Roleplay Elements

Since the very beginning, [HLGK] has been a roleplaying community.  We publish our stories here on the blog, and generally live in the 31st century while in TeamSpeak.  It adds to the immersion level immensely, and frankly the game wouldn't be the same for a lot of us without our freakish assertions of lore.  It adds another level to the game, and we ask that all Gatekeepers participate (at least a little bit).

Unit Foundation

First, a little more background.

The Liao Reserve Regiments suffered horrendous losses during the 4th Succession War.  The few fighters that were not Dispossessed by the end of the war fled from Davion aggression, and began to regroup.  Scraping together what pilots and battlemechs they could, they eventually formed several regiments across the eastern region of the Capellan Confederation, along the border with the Federated Suns.

The Liao Cháng-Chéng (or Great Wall) as it has come to be known is comprised of several different units.  Currently the organization is too small to be recognized by the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces as an "actual" military reserve, the small units comprising the Great Wall are building in stature and experience.  One such unit are the Gatekeepers.

Founded in 3047 by a small band of partisan fighters to conduct retribution terror attacks along the Davion border, after attracting a great number of pilots in the lead-up to the Clan Invasion the Gatekeepers established themselves as a "para"military organization with a very tight discipline.  Since then, they have gained notoriety in the Chaos March.  Today, the unit is composed of vengeful warriors who seek to continue their war against the Federated Suns.

Community Manager

The [HLGK] Community Manager handles a lot of the roleplay information for us.  We have a number of writers who regularly contribute to our ongoing narrative, and the idea for collecting "character" information on mechwarriors came about as a way to collate and share the ideas we had for the storyline.  Now, we have a more formalized and robust system.

Each member has an Assignment.  This refers to the "job" your character performs with the unit.  This will be reflected in any story entry that contains your character.  However, there are also duties associated with each Assignment.  When you join the unit, you are automatically assigned as MechWarrior, and this won't change unless you specifically ask for an assignment.  Even so, many assignments have requirements for rank or HLGK XP.  The Assignments available are noted in the Community Manager.

In addition, we've compiled a list of every character's Traits.  These are descriptive terms used to aid in characterization, and are great resources for our authors.  Choose two words or phrases to form the basis of your character.  All Gatekeepers share the following Traits:  Loyal, Vengeful, Patriotic and Honorable.  Check out the Community Manager for some more examples.  Note that there is no "Master List" of Traits, so be creative!

Related to your RP information is your MechWarrior's preferred weight class and role.  This will be recorded in the Community Manager as well for several purposes, including unit reviews by the Command Staff.  Getting HLGK colors is a bold move as well, and if you sport Mica Lime and Camo Black your support will likewise be noted.

If you'd like to write up your character's backstory, we'll feature it on the site.  Submissions must be at least 3 paragraphs of at least 3 sentences each.  If you have a specific image you want published with your backstory, make sure to include a link to it.  The number of stories you write / are mentioned in is noted in the Community Manager, as well as if you've published your backstory on the site.

Unit roleplay helps with morale and immersion a great deal.  This mindset forms the basis for our "try-hard" mentality, providing impetus and activity for the entire unit.  The more folks participate in RP, the more the narrative grows.  The shared narrative builds camaraderie, and I think that's something most of us can appreciate.  So get out there and hash out your stories, Gatekeepers!  Report your finished works / Community Manager updates directly to the Zhong-Shao.