Hello everyone and happy spring! This update is significant and reflects a lot of the feedback and suggestions that have piled up for the Sr. Staff team over the past six or so months. We have made every effort to do as much as we can for this update, so please do your best to read through these changes in their entirety and reach out to a Staff member if you have any lingering questions.

• To incentivize longer threads between individual characters and small groups, longer threads will now award more claimable trade tasks. This is how this change will work:
  
  • 1on1 threads can claim one additional trade task (total of 4) if the thread is 15+ posts long.
  • Threads with 3-4 chars can claim one additional trade task (total of 4) if the thread is 30+ posts long.
  • Threads with 5 or more characters do not count/are unchanged.
  
  

• Dice Reductions for Physical Disabilities: We know that some members are interested in having dice reductions added for characters with specific physical disabilities, to account for better realism. Members are allowed to manually reduce their dice in fights and hunts, at the discretion of the player, for this – however, we will not be implementing this officially/it will not be reflected in the official dice on a character’s profile. If you decide to implement this for your character for realism, we ask that you try and be consistent.


• Hard-Stop Topics in OOC Profiles: A new field has been added in OOC profiles for members to identify their hard-stop triggers, themes, or topics that you do not want to be involved with on-site. This feature is optional.
• This feature is currently able to be filled in by you but staff may switch to a select type if any issues come up.
• Members are expected to respect these boundaries as much as possible and to take them seriously. If repeated or intentional instances of boundary-pushing are found to be occurring, the Sr. Staff team will step-in.
• We ask that members be as down-to-earth as possible when typing out their triggers. There are a lot of things that can be upsetting but try to stick with the ones that YOU do not wish to be pulled into.
• This does not change the use of trigger warnings in posts being the first line of stopping a member from reading something that they are not ok with.


• Posting After Posted Fight Results: To help reduce limbo, we are removing the 3-day pause on posts following official fight results. The new parameters will be that “characters cannot react to the outcome of the fight for 3 days or until both parties have posted, whichever comes first.”
• If the new rules are not being followed and additional issues arise, Sr. Staff reserve the right to revert back to the old system of not allowing any posts.


• To expand on the mentorship award, we have created an apprentice IC award! This award will be given to apprentices, and the old award will go to the mentor – this is so that they have complimentary (but unique) awards to showcase the story aspect of their relationship.


• The language we use around NPCs is being adjusted for clarity.
• Familiars will replace the current term we have for NPCs, in relation to “pets” or “side-kicks” that characters can have. The rules on familiars will be the same.
• NPCs are broadly non-player characters – you can use NPCs in your threads at liberty and they can interact with your character as you wish. However, they can not harm/pester/etc. other characters that join the thread without permission from all parties - they should be seen as flavor-adding/story-building opportunities. They may also be added via dice rolls or by Staff for specific events (#PoorLou).


• Finding Hidden Characters: When attempting to find a character that is hidden in a thread, the odds of discovering them (without any perk modifications) will be lowered to 50%. This is to help balance the changes that you will soon see coming to our trade perk revamp (spoiler!).


• We will be making changes to all non-fight dice-roll mechanics on-site so that they follow the same system now used in the hunt system (i.e. you roll the number and the result is auto-populated). You will see these changes reflected in the Guidebook.
• The numbers you see are no longer taken into account. The odds are balanced in the system so please do not mind the numbers shown.


• Illegal interferences are no longer being allowed. Instead of an illegal interference (such as an illegal interference in a maims, etc.) being defaulted out, the post will now simply be deleted. Multi-lion fights are still permitted for some fight types, as listed in the Guidebook. Members who repeatedly engage in illegal interferences will be given a warning.


• Our new trade perk cooldown tracker is in maintenance now. Please make sure you are using this after you use a perk!
  
  

We understand that we have a creative membership with vibrant and interesting ideas – however, this is a general reminder that Amaryllis is a semi-realistic site, and is intended to stay that way.

Our “baseline” for acceptable accessories and trinkets IC must follow the following parameters:

1) They need to be simple;

2) They need to use organic material; and

3) If a monkey could do it/make it, it’s okay.

Things such as satchels, simple jewelry, and other accessories have traditionally fallen into these categories. Collecting hides and drying them, collecting fermented fruit and eating them as a "wine", or collecting other natural items and using them in a base-level method is also okay. However, tanning small hides, making carts, and making fire (which is different from, say, collecting fire from a forest fire or something similar) goes beyond what we would deem as semi-realistic.

We ask that everyone respect the semi-realism of the site. If you have questions about what qualifies as “semi-realistic”, please ask a Sr. Staff member and we can work it out with you. We want to embrace everyone’s creativity while still maintaining the intention and core of the site, so we thank you in advance for understanding!

