Character Retirement Policy

Note from the Headwiz: This Retirement system is all about Options. In the past, Retirement policies were all "XP Recycling", and nothing else. And while that's fine, nothing wrong with that, I'm thinking we can do something a bit more flexible, and give Players who are retiring one (or possibly more) character(s) a choice of things to do, rather than just one, and only one, option. So, here's what we will do: Give the Player multiple ways to perform their Character Retirements, as follows... -- Ivory

Option A: XP Retirement

This option is the traditional "All About Recycled XP" retirement. For this, the Player can recycle one (or possibly more) character(s), and get 40% of the total XP from said character(s) applied to a new character (or stored for later use, if they aren't immediately creating a new character). There's a limit to this, however: The maximum amount of XP that can be input into the retirement calculation for a single character, regardless of how many characters are being retired, is 3000 XP, meaning that, after the 40% calculation, no more than 1200 XP will be received by a new character. Excess over the 3000-input limit, if any exists, may be stored for later use. As an optional consideration, the player may elect, if they so choose, to apply the discarded 60% of the Input Total towards the benefit of the game by giving it as a gift to the rest of the players of the game. If this clause is exercised, then 5% of the total Discarded amount is given to all of the active/in-play characters of every other Player on the game (under the above calculations, this maxes out at a gift of 90 XP). A maximum of 150 XP, in absolute total, may be gifted in this way per month from Retirements, to avoid the possibility of sudden over-saturation from retirement gifts to the player-base.

Option B: Veteran Approval

This option is a kind of Veteran Pass deal. We have a number of Races (albeit a small number) that have Chargen Limits, or require some sort of Staff Interview process, or both. This option allows someone the chance to skip all that. I say 'Chance' because there are some restrictions to this, and I'll get to those in a moment, but first, the nitty-gritty of what this will actually do. 1: As implied, this will allow a Player who is retiring a character to bypass the Staff Interview process for Restricted or FC Races, and allow them immunity to any Chargen limits for those races. For example, if they wish to make an Esper, and three Chargen-made Espers already exist (3 being the limit for such at present), then this retirement will allow them to make an Esper from Chargen anyway, and not require them to interview for it. Additionally, instead of getting a percentage of the Total XP from retirements, the new character this Retirement is used for instead gets a stipend of 500 XP for initial Skill and Ability Purchases. Now, this may seem like a huge risk, but there are limits to this help to mitigate that risk, and they are as follows... 1: We expect the Player to read, understand, and abide by all Theme information relating to their chosen Restricted/FC Race, and uphold any responsibilities playing that race requires. If the Player is found to be playing the character in violation of this theme information, then we reserve the right to remove the character from play if correction and adherence to Theme information does not occur. 2: The Retirement(s) that go into this option must equal an XP Input of at least 2000 XP for Restricted Races; if they want to use it for an Esper or Lucavian, then they must meet 3000 XP input. Multiple characters may be retired, and their XP Totals combined, to meet these XP requirements. 3: While an Interview is not required, Staff still reserves the right to veto concepts that are deemed unthemely or improper, be it before or after the character is created and in-play (while this option allows one to bypass the interview process, running the general concept of the new character past Staff before hand is still necessary, as Staff still needs to know who is and is not an Esper/Lucavian/Whatever-else for accounting purposes).

Option C: Gear Upgrade (NOTE: This Option is likely not going to be very applicable until we get the Gear system functional and in-use, though some aspects may be usable prior to that, or some proxy/IOU system instituted until Gear, and Crafting, is A Thing.)

This option is about giving the Player's new character a leg-up of a different sort, and comes in two potential flavors. 1: The player retires character(s), in the same fashion as Option A, but instead of getting 40%, they get 25%. To make up the difference, the new character gets some kind of weapon or armor or gear item, based off of gear/crafting templates that already exist. This is most likely to come in the form of an enchanted item of modest to moderate power. This choice is only available is the input from retirements is 1000 XP or more. 2: The player forgoes *any* XP return from character retirements to get a gear item (weapon/armor/whatever) with a powerful enchantment of some sort. This choice is only available if the input from retirements is 2000 XP or more. Neither of the choices under this Option can be used to get a Unique or Named Artifact-class item of any sort, like, for example, Excalibur.

Sub-Clause: Inheritance/Wills

As a sub-clause that can potentially be applied to any of the above retirement options, a Player may will items from the characters they are retiring to other Player's characters. This likely will not be much of a thing until we have a coded Gear system in place, and that relates directly to the following... This is *not* a means of Item Laundering, by which Player A hands off an item to Player B's character so that Player A's new character can be given that item in turn. No. Just no. If we ever see that happen, then that item is to be destroyed, as if it went to the Great Beyond with the original retired character. There are a few exceptions where an item belonging to a retiring character is to be preserved without the use of this Will clause, and that revolves around possession of important Artifact-level objects, such as Legendary Weapons, the armor that belonged to some historically significant canon character, or whatever. It should be noted that characters may do this on their own, without our assistance, particularly once we have a coded Gear system in place, and that's fine, so long as it doesn't lead to Item Laundering; in the absence of a coded Gear system, though, this kind of Willed Item action is likely to require our direct authorization, if not outright assistance, given the current 'insubstantial' nature of items, weapons, and armor.

An important note: The above policy is not, repeat *NOT*, for use on characters who are simply being put into "storage"/removed from play. Doing *that* is not retirement, it's setting the character aside to free up an Alt slot, with the ability to return the character back into play at a later time. Retirement is more permanent, and involves the destruction of the retiring character's sheet, which means the character is expected to never return to play. There might be a notable exception or two that's plausible... (Unsent, anyone? Though, if someone tries that, the concept had better be ROCK solid. I'm talking "Illegitimate Love-Child of Gibraltar and Alcatraz" solid.) Regardless, the only way to return a Retired character to play system-wise, where such is even possible, is to rebuild it from scratch, starting at either 0 XP, or as recipient of a retirement in it's own right.

When a character is Retired, as mentioned above, the sheet is essentially destroyed. On the player-object itself, that's handled when the object is @frob'd/@toad'd. On the wiki, the sheet page needs to be cleared (emptying all the fields in the template will suffice, though outright deleting the page is technically easier, and an equally valid action). The retired Character's name needs to then be moved to the "Past Player Characters" section of the Character Bio main page. The Bio itself of the character should remain untouched; the decision on whether to purge *that* information is up to the Character's Player/owner.