Effective immediately we will be changing policy in a few areas to better reflect the atmosphere we have been cultivating on the server over the past five months.
We want to empower the DM team to do more. We want the rewards that players receive at the end of quests to be substantial. In that light, as players, you should:
- Expect to see more gold and more items being distributed by the DM team as befits the plots they are running. Players will not receive items from plots that are more powerful than they could otherwise acquire through existing systems but it is encouraged now for the DM team to hand out unique and thematic items when appropriate.
- Expect to see larger experience rewards from the DM team. From small things, such as a one-off experience bonus every time your RPR is raised, to bigger rewards at the end of long plots, we think that players deserve more than an insignificant dent in their experience bar when doing something right.
A few changes have been made regarding the roleplay rating system that you should be aware of:
- Being overlooked is no fun for anybody, especially if you're new to the server. Why are all your friends getting a bonus experience every tick when you aren't? After all, you ARE roleplaying! We think it is better to trust that our players are capable of quality roleplay from day one. We have increased the starting RPR from 0 to 10.
- The RPR system will have less downwards mobility. Going from 20 to 30 can bring a smile to your face. Dropping from 30 to 20 because you wanted nothing more than an evening of mindless grinding at the end of a long week does not. Once you drop it is even more difficult to climb again if you resolve your faults because the DM team are not omnipresent. Players should not feel pressured to maintain a high quality level at all times; everybody slips up now and then. If you consistently display a low standard of roleplay then your RPR will still drop but the DM team will be more considerate in this area moving forwards.
- A specific policy change that I will call out in this thread was the (unwritten) requirement to "post one emote every transition of solo grinding". Being punished for not roleplaying at yourself is arbitrary and completely unfair. We play on Arelith for collaborative storytelling; if you wanted to write alone then you wouldn't be here. We will no longer enforce the requirement to emote at yourself when solo grinding. Please don't take this as an invitation to run around on a silent grinding bringe for twelve hours straight. That's still a bad thing (for your own mental and physical health).
These policy changes were decided through discussion with the DM team at large. A particular driver of much described in this topic was the head DM Noxt.