Newsletter - July 20... - Page 1 • Avalore

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PSA Newsletter - July 2025 (#9)
Started by Charybdis

Charybdis

the personality hire

Administrator Community

Pronouns: any

Characters: Marguerite, Hypnos Fesyla, & 'Squire'

About 1 year ago • Last edited: about 1 year ago

┌─── ∘ July 2025 Newsletter ∘ ───┐
Highsun, Season of Summer, Year 1641

Pixel art by u/qwertgfx on Reddit

	“The second season is that of abundance and bloom, remarking a blossoming, cultivated crop. The season of colour and lasting sun, of ripe fruit and good health.”
	- Standard Calendar, from The Compendium

Summertime is here! The Covetous Campaign continues, as well as another Circle of Four election.

We are running a Fables feedback survey here!

Many (but not all) of the recent/upcoming updates and changes are to the back-end to improve staff quality of life and how we function. Onboarding for new staff members is ongoing. Thank you for your patience as we get people caught up so that more duties can be seen to quicker!

° New & Upcoming

Community Updates

Community Update Session

A summary of everything discussed in the June Community Update VC can be found here. A few future updates are mentioned exclusively within!

June Fundraiser

The Pride fundraiser is complete! We have been crunched behind the scenes but expect an announcement this month on the total earned, and proof of us distributing the funds raised to the top three organizations the community selected (The Trans Income Project, The Stonewall Alliance Center, and ACT UP). Thank you very much to everyone who participated.

Moderation Team

Moderation team overhaul
- Onboarding new members
- Clearer categories on team
- Developing clearer internal guidance on what to do and when
- Developing policy that will maintain better consistency in moderation cases and outcomes
  - Some punishment times have been altered in light of this
  - Clearer expectations for players on how to navigate bans and what consequences they may face
- A Privacy Policy will be released as well
  - Moderation will never publicly disclose internal reports or allow general users to view them.
- The actions we are taking as moderation fall under:
  - Non-ban actions (e.g. warnings, watchlists, conditions)
  - Temporary bans (3 months, 6 months)
  - Permanent bans (non-appeal)

Technical Team

New members being onboarded and trained on WorldEdit, region management, and item creation

Discord

#artfight-2025 has been created
Slowmode has been increased to 30 minutes in #looking-for-rp
Upcoming updates including:
- Meet the staff sections
- Separate ticket submission system for Safety Policy reports, so that players do not have to be whitelisted to submit these

Lore Updates

Fables

We are running a feedback survey for Fables. Please participate in it by clicking here!
A guide for Fable DMing is in-progress
The less popular Fables will be getting some TLC and tweaks
Lore tweaks will come before Feats tweaks, as the latter needs to be done with Systems Team
Portents are being discontinued
- We will do our best to accommodate players who are currently under them.

Compendium

Released:
- Falstoner lore [Falstoner]
- Fey lore [Guide to the Fey] [Common Types of Fey]
Upcoming:
- Fireborne and Mistan cultural updates are in final stages
- Stonerunner cultural update is in-progress
- Pearl Coast page in-progress
- Sangifleuer page is in-progress

Build Expansion

Please be mindful that Avalore’s Build Team volunteers many hours of their personal time and creative energy towards making custom builds for the server.
- Please keep feedback constructive and non-combative
- No set date for release at this time
- There will be one or more staff members available to assist users with this expansion release
- Guild plots will be a feature
- Plots will be made available through a player raffle for each
  - More details closer to release

If you are aware of a player who is largely inactive and only logs on to pay rent for multiple months, please let staff know via a moderation ticket. We cannot guarantee they will be evicted, but we will stop it where we can in these instances.

Systems Updates

Arcane

Arcane Rework:
- Taking longer than anticipated but still underway
- Upcoming frequent mechanical releases to lay the groundwork for the arcane overhaul

XP & Feats

Upcoming changes:
- All feats will cost 10 XP
- 12 feat slots
  - Mages will get one extra feat slot per mage tier compared to now, making it:
    - Mage 4: 2 feat slots
    - Mage 3: 4 feat slots
    - Mage 2: 6 feat slots
    - Mage 1: 9 feat slots

Alchemy

Two potion ingredients to be released tonight (July 4th)
- Two ingredients that can be utilized similar to real-world Hormone Replacement Therapy; one masculinizes, one feminizes. Can be utilized in-character in smaller amounts to androgynize, and can be used on-and-off for a more fluid presentation (although potion effects are cumulative and not instant).

Technical Updates

In-Game

Bugfixes:
- Ocean's Gift now distills and is useable for potion making.

° Player Events & Projects
Player-lead events and projects of Avalore, curated by the editor and Community Team to feature for the month. Editor's Pick earns 2 XP.

Player Events

Recurring - Foraging in the Reach: Enter for a chance to win a DMed foraging mini-event trip!
Recurring - Nutward Putward Cave: "A number of groups have taken interest in the rumors of the recently found, recently named Nutward Putward Cave just north of town and a bit off the beaten path, due to its uncharted and labyrinthine tunnels, small bounty of crystals, and other details. While nothing sinister no fearsome creatures have been found lurking within the cave as of yet, it is full of narrow passageways, rough edges, and flooded chambers, and should be navigated accordingly.
Recurring - Poetry Night at the Tavern: Every week someone will be called on to come up with a prompt. Each will be given ten minutes to write a short poem, and then participants go around the tavern, reading them aloud!
Ongoing Event Line - Tales From the Southern Reach: A series of both impromptu and some planned events.
Ongoing Event Line - A Marizan Merchant: Players with significant backgrounds in Valkia/Mariza, Courtly Esteem or Dubious Origins may reach out to @BmZuzu for this event series.

Player Projects

[Editor's Pick] A Newspaper for The Spire by @Starfle - An independent newspaper is looking to serve The Spire and inform the public. Apply within!

Game of Birds by @Olomet
The Hundred Horses of Fallstone by @KZ_Neilz
Viktoria's Final Moments by @yoursecondexwife
The Day Everything Burned by @Wayward Nomad
Little Fish by @Bobbie

° Player Photos
Players are able to submit photos through our Photo Album forum (via our Discord server) to be featured in our newsletter, and even used as promotional material for Avalore! Editor's Pick earns 2 XP.