NSOCs - what are they, and should I care?

'No specific owner characters' - or 'NSOCs', see the glossary of acronyms and initialisms - are a unique division of characters on World of the Wheel. A character of any occupation, across any of the role-playing boards, may be an NSOC - the distinction of a NSOC from any other character is that a NSOC is not developed by a specific member, rather, they are used to add flavour and different points of view to a role play.

As they are not owned by any one writer, the identity of an NSOC can be used by anyone who has permission to write on the board in which the NSOC is assigned to, and a writer can hence use them in a thread they are developing
(with characters of their own and other writers).

NSOCs are essentially minor, background actors, but being able to switch perception on a situation without needing to develop another fully-blown character to do it adds much greater scope to a roleplay. They are distinct from a non-participating character (or 'non-player character', 'NPC') in that while NSOCs may be referenced, they may also have writing published from their own point of view.

Administrator staff alone are empowered with the ability to create an NSOC or change a character into or out of one, but if a member would like to see a new NSOC, they can PM an administrator and ask if they would create one for them. A list of no specific owner characters is available under the character list.

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