Proper Absence Log Use
Hi everyone! Staff hope that everyone has been enjoying the summer so far and also understand we are now heading into a season where our players are increasingly busy with their real lives. Because of this, we wanted to do a few reminders about how to proprely handle being absent.
Short term absence/scarcity
If you are not going to be gone for more than a week, or will be present but a little more scarce than usual you do not need to put yourself on absence. If you want to let people know that you are going to be scarce you can post in lifestyle discussion or on discord to let others know not to worry about you.
Absence of 1-3 weeks
If you will be away, expecting to be unable to post for about 1-3 weeks, please put all of your characters on absence and include a reason (if you are not comfortable saying why you can always state personal reasons or something similar). If you manage to squeeze in time to post that is great! But, these are meant to be for absences where you expect to not be able to post.
Absence of 3-6 weeks
If you are going to be away for longer than three weeks, up to six weeks, you are encouraged to have your characters apply for NPC status. Some general reminders for how NPCs work:
1. NPC is an all or nothing deal, if you want to use this feature, all of your current, active characters will need to be set to NPC for the extent of your absence
2. NPC is intended for a longer absence, if you are only going to be gone for 3 weeks or less, you can use the absence log like normal. NPC requests will only be eligible for an absence between 3 and 6 weeks.
3. NPC's are a special feature that will only be allowed under special circumstances. To be set on NPC, you need to contact staff beforehand, detailing the reasons behind your request and how long you will be gone. We will then decide whether to grant your request or not.
4. At this time leaders are not able to become NPCs, your character will need to step down from their leadership position before being granted NPC status.
More can be read about the NPC mechanics in this library article
Reminders
Staff also want to be clear that using the absence log just to get characters through an activity check is not allowed, it is better to let your character drop and then reapply during the 3 day grace period to be re-activated, not a big deal! Members are also encouraged to re-evaluate how many characters they play if they are frequently dropping off and explore some plots that may take the character off site. We also want to once again encourage everyone to check and write their character wills in case you drop unexpectedly. If you do miss a check and do not activate within the grace period this gives you control of how your character's absence is seen, rather than leaving fellow players in the dark and scrambling to make up a story for why they are gone.
In addition, a reminder that if you do miss that 3 day re-activation window, your character has left Relic Lore. They cannot be considered to be still around but more absent than usual, or checking in regularly or anything of this sort. You can touch base and see if everyone's okay with saying they left RL with permission, but they need to be outside RL and if you missed the period and never told anyone or left a character will you only get to come up with a reason if it hasn't already been addressed by others. Once that period ends, everyone has the right to say your character is missing so that those who are an active part of the game can continue their plots.
Thank you so much for your understanding and please let us know either in this thread or through a pm to SoW if you have any questions or concerns!