Alright, let’s see if we can start this back up again!

So a while back on the Board, I think around 2015 or 2016, SkarmorySilver set up a sort of PPC Gift Exchange event that went on annually until… 2018, I think, before it just stopped. Anyways, I thought the event seemed interesting when I was reading some old Board posts, so I asked Skarm about it and now I’m making this.

For the most part, these rules are paraphrased from the 2018 rules found here, but I’ll write this out here too. Skarmory’s rule list is probably a bit cleaner in writing, though.

The Setup Bits:

1. Firstly, I guess those who want to participate should have PPC characters. As you do in the PPC. Permission is a plus, but if you want to join and you don’t have it, I don’t think too many folk will object. The more the merrier, and all.
2. Alright, directly quoting SkarmorySilver for this one: “Both Boarders and agents will be going in basically blind - meaning that nobody will know who sent what until all the gifts have been opened! Hence, in order to enter, send me an email (my address should be clickable) with your attending agents and which gift each will 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.” So, once you’ve sent the email, try and respond to this post so folk can know who’s participating. A “sent (nm)” should do for bare minimum at least, I think. If you want you can also list your Agents in the reply, but not the present submitted - that would be spoilers, after all!
3. I don’t know if there’s a set minimum or maximum persons limit for this, yet. I figured I’d just see how much interest there was in this before I decided, since any estimate would be subject to change.
4. If you have Permission and are participating, you can host the event - just ask in the email or Discord message you send. First come, first served, I believe the saying goes. A playing Agent should also be the host in-universe; the Exchange has to be held somewhere, after all. If no one wants to host the thing themself, that’s perfectly fine, though. It’s not mandatory or anything, and you shouldn’t feel obligated to offer if you don’t want to.

Event rules:

1. So once everything’s set up and it’s close enough to New Year’s time, it’s the job of the host to start up the introductory post to the thing. The most important rule of these postings is that no one should know what’s in the presents until they’ve been opened. In-universe, that is. Unless the character in question has x-ray vision, I guess. The gifts will all be wrapped up in the RP anyways.

And quoting Skarm for the rest of this:

1. Once I've tallied the full list, I'll provide a list of the players, and a list of the gifts, but not a list of who sent what. The starting player will then be selected at random. Then when that player opens a gift, the agent who submitted it must speak up and confirm that they were the one who did so. Then that agent is the next to play! Thus, in general, the person who will play during each turn is the one who volunteered the gift revealed during the previous turn.
2. For each turn, the agent currently in play can either choose a gift from the pile (I'll provide the full list of gifts, most likely through Google Spreadsheets or something similar) 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. Note also that if a gift is stolen from any agent, they can’t steal it back.
3. 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 everyone else has played.

Alright, here’s hoping this all works out this year. So if you want to join, shoot me an email (or message me on the Discord, I guess) and I’ll try to respond. And feel free to ask me any questions about the event in if you need clarification on anything. See ya!

-OrangeFox