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CF Secret Santa Extravapalooza 2012!
CF SANTA
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
CF's Secret Santa Holiday 2012!
>Who Is This For?
While Critical Failures (nee Of Dice and Men) originated as a domain mainly to give a home to the miniature game posters outside of G&T, it has expanded to encompass all of our gaming brethren and sistren, and all are welcomed here.
Don't be discouraged if you've never set foot in the mini gaming threads. Be you an aficionado of D&D, WoD, Dresden Files, or even F.A.T.A.L. (wait, no, scratch that last one. Those people will be dragged into the street and shot) we'll find a Santa to give you your own special gift of Awesome.
>Awesome! What are the rules?
Just read on below!
Names will be taken until 2359GMT ON SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER, at which point no further names will be accepted. In the day or two following that date names will be picked at random and assigned to individuals, one name per entrant. The name you receive will be the person you will be gifting - and the point of this event is that you are a Secret Santa, so please don't go spouting off to all and sundry. Based on the preferences that your recipient will post when they register to be a part of the event, you will then be prompted buy/convert/paint/whatever you deem suitable for a gift.
You will then be able to collect or work on whatever is being sent. The deadline for your recipient to get his gift is going to be 20th January 2012 - that leaves you with plenty of time to put together whatever it is and get it sent out.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN TO START THINKING ABOUT MAYBE BUYING A GIFT A WEEK BEFORE THE FINISH, YOU DOZY MONGBATS. If anyone fails to provide a gift within a reasonable time (or at all), they will be summarily barred from the next event - or possibly worse (if you've ever perused the Who was Banned thread, the forum's collective Santa events generally produce one or two deadbeats a year - don't be THAT guy!). The Holiday 2009 event went without a single hitch, 2010 was nearly as good and I'd like it to stay that way. Order sooner rather than later so you don't get screwed by some store/shipping/natural disasters.
As before, I will be offering an incentive:
When your recipient posts that they have received their gift, you may PM me and I will disclose the identity of your Santa. This means that if you get your stuff sent out and done early, you get to know who is sending you a gift. Some of you may not want to take advantage of this option and ruin the surprise, which is completely understandable, but it may help motivate a little bit.
>What would constitute a suitable gift?
This is where we unfortunately get subjective. I'd like to think we all have the good common sense to pick good gifts in this regard. For guidelines, I'd suggest something like $10/£6 (or $15/£9-ish with shipping) as a minimum. The minimum price on the gift is there to mostly prevent someone from sending like a single arm, half a body or the random pages that fell out of someone's crappily produced D20 OGL book. If you wish to do so then by all means go as far above this minimum limit as you want, it'd be awesome to see that sort of thing on the whole. Our current record, I think, is Gabriel_Pitt who sent someone an entire fucking tyranid army. You will basically be held to the honour system (and the threat of being pointed at and beaten with internet-sticks) to ensure that the person who you are gifting does not feel cheated. By all means, send a titan to your Santee if you wish!
Gift recommendation are a combination of what you're capable of, and what your Santee wants. A PnP gamer who's never touched bare pewter is probably not the right person to give a complete Cryx strike force too. On the other hand, they might greatly appreciate receiving a nicely painted rendition of their PC from their long-running forum game, or the latest expansion sourcebook in their setting of choice.
Even if you aren't that good with models, you can definitely still participate - nobody's ever said no to a boxed set, and it's a nice and simple gift. Books, modules, and other nifty aids to table top gaming will certainly go over well with the right people.
Single miniatures, books, or accessories are more than welcome and might actually be preferred in some senses, so long as they meet the $10/£6 minimum requirement. There's no need to feel obligated to get someone the Compleat Box set of D&D 4.0 core books just because they express an interest in the system (The PHB should suffice, but if you really are feeling generous...). Be careful though - it's no use having an amazing plan if your Santee never actually gets the gift. Don't go crazy and end up never getting anything sent.
>I live in [insert country no-one has ever heard of]. Can I participate?
ABSOLUTELY! Ideally, we would get a few people from all over to participate. To make sending the gifts easier, I will organize people into categories based on location while drawing the names to try and keep international mailing to a minimum.
>How do I sign up?
Entries are not considered official until I (CF SANTA) receive a PM from you containing the following:
1. Your name;
2. Your address - PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE COUNTRY SO I DON'T HAVE TO GUESS;
3. What games you collect/play/would like a gift from.
4: Suggestions - 'I play Exalted' doesn't help your Santa much in narrowing down what would be a good gift. Saying something like, 'I play Exalted and have been looking at getting Dreams of the First Age, Graceful Wicked Masques, or Scroll of Heroes' gives your Santa an idea of what you wants, and helps Santa if he's not familiar with your chosen system.
