Description Contest Voting

The description contest is in progress. We have voting for four areas at the moment. Please choose your favourite descriptions. These will become the official thread descriptions for their respective area. You can find all of the polls HERE.

All polls end in 7 Days, thank you.

[One area will be voted on next week]

As some of you would have expected, eventually we would add this one to the list of lore articles. Find out all about the French school of magic and what they are up to over there in the west-European mountains. They have their own take on things, and a few extras some of us might interest. The academy has always been known as one of Hogwarts' closest allies, so it might be interesting to get to know them.

Last Area - Description Contest Voting

The description contest is in progress. We have voting for the one last areas at the moment. Please choose your favourite descriptions. These will become the official thread descriptions for their respective area. You can find the poll HERE.

It will end in FIVE Days (to get the rewards in by the 31st), thank you.

Due to popular request and a growing need in the community, we have decided to extend the staff roles with brand new roles. The idea is that we will be creating multiple new positions, over the coming year. However, this will highly depend on the OOC need for it and there's no guarantee we will create further positions. The Caretaker and Grounds Keeper have situated themselves into the staff team and have become excellent assets to the community, so we are carrying on by opening up our staff to two more roles: School Nurse and Librarian.

The Librarian and School Nurse will be part of our growing "Assistants" Team. The Assistant roles will sit alongside both the Prefect Team and the Professor Team, as moderators of the site. They are considered equal moderators of the site, with the same powers as Prefects and Professors. Their duties, however, will be a mix of everything to help spread the growing workload from the current staff.

As such, the school nurse and librarian will be responsible for moderating a few boards OOC, to spread the workload from the prefects. To help the professors, they will be assisting with grading homework. This will allow the professors to focus on creating new lessons. Please note that both the professors and the assistant will be responsible for grading. We expect it to be a shared task, rather than all falling onto just one person.

They will also have their own in character and out of character roles and responsibilities.



The Assistants' Duties:
--- Shared responsibility for grading two subjects
They will share the responsibility with the professor of the subject. One subject will be a 'heavy' workload, whilst the other will be lighter. This is to help allow the professors to focus on creating new lessons.
--- Working in a specific staff team
Assistants will have to work in a specific staff team as part of their role. You can choose to help with others, of course, but one of them will be included in the job role. These staff teams vary per role. However, as an example, teams are things like "validation", "index", "errands", "lore", etc.
--- Moderate a couple of boards OOC
Every board on the site is moderated by a member of staff. As part of your role, you will be assigned a few boards that must be checked every two weeks, at most. This is OOC moderation for things like closing finished threads, making sure the word count is met, making sure people are staying within the PG-13 rating and so on.
--- You will also be responsible for a couple of 'ad-hoc' tasks.
The specific tasks depend on your role but are things like, running a specific event.

Please note: As the Assistants Team is on a trial basis, we reserve the right to change the job description based on the needs. Some of this might not work and will need to be removed, other things might need to be added. We will, of course, work with the selected applicants should the need arise to make adjustments but we ask for flexibility and understanding. Thank you!


Librarian's Main Duties:
--- Moderating: Library area & Restricted Sections
--- Grading: Transfiguration & Herbology
--- Team: Lore
--- Ad-hoc Tasks: They would be responsible for the NANO event in November of each year.


School Nurse's Main Duties:
--- Moderating: Medical Wing & St. Mungos
--- Grading: Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA) & History of Magic (HoM)
--- Team: Index
--- Ad-hoc Tasks: They would be responsible for assisting players as needed in the Medical Wing. Players may have to wait in queue if nurse is overloaded and they need the nurse.



If you have any questions about the roles, please get in touch with a Head of House. These are a basic role description to show you what you'll be doing, if selected. It is subject to change at any point.

Applications will remain open until end of 7^th of September. Please send at least two Head of Houses your application.

ASSISTANTS APPLICATION 

Reducio

Nickname:
Real Life Age:
House:
Position:
Timezone:
Availability:
Why would you be a good candidate?:

Between September 1st and September 14th, we will be accepting iNPCs created for the following schools: Beauxbatons, Ilvermorny and Dumrstrang.

Beauxbatons
Durmstrang
Ilvermorny

This event will be a little different. We are going to be doing two things with these schools. First, there will be a dance organized by our top points earners for the month of August (soon to be announced) that all three of these schools in addition to Hogwarts will be allowed to attend. Second, there will be a broom race between these schools and Hogwarts students. This is a public alpha and will be offered to the winning houses of August and September.

Questions:

Does this mean only winning houses can make NPCs?
No, this is available to every house but remember you can only have ONE iNPC.

Does this mean I can only be a broom racer if my house wins?
No, you can be a broom racer as an NPC of any of thse schools as long as you are not already a quidditch player or a dueler. However to participate in the race (because I am one man and cannot run a race with every player) you need to be from the top house and can race as an NPC or as your PC as long as your NPC/PC is not a duelist or quidditch player.

A Baleful Announcement...

Alaric Equinox has announced today his resignation from the role of Head of House for House Ravenclaw. Alaric Equinox has occupied a number of roles in this community, the most notable being his time as Professor of Astronomy as well as Head of House for Ravenclaw. He has assisted in the development of dueling, discord roles, community management and a community minecraft server many of us have enjoyed. He has been a positive influence on the community, being a member that feels like they have been here much longer than they actually have been. Many of us know Alaric and have spoken with them personally, a lot of us consider ourselves their friend. So it is with an incredibly heavy heart that I make this announcement.

