How do you get your guild into baking?

[Cigarskunk]

I'm part of a great guild (but aren't we all? ) but I'm finding that I'm not doing such a great job of communicating to them how much of an asset my being a GM chef is.

We've been moving up the tiers on our server and are now one of the higher ranking ones out there. Unfortunately, my love of tradeskills has kept me behind them in levels a bit (although that will change soon now that I've got my GMing out of the way) so I can't go on the PoP raids to keep on folks about saving this, that or the other thing for me to cook with.

I've been trying to get interest going by linking all the tasty foods into guild chat and I'm going to start handing around what samples I can put together during the raids I'm able to attend, but I'd like some additional input from anyone who's shared this problem.

They do know about high end tradeskills - we've got plenty of the other skills, but I seem to be the only one willing to actually do the cooking (or the dishes or take out the yard trash or....oops, wrong rant ).

So, any advice?

[Bennan]

I have not shared this problem exactly, but I was aware of it when I was guilded.

What you said about handing out samples, is the best way. You can yack on all day about how Baked goods rock, but thats not going to get people to sit up and pay attention.

Samples, is money talking, getting people to actually use them so they can see the benefits is the only way imo.

Give them 5 each, if you give them one they will very quickly eat it, at least with 5 you will have some kind of timeframe of noticable use.

I suggest Holy Cakes btw, only because of the plethora of saves it comes with.

Also, visit Maegelo, I noticed a heap of uber tanks etc, all have stat foods and drink in the backpacks. If you can say, hey foh los etc all the tanks use this stuff, don't you think you should as well ? That will get the attention of the masses. Thats the only *talk* pitch I can think of that would work.

Oh here is another idea, go straight to the top. Get the Officers (and treasurer) to bankroll you. And in return, you supply the whole guild with what ever goods they want. If they are dubious about it, just ask for 1k and start a post on your board, getting members to just order from there, set the trial period for a month. I am sure you will generate interest, and usage within that time frame.

[sir0die]

i attended a guild raid, i gave everyone who attended, 10 HMPs, a stack of pattimelts (to forcefeed) and a stack of water flasks. I also told everyone how to forcefeed and where to put the HMPs to get their stat bonuses. I got alot of tells saying they knew that already, but i also got a bunch saying Thanx, they didn't know that.

also while building your skills up, rather than dumping everything into the market, stackkks of stuff work very well as donations for KEI.

[Soulfiend]

My guild looks down on the ''lower'' tradeskills, they look for smithing, tailoring and Jewelry craft.

I'm the only GM baker in the whole guild and it's lonely.

I went to brewing because Guild needed one, so they respect what I've done.

Dunno if I would have done it without guild support, and even know I wish I was a few levels higher, because though I can provide drink for the raid, it is unlikely they'll need me on it

[Suva]

I guess I was lucky in keeping up with all my guilds flags while becoming a GM baker, potter, and almost brewer. My guild supports my baking. I have people saving me parts or asking if I could use things a lot. I wish we would do torment more though for the stir fry.

I made up stir fry for the guild tanks to use and while I was skilling to 250, I would pass out my MTP's and HMP's at the raids.

[Faymar]

Guild support

Pass out samples. Don't harp on about forcefeeding -- good food is made to be eaten. I found that when I stopped pushing people to save food (a pain, and I got an understandable response of "I'd rather stick to iron rations, less work") they became a lot more interested in reaping the rewards.

Carry a stack of pies/picnics with you, and when you run into a guild member, hand them to them.

When you go to a raid, take stacks of holy pies and give two to each person. Let them know they have to go in the top slot and will last 3 hours (it's a one off raid stat, not something that should be kept for life and allowed to turn into a brick).

When you make something that is of specific benefit to a class then find the people playing that class and tell them "I made this for you." Justice pies for rangers, for example.

And not just stat food -- if you see exotic meat, cook it up! Hand the hot-n-spicy toelings to the DE and tell them it's for forcefeeding if the halfling cleric is giving them problems.

I've involved my guild very heavily in my own trials and successes. They saved any meat they found to help me get to 250 and showed active disappointment if I told them something was useless. I never turned anything down (even the stacks and stacks of wurm meat that I got after every Ragefire camp), I baked it and handed it round as force feeding food for those who could be bothered. When I went on a pie binge I let everyone know that there were pies for whoever wanted them in Shadow Haven and to pop in if they wanted a stack. When they ran out of something they asked me when I was next making it.

