Welcome Jean-Papi Dupont, our new school nurse. Our previous school nurse went... someplace else. Surely someplace happy and not terrible! This is likely the busiest job in all of the school considering the number of injuries incurred here. While he has plenty of House Elf help, please keep the injury queue orderly for the sake of his sanity. Please welcome him warmly to this community as he takes on the Nurse Assistant Role.

A few questions answered:
... yes, I really think that is his name.
... no, I do not believe that mustache is real but it is impolite to stare.
... yes, he is French and at the wrong school.

PC/iNPCs doing Quidditch/Duelling/Broom Racing

This has come up on a daily basis and it's been discussed by the admin team multiple times. At present, we've come to a conclusion and wanted to clarify why so everyone understands. This may not be the perfect solution but it's the fairest that we have, at this time.

Your main character [PC] and your iNPC [from any school] cannot both do the same sport.

You do not have to take part in any sport (on either character) but if you wish to on both, they must be different. This is for a number of reasons but namely:

1. It's unfair if your PC and iNPC end up facing each other in a match, as you would be taking two slots instead of one (meaning, you are taking someone else's slot) and it also guarantees you a reward, regardless of the outcome. It also allows cheating as you know what moves teams intend to do.

2. If you're on both teams and then had to choose one, you'll leave the other team (the one you didn't choose) down a player last minute, which is unfair on them. In some situations, there may not be enough players on the waitlist or in the iNPC team to deal with this. We cannot anticipate who will take what role before and plan accordingly. It's also unfair if half the team suddenly disappear.

3. We are offering it to iNPCs to allow more people a chance to take part in the system. By limiting it to one character, this allows anyone who didn't get into their house team a chance to enjoy the system on their secondary character. It's not all year around but it's a fun little extra event that they can enjoy on special occasions. By taking two slots on a sport, you're taking away someone else's opportunity to even experience that sport themselves.

4. Please remember that iNPCs were not actually created or intended to have stats / abilities in the first place. This was developed to give players a chance to earn an additional stat point in a fair way and to allow them to take part in events. It's a special fun bonus for players, not the purpose of the system.

5. Some systems aren't developed to work in this way. The broom-racing system is not designed to work if we allowed both the PC and the iNPC to be broom racers, for example. So we're saying a hard no on that system, to prevent it from being a nightmare on the mods. Allowing for two Duellists (for example) but not two broom-racers makes it a bit more complicated, confusing and less fair + consistent. So, for consistency + fairness, it works better to say no to all systems.

6. There are people on the waitlists that wish to play a sport but aren't able to, because it's full of active people. Some of these have been waiting for a long time without the chance to play. This allows them that chance to, at the very least, enjoy it occasionally on their secondary character.

If you're unsure of what character to pick, please note that your iNPC will not get as many opportunities as your PC. It will likely only be one game a year, if at all. So your main character will get more opportunities to play the sport and enjoy the system or earn stat points. If you're doing it for any of those reasons, stick to your PC.

Whilst I understand that some of you might want to play two duellists / quidditch players / broom racers, please remember that the iNPC system is still new, it's still in the works and we are testing it. It is not perfect but we are trying out best to make it fun for you and, like every developing system, it's subject to change at any point with patches and tweaks.

Essentially, this iNPC system allows you to play a secondary character. It now also gives you the opportunity to play a second system. This was previously not an option. It now is. Think of it that way! It's meant to be fun and enjoyable, rather than being an issue.

Changes to the Errand System

There are some small changes to the errand system that I wanted to bring to your attention.

In an effort to streamline our Errand System, we are making some adjustments to it. Most of these are internal changes that non-staff players will not really see or have to worry about. However, the biggest change is that we are removing the money or house caps that we originally had. This was 10 Sickles a month or 26 House Points annually.

This means that if you see an errand that you want to take part in, just check the prerequisites and key information. As long as you meet them, you will be able to take part.

Please note that some errands might have a limit on numbers, as they did before. In other situations, there may be multiple errands running at the same time but you might be only able to join one. So read the information carefully before taking part.

Since there will be inevitable questions, here's some answers:

When will errands resume?

Today! The first one should be up shortly after this announcement has been posted.

Will there be errands every month?

We are planning to spread the errands out and have consistent errands, yes.

However, there may be some months with no errands. In particular, busy periods in real life - such as festive holidays - or when there is a lot of other things taking place on site already - such as summer holidays, where we had summer camp.

Please remember that it takes a lot of staff time to run an errand and these are done on top of our normal staff duties. So whilst we will try to consistently have errands monthly, please know that there will be times when we have zero errands a month.

Can we backdate this and claim rewards from last year if we were capped?

No, sorry. This is a new change for the upcoming year and cannot be backdated.

Will this stay this way?

No clue, to be honest. This is all a developing system and is subject to change. We are hoping this method will streamline the process but there may be unanticipated flaws with it and we may need to change it. If it changes, we will let you know.

We have chosen the Dueling Captains for our Dueling Teams:

Captains
- AJ MacAllister
- Dealla Prince
- Lydia Cooper
- Dmitri Jones

Vice-Captains
- Aurelia Nostrevace
- Amadea Campbell
- Santario Martin

Due to their Ambition, Interest in Moderation and Scores we are Offering the Following Seats on the Team:
- Willow Anderson
- Erik Tharaldson
- Adonis Thorn

Your House will be opening up applications for Dueling shortly. Please look in your common rooms for this. Determination of the initial roster will be based on activity (both short and long term) including posts, roleplays, and house points earned both in the short and long-term. This is done to provide a sense of objectiveness overall.