Shamelessly stolen from WoW, which I recently got over my addiction to...

Basically there is an area where two or more forces are in deadlocked combat with one another. Up to ten adventurers may join each of the factions in a manner similar to joining an arena event (like JOIN ). The battle is ongoing, and players can also see who is participating in the battleground, on what side, and what the current score of the battleground is, as well as other important information. Once the adventurer has joined, they are brought to the starting room in their faction's base. From here, they are free to venture out into the battlefield, or defend the base.

Players can affect the battle in multiple ways; They can kill the denizens of the other faction (I forsee different groups of different leveled mobs, I was personally intending the standard mobs to be designed for lvl 60+, the elite mobs to be for 80+, and the leaders being incredibly difficult to kill), they can influence their own faction's mobs, enemy mobs, or perhaps a neutral set of mobs who are similar to village influenceables, AND they can kill the enemy faction's players. The zone is open PK, with no karma gain or loss, but about triple the regular XP gain for conglut kills. Players who die are cast out, just like in an arena, to the outside of the battlefield, with XP loss about equal to a conglutination death.

Now for the scoring mechanics:
There is a certain score margin for each battlefield. Let's say that in one area there is a margin of 10,000 points. For example, the score is either displayed as 8,967 in favor of one team, or 1,498 in favor of the other, in a linear fashion. Points are gained in many different ways:
-Handing in corpses gives the player gold, karma, xp, and increases the team score
-Influencing neutral mobiles
-Small "go-fetch" quests that require infiltrating enemy territory
-Leading a standard-bearer or similar to a "hill", and protecting him in KotH fashion, gaining points per tick
-If you are the losing team, keeping a group of mobs safe who periodically decrease the score margin
-And so on...

Also, many of these actions will result in a gain of Reputation. Reputation is a scaled quantity of 1-100. It is similarly linear, so fighting for a faction after having fought for the opposite one for a long time will reduce the margin, and bring you into their good graces. Reputations also filter back to zero over time, if left alone. Players can view their REPUTATIONS in all the battlefields of the land, and those scores could mean several things:
-Reputation of above 20 will prevent you from joining the opposing force (very important for abuse reasons)
-Also, reputation of above 20 lets you buy from your faction's store (to be discussed in a minute, also very important)
-Reputation of above 50 lets you trade in karma for certain powerups that last until you die
-Reputation of above 75 lets you purchase a limited number of bodyguards, or troops to place around the battlefield
-Reputation of above 80 means that your faction will never, under any circumstance, attack you
-Reputation of 100 allows you to buy a pendant which will keeps you from leaving the battlefield upon death
-Etc.

The Benefits:
This could just be another ongoing conflict quest where one side is allied with Mag, and another is allied with Celest, but let's face it: That's boring. So instead, I was thinking the factions could operate stores that benefit their particular allies (note that I also came up with this idea while trying to think of inventive bashing areas on Prime). Dependant on the faction's level of control of the battlefield, a certain amount of resources would be generated every day. Players may then purchase the resources (even including power which could be transfered to a special node that players could link to!) at a price dependent on their reputation in the area.
Also, for RP purposes, it would be cool to have certain items for sale (tabbards, jewellery, food, flags) that can't be found anywhere else, and identify your allegiance to the group.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more I just can't think of right now.

Comments? You liiiike?

Cool, let's Lusty-ize it now! (but I dun know how)_

I think the idea of being able to get special items that do nothing more than give bragging rites is a good one.
"LOLZ L0zer5 I got the tabard of the uber pwnzor! Beat that."

I agree with nerra. I also can't think of any ideas right now

If the factions were like good/evil/taint/untaint/nature/civilization then the cities/communes would probably outlaw participating in all but one faction, with the result being that each faction would probably be controlled by a different org. Then this would just be a glorified version of raiding/defending. A somewhat better one, or at least different, but still.

Okay, unaligned examples.

