Retirement & Hiatus

Retirement

Retirement is a catch-all term in Syrik for a character no longer being controlled by a Player Character, and may refer to the player character or a slot. This can mean death, insanity, changing character's, or other methods, which can determine whether the character can be played again in the future.

Retiring a Slot

Retiring a slot removes a player slot entirely, whether it was gained through community contributions or rolled. All associated characters are considered to be fully retired, and potentially parts of the world.

Retiring a Player Character

Retiring a player character removes them from active play, allowing for another PC to be controlled. Depending on the type, a retired PC may be able to return at a later point, either at-will or only after the certain requirements have been met. To retire a character, ping @Lorekeeper in character-update with your reason for retirement, and whether you chose hard retirement or soft retirement.

No matter the form of retirement, general metagaming rules apply for anything relating to inventories. Do not attempt to intentionally transfer items or currencies from character to character to confer an advantage of any kind; this is not a strictly defined rule due to the open nature of multiple characters and retirement, but anything of this sort will be judged on an individual basis.

Soft Retirement

Soft Retirement is when a character is temporarily retired, whether completely voluntarily or due to temporary events such as IC death or OOC hiatus.

• A player cannot interact with their own soft-retired characters.
• Soft-retired characters can Return up to once an Upkeep Period, cycling in with a Time Progression after intent is stated and confirmed. This requires the slot to either be open from retiring a character at the same time, or already being retired beforehand.
• When you voluntarily retire a character, your remaining DTD carry over rather than refreshing. For example, if a time period grants 30 DTD and you spend 20 DTD, you will have only 10 remaining for your next character. Forced retirement, such as death, does not restrict DTD.

Hard Retirement

Hard Retirement is the general category for characters who have become part of the world, and can no longer be controlled by the original player or Return to a slot. They may still appear as NPCs, or may be a part of the world anymore, depending on the character. This can be done through voluntarily Hard Retiring a character, as well as other methods listed below.

Forced Retirement

Forced Retirement is a Hard Retirement that occurs when a PC is unable to be played anymore for some reason. This includes no longer being revivable; whether due to natural age, destruction, or reincarnation; violating playable character rules (de-aging or aging too far); or being removed from the Living World due to OOC rulebreaks.

Story Retirement

Story Retirement is a form of Hard Retirement where GM/Staff have coordinated with the player to take control of that character, turning them into an NPC until a later point, such as through storylines or Influence/Prestige expenditure.

• Retirements of this sort may be temporary, with the character reverting to a Soft or standard Hard Retirement at a suitable endpoint.
• Story-retired characters may be more consistently and widely interactable than they would otherwise be, as the GM/Staff is handling their actions. As this is a form of Hard Retirement, even temporary, a player's own characters may be able to interact with their story-retired characters at the handling GM/Staff's discretion.

Character Death

Death does not automatically Hard Retire a character. Usually Death will result in either a Soft Retirement or a Hard Retirement, freeing up the slot for another character from the player.

• Soft Retirement in this case is because the dead PC can technically still be revived, contacted via spells like Speak with Dead, or sent on a Resurrection Quest as a Revenant. These features are at the discretion and availability of GMs and Staff, however.
• Hard Retirement in this case is if the PC cannot be revived or does not wish to be revived.
• Slots that are left inactive for extended periods of time will be reviewed for Hiatus or removal.
• If you have stated your intent to undergo a Resurrection Quest officially with Staff, you may continue playing as another character (Soft Retiring the dead character) until it is prepared, or leave the slot unoccupied.

Returning Retired Characters

Retirement is not always the end; Retired Characters that can reasonably return from a narrative perspective can be brought back from retirement, allowing you to play them instead of a new character.

Limitations

• Retired Characters that are narratively unsuitable (such as being forcefully retired due to incapacitation, age, or other such outcomes) may be denied. This would encompass all involuntary retirements.
• This may currently be done once per Upkeep, and the switch will only occur with the next Time Progression.
• There are currently no set limits to how many Retired Characters a player may have, but excessive amounts may result in deletions.

How it works

• Returning Characters start at lowest level within the Tier of Play they retired in.
• Returning Characters maintain the character notes they had at time of retirement, such as their inventory and injuries. This may be altered depending on the circumstances of your retirement.
• The returning character will need to complete the Lifestyle Expenses upkeep as well, regardless of the duration. They will have up to a 2-week grace period to do so, once the switch is approved.
• Dead Characters can be 'played', but remain dead and unable to normally interact with the LW until revived or undergoing a Resurrection Quest.

A player's multiple characters should not intentionally interact, such as benefitting from multiple character's actions directly, banking resources for another character, or other such actions. Such behaviors will be reviewed individually.

Hiatus & Character Slots

Character Hiatus

To avoid full removal and placement back in the standard queue, a player with a Character Slot may choose to go on Hiatus instead if they believe they will be unavailable for a significant period of time. This is not intended to be heavily used, but rather serves as an option to temporarily keep a slot without needing to manage DTDs and Upkeep.

• Hiatus does not fully retire your active character, but they cannot take any actions while active. The character is still considered to be part of the world, but will not actively do anything, nor incur costs.
• A Hiatus will hold your Slot until the next Upkeep. Afterwards, your slot will be marked as open, but you will retain priority for the next Player Wave. If you have not returned or reached by then, your Slot will be removed and your character retired properly.
• This means that you are prioritized to keep your slot if you return by the Player Wave, but otherwise it can be released to the community pool.
• Time Progressions while on Hiatus generally will not affect your character directly.
• Your pending Downtime Submissions will be cancelled when going on Hiatus.
• If an Upkeep is active when you go on Hiatus and you have an active character, it will still need to be resolved, either before or after the Hiatus.

Character Slots

Staff will be regularly reviewing and cleaning up Character Slots over time. For clarity, the below are our current guidelines regarding them. Character Slots come in 3 forms, which are tied to a player:

• Adventurer Slots allow for the player to make and play a character in any adventuring class, and can be changed to a Civilian Slot on request.
• Civilian Slots allow for the player to make and play a character with the Civilian class, and has priority for filling opened Adventurer Slots.
• Staff Slots are provided by certain volunteer team roles. Functionally, they may serve as Adventurer or Civilian slots as defined above depending on their source, but with the added note that they are linked to whichever role is granting them, and related duties.

Slot Adding

Character Slots are usually be gained during a Player Wave, during which the following occurs:

• Priority Slots are granted.
• A portion of available Adventurer Slots are rolled for from Civilian Slots who wish to.
• Remaining Slots of both kinds are rolled for. This includes a second chance for any Civilian Slots that wish to be converted from the previous step.
• Staff Slots do not need to wait for a Player Wave.

Slot Removal

Character Slots may normally be removed by the following circumstances:

• Significant inactivity with a character. This does not have a strict timeframe, but will usually be every few Time Progressions, alongside Upkeeps.
Significant inactivity within the community as a whole. This factor will usually require less time compared to the previous.
• Violation of community rules, whether related to the LW or the community in general.