We have a bunch of news to share and also OTMs on their way and it seemed a bit to have all that in one thread. So here's the news first. <3

scamander's case We have a new fun game if you want - Scamander's Case. You can buy animals and take care of them. (: You're able to name them and even pick a background for your case. You can also visit others' cases by clicking 'Travel Far' at the top.

thebeginning11.proboards.com/page/animal-keeper

quidditch Everyone did so well in the games already up. We still have 3 more to go, though. More will be up soon. In character wise, there's one more to do in March and 2 in May. Then we will likely have an adult game (from the amateur league) but that will likely be in summer.

edinburgh expansion Don't forget about the new shopping district (like Diagon Alley) and the new hospital in Edinburgh, both built by Liberamach (though no one knows that other than them, since it's a secret organization).

More details are here, in case you missed it:
thebeginning11.proboards.com/thread/65052/various-news

npc characters I've had this in mind for well over a year or maybe even two. Sometimes when you're here for years, you have some characters who are pretty much 'done' but sometimes you want to roleplay them a bit still. I've personally been rotating, so I've been taking some out to roleplay for 6-12 months then 'shelving' them for a while to bring someone else out to roleplay.

Now we are going to have a separate group account called "NPC". It is a group for characters you've had for a long time you might not have a lot of muse for, but you still don't want to get rid of them entirely. There are some restrictions on them, however.

-- Original characters only

-- Only characters who have been around for 12+ months. That's per account. You can't make a new account to make them an NPC right away, even if you played them before.

-- They can only roleplay in a separate category that only NPC characters can see. This means they can't get directly involved in mass threads or events with the rest of the site. However, everything they write is 'canon', it's not AU or anything like that. This also means that they can only roleplay with other NPC characters.

-- They can only roleplay in one thread at a time. That's participation, not creation. So if you post a thread, then you can't reply to someone else's as well. If you want to thread with them more, then you'll need to get them back to regular status. This isn't a way around ever doing Activity Checks or getting around taken claims. This is for characters you might want to still write a little bit, but not fully devote a lot of time to really roleplaying them a lot.

-- They have no claims or Activity Checks. That means that if you have an old account that you want to become NPC and not have to worry about keeping up with ACs or even an old account you have that has had the play-by taken, then you can use them as an NPC. They can't roleplay with regular characters, so claims don't matter in this way. However, they wouldn't be able to have the same job as someone where only one person can be it (ex. Minister for Magic).

If you want them to have an important one person only job, you'll need to talk to me and we'll see what we can do. If it's a professor, it likely won't be accepted, but it may if you're just owning your own shop or something.

-- While they aren't in the Activity Checks, they would be deleted if their writer was fully gone and all their regular accounts deleted (aka 3+ months of inactivity).

-- To become a regular character again, it would be the same as re-sorting an account. You need to be active with your current characters first. And you don't have dibs on any claims so if something is taken, then you can't also have it.

So if you have a character you currently would like to turn to NPC, make sure you read all the above (it's not for everyone) and then reply to the Activity Check that you want them to become NPC. If we're not in AC, then just PM a staff member.