After looking at the feedback that we received from the Community Check-Up Survey and reviewing internally how the system has been working for the Sr. Staff team (and how it hasn’t been), we have decided to make the following adjustments to our suggestion system.

Minor Off-Discord Suggestions
As of this announcement, we will be opening up a Google Form for minor & non-mechanic related suggestions.

This suggestions form will be for smaller suggestions that are not related to or based on the mechanics of the site. This will be used as a pool of suggestions for Sr. Staff to review semi-regularly, and will not be treated via the same process as the suggestions we take via Discord.

Please take a look at the Google Form link, above, for all of the necessary information and some examples of what should be submitted here.

Discord Suggestions
Discord suggestions will open back up on May 1 and will remain open for 12 days or until 20 suggestions have been submitted, whichever comes first. With the smaller suggestions form now available, we ask that these suggestions focus on bigger site items, mechanics, and so forth.

Members are only permitted to make a maximum of 2 suggestions per suggestion period. If the suggestion period is still open after 10 days, members who have already submitted suggestions will be able to submit an additional 2. This is to ensure that all members have the opportunity to have their ideas heard – failure to respect these new guidelines will result in excess suggestions being deleted, without question.

Following the closing of a suggestion period, suggestions on Discord will remain closed until the Sr. Staff team has been able to process everything received, either by denying suggestions, implementing them, or tweaking them as needed. An announcement will be made before they are re-opened, which will typically be the 1st of the month following the completion of the last items being taken care of.

• i.e. Sr. Staff finish getting through all the suggestions on May 10th. Suggestions would reopen on June 1st.

Death matches are serious events and we want to make sure that the outcomes and wounded rolls reflect this severity. This is why, moving forward, wounded rolls received as the result of a death match will apply to any subsequent death matches, assuming that the second death match occurs within the character’s wounded window.

This does not apply to subsequent death matches that happen after the wounded status has been lifted. We hope that these changes will account for the realism aspect of these fights and that it will encourage members to consider their severity moving forward.

Because who doesn’t like more pride ranks? As of today, we will be adding spots to the pride pages for general occupational ranks, to complement the lead occupational ranks. This means that more pride members will be able to be assigned jobs within their prides, and we are hoping that this will add a little extra flare, importance, and purpose for all tiers.

The general occupational ranks will include: Hunters, Fighters, Medics, Scouts, Advisors, and Storytellers. They are unlimited and do not come with any perks; perks are reserved for the lead-occupational ranks only.

You will see these changes reflected on the pride pages shortly!

Following some of the suggestions that we received from members and after reviewing the current set-up for major and minor maims on-site, the Sr. Staff team has decided to make some adjustments.

First, some major maims will now require explicit approval from both parties in order to be executed. The ones that have been reassigned to this include: total blinding (both eyes), full tongue removal (impacting speech ability), full limb amputation, and full breaking of jaw.

This has been done considering the fact that these major maims are life-altering, as well as recognizing that not all members may be comfortable with this. If you have additional ideas for minor or major maims, please reach out to a Sr. Staff member, as we are always open to expanding the list in the Guidebook.

Another big and hot-button topic that we received in the last round of suggestions was centered around pride leadership, leadership requirements, and pride challenges. After some careful thought and review, we will be implementing some adjustments, starting in this update with adjustments to leadership requirements and tier resets.

These changes will officially take effect on April 5th and all leaders are expected to keep up with all leadership requirements until then.

• All pride-related checks (posting, pride news/history, pride pages) will now happen on the day of the IC month change, which is biweekly on Fridays.
• Even if the IC month is NOT changed on-site or announced in Discord yet, this is still official. All dates for the rollovers can be found in the site calendar and pride leaders are expected to know them.


• All pride leaders, primary and secondary (including band leaders), need to make 6 posts biweekly. This both reduces the posting requirement for primary leaders and loosens up the timeframe for all pride leaders to complete them.


• This means that pride leaders will need to have all their posts and requirements completed BEFORE the IC monthly change (i.e. done by 11:59pm EST on the Thursday before). Checks will happen at any time during the day, on every second Friday, as the Admin team is able.
  
  • i.e. The requirement window starts on one Friday and ends 2 Thursdays after.
  • Example: The IC month rollover happens on Friday, April 5th. This is also the beginning of the requirement window. The next IC month rollover happens on April 19th – so, all leadership requirements need to be met and completed by 11:59pm EST on Thursday, April 18th.
  
