Castle Marrach allows for players to experience the game through multiple characters, known as "alts". A player can get more from the game by seeing it through different venues and eyes, like reading a book from different perspectives. That being said, we do have rules around the utilization of alternative characters and some suggestions on how to best handle them.
Information and Skills
With the community being fairly small, we understand that occasionally information about one player's character will get run by one of their alts through some 3rd party. Advice is provided below on how this might be handled in different scenarios:
Law enforcement
In some cases the player can't ignore information about their alt. This typically is an issue with Army/Chancery/Hero types who have a Criminal/Villain/Social Pariah alt. In these instances, we advise utilizing 3rd parties as much as possible, which is usually easy enough. That being said, on occasion, characters may be in a position of authority, and be called to give directive on an investigation or case.
In this case, Story Staff usually advise delegating it to others in the groups IF it's reasonable to do so. What we won't ask the player to do is portray their character as incompetent if a matter arises that requires some form of action. What we do require though is that there be as much 3rd party involvement as possible. For example, Sera A1 gets accused of a crime by Sera A2, who reports said crime to the Royal Army or Winter Watch. However, Ser B1 (Sera A1's alt) is one of the commanding officers. Ser B1 should delegate the investigation to other characters in the group to remove bias in acquiring testimonies and evidence gathering, etc. Then, if there's no one else of authority available to rule on the incident, Ser B1 can look over the non-biased information and make a call.
Now, if this call is something suspicious, and another player knows B1 is an alt of A1, they should go ahead and file an
Rebels and outlaws
If a player is playing a rebel, outlaw, general trouble maker, and also has a law-type of character, absolutely under no circumstances should they to utilize any information on investigations/plans to detain their alt to their alt's benefit. The criminal alt, unless they have someone legitimately on the inside, doesn't know any of this information and therefore it's not actionable. Don't wreck the hard work of fellow players just to avoid the criminal alt being caught.
The same can be said if a player has a law character and knows of a criminal organization through their criminal alt. They know nothing. If someone else in the Law group figures things out, go right ahead.
Skils
The exchange of skills is something highly sought after, especially among more achievement-based players. This is totally fine and Castle Marrach tries to accommodate all kinds of players. However, do not cross-train alts via alts. What we mean by this is:
- Sera A1 and Sera A2 are best friends.
- Sera A1 teaches Sera A2 tattooing.
- Sera A1's player decides they want Ser B1 (their alt) to ALSO know tattooing.
- Ser B1 begins to solicit Sera A2 for tattooing lessons, who knows B1 is A1's alt and agrees.
To this end, A1 is managing to cross-train B1 utilizing A2 to get around the coded restrictions of teaching alts.
Likewise, say a player has a highly skilled character, and an alt of their friend knows this, and pushes for lessons. This is okay, but when it becomes not okay is when the highly skilled character begins to train the alt beyond what they would reasonably have earned in-character. Castle Marrach is a favor-based currency, so involving out-of-character favor tilts the scales in a way that isn't beneficial to the game long-term. If a player can't realistically validate why X character would train Y alt character so high, don't train them so high.
Alts at events
We understand the community is small and that sometimes there are events that players would like to go to on all their characters. However, it is suggested that they select ONE character to attend said event at a time, i.e., take in one character, once they leave, bring in the next. The exception to this is large events like Winter Ball. Our suggestions are as follows:
Not alt-friendly events
- Martial practices
- Guild bells
- Small socials
- Repeat events: Yule Wolf/Yarnival Kraken, etc.
- Casual public roleplay
Alt-maybe events
- Royal Audience Bells
- Chancery/Army/Chamberlain/Treasury Bells
Alt-friendly events
- Large socials: Winter Ball, Ghost Ball, etc.
- Large-Scale Events: Wyvern War, Triangle Plots, etc.
Alt-on-alt interactions
With it being a small community, a player will certainly hear of their alt's existence at some point, it's inevitable. We advise players to keep their characters on fairly distinct paths, where running across each other is unlikely to be an issue; if they are in similar social circles, we say don't bring them out simultaneously to engage in said social circle.
However, there are instances of promotion that might be trickiet to manage where one alt is a member of the Court. Sometimes, their alt may come up for promotion or they'll be handed a petition their alt created to promote someone else. It is fine to abstain from this. The players of the Royals will know why and the character won't be penalized for not participating in this petition. A simple "I don't know this person enough to comment." is preferred to a suspiciously glowing review on why they should be promoted.
