Introduction

Societies in the DB provide both a reward track to encourage a certain activity and provide fictional opportunities for members to engage with (or not). As one of the oldest societies, the GMRG didn’t keep up with the changing character of the club and what members found engaging. That’s not to say my predecessors were asleep at the wheel, the quarterly leaderboard added by Valhavoc and reformed various times by Drac remains popular to this day. The GMRG item refresh with stuff from the newer Star Wars movies was also popular in its time.

The problem, as I saw it even as a regular gamer, was the core premise of the GMRG as “buckethead” bodyguards for more powerful dark Jedi was not something most members found appealing for their characters—this limited engagement and, ultimately the “cool” factor that drives members to grind out societies. When the Shadow Academy society got reformed into the ACS, I began to wish something similar would happen with the GMRG. Well, to paraphrase Hamilton,

“Ooh!, you know what? We can change that. You know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m the Fist”

The New GMRG

I’m proud to announce that the GMRG will be reformed both in character and out of character. Instead of pulling in member characters to serve as bodyguards to the council, the re-reformed GMRG will serve as an elite strike force pulled from all corners of the Brotherhood to take on the toughest missions behind enemy lines. My core idea with the new GMRG is to be like the Avengers where members primarily have their own thing going on in their clans or as rogues and in times of great need can be called on to be the tip of the spear for the Brotherhood. It shifts the thematic focus from serving these mysterious and powerful dark councilors to the awesomeness of your character and that the Brotherhood needs you (everyone wants their characters to feel awesome). There’s also an element of #onebrotherhood I wanted to weave into the new theme as in-character the new GMRG symbolically and practically is supposed to represent the strength of a united Brotherhood. Your character is your character and retains their individual affiliations and styles but if you choose to engage with the GMRG, that individuality will be an asset.

The Stuff

The wiki has been updated with the new rank chart. You can also look at the granted and purchasable versions of the new items here. The granted items will have less customization than the purchasable versions.

GMRG Rank	GMRG Points Required	Reward
GMRG I	15	GMRG Warbanner Tasset / "Marksman" Honorific
GMRG II	75	Royal Guard Shock Glove
GMRG III	150	Royal Guard Datapad
GMRG IV	300	Guardsman Warbanner Pattern / “Behind Enemy Lines” Selectable Feat
GMRG V	600	Royal Guard TactiX Armor / "Infiltrator" Honorific
GMRG VI	975	Synergy CX-17m ICWS / Eligible to compete in Quarterly GMRG Leaderboard
GMRG VII	1500	Legion’s Eye
GMRG VIII	2025	Royal Guard TactiX Manual / “Back Knife Block” Selectable Feat
GMRG IX	2625	Elite Royal Guard TactiX Armor / “Ghost” Honorific
GMRG X	3750	Royal Guard TactiX Vambrace, Force Sensitivity Point
GMRG XI	5250	Royal Guard Gravity Grenade
GMRG XII	7125	Synergy CX-series Commando Droid / Granted Feat: “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome” / “Reaper” Honorific

As you can see there’s a lot of new stuff to fit with the new “elite strike force” theme of the GMRG.

Scoring Changes

The intent with the scoring changes was to make Clusters of Earth and Clusters of Fire equal as far as the society was concerned. Gaming has changed and the games members play have changed. I saw no reason to keep the society distinction between PVP and PVE, especially when casual queue only awards CEs. Competition runners are still free to set 1CF=2CE or CF/CE only cluster race competitions. There is also more of an emphasis on doing and placing in gaming competitions (not just those ran by the Fist staff) to give people who aren’t able to do multiplayer gaming a path to advancement in the GMRG.

Activity, Achievement or Service	Points Earned (old)	Points Earned (new)
Cluster of Earth	1 Point	2 Points
Cluster of Fire	2 Points	2 Points
First Place	35 Points x Multiplier	40 Points x Multiplier
Second Place	25 Points x Multiplier	35 Points x Multiplier
Third Place	15 Points x Multiplier	25 Points x Multiplier
Fourth Place	0 Points	15 Points x Multiplier
Fifth Place	0 Points	10 Points x Multiplier
Participation	0 Points	5 Points x Multiplier
Organize Fist Approved Competition	50 Points	50 Points
90 Days as P:Fist	70 Points	70 Points
90 Days as M:Fist	50 Points	50 Points
120 Days as Fist	120 Points	120 Points
Multipliers
Novae	3x
1st Level Crescents	2.5x
2nd Level Crescents	2x
3rd Level Crescents	1.5x
4th Level Crescents	1.25x
5th Level Crescents	1x

Lore Expansion

Be on the lookout for a GMRG Revamp Competition series hosted by the Fist staff and one or two RP sessions hosted by me to help flesh out the lore and locations for the revamped GMRG. I know this is “Krathy” stuff but I hope the new GMRG is something members are excited to use and engage with.

Closing

Special thanks to Noobi and Socks who helped me turn my crazy ideas for new stuff into a reality with slick visuals. Thanks to Iddy for turning my shorthand into cool feats and as always James for being a wizard and making this all happen.

Until next time,

Rajhin Cindertail aka Turel

Fist of the Brotherhood