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Hello my fellow games-interested goons, hey guess what?!? It's time again for our weird little subforum's annual gift-exchange tradition, Trad Games Secret Santa!   The main round is closed, but you can still participate! We're now in LIGHTNING BONUS ROUNDS. Read the rules below and then jump to this post for the LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND rules!Rules Quick-Reference See below for the full explanation of the rules; this is just a quick rundown: 1. Announce your intention to participate in this here thread. Include gift preferences, your general location, and your solemn vow. 2. Send an e-mail to me at tgsecretsanta@gmail.com with your mailing address, SA username, whether or not you'll ship internationally, and any important info. 3. Receive and read your confirmation email, which arrives within a couple of days. 4. Check your inbox on Saturday, November 18th for your Santee Assignment. 5. Find your Santee's sign-up post in this thread, and read their gift preferences, if any. 6. Send a gift to your Santee. Mail it no later than December 15th, AND ensure it will arrive no later than December 19th. MAKE A POST when you send your gift! 7. Post in the thread when you receive a gift (whether you open it or not). If you're not sure if it's a TGSS gift, then open it, don't wait till xmas. I need to know you got your thing, and so does your Santa! 8. When you open your gift, post what you got! Take pictures if you can. 9. If you get a lovely gift, or nothing arrives, email tgsecretsanta@gmail.com so I can fix it. 10. Stick around in the thread till it's closed, or at least until mid-January. There might be a follow-up thing you need to do, or a question to answer, or de-grinching to do, or a survey or something. OK on to all the  What's Trad Games Secret Santa? It's an anonymized gift exchange for the goons who hang out in the Trad Games subforum. Goons sign up to trade presents with other goons. I handle the anonymization of assignments, sending your personal information to a total stranger, who will then mail you a gift. Similarly, I'll send someone else's info to you, and you have to send them a gift. We waste a ton of money on postage, but gently caress it, this is fun! How do I do it? Read all the STEP BY STEP RULES in this post (scroll down) and follow them carefully. If you have problems with reading comprehension maybe read it twice or have an adult read it to you. There's ten whole rules and you have to obey them and follow instructions. Each of the rules has a reason behind it so don't skip them. So I am going to buy something for someone? Yes. You have to get a gift for a Trad Games goon. Ideally your gift should be picked out specifically for the goon you're assigned. Since this is the Trad Games forum, we're generally focused on games-related stuff, but you kind of have free reign so it doesn't necessarily have to be a game gift... but it probably should, unless you're sure your non-game gift will delight your target Santee. Signing up for this is a financial obligation. It is not okay to sign up and then disappear, because someone will send you a present, and then whoever your assignment is, gets grinched. Please take a moment to think seriously about this before you just mash the Reply button.  in this traditional game, the grinch is being shamed by the good children, probably How much does it cost? US$30 (or its approximate equivalent in Foreign Money), plus shipping. You don't deduct shipping from the gift dollar guideline amount because it's not your Santee's fault he lives in Tuvalu and he shouldn't have to have a worse gift just because you're 8000 miles away. You can save money on shipping in several ways: keep reading. What if my Santee lives in an Exotic Foreign Land like Japan, the Mothering Sunday Islands, or Belgium? I try to match goons to other goons that are in nearby countries. There are always a few gaps, though, so if you are willing to cover the extra cost of international shipping, then you can say so and I will randomly choose from among the volunteers where needed. If you do get matched up with a Foreign Goon, remember that you can often order directly from an online retailer in their country instead of paying international shipping. If you don't want to get matched with a foreign goon, say so in your sign-up email. I can't afford $30 plus shipping! If $30 plus shipping is genuinely a hardship for you, you might be too poor to be buying presents for strangers on the internet. You can make something, but your made thing has to have a value to your Santee of at least $30. Plus you still absolutely have to ship it on time. International shipping is too expensive! Based on past years, if you live in the continental US, Canada, the UK, or Australia, and you don't volunteer to ship internationally, you'll probably not have to send anything overseas. Eurogoons usually get matched to other Eurogoons. Anyone in another country will almost definitely have to buy internationally, although again, you can generally just buy online in the target country. I'm scared! So far the track record for this thing has been pretty good, and as far as I know, we've had zero incidents of stalking. The great majority of goons were happy they took part, and most have been coming back in subsequent years. I did a survey a couple years ago so now I have statistical proof that most goons think this is a good time. This Year's Deadlines – NOTE DEADLINES HAVE CHANGED Some time on Saturday, November 18th, (which is the weekend before Thanksgiving in the US) I will make assignments and email them out. You will then have until A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS which is approximately, Tuesday, December 19th to get your gift delivered to your Secret Santee. To meet that deadline, I am asking that all gifts be mailed by December 15th. It will be up to you to decide if you want to get your gift sent on time using a cheap shipping option, or wait until the last minute and then get your gift sent on time using an expensive shipping option. The final is so early because too many goons have missed it every year. You're still getting nearly four weeks of time, which is plenty. What if I forget? Don't forget. Bookmark this thread. Something Awful provides a fancy