If you do not send this PM, you will not be entered in the event!
I require this information to make sure that you won't all have to pay an arm and a leg in shipping to make sure these minis arrive safely and intact. Still, some of you may have to make the sacrifice and spend a little extra on international shipping. I will try to avoid this, but it may become necessary if I can't organize people close enough to each other.
DO NOT SEND ME A PM JUST SAYING "I'M IN"
Even if you participated in the last event,your personal information has not been kept. I also need to explain something - when your santa gets your information, they receive it in the form of THE SAME MESSAGE YOU SEND ME. I literally forward your contact information and model preferences to the person giving you your gift, so the reason to make you all jump through the hoops of filling the information out is so that I have something to supply to your Santa. I also want to make sure I have up-to-date information.
When you sign up, please put some money aside for the gift right then. If you do not have said funds, do not sign up. The overwhelming majority of excuses that we always get are from people not having enough money to actually purchase a gift for their Santee, so I want to nip this in the bud. I realize most of you won't know at the time of sign-up who you're getting or what you're going to be gifting, but it's not unreasonable to put twenty-ish dollars or fifteen-ish pounds aside for the event right at the off.
After you've sent the PM, I'd recommend you post the games you collect or are interested in in this thread, as well. Too specific makes the gifting process a bit silly. List the games you wouldn't mind receiving items from, as well as what you might already collect, so your gifter might have some starting point.
>How do you assign Santas?
Utilizing super-secret scientific method and a crack team of genetically modified English muffins, we assemble the Santa Master List™ at a classified military installation fourteen fathoms down in the general vicinity of the Marianas Trench.
As I don't have a swanky enough hat, Operation 'WHERE'D ALL THE MONEY GO 2011' will probably be run using the old staple of bunging your name on the back of one of my business cards and fishing them randomly out of a cardboard box.
It's all done in one completely random shot. I don't tamper with it in any way (UNLESS I REALLY NEED TO, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE), though I do take some requests into consideration in setting the names in the box up (location, for example - I NO LONGER DO A SEPARATE DRAW for the regions of the world but if you have a real problem with postage, I can tweak this a bit).
>What do I do when I send/receive my gift?
A few suggestions for sending the gift:
* Include your name (forum name) so people have some idea of who is sending them this wondrous bounty! It really shouldn't be all that hard to just write your handle on a piece of paper and throw it in.
* Consider using Delivery Confirmation/Tracking so you can track your package and make sure it gets there.
* Check in with your recipient via PM a few days after sending to confirm receipt if you don't hear anything.
Also, some guidelines for receiving the gift:
* Let your Santa know it arrived! One less thing they have to worry about.
* VERY VERY IMPORTANT: Post in the thread that the package arrived, and show off what you got!
* Take some damn pictures! Your Santa probably worked very hard on the gift, and we're all dying to see what's being exchanged.
One last final point: While lurkers are welcome to participate, I reserve the right to use absolute discretion in ruling people out of participation. If you have absolutely zero posts or a bare minimum number and you register on the boards to try and take part in this, I probably won't let you participate. Past events have shown that these users have been the most likely to vanish off the board never to be seen again, or otherwise welsh on their end of participation.
And if you DO try to mess around with the system, Santa will have your address. And a crew of trained hunting reindeer. WITH SHARES IN LEHMAN BROTHERS.[/quote]
>Who Is This For?
While Critical Failures (nee Of Dice and Men) originated as a domain mainly to give a home to the miniature game posters outside of G&T, it has expanded to encompass all of our gaming brethren and sistren, and all are welcomed here.
Don't be discouraged if you've never set foot in the mini gaming threads. Be you an aficionado of D&D, WoD, Dresden Files, or even F.A.T.A.L. (wait, no, scratch that last one. Those people will be dragged into the street and shot) we'll find a Santa to give you your own special gift of Awesome.
>Awesome! What are the rules?
Just read on below!
Names will be taken until 2359GMT ON SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER, at which point no further names will be accepted. In the day or two following that date names will be picked at random and assigned to individuals, one name per entrant. The name you receive will be the person you will be gifting - and the point of this event is that you are a Secret Santa, so please don't go spouting off to all and sundry. Based on the preferences that your recipient will post when they register to be a part of the event, you will then be prompted buy/convert/paint/whatever you deem suitable for a gift.
