Breeding Season '17

[dohtml]Big update incoming, please bear with us!

Congratulations Kai and Kajika!

Of the Month Winners January!

Kai Many of you are probably aware that Kai is an insanely active member, but did you know she made 222 posts by the end of the month? I don't think any one has ever made so many posts in a month in the whole history of RoW, and that in and of itself is commendable! Her actvity, I'm sure, directly inspired many other members to write like crazy and as a result we reached well over 2,000 posts for the month of December (two times our normal amount). She's currently juggling five characters, too, which is a lot to manage. On top of that, Kai has recently started hanging out with all of us on Slack more and her presence is a joy. Congrats, Kai!

Kajika Kajika has made leaps and bounds in terms of character development in the last month. In times of hardship for Fallen Tree Cove Kajika was the backbone of the pack, and now that their membership has started to swell again the dark wolf is beginning to come into his role as advisor. There have been many interesting developments with Kajika's relationship with Moonshadow, his mentee, and Tagg, a former member returned. Kajika's conflicted feelings over his friends' budding relationship have kept us all on the edge of our seats--especially now that his former interested Desideria will be returning. Congrats, Kajika!

• Meetings
  
• Hunts
  
• Pack Howl
  
• Pack Random Event
  
• Disputes with other packs (Major ones, i.e. scuffles, fights, confrontations)
  
• Pack-wide Training and Lessons
  
• Tournaments
  
• Pup-meeting
  
• New member welcoming
  

Map Update

• Zoom: You can zoom in and out: this definitely adds to the depth of Relic Lore, accurately reflecting the size of our region
  
• Scale: In the bottom corner we have a scale! When you zoom in and out the distances will change!
  
• Subterritories: You can see exactly where all the subterritories are!
  
• Click!: When you click on a subterritory, you can see it's little preview image!
  
• Different Maps: You can select the default map or an overlay showing the rough area of the various territories
  
• You can toggle all these things!
  

LP Clarification: Demonstration Points

Charred Ash Draw

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Congratulations Siki, Becca, and Serach!

Of the Month Winners for November and December!

November

There's no denying that Siki is a very popular member. On top of being incredibly active (a Top Poster nearly every month), she is always encouraging some of the most diabolical plots and discussion out of character. Siki recently took over leadership of Secret Woodlands with Duckweed and has been doing a phenomenal job of juggling active two leaders, which is no easy feat. Congratulations, Siki!

And if Siki is a popular person, of course it's probably a little to do with Craw being such a popular wolf (or is it the other way around?). All of Craw's hard work has supposedly paid off, and Whitestone Monadnock has grown very rapidly in members recently. Additionally, some interesting things are happening as wolves from Craw's past come out of the woodwork, and we are all anxious to see what sort of impact these wolves and Craw will have on Relic Lore.

December

Becca recently returned to RoW in November, and we all have missed her very much! She's been incredibly active since her return, and already in the new year she's made 64 posts which I think is just insane.

Serach may be one of Relic Lore's most tragic characters. When Triell was injured in the summer, Serach stepped up to take over the pack his mother founded nearly four years ago, growing his confidence. Recently, he also discovered the existence of his neice Lena and reunited with his father Ice. Unfortunately, however, this winter will prove to be a harsh one as the rank challenged that rocked Relic Lore tore his pack into three separate factions, leaving only 6 wolves from the original 18. It will definitely be interesting to see how Aponi and Serach choose to rebuild the pack over the coming months. We're rooting for you, Serach!

Winter Challenge

Updates! Long time no see!

Update to the Travel Guide

Clarifications on PoTM

• Meetings
  
• Hunts
  
• Pack Howl
  
• Pack Random Event
  
• Disputes with other packs (Major ones, i.e. scuffles, fights, confrontations)
  
• Pack-wide Training and Lessons
  
• Tournaments
  
• Pup-meeting
  
• New member welcoming
  

Consent in Fights

Welcome Wild Rye Fields

Pack Creation Guide

Gobble Gobble!

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Congratulations Alice and Lorcan!

Of the Month Winners for October!