bookmarking feature just for you! You should use it. Click on your Control Panel link to see your bookmarked threads. Maybe also set up an alarm clock in your calendar app or something? I may send out email-based reminders to check in with people who are worrying me with their absence but you should not rely on that. If you are the kind of person who gets excited about things and then blows them off and forgets about them the next day, then this gig is not for you. Don't sign up. You can of course make things easier on yourself by just buying something and shipping it immediately after you get your assignment. I have timed it so you will get your assignment just in time to take advantage of the “cyber monday” online sales. Online retailers like Amazon offer all kinds of great discounts during that week, so you can take advantage and get your gift mailed automatically directly to your Santee and have nothing to stress or worry about all December. What if I don't get a present because my Secret Santa is an rear end in a top hat? This is called “being Grinched.” If you get Grinched, like an old-west Sheriff I will round up a posse of de-Grinchers and together we will cover for the rear end in a top hat out of the goodness of our hearts. You will get a present no matter what. And Grinches get Stitches. There are consequences. It's already after the deadline! Does that mean I can't participate? You are in luck! After the first deadline, we run LIGHTNING BONUS ROUNDS!. Beginning November 19th, and continuing until roughly December 10th, we will have a series of extra bonus rounds. It works like this: you use exactly the same process to sign up. I collect names until either I have at least 8, or, a whole week has passed AND I have at least 3, whichever comes first. So each LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND will have from three to eight goons. Then I do a mini-gift-round assignment. You immediately fire off a Trad Games Present at your Santee, and they do the same! And the instant one LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND ends, the next one begins. Since the pool of participants will be very small, the odds that multiple goons will have to ship internationally go up, though, so keep that in mind. You can participate in as many rounds as you want. LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND 1 starts HERE! I'm rich and/or greedy. Can I send two gifts? gently caress yes you can! Just let me know in your email (step 2) how many gifts you want to send and receive, and I'll make it happen. Each gift still has to meet all the standard requirements.  I only want specific kinds of stuff That's fine. Just put your requests in your post when you sign up. There's no 100% guarantee, but really that's just like Christmas at home, isn't it? The worst case scenario is you get some $30 Thing that wasn't exactly what you wanted. That's not such a big deal.  This is a Traditional Game you might get, perhaps I might get something I already have! That's true. There's only one way to avoid this for sure, and that's by posting what you've already got. You can use boardgamegeek for that, or just make a list, or be more specific about what you do want. There's still a chance you get a duplicate of something you have, though. I can't think of a way to avoid it completely, so you need to be ready for this specific thing to possibly happen. I'm sorry.  Darnit, now you have two copies of this Traditional Game! What if I never post in Trad Games? You're welcome too. If you have an SA account in good standing that existed before I posted this post, you're eligible to participate. Welcome to the club! Probably you'll get something TG related, though. Or a dong. If you have a brand new SA account registered after this post was posted, then I'm worried about you. Let's have a chat and figure out if you're trustworthy. Send me an email before signing up. The Shitlist of Shame These goons hosed up enough to get called out: The General. It's been seven years now but he managed to Grinch goons two years in a row. His only excuse was that basically he was too lazy to go buy a thing and mail it. He is not allowed to participate in TGSS. Arrgytehpirate. In 2011, this guy never managed to follow instructions, insisting on using PMs instead of emails. I let that slide but then he too forever to respond. Finally he sent me a photo of a package he was supposedly sending out but it never arrived. Weeks later he supposedly got it returned in the mail but his santee, who had also participated in a lightning round, had received a gift from his other santa so the address was definitely fine. Arrgytehpirate was the epitome of disinterested and disconnected half-assedness. For doing a little less than the bare minimum he was disallowed from participating in 2012. In subsequent years, he's invited to participate, but in a probationary way where I will cut his poo poo off if I'm not impressed by his reformation into a responsive person who can follow instructions. NutritiousSnack. NutritiousSnack doubled down on TGSS in 2013. His main round Santee finally got his gift on January 13th, and his Bonus Round santee finally got his gift on February 2nd. One major shipping snafu might be an honest mistake; two is a pattern. NutritiousSnack was also difficult to get ahold of, with days or weeks going by between responses. Being multiple months late with your gifts is bad, and being slack about communicating when your stuff has gone missing is worse. NutritiousSnack was on probation in 2014, but now he can participate if he wants. Demonstrating reform could get him off this list! MySwan in 2015 sent his santee a pair of socks, and something on DTRPG. He didn't follow up for ages, and when he did, he let things slide a lot. He was hard to contact, and in the end I don't think the DTRPG thing was ever worked out. He's allowed to come back after being on probation last year, but he'll need to still make amends. EatinCake in 2015 claimed to have made a handmade gift, claimed to have forgotten to send it before going on vacation, claimed he would send things on the 4th, and nothing ever arrived. He was very unresponsive via email, and eventually his Santee had to be degrinched. NovaLion screwed up in 2013: posted overseas, he got deployed, didn't respond to emails for weeks, made excuses, promised delivery, and then disappeared again. Long after his Santee was de-grinched, his gifts arrived in March 2014. NovaLion was suspended: but then he came back and made amends, apologizing and making a charitable donation, so he was permitted to participate again. Unfortunately, in 2016, NovaLion relapsed: his main round gift went fine, but his bonus round gift never arrived, he did not respond to emails about it during the week after xmas, and had to be de-grinched again. NovaLion is permanently banned from participation in TGSS. Redemption is possible for those who are willing to make amends... but not for severe transgressions or repeat offenders. FULL STEP BY STEP RULESThese are step-by-step instructions in full. Just do all of them, in order. 