Hey, remember last January, when I did the first ever PPC New Years' Gift Exchange? I think it's about time that we do it again!
The original post for the 2015 Gift Exchange can be found here, including the rules both for admission and how to play. This time around, though, I'm thinking of a few change-ups as far as rules are concerned.
For one thing, since I'm moving early this month, I'm not sure if I'll have the time to moderate this event by myself, so I was wondering if someone else could volunteer to co-host this event with me this year (in-universe, that means two agents co-host the event - one to moderate the shenanigans and one to keep track of the gift transfer). I'll still contribute by maintaining the spreadsheet that has all the gifts sent in, the number order, and records of who ultimately gets what. If any of you have agents who are willing to volunteer, let me know in a reply to this post!
As for the general rules for this event, they are as follows, copypasted (mostly) from the 2015 Gift Exchange setup post:
ADMISSION AND SETUP:
1. You need to have Permission and at least two agents to enter this event.
2. In a reply to this post, list each of your attending agent teams and one gift for each team member to bring. This may be either a "souvenir" from a mission you've published previously, or just something they happen to have that they want to give away.
3. I will take four or five other Boarders for this year's event, so the first five Boarders to submit applications will be the ones attending it.
NEW ADDENDUM FOR 2016: Since this event went over so well last year, I'll bump up the number of attending Boarders to six or seven. Additionally, if you have multiple agent teams active, any one of them can participate.
4. For future events like this, anyone with Permission can host this event. One of their agents must serve as an in-universe host for this event; any other agents in the host's team are to participate as players.
EVENT RULES:
5. I will set up an introductory post on the Message Board for this event, with a full guest list for all attending. The most important rule: NOBODY MUST KNOW WHAT THE GIFTS ARE UNTIL THEY'VE OPENED THEM. Surprise is the driving factor here! This means that all of the gifts are wrapped and put in a big pile at the start of the game.
6. Once I've tallied the full list, each player will get a random number, with the range depending on how many players there are. The agents must play in that order via replies to the starting post.
7. The agent currently in play can either choose a gift from the pile (I'll provide the full list of gifts on the Posting Board) or, if others before them have already chosen gifts, they can "steal" a gift from the previous owner. A gift can be stolen up to twice; after that, it is locked to the agent it's ended up with, and cannot be stolen again.
NEW ADDENDUM FOR 2016: If a gift is stolen from any agent, THEY CANNOT STEAL IT BACK. This was actually a bit of a contention point in the Real-Life gift exchange I attended yesterday evening, so I thought I'd make it clear as day for this one!
8. The game ends once everyone has received a gift. Since the first agent cannot steal, he/she will be given the choice to steal after this. The host cannot steal.
That should be it, I think. Let's get things rolling once more, everyone!