Alice is, in general, just a cool cat to be around. On top of being very active IC (ahem, WOTM for September) she's usually always livening up the slack chat with her antics. She has a great sense of humor (and she's also hilarious) and seems to know just how to make new members feel at home when the pop in the chat. In just six months Alice has become such an essential part of the RoW family, and I definitely can't imagine it without her now. Congrats, Alice!

Lorcan is the pack wolf we all aspire for our characters to be: even though he's the newest member of the Monadnock wolves he is completely dedicated to bettering his pack through participating in scouting missions or learning how to become a healer. The amazing love-hate relationship between Lorcan and Askan is some of the best reading material on the site, and I definitely can't wait to see that relation deepen as Drestig's pack rises fully in the south. Only two years old, Lorcan shows a lot of promise and we can't wait to see how he develops over the winter and what the tensions of breeding season might bring.

Goodbye, BTP

Goodbye Word Filters

• Borders → spell boundary
  
•  Broken Timber Pines → Broken Timber Shackles
  
• Fallen Tree Cove → Fallen Tree Graveyard
  
• Forest → graveyard
  
• Grizzly Hollow → Spoopy Hollow
  
• Hearthwood River → Heartbleed River
  
• Howl → scream
  
• Hunt → murder in cold blood
  
• Lake → pool of blood
  
• Laughed → cackled maniacally
  
• Leader → Grim Reaper
  
• Leaves → carcasses
  
• Loner → ghost
  
• Mountain → bone pile
  
• Nose → spook sniffer
  
• Oak Tree Bend → Oak Coffin Bend
  
• Pack(s) → pumpkin patch(es)
  
• Secret Woodlands → Secret Creepers
  
• Smile → frown
  
• Tail → slug wiggler
  
• Territory → transfiguration circle
  
• Tree → tombstone
  
• White Fir Notch → White Bone Notch
  
• Whitestone Monadnock → Whitestone Gargoyles
  
• Willow Ridge → Willow Reaper
  
• Wolf/wolves → pumpkin(s)
  

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Fall Festival!?

Trick or Treat!

Halloween is quickly approaching, which means there's some ghosts and ghouls lurking about Relic Lore. What, or who, will your character find lurking in the shadows? That's for you to decide!

Below are 12 goody bags with a different item inside - either a trick or a treat. These items are random events that your character can participate in between now and November 31st. Select a bag by responding to this thread with the corresponding number of bag and which character and you will be given your prize. Since there are only 12 bags, it's to be expected that some characters will receive the same random event - I encourage you to take that opportunity to meet somebody new in the Lore and experience these festivities together.

Threads should be started no later than November 1st and completed by November 31st. The participants of the first three threads to be completed based on these REs will be awarded a special ribbon. All completed threads before November 31st are eligible for RE life points; if you don't complete it by then, the LP will default to whatever would normally be earned.

If no character is specified, the bag will be given to the account you posted with.

#1	#2	#3	#4
#5	#6	#7	#8
#9	#10	#11	#12

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Changes in Role Mechanics!

• how claims work
  
• a comprehensive list of activities for each role
  
• more leader activities for demonstration claims
  
• removal of lookout, sentry, moved "disciplinarian" to guardian
  
• removal of teaching/practicing LP
  
• reclaiming a role in a new pack
  
• obtaining a role point clarification
  
• yearlings taking roles
  
• role tiers
  
• lone wolves
  

Previously there was some ambiguity on what kind of context a role demonstration could take place in. Being that they are "pack" roles, some members felt that any demonstration should be related to the pack a wolf is in: i.e. healing a random lone wolf wouldn't be an acceptable demonstration of the healer pack role. Others felt that the role was independent of the pack, and that any time a wolf demonstrates healing they should be able to claim for the healer role. To help eliminate grey areas, we are officially going to use the second interpretation of the roles which means that any demonstration listed in the claimable activities portion of any role in the Pack Wolves & Pack Roles Guide will be eligible for skill LP.