  

• All pride & band leadership requirements will be moved to the two-strike system, including posting requirements.
• Strikes are wiped every IC year that the High Sovereign or band leader remains in their position (must be consecutive).


• Posts needed to challenge/claim a pride have been reduced back down to 100 posts.

Pride tiers will only reset if the pride changes leadership to avoid disbandment (leader fails requirements or has too many strikes) or via a challenge. Leadership changes for any other reason will not reset the tiers.

The Sr. Staff team is looking at some other potential changes to pride buffers and challenges that may be rolled out in another update. We wanted to get these changes rolled out now when we were able.

First and foremost, we would like to extend a massive thank you to the volunteers on the Trade Team for helping with this big (and very daunting) initiative. We have made a lot of progress in a short amount of time, and their support, help, ideas, and time has been invaluable and beyond appreciated.

New Trade Perks & Pools
You will notice there is something a little different about how perks are set up – this is because members now have the ability to pick their Master and Sub-Master perks from a pool of options, instead of the perks being static. This allows for more diverse character types, utilization combos, and individuality amongst characters. The Trade Team and Staff have also worked very hard to diversify the perks, balance them, and give them all a little something special!

You may pick two Master perks and one Sub-Master perk for each character and will be able to change these once every 6 OOC months (if you want), so please make sure you take time to think them over. You are only able to select your Sub-Master perk after your Master trade is maxed out.

You can take a look at all of the new perks here!

New Perk Testing Period
To ensure that things have been balanced properly, we will be having a testing phase of the perks. This testing will occur in this forum – here, you can use your OOC accounts, make threads, test different perks and combinations, see how things stack, and so forth. Work together with others to test these things out! We will also have a dedicated channel in Discord for questions and concerns about the new perks and set-up.

The Sr. Staff team and the Trade Team will be watching the testing and making adjustments to the perks as needed. We expect this to last about 2 weeks, but may be extended if we feel as though it is required for better balancing. This means that the perks, as they are listed now, may undergo changes if the Trade Team feels as though it is required.

The new perks and pools are not considered finalized or “live” (meaning they can’t be claimed or used in regular IC threads) until the Admin team has announced them as so and they are inserted into the Guidebook. As mentioned, this will not be for, at least, another 2 weeks.

During the testing phase, you will not be able to change your trade without penalty or select your perks.

Soft Opening
Our soft opening will be after the perks are live and placed in the guidebook. This will last about 2/3 weeks. We are looking for members to post with their new perks and see if any IC issues show up as you use them during this time.

We may make small adjustments but the perks should be set as listed in the guidebook, meaning no BIG changes but maybe some smaller ones.

Once we enter our soft opening, you will be able to change your characters’ trades once without losing any trade experience. You will need to have your new trades (if desired) selected for all of your characters before the soft opening is over to qualify for this – the Admin team will give at least a week’s notice to when this deadline will be. You can also update inactive accounts if you would like to avoid loss of experience.

You can change your trades by posting in Trade & Dice Updates.

• Inactive characters that come back and change trade after the testing phase is over will not be able to keep their trade experience. They will start from 0 if they change trades – this is why we encourage you to update all of your accounts during the soft opening phase.

Extra/Special Notes
After discussions with the Trade Team, the following new guidelines will apply to trades. These changes will be explained and reflected in the Guidebook.

• If a perk stipulates "pride", it is also applicable to marked band members. If a perk says "band", it only applies to marked band members.
• We will no longer be allowing trades to be doubled-up on for Master and Sub-Master. Every character will need to have different Master and Sub-Master trades – i.e., you can’t be both a Master and Sub-Master Ranger on the same account.
• When engaging in fights, there are limits to the extra dice you can claim from different perks. You can claim:
• All of your own dice perks (perks resulting from your own trade levels or from your rank within the pride);
• +1 dice from the occupational perk of another character/pride-member (i.e. Lead Scout +1 luck perk); and
• +1 dice from someone else’s trade perk (i.e. +1 luck from a Master Pathfinder).
• Only self-earned dice from trades are applicable to DMs.

In other words, you cannot stack multiple trade or occupational perks from others. For example, if there are 3 Master Pathfinders in a given thread, you can only claim one +1 luck, not +3 luck.

And, finally, we will be having a new skin contest to add a few more options to the site. You’ll notice that the team has been working hard to get a variety of new skins coded – this time around, the skin contest will be focused on the seasons!

There will be four categories that can be entered (winter, spring, summer, fall). You can enter as many skins as you would like, and voting will take place via Google Forms.

You can find the full contest details here.

As a reminder, we have our site fundraiser happening! It will be ending on April 26th! Learn more here.

-- The Sr. Staff Team