As such, applications will now also be open for the role of Head of House for House Ravenclaw for 1 week duration, closing September 7. [Link] This role is open to experienced staff members that have previously or are presently serving in another staff role.

Ability Patch Notes

As in any game, our ability system has to be monitored carefully and constantly adapted to fit the needs of and keep a balance between our ever-growing list of extracurricular activities, be it Quidditch, Duelling, Broom Racing or the occasional murder thread.

Therefore the following changes, additions or clarifications have been added to various abilities:

11.) Charmer

Effect: -1 accuracy to all of your opponents (as defined at the start of the instance regardless of later betrayal). This ability does not stack.

Added clarification regarding the stacking of this ability.

17. Evasive Maneuvers

Note: There is a hard cap of 20% on auto dodge regardless of all spells, abilities, potions or other effects.

Added clarification that this 20% cap applies to all abilities that give an auto-dodge chance.

25.) Lovely Creature

Effect: You are very distracting to look at. This increases the Control DC of spells in duels and adventures by +2 as well as the DC for finding things in adventures or the DC for finding the snitch in a game of Quidditch. This ability does not stack.

Added clarification regarding the stacking of this ability.

26.) Monster Hunter

Has been re-named Non-Human Enthusiast.

Description was amended to the following to comply with the name change and be in line with other abilities.

You are a human unlike the magical creatures you have grown aware of. Through interest, research and study, you have gotten to know their routines, analyzed their preferences or at the very least understand how they are not like you.

Prerequisite: Must be human.

Restriction: cannot be a Parselmouth, Metamorphmagus, part-Veela, part-Giant, part-Goblin, Dhampir, Seer, or a Werewolf. You must be fully human.

Effect: +1 in all rolls against Parselmouth, Metamorphmagus, part-Veela, part-Giant, part-Goblin, Dhampir, Seer and Werewolves. This also applies to non-human event creatures/mobs.

Note:
- This does not give a player IC knowledge of all non-human creatures.
- This does not give a player IC knowledge that someone is not entirely human. However they will still gain the statistical effect against them.

27.) Nonverbal Magic

Restrictions: Must either have Wandless Magic or be at least Fifth Year.

Changed requirement from Sixth Year to Fifth Year to better comply with canon and for better interaction with other abilities.

48.) Wandless Magic

Restriction: Wisdom of at least 20 or Nonverbal Magic

Added a second requirement for this ability to better interact with other abilities and make it more accessible.

Seer

First Year Ability

Mechanically this is represented by a 10% auto-dodge & auto-hit when in combat (anything that requires a dodge, there is a 10% chance that it automatically misses and any of their attacks have a 10% chance of automatically hitting). Both auto-dodge and auto-hit are capped at 20% chance from all active abilities combined, this one included.

Added clarification that this 20% cap applies to all abilities that give an auto-dodge or auto-hit chance.

Dhampir

Third Year

Effect: [...] This ability does not stack in intensity when multiple Dhampirs have it activated.

Added clarification about the stacking of this ability.

Veela

First Year

Effect: [...] This ability does not affect other Veela or Part-Veela. It will not stack if multiple Veela or Part-Veela are present.

Added clarification about the effect of this ability.

September's Contest is OPEN

The description contest continues! Winners will earn 3 House Points, 1 Galleon and bragging rights - as well as being credited for their work.

For September, we have these areas up:

• Classroom
• Great Hall
• Small Hall
• Library
• Restricted Section

Please remember that you have to send in submissions between 1st and 7th of Sept in order to qualify for this month's contest. Read the FIRST post HERE to find out how to enter.

As seen in the common rooms in a similar fashion --



Dueling Captain Wanted

The dueling system is about to release but first we need ONE thing: captains and vice captains. Much like quidditch, we need team captains. Each house has their own Duelling Captain, as well as a Vice-Captain. The Captain and their Vice Ccaptain act as advisors to their teams and also place members of their team in the right pair to improve combat effectiveness and synergy. Dueling Captains do not necessarily play a position in the game but would have an active in-character role as well as out of character role in the game. Without question, the Captain is expected to be active and capable of submitting their team's actions and updates to the roster in a timely manner and also moderate matches.

Two players will be accepted: one as Captain, one as Vice-Captain.

So Why Become a Duelling Captain?
- There is a level of control that comes with this and your efforts may make the difference between success and failure for your team.
- This is a moderator-level position.
- You will be compensated for your efforts with IC money.
- You will have a hand in future development, policies and patches
- You get to work with me (Lear) and I am very cool.

Please, have in mind that you will need to complete a test, this is so that we can determine if you are capable of understanding how to moderate matches and have the math mastery for the role. While someone might be good at normal math, moderation can be difficult for some.

You get on the dueling team automatically if you're selected for the position of Captain or Vice Captain.

Application:

Student Name:
Moderation Experience (if any):
Dueling Experience (if any):
Why do you OOC want the position:
Why do you IC want the position:

Please, send the filled form to myself and at least one other Head of House (Caradoc Browne, Elaine Pendrast or Hjørdis Jensen).

Applications will close on the 7th of September, 2020.