such a way that it contributes to the storyline of the guild while not breaking the established universe or the guild setting. The guild setting is summarized as follows:

Hofborg is a town in the hold of Haafingar in Western Skyrim, consisting of one and two story buildings made of rough stone or wood walls, waddle and dab, heavy timber beams, and thatch or wood shingles. It is intended to be a location steeped in Nord culture even if some portion of the town's population includes non-Nords. The town is comprised of small walled districts, open spaces, underground cairns and rough-fare locations such as Brygg-Bottom (Lore).

The town does not have the kind of things found in larger cities; such as sewers, guild halls, or paved streets. While the Motherhouse does sit above a series of hot springs, possibly from some volcanic activity, and the town is perhaps less cold than the rest of Western Skyrim -- it's never truly warm even in summer. Consequently, the population tends to wear wool, fur and leather except when under the most strenuous of activities or hot summer days. Fancy dresses will get dirty and muddy.

The townspeople, while friendly to other Nords, tends to be insular and prickly until their respect is won. Respect comes only with actions that benefit the town in the manner the town wishes to be benefitted. Visitors to the town will quickly notice that casual familiarity, causal use of magic, boasting, bragging or showing off may result in a disapproving glare or the cold shoulder. Better received are good manners, respect, hard work and community participation.

Additionally, the players for Hofborg are looking for collaborative story telling. The single-handed hero, the Harry Potter level mage, the jack of all trades who is actually the master of all trades, as well as those with significant head canon are of far less interest than base-line characters with a master skill or two. Instead we prefer role-play to include others while taking lead up, effort, cost, consequence and interaction. This applies directly to how magic is handled, as well as equivalent martial power level, and role-play'd crafting.

For a quick review, we are not interested in

The use of Thu'um, sophisticated Dwemer tech, high level magic like teleportation. Don't pull weapons/armor out of your ass, establish their presence. Magic portals should be used off screen. Teapots should not float. Items defined as rare/sacred in lore, compared to game mechanics, should be rare/sacred. Rare lore circumstances are not a good basis for a new Hofborg character.

This page was written in Jan of 2023 after a discussion with the greater body of the guild community and serves as a general guideline for visitors, applicants, allies and members. The following guides have been produced so as to give further details on various topics which new players may require. Please note, our goal is to help defined a setting for shared story telling, while not stunting creativity. 

The following guides expand on how individual topics should be handled in our setting.

• Magic as a Narrative Tool (Guide) - This guide explains not WHAT magic can be used, but HOW magic should be used in our RP Setting.
• Timey Wimey - What year is it, how do we handle travel time, etc
• Healing and Wound Guide - a guideline on the efficacy of medical and magical healing
• Quest Event Etiquette Guide - How to integrate yourself and your character into a Hofborg DM ran event.
• How to play with NPCs in Hofborg.

What I want

I want to struggle in my RP. I want glorious bloody battles. I want to stand on the long hall and dare the giants to fight me. I want to drink, and fight, and stand toe to toe with my kin folk. When you cheapen that experience for me both as a player and as a character I have lost interest. I don't want peace, I don't want free food. I don't want easy magic lights! I want to gnaw the whale oil off the whale with my own teeth and make my own fecking oil lamps!

I want to build skaldic tales that involve overcoming challenges both great and small. I want magic to enrich my story, to make me want to shout, "Did you see what our practictioner/clever man/priestess just DID you son of a bitch, we are coming for you, THAT was just a warm up." I want to throw my spear over the heads of an army shouting Ysgramor's name and the strength of faith in what it means to be Nord will strike fear into our enemies.

When there is a grain shortage I want to fear starvation. I want to tighten my belt and straighten my shoulders. I want to work together with my kin to get that grain against overwelming odds. I don't want someone to roll into my docks and offer me free grain.

I want to be bloody and dirty and tired and victorious, with everyone, and not have this struggle demeaned by casual solutions of any kind.