1. Announce your intention to participate in this here thread. Put the following information in BOLD so it's easy to see: Your Gift Preferences. This means describe things and categories of things you'd love to receive. This is mandatory. You can be specific but it's better to be general. E.g., “I'd love a blueray movie” or “I need tabletop wargaming scenery” or “I'd like the hardback Kings of War 2nd Edition Rulebook.” You can also specify things you don't want, like “I have enough dice thanks” or “I hate animes” or “Do not give money to Games Workshop” or whatever. The more help you give your Secret Santa, the higher the likelihood you will get something that you will actually like. If you just put “I'd love anything at all,” be prepared to receive anything, up to and including Dongs. But more likely, you might receive something you already own, especially if you chat about it in TG. If you don't want a duplicate of a game you already have, you need to tell your Santa that you have that game. Your General Location. You'll be telling me your mailing address via e-mail anyway, but goons like to know where in the world all the other goons are. It's funner that way. You can say things like “Chicago” or “Wisconsin” or “Australia”, however specific or general you feel like being. Your Solemn Vow that you will keep up with the thread, send a gift on time, and will post in the thread when you get your present and tell us all what you got and who sent it to you. 2. Send an e-mail to me at tgsecretsanta@gmail.com containing the following information: “Secret Santa Sign Up” or similar in the subject line so I can be sure you're not a computer program trying to sell penis pills. Your REAL NAME AND MAILING ADDRESS. This is important because someone is going to mail things to you and they need to know how. If someone mails a thing to this name and address and you don't get it because you moved or it's not a real address or the postal carrier refused to deliver a package addressed to “CockDragon1986” or something, that's your fault and you will have self-Grinched which is the most embarrassing thing ever. Your Something Awful login name. It should be obvious why I need this. Your willingness or unwillingness to ship internationally. Please be specific if you have restrictions. For example, if you're only willing to ship within North America, please say so. Remember, shipping costs are in addition to the $30 gift guideline. Anything else of importance. Special information might include a list of your mortal enemies which I had better not match you with, a date after which you will be at a different address, your allergy to cheese, or whatever. I promise not to match you (as Santa or Santee) with anyone you don't want to be matched with, and I will pass along any messages to your Santa or Santee that you need passed along. You can also ask questions timidly in this email instead of boldly in the thread, if you prefer. 3. Check for a confirmation email from tgsecretsanta@gmail.com Everyone who signs up will get a confirmation email within a short amount of time (usually within a day or two). If you don't get one, check your spam filters and then PM me, send another e-mail, or post in the thread and I'll troubleshoot the issue. Your confirmation email is sent at the same time that I put you on the Official Spreadsheet of Cheer, so it's important. It verifies you're signed up, and verifies that you're able to receive important correspondence from me. 4. Wait until Saturday, November 18th and then check your inbox. That is the day I will close registration for the main round, and assign names using a secret method. It's also the beginning of a holiday week for most goons in the US, and also various holiday promotions have usually gotten going by then so maybe you can get an online discount. I will post in the thread as I get these assignments out. You must keep your Santee's personal information secret and private. Don't post or forward or copy their real name, other fake name(s), address, or email address in the thread or anywhere else. Don't try to go visit your Santee, that's creepy. This is important. Respect your Santee's privacy. 5. Check the thread, find your Santee's first post, and read up on his or her greedy demands. And then buy them a present and mail it. The Officially Recommended Spending Amount is US$30. It is OK to spend a bit more than that if you feel generous. It is OK to spend slightly less than that if you have the perfect thing which costs $28.95, or whatever. But it is not OK to Grinch your Santee by sending them a used paperback book and $8 of baseball cards. The only truly universal gifts are love and money. For everything else, it's best to at least try to determine whether your amazing gift idea would actually be delightful to your Santee. Many people like to leave their options wide open and you can feel free to send whatever you like to them. Others have a more focused domain of Trad Gaming they enjoy, and it's best to try and fit your present into that domain if you can. If you get stuck on gift ideas, send an email to tgsecretsanta@gmail.com and I will help you out. I can ask your Santee questions while preserving the veneer of anonymity, and I also am full of great ideas for the difficult-to-shop-for. Also, we may have Santees under the legal age for drinking, or who don't drink, so you must check with me before sending alcoholic beverages to your Santee. Some people have food allergies, too. Don't send food without checking. Sometimes you have a thing that you already own that