TELL and MESSAGE RECEIVE for covert GL titles

[galaxgal]

Regardless of game history, due to the smaller pbase count, high risk of character loss for 'unlawful' groups, and general desire for immersion in secret-keeping, it is the cultural norm for the only "covert" Guild in the game to operate anonymously, even going so far as to establish anonymity as lore for its leadership.

This is great theme but makes communication and coordination of RP slow and difficult, as the only contact method is the very slow and easily-lost mail system.

Please add TELL <title> and MESSAGE RECEIVE <title> for covert GL's, to improve QoL for covert guilds.

[galaxgal]

Some concerns that have come to mind offhand that I would like to address in advance:

"Isn't this exploitable?"
Game balance and policy assume that Reeve and Knight players follow certain standards of sportsmanship.

Outing a covert guildmember using wholist and tells or by using a messenger is no different than using OOC 'twinking' to determine a character's identity ICly. A messenger capable of finding Tenebrae, Sapiente, or a GL for the upcoming Mage guild obviously should not have the desire to break secrecy.

Alternatively, simply restrict this access to members of the according Guild.

"Will this be hard to code?"
Only Staff will be able to answer this question. So far repeated requests for generalized alias systems over the past ~3 years have been denied or deferred due to complexity.

My hope is that we can find solutions to improve QoL and support for covert characters without crushing our new programmers under code burden.

Please let me know what you think.

[Taunya]

I'd be for it for messengers. Maaaaaybe for tells, if implemented in a way that makes it exceedingly hard to mess up and out yourself with it.

It would be nice to attach an identity to cloaks/masks as well, so if say the Tenebrae wears a specific cloak that's well known, they could receive messengers to the Tenebrae while wearing it.

Just as a note, besides IC mail the anonymous board does work for communication with the shifty folk.

[galaxgal]

Yeah - the anonymous board works as a surrogate for pboard, and it's good enough at that.

The reasoning for at least messenger or tell access to these identities is because they are the only real synchronous form of communication.

Boards tend to be used similar to 'fast OOC mail', which are good for slow-moving OOC contact and organizing but rough for organizing live RP.