Restricted and Unique Species/Cultures Policy Update

Hello!

It's Lucian, your Lore Team Lead, here to give some updates to policies regarding Restricted and Unique Races! I encourage you to read this to the very end before asking questions, and if you have any, I would be glad to answer them! I know it's long but I appreciate the patience as I try to be as transparent as possible about the changes.

When the rules changed, we originally had the idea to allow any player to play almost anything with little to no restrictions. When I was given the job of Lore Team lead, this was the mentality I took and was glad to try it out. However, more often than not, the mostly completely hands-off approach to this idea has led to more work and misunderstanding of the game world and lore than we desired. At first we re-introduced Restricted Races as a way to have more direct intervention in the cases where roleplay and depictions of certain creature types needed to be more specific in their portrayal. Soft Caps also came at that time in order to help maintain the balance of the composition of the characters present at games.

However, as I watch this system continue I find that it has not actually rectified the concerns that we were having previously.

As of this week the following are adjustments going into effect regarding these policies:

"A Player must have attended twelve games in person before they may apply to play a restricted or unique species/race/culture."

This is being done so that we can ensure players have experienced the game world long enough to be able handle the responsibility of these groups with the least intervention from staff in charge of moderating their roleplay. I believe this will give players the actual best footing in order to play these groups or to be able to understand how to create a unique species/culture to play. This does not affect characters who are already approved or are in the queue.

"Restricted and Unique Race approval will now open and close for certain periods of time."

This will allow Lore team to moderate how many players are playing characters of these groups to better know when to cap and uncap groups. Announcements will be made when the open application times are occurring. They will be open for a month and then will close. My ideal goal is to reopen for a month every sixth month, but it will depend on the workload each time it's open. During the closed period of time, players are able to still fill out the application but it will not be looked at until they are open officially again.

"Capped groups will not be in the next open application time for restricted races"

We have taken to capping some of these restricted races because we have had an overwhelming surge of players create characters of these races, and we want to ensure the population of them stays rare. And so this is so we can see how numbers settle. In most scenarios I anticipate a capped group will not have this status for more than one round of applications. Either way, Lore Team will always inform the players which groups may be applied to each time an open application occurs. The basic information that will be used to determine if a cap can be lifted is "How many of these characters are actively played"

Additionally, as part of the adjustments the following is happening:

-Taelithrien Elves and Neahmini Elves are now restricted, the world anvil has already been updated to reflect this.

- Zakol and Dhampir are now considered Capped, the world anvil has been updated to reflect this.

- Characters currently who are restricted races or in queue for a restricted or unique group whose player does not qualify due to the adjustment of policies will be grandfathered in.

-Applications for Restricted Races for this cycle will close on September 1st 2022.

-A document clearly outlining what is expected of players who play restricted races will be created and must be signed by all players currently playing or will be playing one in the future so expectations are clear.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this!