you want to send, that's OK too, just try and figure out what that thing would be worth, roughly (in its present used condition of course), and make sure your giftee is delighted by your largesse instead of saddened by your cheapness. Regarding handmade gifts:  A lot of us really enjoy the personal touch of a handmade gift, so this might be a great idea. But there are hazards. If you haven't already made your gift, be sure you'll have plenty of time. The estimate of value of the thing you made isn't “what I'd probably sell it for if I sold this,” it's “what my giftee would probably pay for it if they bought it from anyone else.” For example, it takes a huge amount of time to knit a pair of socks; but socks are still only worth a couple dollars to most people, even if you sell your handmade socks for $25. If your giftee asked for a Dice Pouch, it's likely they're thinking of a typical dice pouch which usually costs like ten bucks. So if you make one yourself, maybe you better fill it with some cool dice as well? Use your best judgment and run your plans past me if you have any doubt.  Who knows how many months it took to carefully construct these traditional gaming pieces? Regarding ebooks and Print-On-Demand services. PDFs and eBook versions of gaming products are very hit-or-miss, and so are POD services. Some of us love them, some of us hate them. I'd like you to please be certain that your giftee loves them before you send one. Check their post and if they don't mention it, contact me and I can confirm with them whether an ebook or printed-on-demand book is a wonderful or horrible thing. We need to confirm your e-delivery was e-delivered promptly because your Santee probably isn't expecting it. DTRPG has hosed up someone's order more than once, for example, so seriously: DTRPG and other e-delivered gifts require special attention and handling. 6. Send a gift to your Santee in a timely manner Every shipping company is heavily impacted by the holiday shopping season. Volumes rise every day as you get closer to Christmas day. The sooner you get something shipped, the less likely it is to be delayed. Retailers may also run out of stock. If you procrastinate and delay, you are still on the hook for on-time delivery, and that may mean having to select a more expensive shipping option. It's OK to take a few days or even a couple weeks if you need it to get your awesome present together, but keep your eye on the calendar and don't screw yourself over by waiting too long! I mean it. EVERY YEAR WITHOUT FAIL I have a handful of goons who wait till the last day or so and then complain about the cost, or – worse – simply decide they can't afford expedited shipping and their Santee doesn't get their gift until after Christmas. That is not OK. If you can't afford like $100 for overnight shipping, then please don't procrastinate! If you purchase a gift online, please confirm with the retailer that the item is actually in stock. Check and make sure it's shipped, not just “ordered.” Get a tracking number and check it every day. You can send me your tracking number if you want, but it's up to you to monitor it and see that your gift got delivered. I can't monitor 100+ tracking numbers. Let me know right away if there's a problem or delay. If a gift receipt is an option, please get one. I know it's not always available, but it's best to make sure that if your Santee already has one of what you got him or her, he can return the new thing and/or exchange it for something else that is great. This isn't a rule, just a preference. POST INDICATING YOUR PRESENT HAS BEEN MAILED BY NO LATER THAN Friday, DECEMBER 15th, 2017. Your gift has to be delivered by Tuesday, December 19th. To help meet that deadline, I am asking that all gifts be mailed by December 15th. Keep in mind that four days for delivery is quite unlikely unless you paid a lot for three-day express delivery, so the 15th is a drop-dead date, not a good target date. If you have some genuine excuse like “I am trapped in a blizzard” or “my house burned down and I can't afford a stamp” or “the vendor promised to mail it but I have discovered they were filthy liars,” that's OK, come post about it in the thread or send me an e-mail or ask your Red Cross coordinator at the disaster relief shelter to send me an e-mail. In this modern world there are very few legit excuses for being unable to communicate for several weeks. And you can avoid this altogether by just shipping a gift within a few days of getting your Santee assignment. Military goons: if you might possibly be deployed, you should let me know in advance, and also maybe ask a friend or family member in advance to arrange to ship something if you haven't done so in time, and to at least email me when your gift arrives. Being deployed is not an acceptable excuse for failing to get a gift to your Santee or going AWOL on communications from me. If you can't deal with this amount of contingency planning, you should not participate. Overseas shippers: if you are shipping something overseas, realistically you should give it at least two weeks for shipping. Stuff can randomly get stuck in customs for a long time! If your only excuse is “I am lazy and didn't get around to it” then you are an rear end in a top hat who should never have signed up. 7. Post in the thread when you receive a gift You can open it right away or you can wait till your preferred present-opening moment and open it then. Regardless, you need to post in the thread as soon as your gift has arrived. If you get a box and you're not sure if it's your Secret Santa gift, then you need to open it and find out. This way your anxious Santa knows you got your present, and I can register that they have fulfilled their duty by putting a symbol into a box on a spreadsheet, which I loving love doing, you don't even know. Please don't blow this off. Every year a few people dutifully send their gifts, and then disappear from the thread, and we are left with no easy way to confirm that they also received what they were supposed to. That's not being a Grinch, but it is a source of anxiety for your Santa and for me and that's not very nice. 8. Post what you got! Whenever you get around to opening your gift, please let us know what you got. Photos are the best but even if you don't have a camera (and seriously who doesn't have a camera these days?) at least describe what you got. You should also say thank you and describe your joy. Half the fun of giving a gift is experiencing your Santee's pleasure. THIS IS AN ACTUAL RULE, NOT JUST A SUGGESTION. Saying “thank you” is the socially expected response to a gift, OK?. Some participants never bother and that's rude. 9. If you got a lovely gift, or didn't get a gift, send me an email immediately. Email me at tgsecretsanta@gmail.com if you get something lousy. That doesn't just mean you got a nice approximately $30 thing that you didn't especially want: unless you specifically said “I don't want RPGs” you can't really complain that you got an RPG. But, you do need to let me know if your Santa has not lived up to the spirit and intent of the rules, OR – and this has actually happened – if your Santa was victimized by a shady retailer who has ripped both you and your Santa off.  