Additionally, sometimes there was a lot of confusion about what a specific wolf could do that would be considered part of their role. For example, a hunter can clearly hunt, but what else can they do? What sorts of things can an advisor do? The previous guide to pack roles touched upon some of these things, but there were times when it was quite vague. To further alleviate any ambiguity, we have edited the Pack Wolves & Pack Roles Guide to list all the different activities you can take part in that can result in you being eligible to claim skill LP. You can see that certain roles have more activities than others, but often the roles with fewer kinds of activities also happen to have the broadest types of activities: the advisor, for example, only has three basic activities, however "advice" is a pretty broad category.

All roles were designed to have minimal overlap so that every role felt "distinct" from one another.

If there are any activities not listed that you feel should be listed, feel free to PM SoW and your suggestion will be taken under consideration. We hope this will make demonstration threads easier to participate in.

Previously, there were only a few activities leaders could use for demonstration points. We have decided to add a few more activities based on things that only leaders can do. If you think that there should be more, again, feel free to PM SoW and we will consider your suggestion.

You will see in the Pack Wolves & Pack Roles Guide that there is no "sentry" or "lookout" roles, and that "disciplinarian" has moved from the teacher section to the guardian section. The removal of sentry and lookout roles was done because we felt that the roles were fairly redundant and were already mostly encapsulated in the regular "guardian" role. Additionally, disciplinarian was moved under guardian because we felt that the role had more to do with enforcing rules than teaching them, necessarily.

If you would like to suggest other advanced roles feel free to PM SoW. Keep in mind that we will not consider adding any advanced roles that we feel would result in encouraging unrealistic behavior in wolves. Roles should encapsulate specific behaviors naturally found in wolves.

These skill points were the source of a lot of confusion for people. The original intent was for any time a wolf was learning about a role from another wolf they would be "practicing" and the wolf that was imparting the knowledge would be "teaching." However, practicing is, in a sense, just another type of "demonstration," and often the inclusion of a teacher just became an extra requirement that made this particular type of skill LP hard to claim for.

In addition, the "teaching" points ended up stealing thunder from the actual teacher role. It became completely unclear if a wolf teaching someone about a particular concept would be "teaching" points or "demonstrate role: teacher" points. Teaching was mostly relegated to story-telling, which was never our intent.

Therefor, we are removing both of these types of skill LP. From now on, you will only need to claim demonstration points. Any time your wolf is "practicing," regardless of whether or not a teacher is present, the thread will be considered a demonstration. Any time your wolf is teaching another wolf about anything they can claim demonstration points for the teacher role.

Previously, if a wolf held a role in X pack, left, and then later on joined Y pack, they would have to participate in an additional 5 threads to get their role back. Out of fairness to players, we have decided to make it easier for a wolf to get its role back when joining a new pack. Only two threads may be required to earn back a role. However, since packs can have their own requirements for obtaining a role, this number could be higher or have other stipulations about what must happen in those threads. Leaders, please update your Pack Role Masterlists to take this into account.

Because of the change above that makes it easier to re-claim a role, we are changing the amount of times you can claim for obtaining a role. Previously, since we required wolves to do 5 threads any time they wanted a role, even when they were getting it again for a new pack, they could claim the +70 skill points for obtaining a role again. However, since it is now easier we are only allowing you to claim +70 skill points once for every role. You may still claim +70 if you obtain a new role entirely (i.e. you were a hunter, then completed 5 healing threads and became a healer instead).

Recently, we ran into an issue where a leader went inactive and there were no eligible adult wolves either in the pack or as recruitable lone wolves. We do not want to force any pack to disband unless it does not meet the 4 adult wolf membership requirement, and so we have created a new policy that will take effect if there are no eligible adults to step up to leadership so every pack has two leaders.

In the future, we will allow yearlings to assume leadership of a pack in dire conditions only. This should only come up in cases like the one above, where there were no eligible adults within either the pack or to be recruited. Yearlings cannot start a pack or challenge up to obtain leadership. Yearlings will only be promoted after discussion with staff, and will automatically be bumped back down in rank once there is an eligible adult member in the pack.

Because we are allowing yearlings to lead in certain circumstances, we are also going to start allowing yearlings to obtain the other roles. If you have yearlings with enough thread demonstrations to obtain a role, you may now petition your leader. Packs may still choose not to give roles to yearlings if they so desire, however they will not be allowed to prevent them from stepping up to leader if the situation requires it.

