Make a Clan in RuneScape

Let's face it, making a clan in Runescape is pretty tough (and nearly impossible). But with some organization and a good plan, you can make a well known and victorious clan in no time.

Steps

Planning your clan

  1. Figure out what your vision for the clan is. Take time to answer these questions:
    1. What sort of players would you like in your clan (e.g. mature, obsessed with Runescape, laid-back, funny)?
    2. What do you want your clan to do? (e.g. train skills or one particular skill, fight boss monsters, play activities, go player killing)?
    3. Do you want all of your members to be in the same or similar timezones for organization's sake?
    4. How big do you want your clan to be? Remember that while great big clans may be more powerful and make citadel-building easier, smaller clans feel more like a family, and if you are going for a community-focused clan, you might be better off with a low player-count. Small clans may not have a lot of power, but they can still fight.

Actually Creating the Clan

  1. Find four friends to help you start the clan. You'll need to have these people with you when you officially start your clan. Remember: it is a huge advantage for these people to be good examples of the type of people you'd like in your clan.
  2. Head to the clan camp just south of Falador. Once here, meet up with your friends and speak to the Scribe and ask for a clan charter.
  3. Use the charter on each of your friends to get their signatures. Once this is done, go back to the scribe and give him the charter.
  4. Once you've given the charter to the scribe, you will be asked to enter the name of your clan. Make sure that all of your friends agree on the name. It could lead to conflicts later. It should be catchy and not too long.
  5. You'll then need to customize your clan, which involves choosing your clan's motif, picking the colors and setting the clan's motto, as well as adding some useful information.
  6. After you've done all of this, go to the Captain of the Guard who will give you a cloak and a vexillum with the motif and colors you chose.
  7. Next, if you're a member, you'll want to create a citadel. Go over to the portal in the west part of the clan camp, and ask your four friends to each stand on one of the 5 special tiles located around the portal. You will need to stand on one of the tiles, too. A citadel will automatically be created.