Maybe you don't know what this thing is, but that doesn't mean it's a lovely gift! It seems really quite nice, actually.  OK but seriously this is lovely, though, nobody wants this 10. Please stick around in the thread until a week or two into January, or until I close the thread, whichever comes first There are always last-minute hiccups and if someone gets Grinched, I'll be asking for volunteer de-grinchers. This is likely to happen in January, if it happens. Even if you don't want to be a de-Grincher, you can still participate in the tarring and feathering, and that's not something to miss out on. Plus people sometimes get stuff a little late, like when they go back home from their holiday travel or whatever, and it sucks when they have nobody to share their fun with when they open their gift. TGSS Mailing List Would you like to receive a reminder of TG Secret Santa next year? Send an email to tgsecretsanta@gmail.com and ask to be added to the official TGSS Mailing List. I will use this list to send out a heads-up each year when I post the new TGSS thread. I won't sell or share the list with anyone, and I will use BCC: so you won't be sharing your email address with the other goons on the list, either. Of course you can also remove yourself from the list at any time, just send me a request and I'll take you off.  Disclaimers This is the fine print. Nobody told me to put it here, but I'm anal about these kinds of things. Participation in this event is voluntary. I am not affiliated or associated with Something Awful LLC, Rich “Lowtax” Kyanka, or any of its affiliates, sponsors, advertisers, subsidiaries, associates, officers, enlisted men, serfs, or holdings (hereafter referred to collectively as SomethingAwful). This event is in no way endorsed or supported by any of the above. If you get ripped off by another goon, neither SomethingAwful, nor I, can promise you relief. Nobody's insurance is covering this. Any supportive or punitive action taken by SomethingAwful or its moderators or administrators, including stickying threads and punishing bad goons, is purely voluntary and ad-hoc and is not a promise or representation that SomethingAwful is actually responsible or required to take such action, nor a promise or representation that it will act in a similar manner in the future, present, or past. I promise to take reasonable and prudent steps to keep your personal information confidential. It is secured by the use of a reasonably obscure password on the tgsecretsanta@gmail.com gmail account. I also copy some of your personal information, including your real name and email address, to my Spreadsheet of Cheer which is stored on a reasonably secure computer behind a firewall. However, participation requires that I send your personal information to another person, and I cannot ensure that that person will do the right thing and keep your info private. Obviously anyone who shares or abuses your private information is an rear end in a top hat and if I find out he or she did that and can confirm it then he or she goes right on the poo poo list immediately and forever, and I will also tell on them. But you must agree not hold me or SomethingAwful financially, legally, ethically, or spiritually responsible if that happens. It'll be between you and the rear end in a top hat, basically. Participating means you agree to these rules. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Nov 19, 2017 |
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Nov 9, 2017 00:44
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Reserving second post
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Nov 9, 2017 00:49
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Hi my name is Leperflesh and this year I have been a good goon. Gift Preferences Lately I've been doing just boardgaming, not much RPGs. Here's my collection on boardgamegeek, it's pretty much up to date. I don't like animes. I like books, both printed books and for Kindle Fire. I have numerous cats. I do paint miniatures, but I have thousands of unpainted miniatures and I've been painting about two a year, so that's probably enough. I've been doing papercraft a bit: I got the Stonehaven pop-up terrain stuff from their kickstarter and I've been building those. I have glue and rulers and craft knives, but specialty papercrafting stuff or nerdy papercrafting kits would be fun. I also do fantasy football, camping, computer games (here's my Steam profile), comic books (prefer graphic novel formats), metalworking, and I'm getting into carpentry and woodcrafting lately. If you need more to go on, check with goon Aldantefax: he knows me IRL and might could give suggestions. Location Bay Area, California Solemn Vow I swear and affirm I will grinch no goon.
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Nov 9, 2017 01:38
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Signup confirmations are out for our first five participants! We've been stickied (thanks Ettin), and please feel free to cross-promote in other TG threads, but don't spam the poo poo out of threads, just one link to this one and a mention of what TGSS is, is sufficient.
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Nov 9, 2017 17:51
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I spammed a few threads, and I've caught up with all signups! Seems a bit slow so far this year, I hope we get everyone piling in over the next week.
