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CF Secret Santa Twenty Eighteen!

CF SANTACF SANTA Registered User regular
edited October 2019 in Critical Failures
Critical Failure's Secret Santa 2018!

>Who Is This For?
CF is a haven for all sorts of tabletop gamers and hobbyists, including role-players, miniature gamers, board gamers, and more. If you see yourself as part of the CF community, this Secret Santa event is for you.

>Awesome! What are the rules?
As previous years have started a little later than the elves would like, Santa (being the kind and considerate employer you know me to be) has tried to get ahead of the game this year. Names will be taken until 2359GMT ON FRIDAY 26th OCTOBER, at which point no further names will be accepted. Names will then be picked at random and assigned to individuals, with PMs sent out on Sunday 4th November with the name of your Santee (the person you will be gifting). Remember 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 her gift is going to be 31st January 2019 - that hopefully 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 SILLY GEESE. 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. Past events have gone (in general) without a hitch 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.

>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 $15 (or $20-ish with shipping) as a minimum. The minimum price on the gift is there to prevent someone from sending like a single arm, half a body or the random pages that fell out of someone's 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. We have had some fantastic gifts in previous years and remember that giving is just as important as receiving (however don't feel that you need to spend the GDP of a small island to take part)! You will basically be held to the honor 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.

Popular gifts in the past include single miniatures, books, board games, or accessories, so long as they meet the $15 minimum requirement. However, there's no need to feel obligated to get someone a complete set of Kingdom Death: Monster with expansions, for example, just because they express an interest in it (then again, no one can stop it if you do…). 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 if we get enough international participants I will organize everyone into categories based on location while drawing the names to try and keep international mailing to a minimum. This cannot be guaranteed though so keep in mind postage and check weights etc before buying gifts.

>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 include a country so I don't have to guess
2a. Your email address
3. What games you collect / play, or what you would like to see in a gift
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! - 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. Also, 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 funds do not sign up. If you do not have funds do not sign up. The overwhelming majority of previous excuses that we get are from people not having enough money to actually purchase a gift for their Santee. 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 aside for the event right at the off.

>How do you assign Santas?
Utilizing super-secret scientific method and a crack team of Elves we assemble the Santa Master List™ at a classified military installation fourteen fathoms down in the general vicinity of the Marianas Trench.

It's all done in one completely random shot. I don't tamper with it in any way, though I do take some requests into consideration in setting the names in the box up (For example if there are enough Santa's we may do regional draws... depends on the numbers. If you have a real problem with postage let me know and I may be able to 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 1ess 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 skip 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 killer reindeer).

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Penny Arcade Forums› Critical Failures