#ynpcs

[soulsrpg]

There seems to be more ways a yNPC can lose its status over ways they can keep it & remain attached to the player who paid the point(s). Since players bracket and pay for yNPC status, rather than shuffling ownership based on IC adoption, could yNPCs be considered a OOC status & retain status so long as the player who owns them has an active character (regardless of that characters relationship) to better reward players using points, instead of off-board / other NPC pup methods?

Youth NPC procedures and guidelines are in place largely to prevent abuse.For example, if we allow a player to shuffle their earned yNPCs around however – what’s stopping someone from attaching a pack’s worth of several unrelated adult yNPCs to a random character?We really do not want to see yNPCs abused just to give characters more “cNPCs” than they should really have. Characters intended to be treated as adult companions should really be cNPCs – companion NPCs – rather than yNPCs.After all, remember – the purpose of youth NPCs is to allow adoptable puppies, or the puppies they themselves intend to play in the future, to remain with their parents and pack until that point. yNPCs are given certain privileges compared to non-yNPCs mostly to facilitate successful adoption by players.That we do not restrict yNPC status further – e.g., force players to get rid of yNPCs over 1 year old, or only allow families to have a certain number puppies total – already allows for a lot of leeway for plots, we feel! And you can still use or adopt out the puppy characters; they just need to either be off-board or have some sort of NPC designation.

[soulsrpg]

Say you have Wolf who has two yNPC puppies and then when the puppy, Dog becomes playable you switch Wolf for Dog. Would Dog's brother, Coyote become Dog's yNPC since they belong to the same player?

A yNPC can only be transferred through formal IC adoption – which means that siblings cannot “adopt” one another (unless in the case of an older sibling becoming the parent of a younger).If the parent remains in the pack as an aNPC, depending on your pack’s policies, the puppy could retain yNPC status under them. The yNPC puppy could also be transferred to the other parent, if they are a played character. However, if you are looking to take the played sibling (Dog) off to another pack or drop the parents out of the equation altogether, the NPC sibling (Coyote) should become a cNPC. :)

[soulsrpg]

How many yNPCs are we allowed to have on one character?

Please see a previous answer on the subject.

In short – technically, there is no limit. However, this is very much one of those cases where abuse of yNPCs (e.g. having a pack’s worth of adult children accompanying a character) would lead us to making more restrictive rules, and we don’t want to have to do that. :(

Note that some packs may have stricter yNPC policies, so please review those for your pack!

[soulsrpg]

Can yNPCs be transferred to another character?

Yes – if the yNPCs are being ICly adopted by that character. For example, if the puppies’ biological (or same-sex) parents (whom the yNPCs are attached to by default) die, and the puppies are then adopted by Wolf, the yNPCs would then be attached to their adoptive parent (Wolf).Note that this sort of IC adoption must always take place alongside formal OOC adoption. The player of the yNPC pups’ original parents must be transferring ownership of the pups to Wolf’s player.Here’s a previously discussed example and a past real example.

[soulsrpg]

Just to clarify proper procedures on playing NPCs (yNPCs particularly) - If the NPC is tied to an active character as a cNPC or yNPC, it can be played effectively as another character, if it accompanies another played character(that is an active character and not an NPC)? Am I understanding that correctly? So if player B wanted to have a thread with player A's yNPC character, Player A's actual character wouldn't need to be present? Or does the NPC need the character it is tied to in any RP?

NPCs, regardless of type, are limited by General NPC Guidelines, which means they cannot appear in a post alone without a played character’s perspective – in this sense, they cannot “played effectively as another character.” They are NPCs.A cNPC or yNPC, however, does not need to only accompany their active character attachment. Anyone can include them in threads with their owner’s permission. So Player B can have a thread which includes Player A’s yNPC as long as they have Player A’s permission. Player A’s character does not need to be present.

[soulsrpg]

It is possible for a player to use their puppy points for a character that is adopting a puppy? i.e. Wolf finds Coyote puppy that is <2 months old, Coyote's mother is dead/gone, can Wolf's player use one of their three points to adopt the puppy (if activity approves) instead of placing it in their cNPC slot? I would imagine it would run along the same line as same-gender couples and puppies?

No, puppy points cannot be used for a “found” puppy; it would have to be a cNPC.Puppy points are meant to be used for biological children born on-board, or for same-sex couples making use of a surrogate on-board. This is to encourage more realistic child-rearing, active parents with active ties, and to increase chances of the pup being successfully adopted/picked up by a player. The benefits that come with yNPC status – the ability to be listed on the official Open Characters list and to be played months earlier than a cNPC puppy – are all to see to that end. A “found” puppy given the benefits of yNPC status would likely encourage more found puppies, which we don’t wish to do.

[soulsrpg]

Okay, so I THINK I understand the answer to the question I'm about to ask but I just want to MAKE SURE before I make myself look like an idiot. If my character who already is active on the 'Souls board traveled off-board(say to trade or whatever) and impregnated a female there, could he bring a single puppy back with him as a cNPC(but not a yNPC)? Or is that frowned upon as there are no puppy points being spent to acquire the pup? What prevents people from using that to skirt puppy point use?

This is allowed.

“Found puppies” have always been allowed as a way to acquire single pups without the use of puppy points or following the procedures for litters to be born on-board. As you note, such puppies occupy the cNPC slot of their attached character and are not yNPCs. They also cannot be picked up as active characters and roleplayed until they are seven months of age.

As a side note, the gestation period for all Luperci is around eight weeks. While we allow characters to travel off-board for brief periods of time while remaining active, eight weeks is a bit much. It’s unlikely that a character would embark on a single trip and return with a newly conceived and born child. Better make it multiple trips. ;>

[soulsrpg]

Is there a point when a yNPC can no longer hold it's youth status and should be transferred to cNPC or pNPC status? For example: Would a character who is a year old no longer be allowed to be a yNPC since the character is an adult?

As long as the yNPC has an active parent, they may remain a yNPC indefinitely.