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Nov 10, 2017 19:22
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Kai Tave posted:I've had a touch of the ol' financial difficulties these last couple of weeks and I've been waiting to see how things shake out before I sign up this year, that and honestly I just can't think of anything I want for Christmas. For sure, make sure you can well afford things. As for the second problem, one cool aspect of secret santa is that you don't have to think of something you want for christmas! You can just receive a surprise. 
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Nov 10, 2017 20:47
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Cinnamon Bear posted:I haven't decided about participating this year yet but I want to know what this is! It's pretty! I found it in a google image search for "traditional games," looks like the site it's on is this games blog: http://www.analoggames.com/story/redesign-of-a-traditional-vietnamese-game/ The website describes the game, but their attached webstore only sells t-shirts, and the link for the game designer is dead. So, I have no idea if it's possible to buy it anywhere. e. It is apparently this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%E1%BA%A7u_cua_c%C3%A1_c%E1%BB%8Dp Which is a very simple betting game with, as far as I can tell, a significant house edge, e.g. a bad game on the level of roulette. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Nov 11, 2017 |
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Nov 11, 2017 02:25
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Email confirmations are out for everyone except Bruxism, who I haven't gotten an email from just yet.
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Nov 13, 2017 06:36
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Caught up on emails. We've got 21 goons signed up to exchange 24 gifts. Getting off to a slow start still, but we've already got enough goons to ensure secret santa will work, so that's good!
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Nov 14, 2017 07:13
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We're up to 29 goons exchanging 32 gifts now! All emails have been replied-to.
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Nov 15, 2017 08:19
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Emails caught up, except I don't have an email from Galaspar yet.
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Nov 16, 2017 07:33
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Rhjamiz posted:I work as a zookeeper if I get you as my Santa, can you send me a baby giraffe or wallaby or something?
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Nov 17, 2017 01:25
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If they're not fertile I'd love a six pack of emu eggs. I want to make the most massive fried eggs sunny-side up and surprise family members with their huge breakfast eggs e. are they normally that green color?
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Nov 17, 2017 01:33
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Do emus hide their eggs in avocado trees
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Nov 17, 2017 01:38
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Welcome aboard! We're down to just about 24 hours (give or take several hours) before I do the matchups. Participation is down by a lot from last year, which was also down by a lot from the year before. I hope it's nothing to do with how I run things - I imagine it's more related to generally dwindling population on the forums in general - but anyway please let other goons know that they've only got one day left to sign up for the main round. We will of course do the thing regardless, and everyone still gets the same amount of presents as always. It's just a worrying trend.  e. for reference, we've got about 38 main round participants for this year. Last year we had about 70, and in 2015 we had about 84. In 2014 we had about 75, and in 2013 we had about 95. So while we had an uptick in 2015 the long-term trend has been downward, and this year it's precipitous. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Nov 17, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2017 23:42
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jivjov posted:I didn't even know this year's was running until a few minutes before I signed up. I didn't get an email or see a post in the previous year's thread; which may have had something to do with it. I sent emails to everyone on the official Trad Games Email List! If you'd like to sign up, please send a sign-up email to tgsecretsanta@gmail.com and I'll be happy to put you on there. The list is only used once per year to send out an announcement email and that's it. Also, I never even considered posting in the previous years' thread... hmm. I did cross-post in several of the more trafficked threads in TG, but I feel like it's probably not OK to just spam every thread. And this thread has been stickied for the last week, but I suspect (like me) many posters rarely actually navigate the forums, mostly just reading and posting in TG threads they've bookmarked using the control panel. But yeah it's worrying that people aren't even aware the thread is going on. Any ideas? e. TGSS 2016 thread is already archived, so I cannot post an announcement in it.
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Nov 18, 2017 00:02
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Part of the issue I think is that I start the thread in mid- or even early-November, so I can send out the assignments on the weekend before US Thanksgiving. I've always tried to make that the assignment date so that goons can take advantage of the cyber monday through black friday deals, but this also means maybe a lot of people aren't quite in the christmas mindset yet and/or aren't even remembering to come look for the thread. Unfortunately making it later means increasing the risk of gifts not arriving on time. When I did a survey in 2015, a large proportion of respondents preferred an earlier startup date. Anyway it is of course fine if we only have 40 people in the main round. But if this means we get 20 next year and then we're gone, then that's terrible. We may also still get lots of people signing up for the lightning bonus rounds, so we'll see how that goes!
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Nov 18, 2017 00:16
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Hi guys! Welcome aboard. I was pretty busy tonight so I didn't have time to send out confirmations: everyone who signed up from Gaghskull onward will get a confirmation email tomorrow, before I start processing the matchups. I'm likely to wait till late in the day (in California, so Pacific Daylight time zone) before I do the full matchups. I'll post when I start doing them so anyone reading this wanting to sign up for the main round, please do so! And of course we'll start a Lightning Bonus Round as soon as the main round closes, so nobody will get left out.
