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'Souls Staff Bulletin December 2009

1.  Staff Bulletin

1.1  Anonymous questions, ideas and suggestions!

We're incredibly excited to announce that 'Souls now has its own Formspring at ! Feel free to make any suggestions you have or ask us anything. Remember: you can always come to the 'SA if you have any questions or inquiries. We hope this will make it easier for everyone to get their voice heard since it's completely anonymous. Like everything else, don't abuse it. We're looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say! :) You can suggest ideas for skins, ask questions about rules and rulings, and anything that relates to 'Souls and roleplaying! ;)

1.2  Auxiliary Character Requests

In February, one second character request was approved and another was denied.

1.3  Art Theft

A member was given a temporary 4-week ban for intentional art theft. Another was warned for unintentional theft.

1.4  Layout Ideas and Navigation Changes

A sidebar was proposed as a way of organizing information better, but was decided against. A discussion is currently in progress regarding changes that may be made to the navigation, and ways to make information at 'Souls more accessible. 'Souls is spread across four websites (the website, forum, wiki and RP Guide), all of which contain a lot of useful information, so the SA discussed how to make everything easier to access. A site map was proposed by some leaders as a directory to organize all of the information in 'Souls, and will be implemented in the future!

1.5  Mature Threads

After a lot of feedback and discussion on the issue, we're hoping to implement a new system to make it easier for everyone to identify mature threads. We're currently considering installing a new mod so you can use bbCode in your topic title. We'll be releasing a mandatory template for mature threads that accurately describes the possible mature topics in a thread.

1.6  Moderation Promotions and Changes to the Team

We discussed some moderator promotions, and agreed on a few changes. We also discussed changes to the structure of the moderation tier, but decided to leave it as is.

1.7  NPC Discussion and Rules

• After discussing the role NPC's play, the 'SA decided it was time to implement a few rules regarding their play. We discussed how NPC's would be handled when a member returned from a long absence.
• We also discussed how we should make our NPC rules more known. We debated moving them over to the Rules, but decided against it, as it would have made our Rules page even longer and more intimidating! Our guidelines regarding NPC's are currently located on the RP Guide here:

Some people choose to have NPC (non-player/playable character) companion animals such as birds, rats, etc. These companions can follow your character around, helping him or her in various ways, or just provide company. You can have almost any kind of NPC character, even other wolves. If you have a wolf NPC, however, certain restrictions will apply. You must designate one of your characters as a main roleplaying character and the other as the NPC. They cannot be equals. Your main RP character may be controlled alone without the NPC, but your NPC character must always appear in posts with your main character and cannot be roleplayed alone. Additionally, NPC wolves may have restrictions placed on the ranks they are allowed to obtain, depending on the policies of individual packs.

1.8  Paid Advertising

A question was brought up regarding paid advertising, and whether 'Souls should use their funds to buy advertising space. This is currently under discussion.

1.9  Powerplay

We discussed powerplay in character descriptions as a minor, but still technical form of powerplay, or simply a character's delusion. While your character can believe in a post they are the hottest piece of luperci to ever walk the earth, explicitly stating this in your profile can be both annoying to read and technically a form of powerplay (since you are controlling other characters actions... technically). We concluded that this was not a huge problem, and would not be adding more information about it to the RP Guide.

1.10  Realism in 'Souls (Firearms, tattooing and dyeing)

We received a few questions regarding the use of firearms and discussed how realistic a gun would be in the 'Soulsverse. A few problems we discussed regarding the use of firearms:

• Setting: 'Souls is set 22 years after humans died out.
• Size: luperci are significantly larger than humans, which would make operating a gun difficult.
• Use: luperci are not traditionally trained in how to use guns, nor did they use them prior to the virus, so knowledge of how to use a gun is unlikely.
• Rarity: guns and ammunition would be difficult to find either in tact or at all.

These problems would also be applicable to most forms of human technology, such as tape cassette's, telephones, and so on.

We also received a few questions about tattooing and dyeing. At the moment, a member has volunteered to write a tattooing and dying guide, so be on the lookout for that!

There will also be more information added to the RP Guide about the 'Souls universe. This would expand on 'Souls as a post-apocaltyptic setting that should help members getting a better idea of what 'Souls looks like.

1.11  'Souls Book Club

Due to inactivity in the 'Souls Book Club forum, we have discussed and are considering abolishing the dedicated forum and moving all book discussions to OOC G.

1.12  Submission as Wolf and Coyote Behaviour

We discussed submission at borders. Failure to submit due to problems with authority is not an adequate explanation for refusal of submission. We will be adding a more explicit explanation of submission on the RP Guide to stress this point.

1.13  Temporary Characters

We discussed a lot of possibilities for temporary characters and what they would be allowed to do. We approved a lot of requests regarding the play of temporary characters. We concluded that if a player still has a temporary character after a plot is finished, they will either have to remove them (ie: kill them or have them leave) or otherwise apply for permanent auxiliary status for the character. At this point, we would review the member's activity with their primary character, and try to balance that while also considering their activity with their temporary character, but with a greater focus on their primary character(s).