We think that we can all agree that we have had a pretty eventful summer so far. Some moments have been good, and others have been bad - but we want to take a moment to acknowledge the resilience of this community and the bonds that keep us all tied together in this forum. With the site break starting shortly, we want to remind everyone of the importance of kindness, empathy, openness, and understanding. It is often easier said than done, and it is not always easy to navigate areas of conflict, or frustration, or stress, but at the end of the day, we are all just humans trying to get by, enjoy the site, and live our lives. We do not want or intend to manage a site that fails to embody these simple values.

Having said that, the Sr. Staff team wants to be transparent that we are planning for some changes in how we will be handling inter-member conflict moving forwards. We are preparing for a more stringent strike system, stronger behavioral expectations from members, and a more structured way to handle issues when they arise. We hope that this will make our expectations extremely clear, and that it will also help members work through issues together and facilitate a more cohesive community feel. Our general rule is "treat others how you would want to be treated" - this is our advanced 'heads-up' that we will be holding firm to this expectation, as well as the new guidelines when they are finalized and released.

You have also probably noticed some shifts to the Staff team, at multiple levels, and more are coming. There is a clear need for additional capacity that we are actively working to fix, and we hope that these adjustments will allow for that, and also for all Staff members to feel well-balanced between their duties, roleplaying, and real lives. If you are interested in joining the staff team, please consider it when staff apps open the next time. Staff are what keep the site running and without the help, things will not move the way we see them moving now.

We think that the break is going to be a great reset for everyone, and encourage members to come back in August feeling refreshed and with open-minds! Touch some grass, enjoy the sun, disconnect for a little bit - and then return and wreak IC havoc, which we know that everyone is good at ☻

As of this announcement, cubs can begin earning trade experience starting at 3 months of age. Please remember that they cannot claim exp or earn the use of trade perks until they have reached 1 year of age. This applies to any threads started after this announcement was made.

It is your responsibility to track and maintain any trade exp earned for them between 3 months and a year — we hope that this adjustment will provide more flexibility with cubs!

Though we had originally planned to release this with the next chunk of the Guidebook Review, we are choosing to publish this now in order to keep things moving.

• The most significant change is that the Staff team will no longer be posting hunt starters. This includes monthly pride hunts. Because of the broadened ability to earn pride tiers from different events, all hunts will now be created by the members/characters initiating them.
• Hunts will also now include a luck roll. This gives individuals a chance to incur extra hits when partaking in a rolled hunt!
• Lastly, we have also adjusted the difficulty tiers for pride hunts. This means that larger prides will have better odds at rolling bigger and more difficult prey.

Please also read the new Hunt System page in full when it is updated later today, as it also contains new formatting, additional clarification, and more information.

We expect all of our members to have characters on the PVP level that best suits their IC personalities, circumstances, and behaviour. We know that this is not always an easy task, however, and are making some adjustments to the Red PVP level to help mitigate confusion and make the lines more clear. Red PVP is meant to be a tier for those with an aversion to fighting, are pacifists, or for members who do not wish to engage with this site mechanic - generally, all other characters should be on a higher PVP level.

As of now, Red PVP will come with the following guidelines:

• Cannot rule a pride (High Sovereign or Sovereign); becoming a pride leader will automatically increase their PVP to Orange.
• Can challenge/be challenged for their rank by anyone without permission.
• With permission, can engage in dominance matches and spars.
• Cannot engage in maims, pride challenges, or death matches, even with permission
• Cannot be stolen from their pride or band without permission, unless they instigate a theft challenge first.
• If you choose to instigate a higher-tiered fight within a thread, you will be bumped up to Orange PVP for the remainder of that thread/until you exit.

We realize it may take some time to adjust to these changes, so for the duration of our site break, any switches on or off of Red will not count as a PVP change and will not be given a cooldown. This means that you have until August 1 to put or remove your characters from Red without incurring a PVP-change cooldown.

As a reminder, if you are in the middle of a fight and requesting a PVP change, please make a note (with a link to the fight) in your request so that Staff can wait until it is over to make the edit.

We have also decided to release this as part of the Guidebook Review now. To preface this part of the announcement, we would like to state explicitly that changes to our fight mechanics are always fluid and up to re-evaluation, reversion, or additional changes.