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Nov 18, 2017 08:47
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Awesome, 17 signups since yesterday afternoon, and this is feeling a lot happier up in here! We're up to 52 goons in the main round now. I'm gonna go catch up on confirmation emails right now, and then do the matchups tonight (in about 12 hours) so there's still ~12 hours to get into the main round.
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Nov 18, 2017 19:36
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Confirmation emails are out. I am missing emails from LeSquid and Mystic Mongol. You guys need to send your sign-up emails with your shipping address, international shipping preference, and goon names within the next 12 hours please!
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Nov 18, 2017 20:03
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I've sent a signup email to everyone except LeSquide, who I guess forgot. LeSquide, I can put you into the main round if I get an email within the next two hours: otherwise, you'll have to slide down into the first lightning bonus round. I'm going to start processing the matchups but there's still ~2 hours for anyone who wants to sign up to sign up!
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Nov 19, 2017 04:55
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MAIN ROUND IS CLOSED I am now beginning to send out your SECRET SANTEES ohhh my god I hope I didn't gently caress it up! LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND 1 is NOW OPEN! LIGHTNING BONUS ROUNDS! Lightning bonus rounds are how you take part in the Trad Games Secret Santa thing after the deadline for the main round is passed. It's also how you can be greedy and exchange more than one present with your fellow goons! Beginning today (November 18th), and continuing until no later than December 10th, we will have a series of extra bonus rounds and YOU can participate. The LIGHTNING BONUS ROUNDS work a lot like the main round. All of the rules apply except for the deadline for application. Re-read the rules in the OP just in case you forgot them. OK so to sign up I post in the thread and send you an email? Correct. You must do this even if you participated in the main round. Post in the thread. If you already participated in the main round you can link to your original post or just quote it to show your gift preferences. You must send an email to tgsecretsanta@gmail.com as well; if you already sent one this year I don't need your address again, but I do need another email regardless. My response to that email is your only confirmation that you've successfully signed up. What then? I will end each LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND according to whichever of the following things happens first:
Once each round closes I'll randomize the participants in the round and you all exchange gifts. You immediately fire off a Trad Games Present at your Santee, and they do the same! And of course the instant one LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND ends, the next one begins. What about international shipping? You can still tell me you prefer not to ship internationally – if it's impossible for you, let me know and I'll try to make sure that doesn't happen. But if you live outside the US it's particularly hard to ensure you don't have to ship internationally. Bear in mind that you can always buy something online from a store that operates in your target country and thereby avoid expensive shipping costs. (You might have to pay a currency exchange fee but that is typically much less money.) If I get a pool that contains nobody else in your country, I will contact you to check if you'd rather sit out to the next round. It's better though if LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND participants can all ship internationally. Remember, you can always just order something online from the destination country: you usually just need a credit card. So then what's the shipping deadline? Of course, as we close in on Christmas day, you will have less and less time in which to accomplish purchase, shipping, and delivery. You'll have to pick an appropriate delivery option and be certain whatever you're buying is either in your hands, or definitely in stock at the retailer of your choice. You are still supposed to ship your item absolutely no later than December 15th AND get your gift delivered to your Secret Santee by December 19th! This is part of the challenge! But it probably means that you won't have time to make a hand-made gift or wait for something that is out of stock to get restocked. Strongly consider ordering online from a major retailer with a strong reputation for shipping things immediately. ROUND ONE BEGINS NOW GO!
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Nov 19, 2017 06:40
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all of the assignments for the main round are done! If you didn't get an email with your Santee, let me know immediately, thanks!
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Nov 19, 2017 08:19
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I've replied to all of the follow-up emails I've gotten, and we have our first signup for bonus round 1 with Sion up there, too! Maybe LeSquide too, if they come back to the thread and send an email. Not Keyser Soze posted:Something beautiful and terrible is on it's way to a lucky someone. It may arrive right under the wire though as it's a bit of a specialty item. Can you tell me whether you have shipped a gift for your Santee #1, or your Santee #2? I need to keep specific track, you see. Rumda posted:Ordered the gift for my Santee which should be here by next weekend plus a little extra that may arrive sooner than you think. Sorry, this is ambiguous: have you shipped one (or two?) packages to your Santee, or are you having something delivered to yourself to re-ship? I keep track of these things, too...
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Nov 20, 2017 02:23
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thorsilver posted:So the Amazon UK deliveryman came to my flat yesterday, and as he trudged up the stairs to bring me the mystery parcel I was giddy with excitement. Welp, that's definitely a record. A present delivered in less than two days from the santee assignments! And it's dongs. Amazing!
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Nov 20, 2017 18:39
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Caught up with emails, and I've sent responses to all of them that needed one. Also, we're up to three participants in Lightning Bonus Round 1 (LeSquide has returned, hurray!) so that is definitely going to happen now too. Folks, if you happen to come across some sales at various webstores, please don't hesitate to post about them in this thread. Everyone presumably knows about Amazon's Cyber Monday week of deals (today they had games from Ravensburger for up to half off, for example) but probably not everyone knows about deals at other places so post 'em if you got 'em.