You will then be able to collect or work on whatever is being sent. The deadline for your recipient to get his gift is going to be 20th January 2012 - that leaves you with plenty of time to put together whatever it is and get it sent out.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN TO START THINKING ABOUT MAYBE BUYING A GIFT A WEEK BEFORE THE FINISH, YOU DOZY MONGBATS. If anyone fails to provide a gift within a reasonable time (or at all), they will be summarily barred from the next event - or possibly worse (if you've ever perused the Who was Banned thread, the forum's collective Santa events generally produce one or two deadbeats a year - don't be THAT guy!). The Holiday 2009 event went without a single hitch, 2010 was nearly as good and I'd like it to stay that way. Order sooner rather than later so you don't get screwed by some store/shipping/natural disasters.
As before, I will be offering an incentive:
When your recipient posts that they have received their gift, you may PM me and I will disclose the identity of your Santa. This means that if you get your stuff sent out and done early, you get to know who is sending you a gift. Some of you may not want to take advantage of this option and ruin the surprise, which is completely understandable, but it may help motivate a little bit.
>What would constitute a suitable gift?
This is where we unfortunately get subjective. I'd like to think we all have the good common sense to pick good gifts in this regard. For guidelines, I'd suggest something like $10/£6 (or $15/£9-ish with shipping) as a minimum. The minimum price on the gift is there to mostly prevent someone from sending like a single arm, half a body or the random pages that fell out of someone's crappily produced D20 OGL book. If you wish to do so then by all means go as far above this minimum limit as you want, it'd be awesome to see that sort of thing on the whole. Our current record, I think, is Gabriel_Pitt who sent someone an entire fucking tyranid army. You will basically be held to the honour system (and the threat of being pointed at and beaten with internet-sticks) to ensure that the person who you are gifting does not feel cheated. By all means, send a titan to your Santee if you wish!
Gift recommendation are a combination of what you're capable of, and what your Santee wants. A PnP gamer who's never touched bare pewter is probably not the right person to give a complete Cryx strike force too. On the other hand, they might greatly appreciate receiving a nicely painted rendition of their PC from their long-running forum game, or the latest expansion sourcebook in their setting of choice.
Even if you aren't that good with models, you can definitely still participate - nobody's ever said no to a boxed set, and it's a nice and simple gift. Books, modules, and other nifty aids to table top gaming will certainly go over well with the right people.
Single miniatures, books, or accessories are more than welcome and might actually be preferred in some senses, so long as they meet the $10/£6 minimum requirement. There's no need to feel obligated to get someone the Compleat Box set of D&D 4.0 core books just because they express an interest in the system (The PHB should suffice, but if you really are feeling generous...). Be careful though - it's no use having an amazing plan if your Santee never actually gets the gift. Don't go crazy and end up never getting anything sent.
>I live in [insert country no-one has ever heard of]. Can I participate?
ABSOLUTELY! Ideally, we would get a few people from all over to participate. To make sending the gifts easier, I will organize people into categories based on location while drawing the names to try and keep international mailing to a minimum.
>How do I sign up?
Entries are not considered official until I (CF SANTA) receive a PM from you containing the following:
1. Your name;
2. Your address - PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE COUNTRY SO I DON'T HAVE TO GUESS;
3. What games you collect/play/would like a gift from.
4: Suggestions - 'I play Exalted' doesn't help your Santa much in narrowing down what would be a good gift. Saying something like, 'I play Exalted and have been looking at getting Dreams of the First Age, Graceful Wicked Masques, or Scroll of Heroes' gives your Santa an idea of what you wants, and helps Santa if he's not familiar with your chosen system.
If you do not send this PM, you will not be entered in the event!
I require this information to make sure that you won't all have to pay an arm and a leg in shipping to make sure these minis arrive safely and intact. Still, some of you may have to make the sacrifice and spend a little extra on international shipping. I will try to avoid this, but it may become necessary if I can't organize people close enough to each other.
DO NOT SEND ME A PM JUST SAYING "I'M IN"
Even if you participated in the last event,your personal information has not been kept. I also need to explain something - when your santa gets your information, they receive it in the form of THE SAME MESSAGE YOU SEND ME. I literally forward your contact information and model preferences to the person giving you your gift, so the reason to make you all jump through the hoops of filling the information out is so that I have something to supply to your Santa. I also want to make sure I have up-to-date information.
When you sign up, please put some money aside for the gift right then. If you do not have said funds, do not sign up. The overwhelming majority of excuses that we always get are from people not having enough money to actually purchase a gift for their Santee, so I want to nip this in the bud. I realize most of you won't know at the time of sign-up who you're getting or what you're going to be gifting, but it's not unreasonable to put twenty-ish dollars or fifteen-ish pounds aside for the event right at the off.
After you've sent the PM, I'd recommend you post the games you collect or are interested in in this thread, as well. Too specific makes the gifting process a bit silly. List the games you wouldn't mind receiving items from, as well as what you might already collect, so your gifter might have some starting point.