First, we are adding nuanced language around forfeits into the Guidebook and how forfeiting a fight will constitute as a win or loss. This is especially important in regards to the fatigue system, and whether or not a character can continue fighting/be fought in a thread.

• If your character forfeits/stands down from a fight before or on round 2, the fight will be considered void and they will be able to fight/be challenged again in that thread. They will still incur fatigue dice.
• If your characters forfeits/stands down from a fight after round 2, the fight will be considered a loss and they will be unable to fight/be challenged again in that thread.

Secondly, we are making larger changes to the fight system with a few goals in mind:

1. Minimize inter-member conflict by decreasing the importance of written fight posts and placing more weight on the dice.

• Fights are stressful, and they can be extremely intimidating - we have all been there and experienced that sort of situation before. As a product of the system, and not at the fault of anyone in specific, we have seen that Fight Club Tickets - particularly the mechanic of minor PP/GM that allows for single round dice loss - have only served to add to inter-member conflict, and have resulted in more undue stress. This is not our goal or what we want for our members, and we do not think it is productive.
• In order to lessen the stress of fights and to place more weight on the dice, we have decided to remove the penalty for minor PP/GM. In other words, single round dice losses are no longer a part of our fighting mechanic
• Only egregious PM/GM will be reviewed by the Fight Club for a full-fight default. Minor examples of PP/GM are expected to be handled between RP partners or replied to with the best of your ability - this includes mistakes or confusion about lefts and rights, confusion on positioning, movement, and so forth.
• For reference, the Fight Club and Sr.Staff teams do not believe that they have seen any example on Amaryllis that would fall under this clause as of yet; so please keep that in mind. Any minor PP/GM scenarios that you have experienced up until this point would not likely qualify for Fight Club review or a full-default.
• Full-fight defaults are only meant to cover god-like behaviour, extreme lack of realism, control of someone else's character, etc.
• As long as you are doing your best and not exploiting the system, there should be little stress in regards to worrying about a full default. Focus on doing the post, meeting the minimum requirements, and letting the dice do the work.
• We acknowledge that this is a big change that will require a period of adjustment for the community, but we do believe that it is for the better. If someone makes a post that seems confusing or you’re unsure how to respond, please reach out to them for clarification. If you need additional help, you can reach out to the Fight Club for guidance on how to respond, but single round dice loss will not be enforced. Full-fight defaults will also not become the new norm, and we do not anticipate them happening very often.



To reflect this, the Guidebook will contain the following guidelines for full-fight defaults:


• Taking no damage in a post. Damage is required to be taken in all posts, but realistic counters are permitted.
• Not meeting the 100 word count minimum.
• Not posting with the allotted fight timer window (72 hours). If both parties agree to waive the timer, that is permitted except for in the case of pride challenges.
• Egregious PP/GM that will be determined by the Fight Club and Sr.Staff via a Fight Club ticket.
• This does not include small or moderate examples of over-movement, confusion, or uncertainties about positioning. You are expected to either (A) discuss and work it out with your roleplay partner, (B) work with the information you're given the best that you can to formulate a reply, or © ask the Fight Club for help in responding.

2. Simplify the fight system and make it less intimidating for new members or members without a background in this style of RP.

• As touched on above, we acknowledge that not everyone comes from the same roleplaying background - and, for some members, they might not even have any roleplaying background! We want this site to be inclusive and integrative, and are not confident that the current fight system allows for that in the way that we want it to be.
• For those of you that have been apart of this community for a long time, you already know that our collective style of fighting has changed largely over the years (remember manually judged fights, no dice?). This is going to be another bigger change, but we hope that you will give it a chance and test it out with us.
• Our current intent is to test the ideas above and run with them, for the benefit of everyone! We hope to see these changes instigate some positive results, both OOC and IC, but are open to additional tweaks if we find that it is not working well.

3. Shifting the role of the Fight Club towards assistance and advice rather than a punitive body.

• In light of all of this, the Fight Club isn't going anywhere.
• They will be shifting their roles and responsibilities towards education/help, judging fights on-site, and assisting in other issues like tweaking mechanics and determining extreme PP/GM.
• They are always here for support, and we encourage you to open a Fight Club ticket in the Discord server if you have questions about a fight, need help figuring something out, or would like to inquire about best practices.