#1
|
|||||
|
|||||
Happy New Year 2021
Here's some fun to start the year with from site member Security Snail: Charity Drive final update As most of you know, we've just wrapped up our ninth annual membership and charity drive. This year, we raised $3,365 for mental health research, another record! That brings our grand total to over $12,500 raised to support research to improve the lives of those affected by mental illness. I am proud to have teamed up with all of you to make this contribution. I'd like to give special thanks to Rukellian for matching all donations until December 20 and all those who contributed prizes for participants: you played a big part in the success of the drive. For those who participated in the drive: I hope that everyone enjoys their bonus month of CS and all the swag. Please, please make an effort to write an online review of any accessory you use to give a helping hand to the generous prize donors. I aim to finish my part in handling all the prizes after the first week of January and hope that that means that you will be receiving everything soon after that. Thank you, RPG Crossing staff and other volunteers! I say this every year, but that is only because their contributions are so meaningful to RPG Crossing: thank you to all our present and past moderators who together set the wonderful tone of this community through a panoply of volunteer efforts. Please take a moment as you are considering the year past and the year to come to think on their contributions. They make things like the New Player Solo Games, Iron DM, Outplay, Post of the Month, Explosive Runes, and Hall of Fame possible, and also work daily to help game masters to create effective game ads and keep the site friendly and spam free (and this seems to have been a bigger job this year.) You can find a full list of current site staff here. Thanks also to all the other volunteers who step in to judge competitions, run virtual workshops, contribute to ER, make podcasts, make suggestions and help with site improvements, run games, and all the other things that tie this community together. You are fantastic. Some highlights from the year: The RPG Crossing publishing moguls put out two new issues of Explosive Runes this year, including the current issue #29 that came out this month. If you haven't checked out this free community project, you're missing out on great art, stories, gaming advice, and short adventures! Back issues can be found at RPG Crossing's Explosive Runes page. Anyone interested in contributing to the next issue should contact Admin Dirk or wodine. In February, Karhald was announced as the winner of the 2019 Post of the Year with an emotional recounting of the resurrection of Greta. Keep an eye on the Announcements forum in the coming month to learn the winner of the 2020 Post of the Year. In March, Outplay, our player competition, began voting for systems. Applications started in June, and then the competition continued until August. This year's finale had two brackets: D&D, consisting of rhaiber (Ginnifer) and pianoman90 (Shugaro); and Shadowrun, with UngainlyFool (Bonus) and Blackfyre (Tamara). In the end, pianoman90 and UngainlyFool prevailed. Congratulations to all the contestants for all the great posts! Anyone who wants to go back and enjoy Outplay (or plot for next year?) can find this year's competition here, perhaps accompanied by the four episode RPG Crossing Radio series on Outplay (#31 to #34). In April, we opted for an alternate April 1 celebration. Instead of a prank, we had a community appreciation day(s). I'm thinking that might be a good idea for this year's April 1, too. And perhaps also for every day until then.... Also in April, HotsuSama was crowned as the winner of the 2020 Easter Bunny hunt and received his winner's avatar, whether he wanted it or not. We would be interested in ideas for making this event into something that invites more people to participate. If you have ideas, please pm Admin Dirk and Birched. Also in April, Scimmy and kingmonkey teamed up to reboot the RPG Crossing Radio podcast, dormant since 2013. These two jokers have been a welcome companion through the intervening months, and I've greatly enjoyed their ideas, camaraderie, and diversions from the topic at hand over the 34 (!) episodes they've produced. If you haven't listened yet, give it a try! In August, Aethera introduced the Completed Games thread to celebrate games that have gone the distance. If you know of such a game that you'd like to add, would like to read about these games, or just want to settle a bet that this actually happens in PBP, check it out! In September, Iron DM 2020 was announced by Inem. In the end, there can be only one. Last year's winner Unko Talok was unseated, and Spoonybard took the crown. Also in September, Wynamoinen announced the induction of three new games into RPG Crossing's Hall of Fame. Congratulations to Begon Ugo's Curse of Strahd, Inem's Pokemon: Forgotten Stories, and Aethera's That Fine Line Between Genius and Insanity, all of which can now be found in their new home in the Hall of Fame section of the boards. In October, Aethera announced Baxder's new book club initiative which is still going strong and about to open up discussion of The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. And wow! As of the end of December, we are up to 1124 NPSG grads and going strong, and I hear rumours of some new systems opening up soon in those forums! Thank you to everyone who contributes to that amazing initiative! I'd also like to give a shout out to everyone who takes a moment out of their day to welcome new members to our community - thank you! It's been quite a year, and we're not out of the fog yet. Tomorrow doesn't look that different from yesterday, but I will say that I am feeling optimistic that good days will return in the coming year. And, eventually, probably lots of parties. Maybe at some point we should have one, too? Happy New Year and good luck in all your adventures in 2021! Now go play some games!* With special thanks to our Community Supporters and donors who provide the principal financial support for the ongoing existence of this community, - Mark / Birched PS If you are running something on the site that I haven't mentioned, please send me a pm and let me know! I'll add it to my note this year and for future years. *Unless, of course, you like lists, in which case you should take a look at the following just for fun, and then go play some games. Users who referred the most new users who stuck around to make at least 10 posts in 2020. Thanks!
|
Thread Tools | |
|
|