We now have three other players working towards GM baking. I'm not saying that I directly influenced them, but certainly I have set the groundwork for baking being accepted and supported in my guild.

Yesterday I was keyed for Sleepers Tomb and my entire guild is behind my goal to fish there and bake the ever elusive Slumberfish Pie. Let me say that again, because it's important. <b>My guild is taking me to Sleepers Tomb so I can go fishing.</B>

That, to me, is the ultimate accolade for an insane amount of hours of skilling up and feeding people. May you gain as much support with your guildmembers as I have with mine.

Taymar Meleed
Proud Member of Britannic Lore
Tarew Marr

[Moonlilly]

The rangers in my guild all passed out the first time I linked a Justice Fruit Pie over guildchat. 8)

[Arakni Spellweaver]

Oh here is another idea, go straight to the top. Get the Officers (and treasurer) to bankroll you. And in return, you supply the whole guild with what ever goods they want. If they are dubious about it, just ask for 1k and start a post on your board, getting members to just order from there, set the trial period for a month. I am sure you will generate interest, and usage within that time frame.

This is what I did. I'm an officer in the guild, and we're starting to get high enough and large enough to start raiding (half the people in the guild are three-quarters of the way to their epic, if that gives you an idea). I'm not able to raid with them yet, but I sent an email to our guild officer saying, here's what I'm hoping to be able to make in the next month or so. Here's how much it would cost. Do you think the guild will pay for this?

He sent me a tell in game the next night, he was very positive saying that he would pay for it, and named 6 or 7 other high level guildmates who are also willing to pay for such items. He said if nothing else they're more interesting to eat than iron rations and water... not to mention better for you as well! (I think he was thinking, stats = nutritional value. Which gets into an interesting side topic - Iron rations = McDonald's, baked food = nutritious, homemade food. Discuss).

Anyways, this is what I did, and it worked. Could be worth a try. Get your officers/guildleader hooked and the rest will follow.

[Lilosh]

Arakni:


Now that I have joined up, I can be the guild baker if nobody else wants to bother getting 250. I will happily combine my little halfling heart out, but (Like most real chefs), the more subcombines that people can do for me, the happier I will be.


I am referring mostly to HMP, where anyone with 191 baking, can save me time. Cream the filets, or even just make creamy fennel sauce.

Any subcombines that people can do would be spiffy. But even if they can't, then I will still make stuff for the guild.


Again, I will probably talk to you in game, but I wanted to post it here, while it's on my mind.



-Lilosh

Doh!

You mean I coulda asked to be bankrolled?

Why didn't I think of that?

[Cigarskunk]

I wasn't worried about being bank rolled - baking is relatively cheap and the return on investment from the MTPs was quite nice - besides, I'm already 241 with a spoon - the last 9 points will come when they come from simple non-trivial combines.

Yah, brewing bankrolled woulda been bad. Though I should have gotten guild to get me a corking device... that took a lot of time/cash.

They spent enough bankrolling our tailor. hehe

[Noni DeeCups]

For over the last year I have EVERYONE and I do mean EVERYONE tossing meat and other supplies in my trade window. So much that I had to create mules to hold all the stuff! Foraged stuff too like veggies. I mentioned ONCE on a raid that I needed some veggies for another Picnic run - for the next few months all the rangers were giving me stacks every week. Same thing with the mushrooms heh.

How did it get to this point? I passed out free food and drink in every group and every raid. When an item would drop that is needed for baking I would put in a link and say "Gimme all those and I will pass out more of these!" It worked like a charm! Now I can't even keep up with all the food.

I even have former guild members / friends come up to me in PoK with 4 stacks of Hero meat. They tell me "When you get a chance - toss me a stack of those sandwiches"

Motto: Be careful what you wish for.

[sir0die]

hehe, i'm in the same boat. I got a mule with nothing but meats of all kind on him. Some meat i don't even know if it's usefull, or if i'd wanna waste my time with the combines. I usually run around with atleast 1 FULL 10 slot pack full of stacks of food i've made.

I sometimes look forwards to guild raids, JUST so i can pass out food and free up some bank/pack space. I remember a point i would look forwards to raids just to raid.