SC3 Character Cap Information

[Mini_Help]

Hello, Mini! Today we are announcing a few details regarding SC3's character cap and rolling system.

The per-handler character cap for SC3 will be three characters. Additionally, handlers will be allowed to submit up to four characters during the Pregame stage, allowing one to be left behind/adopted off should that be desired. Note that there is no second cycle of applications, so if you want to cycle out or replace more than a single character, the excess character(s) must be withdrawn or adopted off. Handlers will indicate which characters they intend to bring to the island in the roll call thread.

Additionally, we are making two small changes to how rolls work.

Roll Schedule:

SC3's roll schedule will be publicly posted prior to first rolls, alongside the rolling list. This will detail staff's intended progression of rolls, including how many characters will be rolled at each stage of the game. Note that this will be subject to change, though if it changes that will be explicitly noted.

Any characters who die unrolled or become terminally inactive and are killed rather than adopted will be subtracted from the next set of rolls, reducing its size. While this is similar to how we've handled things for a long time, we're making the correlation explicit and visible to everyone now.

As it never feels good to have someone be rolled on their own, if ever unrolled/inactive deaths would reduce a roll set to below two characters, it will instead be set to two and the remaining reduction will be applied to the following roll set.

Single Character Protection:

Until the 1/3 completion point of the game, any character who is their handler's sole character will be immune to rolls unless no other valid target is available. Should such a character be rolled, the roll will be redone until such time as it lands on a valid target.

This means that every handler is all but guaranteed to stay in play until the game is 33% complete, barring incidents of unrolled deaths, Card usage, or terminal inactivity. All of the above may still eliminate handlers; it's perfectly okay for a handler with only one character to Hero that character out or kill them unrolled, and activity will of course be enforced.

The precise timing of the revocation of immunity will be known well in advance, due to the public schedule alluded to above.

Our thinking here is that this will allow handlers to run as many or as few characters as they wish without worrying about being eliminated prematurely. It will also hopefully lessen the community burden/expectation to keep handlers in the game by playing Heroes. We applaud the handlers who have done so, but also feel that, in a game with a higher cap, it's significantly more practical for us to directly take action and render that unnecessary.

Please note that, going forward, the roll schedule is likely to be implemented in other games if it works well/is valuable to handlers. The protection clause, however, runs into mathematical trouble in two-cap games (and is entirely pointless in one-cap games), so is unlikely to return except in versions featuring an expanded cap.

Welcome Version Staff:

Finally, as some of you may have already noticed, we have added Claire (Dogs231) as version staff to help with the running of SC3. That said, version staff applications remain open on an ongoing basis, so if you're also interested in taking part, shoot us an application following the typical process.