>How do you assign Santas?
Utilizing super-secret scientific method and a crack team of genetically modified English muffins, we assemble the Santa Master List™ at a classified military installation fourteen fathoms down in the general vicinity of the Marianas Trench.
As I don't have a swanky enough hat, Operation 'WHERE'D ALL THE MONEY GO 2011' will probably be run using the old staple of bunging your name on the back of one of my business cards and fishing them randomly out of a cardboard box.
It's all done in one completely random shot. I don't tamper with it in any way (UNLESS I REALLY NEED TO, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE), though I do take some requests into consideration in setting the names in the box up (location, for example - I NO LONGER DO A SEPARATE DRAW for the regions of the world but if you have a real problem with postage, I can tweak this a bit).
>What do I do when I send/receive my gift?
A few suggestions for sending the gift:
* Include your name (forum name) so people have some idea of who is sending them this wondrous bounty! It really shouldn't be all that hard to just write your handle on a piece of paper and throw it in.
* Consider using Delivery Confirmation/Tracking so you can track your package and make sure it gets there.
* Check in with your recipient via PM a few days after sending to confirm receipt if you don't hear anything.
Also, some guidelines for receiving the gift:
* Let your Santa know it arrived! One less thing they have to worry about.
* VERY VERY IMPORTANT: Post in the thread that the package arrived, and show off what you got!
* Take some damn pictures! Your Santa probably worked very hard on the gift, and we're all dying to see what's being exchanged.
One last final point: While lurkers are welcome to participate, I reserve the right to use absolute discretion in ruling people out of participation. If you have absolutely zero posts or a bare minimum number and you register on the boards to try and take part in this, I probably won't let you participate. Past events have shown that these users have been the most likely to vanish off the board never to be seen again, or otherwise welsh on their end of participation.
And if you DO try to mess around with the system, Santa will have your address. And a crew of trained hunting reindeer. WITH SHARES IN LEHMAN BROTHERS.[/quote]
Sterica on
+1
Posts
*bookmarked and considering*
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
A list of things, should you be of the gifting persuasion
Lollipops for everyone
You guys have a good one, though!
(To clarify, the gift I RECEIVED was awesome.)
A list of things, should you be of the gifting persuasion
Some people have everything and complain when they get something new and exciting.
The nerve of some folks
Always wanted to take part in one of these so count me in
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
To clarify, the gift I received was awesome. I think I just sent a gift that I thought was a lot cooler than it apparently was.
Well screw them then. I would happily be your Santee, Darke.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Well if you give awesome gifts, I'll santa for you too. Can't promise mine will be all that awesome, but lots of love and cursing goes into every pie I paint.
I'm in. I play Warhammer 40K and am working on Space Marines IF's, tyrannids, and IG. I love IG, but they are sort of permanently on the backburner. I'd have to redo most of the stuff I've painted, and my vehicles are obviously of a lesser man's skill at painting. So I'd like to redo them all.
Mostly, I would need SM bikes. Maybe some assault squad or Imperial Fist shoulder pads.
I'm set up on paints for a good while thanks to last years Santa.
Oh, and this is the first Secret Santa I've participated in where I could be reasonably assured I'd get a gift I'd enjoy that related to something I was interested in. My real life family is notoriously bad at gift giving, but they mean well.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
2011 PAX Warmachine/Hordes Champion
I collect CSM, Orks for 40k, Orcs and undead Fantasy and will eventually start up Trollbloods for Hordes! I like to paint, but I'm still learning how to make models look good
We've gotten everyone into D&D, and play board games when we get together. Betrayal at house on the hill, Arkham Horror, and Last Night on Earth have been big hits
You are awesome, @Darkwolfe. Don't let anyone tell you any different
@Vanguard: Board games are totally valid gifts if your santee is a board game fan. We have many, many board game players that post in CF and participate in CF SS each year.
My Gift of the Magi thing I had going on with CorporateLogo last year was way too amusing.
Hush. You're getting Flux again.
A list of things, should you be of the gifting persuasion
And that will be the new thing I learn today.
I do usually end up participating. Last year was the first year I didn't paint a model for someone though.
edit: I forgot the model I painted for Nax! So I did paint a model for someone last year!
I'm in. PM sent.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
Koreg
skarsol
Nealneal
Vyolynce
Nullzone
Khade97
altmann
valhalla130
TheRoadVirus
ElderCat
susan
Denada
Kilnaga
superhappypanda
Gabriel_Pitt
Delmain
Dr_Keenbean
Vanguard
Really though, I just wanted to buy people a bunch of cool shit.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?