October 2018 Announcements

October 2018 Announcements


News in Brief​

Challenges
In an effort to simplify contests, and provide something more cohesive and compelling, we've decided to replace contests with an entirely new system: Challenges! These are monthly goals for you to work towards and earn rewards for being active. Each month there will be a list of several challenges with different tiers to achieve. For each tier you complete you can earn vouchers!

Read more about the new challenge system here and October's challenges here.


New Student Council
The votes were counted and your new Starlight Academy Student Council has been announced:

President: Liliana
Vice President: Jude Genovese
Auditor: Alma Malivani
Treasurer: Elisa Pelham
Secretary: Yasmin Naaji


Masquerade Ball
It's that time of year again, Samhain has come and it's cause for a celebration as usual. One of the most popular parts of the festivities during this month is the annual Masquerade Ball. The Ball is held on the night of the 31st but the thread is open for you to post in all month long.


Festival of Borne Fruit
As the Year of the Gods overarching plot continues, the god October has arranged for a small clearing in the woods to be set aside. Plants can be seen growing into the shapes of stalls, tables and benches. All are welcome to stop by and enjoy the food, games and fun once the festival begins.

The ICC will change setting to the Festival of Borne Fruit for this event on Oct. 12-14


Staff Change
Ashes is stepping down as a Ranger. We thank them for all of their help as part of the staff team.


Odds and Ends
As a slight adjustment for our Ability Upgrades system we are clarifying that going forward not all actives will be requiring 10 posts to upgrade. Some abilities, those which are particularly weak or that closely mimic the effects of existing common magical items, may instead only require 5 or even 0 posts instead.


Spotlights

Spotlight Member: @Emy

Emy is a member from way back who recently came back with a bang. They designed and are running a massive plot that has drawn in a huge portion of the active members on the site. It's got new powers for people to find, luck rolls to get random chances at cool temporary companions and a fantastic reason for all kinds of characters to interact in way they wouldn't normally. Great work on your Game of Divine Right plot and we're glad to see you back here Emy!

Spotlight Character: Alexis Brouillard

It's always a great surprise when we see such a huge amount of character development, but boy, has Alexis had some character development. He's gone from a stuck up brat to someone who's lost almost everything, and now we're seeing him slowly get himself together again. It's great seeing him find friends, making up with those he once fought with, and it's even better seeing him become a genuinely good person.​

October 2018 Mid-Month Announcements


News in Brief​

Island Happenings
The Island Happenings forum has been created to collect together several threads that will help you keep up to date on what's happening around the island. The Rumor Mill, Crime Reports, and the Newspaper Clippings have all been moved to this new forum. Every month, we'll repost the threads, and we encourage all players to both read and post regularly. You can find the forum here.

Masquerade Ball
It's that time of year again, Samhain has come and it's cause for a celebration as usual. One of the most popular parts of the festivities during this month is the annual Masquerade Ball. The Ball is held on the night of the 31st but the thread is open for you to post in all month long.

Year of the Gods
After the Festival of Borne Fruit, the Year of the Gods summary has been updated. It includes details on all the boons and events so far.

Challenges
We've seen great participation in our monthly challenges so far! If you haven't yet, be sure to check them out and claim any challenges you might qualify for. We've updated the first post to include some clarifications, so check out the notes near the bottom for more details.

Read more about the new challenge system here and October's challenges here.

Substance Use Lore
We've updated some lore on substance use for non-human species. You can find the full details here for how Manta Carlos handles impairing substances that only effect certain species.

Odds and Ends
We'd like to welcome @Emy back to the staff team, joining us as a moderator.

We've updated the FAQ Question on your options when restarting or rebooting an existing character.

We've expanded the description for the Sex Swap Charm to include the following note: "The sex swap charm does not change who a character is attracted to, or how they act." No change is required from players.​

October 2018 End-of-Month Announcements


News in Brief​

Named NPCs
Manta Carlos has a thriving population, but obviously not every person on the island is going to have a full app. We're introducing a new option, Named NPCs, intended to allow players to make small profiles for important people in their character's lives. If you've ever wanted to do a profile for your characters family, roommate, coworkers, etc, but didn't want to actually play them, this is for you!

You can find all the information here, in the sticky at the top of the new forum.

Dyno
We've added a new bot to our discord server, intended partially to help replicate the functionality of some of our old filters. You can see a list of available commands here.

Challenges
We've seen great participation in our monthly challenges so far! If you haven't yet, be sure to check them out and claim any challenges you might qualify for. We've updated the first post to include some clarifications, so check out the notes near the bottom for more details.

Read more about the new challenge system here and October's challenges here.

Adoption Lore
We're always updating lore on our wiki, and any time we do we make a point of letting you know (both on discord in the announcements channel, and here more regularly). Our newest lore update is an expansion on the criteria for Adoption, which you can read at your leisure.

Please note that lore updates are not retroactive. If you did something else in the past, that's just fine!​