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Nov 21, 2017 08:24
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Raged posted:Do you want us to send on the tracking number to you to send to our Santee? I know with Auspost there is about a 50% chance they won't leave a missed delivery card. I can forward a tracking number to your Santee if you feel they will need it, yes. Keep in mind that looking up tracking info sometimes displays information about the shipper. What I don't do is accumulate 50+ tracking numbers and check them myself, which some people occasionally think is a thing I'd do. If a gift disappears, I will look at a supplied tracking number to help figure out what happened as part of the troubleshooting, but for the normal routine deal of getting gifts to Santees I just note on my spreadsheet that something has been ordered/shipped/arrived/delivered and that's it.
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Nov 21, 2017 22:55
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fr0id posted:I ordered my Santee’s gift last week (no option for gift wrap unfortunately). I got my own gift in today. When are we supposed to open these? As Chekans 3 16 said, Chekans 3 16 posted:Whenever you want to, some people wait until Christmas, others don't wait and open when they receive them. I'm not waiting when I get mine. However, goons who are receiving multiple gifts (such as because they are doing multiple gifts for TGSS, or because they are doing multiple secret santas) should please open their gifts at least enough for their TGSS santa - and me - to determine with certainty that they have received a TGSS gift, and (if applicable) which of their multiple TGSS Santas sent it. This probably doesn't apply to most folks, who are free to save their present till Christmas if they want.
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Nov 22, 2017 07:37
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I got a gift!  It's an expansion to the Age of Conan boardgame, called Adventures in Hyboria! Gosh! I actually didn't even know this existed. My group has gotten some value out of that game, I'm sure they'll be up for trying an expansion, very cool! Thanks Santa!
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Nov 22, 2017 07:54
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Thanks! Yes, I am a Conan fanboy. It's a very good choice... a gift I didn't know I wanted, but definitely wanted.
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Nov 22, 2017 18:48
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Hey everyone, happy American Thanksgiving! I'll be very busy with family stuff today but I should be keeping up with the thread every 24 hours ish, but basically please don't panic if I don't reply to something for an extra day.
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Nov 23, 2017 20:57
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Caught up with emails and thread posts! Folks just an FYI: it's fine to send me tracking info or an email saying you've shipped if there's some action I need to take (like sending some info to your Santee); but otherwise, you just need to post that you've sent a gift in this here thread. It's not a big deal, just letting you guys know because a few of you are doing both, and one or two have sent emails without posting... my preference is to use the thread when possible. Thanks!
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Nov 24, 2017 20:21
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Pyrolocutus posted:Leper, check your email. I was a dumb-dumb and deleted my Santee's address during inbox cleaning. Replied
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Nov 25, 2017 09:03
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LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND 1 is CLOSED. Emails are sent out! We had four participants. LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND 2 is OPEN! Please keep in mind that with low participation you may have to ship internationally, and, you will have less time to get something shipped.
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Nov 27, 2017 02:13
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Caught up with emails and such.
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Nov 28, 2017 07:51
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Lichtenstein posted:I believe I have just received a gift from a kind Santa (the 0.5 kg Amazon one). I have almost forgotten I was supposed to wait until christmas eve to open it and so I caught a glimpse of something blue-ish! As a multi-gift-receiver, I requested your Santas to identify themselves either by SA username, or with a special Santa Number. In your case it should be a #1 or a #2. Can you please inspect your package, packing slip, etc. for one? Failing that, please email me with the name of the vendor, if it appears on the package, and I may be able to use that to identify your Santa. If I still can't, I'll need you to open the package sooner than Christmas eve. e. Oh hey Goons familiar with DTRPG: approximately how long do they typically take to print and mail a physical copy of a game book? I have a Santa who needs this info. In particular if you've used DTRPG to print & send a game during December, for delivery in time for Christmas, I'd love to hear from you.
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Nov 30, 2017 02:42
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Ugh. That is unacceptably late and slow. OK, thanks. e. Wait you mean they got it the 26th of November? I just realized you meant this year. That's a good turnaround.
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Nov 30, 2017 02:58
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fr0id posted:Also, here is my absolutely amazing secret Santa gift! Thank you, fellow goon, for the best board game I’ve ever gotten as a gift! Also for likely going above and beyond the price, which you totally didn’t have to. If you’d like, I’d be willing to donate the difference you paid above $30 to a charity of your choice. Oh man, I love that game! Sweet. For future reference, to post an imgur image inline, you have to use the URL that has an "i" in it: code:
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Dec 1, 2017 07:12
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Niemat posted:Since I just got paid today... do we have a lightning round going, Leperflesh? We do! However, it's been going since Sunday and nobody has entered it. So you're welcome to jump in! But at the current rate, it's possible it won't fill.
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Dec 2, 2017 07:04
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 23:57 |
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I had a busy weekend but I'm caught up on TGSS emails and posts. We're doing pretty well! So far only about 11 Santas haven't posted to say they've at least procured or shipped a gift; and 26 and two halfs gifts have been received. That's not bad for this point in the month, really. I'm proud of you guys.
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Dec 4, 2017 06:39
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