Building your clan

  1. Remember this: Your clan isn't really a clan unless it can grow and develop. This will take patience and work, but it is worth it.
  2. Make a clan forum at the Runescape Forums This should describe what your clan is about. In general, use good grammar and spelling when making this forum, as it will make you sound more professional. First impressions are everything! You'll need to include the following posts in your forum:
    1. Introduction. This should catch the reader's eye, and tell a little bit about the clan such as how old the clan is, what it's focus is (PKing clan, Skiller clan, Dungeoneering clan, PvM clan, free-for-all clan), what timezone it is in, how strict (or relaxed) it is, and other basic clan information.
    2. Table of contents. (optional) This step is optional, but very helpful. It is a list of your first posts on the forum, and it makes it much easier for people to find pages such as your members list, introduction, rules, etc.
    3. Rules.' Rules might include something like, "You must attend at least 2 events a week." "Treat everyone with respect." "No vulgar language." or "No multi-clanning." (recommended). One rule that you absolutely MUST add in is "No breaking Jagex rules." If you do not have this rule, your clan may fill with botters, scammers. What do you want your clan to be like? Some clans go as far as to require all skills be maxed, while some clans have no requirements at all. If your clan is a dungeoneering clan, you might require 60+ dungeoneering, while if you are a PvM clan you might require 115+ combat. Whatever you do, remember that you must meet the requirements for your own clan. Note: If you are a members-only clan, it's a very good idea to require people to collect the maximum number of resources in the citadel each week."
    4. Leaders/Positions of Power list. You should post this even if you are the only leader so far. As your clan grows, you will probably want have an event coordinator, a deputy leader, a citadel overseer, a master skiller for people who want to ask skilling questions, a master skiller, etc. Make sure to list open positions of power.
    5. An "Allies and Enemies" list. Once your clan gets bigger, you will post any ally clans or enemy clans you might have.
    6. A list of events your clan enjoys. Example events might be skilling, god wars, pking, boss-killing, castle wars, fishing trawler, etc. If you have an event coordinator, let them make this post.
    7. Goals. (optional, but recommended) This will tell future recruits what goals your clan has. A goal might be something like "100 members by January 2012." "100,000,000 total clan xp by September 1st." or "Create and run a tier 7 citadel." An organized list of goals will let people see your ambition and the potential of the clan.
    8. An application. A good application will look like the picture below. Remember to also add any clan-specific questions you might have, especially if you have requirements. If you require 4 99s, ask people what their 99s are.
    9. A recruitment letter, for people to copy and paste to peoples "looking for a clan" posts. This should be well written, eye-catching, and inviting. Writing a good recruitment letter is up to you, as what kind of letter you will need completely depends on the clan type.
    10. Any other clan-specific posts you might have.
    11. Reserved posts. You never know what your clan might end up doing, and what sort of post you might need to make. Putting these posts at the beginning make it much easier for people to see -- you will be able to edit them later. You should make at least one page of these posts.
    12. A "You may now post" post. Otherwise, people will be hesitant to reply to your thread because they won't know if you're still reserving posts!
  3. Get recruiting! There is more than one way to recruit.
    1. Many people find that the "Looking for a clan" page is the best way to recruit. All you have to do is find someone looking for a clan who meets your requirements, is interested in your kind of clan, and is generally the type of person who you'd like to have around in your clan. Then, just post your recruitment letter to their looking for a clan (LFC for short) page! This is why your recruitment letter is especially important. Not all of your clan members will have the time, patience, or skill to write a convincing recruitment letter, so it's great to have something that they can just copy and paste to recruit people. The person looking for a clan may or may not apply, but if you post this message enough, you will definitely get some recruits.
    2. Another way to recruit is to put up vexillums in game so that random people can check them out, and hopefully join your clan. A good place to put them up is right outside the grand exchange, as this is a popular place for all sorts of players to visit.
    3. The next way to recruit is to simply yell about your clan ("Join [insert clan name here]! Great clan! Fun people! Level 115+!"), or talk to select people about your clan ("Hello, are you interested in joining a clan?"). It is always a good plan to make them post an application to the forums before they join to weed out people that might not be a good fit for your clan, or who are rude, disgusting, or otherwise do not meet your standards. If you don't require them to post an application, you should at least have them visit your clan for a while before letting them officially join.
    4. You could also try recruiting your friends, but this will probably only work while you're getting your clan up and running.
  4. Rank people up. If you don't upgrade peoples' ranks, they might get upset -- after all, they've been being perfectly good members, and you haven't given them anything for it! Ranking people up 1 rank at a time is usually a good idea, unless they've applied for and gotten a leadership position. Don't just hand out the higher ranks -- make people prove themselves and really work for them. If a member breaks rules, demote them.
  5. Effectively assign people jobs. A lot of the jobs such as "lady" and "expert" are too vague to help the clan, but if you have an organized PvM clan, things like "Ancienter," "Tank," and "Ranger" may help a lot. Also, if your clan is very large, you may want to have experts for different skills and a wide variety of governing positions. Make sure that people know about the jobs that you give them. Otherwise, they won't do them, and they'll be confused if people ask them questions about their job.
  6. Host regular events! Host a daily event if possible (not all members are always required to come to every event). On some days, allow people that are not in your clan to join in to see if they like your clan. You'll want to hold meetings and resource collecting events for your citadel, and possibly recruiting events, as well as your other events.
  7. Encourage people to talk in the clan chat. This will help build friendships within the clan, and overall make it a happier place.
  8. Pat yourself on the back. You now have a fully functional clan in Runescape. Whether you become big and powerful depends on your dedication and hard work!

Tips

  • Note that all of your friends must be logged on and in the clan camp up until you've chosen the name (and thus finalizing the registration), otherwise their name will be removed from the charter and it won't work.
  • If you need more advice starting and running your clan, check out the Jagex clan guide and ask on the Runescape Clan Forums.

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