Hey WCC!

The Forbidden Romance slots have, since their introduction, been pretty limited--which can be frustrating, especially when half of the Forbidden Romance plots that are currently approved seem to be taking forever to actually go anywhere, meaning they functionally hold that slot indefinitely.

Today, we’ve assembled a couple changes that we hope will help to alleviate that frustration!

First: Forbidden Romance slots are now user-specific instead of site-wide hard limits! This means that, regardless of other ongoing plots, you may also submit a Forbidden Romance plot for approval. Every user may only be part of one Forbidden Romance plot at a time, and upon completion or abandonment there will be a 3-month cooldown before that user is allowed to apply for another Forbidden Romance plot.

Second: while a Forbidden Romance plot is in phase 1, it can theoretically be discovered by any medicine cat that rolls Plotting for their prophecy. Once it advances to phase 2, it will only be discoverable if a medicine cat rolls Romance.

(Phase 1: Getting to know one another, and developing a relationship. This phase is completed by officially becoming mates or the mother of a litter becoming knowingly pregnant, or the romance being stopped by either a medicine cat revelation or a cat dying. Staff must be notified when Phase 1 concludes for any reason.

Phase 2 = The relationship has become ‘official’. This phase is completed by the relationship being declared to a leader, revealed by StarClan/caught by another cat, or the death of at least one cat in the relationship. Staff must be notified when Phase 2 concludes for any reason.)

Third: as a result of these changes, Forbidden Romance plots may still technically be redacted; but ALL plots (regardless of type) must be appropriately tagged in the topic title of their submission with their plotting type (ie. 'Stars in the Night [Forbidden Relationship]'), and the form must specify which users are involved. This is to keep our own record-keeping simple and consistent.

As an additional note, the cooldown time will be shorter if any of the following conditions are met: any other involved party vanishes from the site without notice for an extended period, the other involved party/parties are banned from WCC for any reason, or any other involved party quits the site outright. In this case, the cooldown period will be 2 months rather than 3.

(Final note: if we feel that Forbidden Romance plots are becoming oversaturated later on, we may re-implement the limited slots. Additionally, all plots are still subject to staff approval.)