This is probably one of the most significant changes. We are now providing members with a means of tracking their progress towards obtaining various roles. A wolf that completes:

• 0 threads will be considered untrained
  
• at least 1 thread towards their role will be a novice
  
• at least 2 will be a competent
  
• 3 for a practiced
  
• 4 for a skilled
  
• and then on the 5th thread they will be awarded their role as a master, and they may claim +70 skill points for obtaining a role
  

This means that you will have to notify your leader when you complete a demonstration thread that contributes towards your role. You can choose to either PM them or post in the Masterlist (please remember to tag them, though. Remember that editing in tags afterwards will not notify them with an alert).

This change allows wolves to be considered experienced in a number of roles while also working towards a particular one. For example, wolf X could be a novice healer, scout, and teacher, while being a competent guardian and a full advisor.

Given all these changes, we'd like to make it clear that lone wolves may not claim demonstration points and work towards a role. The idea behind this is that these wolves will be more focused on surviving and meeting the bare minimum as opposed to refining nonessential skills (like advising). Lone wolves will not, however, lose any progress they have made towards roles in their previous packs.

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New Fun & Games!

Art Feature!

Horoscopes!

RoW Confessions!

Congratulations Sarah and Askan!

Of the Month Winners for September!

Hi guys, me again! Just wanted to say thanks for voting for me and validating once and for all the fact that I am super awesome at least tolerable. I joined the staff team in the month of September, and though I haven't had the chance to do much I'm really looking forward to breaking the site being more helpful. If there are any sort of things around the site that you think need addressing or any new ideas for the future, I'm all ears! Anyway, enjoy the hype.

Look who the cat dragged in! Askan found his way into Relic Lore some time in May and has been more or less attached at the hip to  Drestig, helping the old man finally realize his dreams of leading a pack. Despite being only three years old, Drestig's well worn attitude on life appears to have rubbed off on Askan, who is turning into a grump himself. Askan's interactions with other wolves, namely Lorcan, {Percy}, and Lena, never fail to amuse or intrigue, and we're all really happy to have Alice here to liven up Relic Lore, especially in those northern bits. Congrats Askan, can't wait to see what trouble you get up to once the new pack is up!

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Congratulations Lightning and Kyna!

Of the Month Winners for August!

Lightning has been a member of this community forever. She first joined the site in February of 2012, which was nearly five years ago, and it has been amazing to watch her grow as a writer and develop characters like Nina and Jessie, some of the longest-played characters on the site. Lightning was also the first member to have reached 1000 posts with one character, which I think is totally insane. Even if she is incredibly busy, Lightning always makes time to post and is the firestarter of several awesome plots. Congratulations Lightning, also can't wait for Jessie's pack to take shape finally!

Well, well, well, if it isn't Kyna, back here again 11 months later (she also won WoTM in August 2015). It's kind of crazy to read what I wrote about her last year as she's come such a long way since. Kyna has watched her father die, reunited with her mother, moved to Oak Tree Bend, befriended the silent Greer, and become an older sister to Lila while she juggles her own existential quandaries and searches to find herself. Often, Kyna appears as a character teetering on the edge of good and "evil," and it's going to be really interesting to see how her relationship with Lila and Aponi and her grandma Naira shapes her personality in the future. Congrats Kyna!

Tit For Tat Winner!

1. Elk Hoof - Claimed by Eek
   
2. Pheasant Feather - Claimed by Zeta
   
3. Bobcat Tooth - Claimed by Kyna
   
4. Amber Stone - Claimed by Eirian
   
5. Turtle Shell - Claimed by Neha
   
6. Smooth blue-toned pebble - Claimed by Darrah
   
7. Fish Scale - Claimed by Amaryllis
   
8. Cat's Eye Gem - Claimed by Merys
   
9. Dead Stoat - Claimed by Rayne
   
10. Deer Antler - Claimed by Kjors
    
11. Raccoon Tail - Claimed by Ember
    
12. Reindeer Hide - Claimed by Jynx
    
13. Worn Chewing Stick - Claimed by Attica
    
14. Lump of Coal - Claimed by Sylva