No rly?
and hey lisa, dont see you much around. (I guess you are a true ninja)
Without checking the facts, which is impossible since the old forums are gone forever.. I remember it like this:
1st group/playstyle-rules was Staffmasters created by Fasader (that ugly snatch). It was more a set of rules to follow than a real clan however.
I liked it and created the same, but on a more ambitious scale when I wrote the Ninja Guide.
(now found here:
http://ninjaempire.guildlaunch.com/gwiki/index.php?page_name=default&gid=170558)
Soon after Rosewood made the Roses.
The guards I don't remember how early they were, but quite early for sure. We were all quite inspired back then.. It was not really clans, as many were afraid to make something that sounded so serious. For myself, it dawned at some point that I had made a clan, even though I insisted that we were not! When others started to call us a clan I realized what a terrible mistake I had made.
However, I would put Ninjas, Roses and Guards as the first real clans in cRPG in no particular order. Staffmasters was more a fun playstyle for perhaps 3-4 people total. (But they inspired the whole movement)