A plateau in the southeastern mountains that a group of loboshigaru have claimed as primal hunting grounds for ages. Now, in an attempt to secure more valuable gems, wood, and a steady supply of food, a detachment of Ur'Guard have been sent to take control.

A rich, previously unknown power source buried in an ancient construct under the inner sea. Lucidians and trill have descended on the region, hoping to secure the power for raising Hallifax, while Dracnari have done the same hoping to secure it to raise Gaudiguch. A group of neutral gnomes who warn of the dangers of fooling with the arcane power are stuck in the middle.

The gorgogs have returned! This time to another island within the Sea, and these are subservient to a rogue merian enchantress who seeks to use the gorgogs to wipe both Magnagora and New Celest from the face of the Basin, and restructure the merian race under new leadership. A strange alliance of Viscanti and Merians have gathered to take the island back from her, which she is attempting to use as a concentrated portal site for the gorgogs, as well as a foundation for her new civilization.



There, end of ideas?

I like this idea.

Could also be expanded a bit so that there are keeps or guardhouses or sommat which an organization could win for a little while. A fighting kind of revolt, if you will. When Faction A gets so many points, it wins the area. Then Faction A's minions/servants/soldiers come in and take over for a time and various little things, such as run a trading post or sommat.

It would be nice that if you fight for a dracnari village, they'd give you a tribal tattoo or sommat to show that you are a reconized warrior by them. Or get little things, that while not really over the top such as fieldplate (Unless you have a reputation of 100 for a dozen years or so), could be used or just neat trinkets. Scabbards would be nice, so would clothing. Not everyone in the Basin has the same style of stitching, and maybe the merians have a way to waterproof their clothing or wear special clothing while underwater. Maybe a few books could be thrown in for sale and trade.

More about bragging rights...

I haven't played Dragon Realms too extensively, but from my little understand of said game, I think they have rewards for certain quests/events that do nothing but give bragging rights. Many of these items have 'verbs' which is like a special emote that interacts with the item in a special way. Something like a ring that looks like a snake coming to life, slithering up the body and transforming into a necklace that looks like a snake. Something like that anyway.

Not exactly unaligned for the first (Ur'Gaurd is in Magnagora, is it not). And the third would be communes v. cities (I would like this). Second though, is not aligned with any.

These are only rough overviews. Maybe through the introduction event, Magnagora decides that the merian enchantress can be used against Celest, and that her evil and alignment with the gorgogs may be in their favor... it all depends. And those were only examples anyway, I'm sure I can crank out some more.

I had an idea something like this in one of the conflict threads, really I think we should have areas rich in both material components and power, which are the battle grounds, outside of the mountains, the battles would run twice a day, teams of 5-10, they would be announced 1 hour before they started. Each person who paritipated would generate 1 power, and 1 random commodity which can come out of the battleground.

There would be a few different types of battles, like, ctf, destroy, grab and hold, and they would each give different commodities. The winning team would generate say, 100 of each commodity for their org, and say 50 power per team member. There is one team per org, so you'd pick your best fighters, though there may or may not be level restrictions, on it, since it would give smaller members somewhere to practice fighting.

Nothing what so ever would be consumed in the battleground, no power, herbs, salves, nothing, so it wouldn't cost anything, and actually give something back, naturally it wouldn't be forced to participate which means no one will complain that they have to go and fight there.

See, I was thinking of it as more of a chance for personal gain, as well as limited benefits for different organizations. The areas would be a part of prime, and herbs and potions and the like would be consumed, as well as deaths counting for something (albeit small). Basically, a higher risk bashing ground with the chance for greater benefits, as well as for fighters to get out their angst while developing their character's alignment with a particular set of ideals.

It almost scares me, but I actually like this a lot! It would be nice to have a place to go and vent frustration. I don't like the idea of the opportunity for gain without any sacrifice - we should have to take SOME risk to gain something. Having basically optional, non-affiliated raiding grounds would be interesting, so long as a way can be found for them to actually work in RP-wise. It would seem awkward for Mag and Celest to fight together on one front against the forests, then go straight into raiding each other.