“‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.”
The classic Christmas Eve poem rang out from every house as children and their parents the world over prepared for Christmas morning. Unfortunately, however, it seems that this Christmas our Jolly Old St. Nick might not “soon be there:” The big lug, it seems, had a bit too much Egg Nog last night in preparation for Christmas Eve and passed right out, leaving nobody to deliver presents to the children of the world. Nobody but a few intrepid adventurers, that is.
With Santa’s slurred blessing, a gang of courageous heroes has set up bases in the Northernmost corners of the world and readied themselves for a frantic present run. Will the children of the world get their presents? Will parents have to shovel out the cash to make up for Santa’s drunken revelry? Will Santa finally go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting like Mrs. Claus keeps asking him to do? The answer, friends, lies with you.
Rules:
Starting Out
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Each player picks one province in the extreme North of the map. This can be something like Northern Alaska, Siberia or Canada; the entirety of Greenland or Iceland; or, in true Christmas spirit, Lapland (Northern Finland, Sweden, and Norway). The player marks this province in his/her color of choice. Feel free to customize your “faction” in any way you like, but don’t bother making a diplomacy thread. The map is attached as always. Use the blank one! The red one will be explained later in the rules!
Delivering Presents
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Players then take turns picking one province at a time to deliver their presents to. Each time a province is picked it is marked in the color of the player who picked it so that the same province isn’t delivered to twice. This can be done, for all new players, by simply pasting the map into Paint, saving it as a .png file (MUST be a PNG, no JPEGs!), and uploading the finished product to the thread by attaching it in a post. Turns do not go in any particular order; you just have to wait for one person to claim a province before you can take a turn. Please also remember that you can only start in provinces adjacent to your home province and then gradually expand outward from there.
Upgrades
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Each player starts with a basic Santa Sled and Santa Bag. As you deliver to more provinces you can upgrade to more sophisticated equipment. REMEMBER: Upgrades are NOT accumulative!
5 provinces – Super bag: An extra large bag that allows you to carry more presents per haul, meaning that you can deliver to one additional province per turn.
10 provinces – Rudolf: Rudolf leads your sled team with his nose so bright, allowing you to deliver to two additional provinces per turn.
20 provinces – Cookie dispenser: A built-in cookie dispenser on your sled gives you the energy to deliver to three additional provinces per turn.
40 provinces – Reindeer chow: Specialized reindeer food that makes your beasts of burden move twice as fast and lets you deliver to four additional provinces per turn.
60 provinces – Cloaking device: A cloaking device on your sled disguises you when delivering in dangerous countries (more on those later), giving you a greater chance of not being caught.
80 provinces – Present cannon: A special cannon that fires a present directly down the chimney so you don’t even have to dismount, saving you enough time to visit five additional provinces per turn.
160 provinces – Rocket sled: An auxiliary rocket mounted on your sled takes some burden off of your reindeer while also increasing your speed, allowing you to visit six additional provinces per turn.
320 provinces – Teleporter: A teleporter mounted on your sled takes you directly from house to house, allowing you to visit seven additional provinces per turn.
Dangerous Countries
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
While most people couldn’t be happier on Christmas, there are a few, shall we say, anti-Santa countries that are just dying to see their younger citizens’ spirits crushed. These could be countries that oppress religion (and thus, would be opposed to anything regarding Christmas), countries that are locked in a state of civil war, or run-of-the-mill dictatorships. Deliveries to any province in a dangerous country will count as a delivery to three provinces in your total score, but there is also a 50/50 chance that you will be apprehended by local authorities. You will automatically escape after five turns, but those are five turns spent without delivering presents, allowing the competition to catch up! You can decrease your likelihood of capture to a 25% chance if you get the cloaking device, but there is still no guarantee. Is the risk worth the reward? Only you can decide. Dangerous countries are marked on the map below. Yes, this time it's the red one.
Winning
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The player who gets the most provinces by December 25th Christmas Morning (as in, whatever time Dan chooses to announce it, not the stroke of midnight or some silliness like that. Remember I have my own Christmas stuff to do ) earns not only the satisfaction of victory, but a special place in the IH Christmas comic and, to raise the stakes slightly, a +rep from every player involved including your humble host. Reppage will be done by the honor system, so please remember what time of year it is and don't be stingy.
Good luck to you all, and Merry Christmas!
Score Board
Holy Order of the Knights of Nikolaea (Aggy): 2
The Order of Wallace and St. Andrew (EB): 2
Elf Present Delivery Corporation (Eugene): 3
The Sami (Stig): 3
Black Peter Corps (Majonga): 2
"The Charming Inuit" Mail Company (Water): 2
Kip's Company Name Goes Here When He Makes One! (Kip): 1
Holy Pilgrims of St. Nicholas of Myra (Kaits): 2
Last edited by Dan the Man; December 22, 2011 at 04:01 PM.
Proudly under the patronage of The Holy Pilgrim, the holiest of pilgrims.
Originally Posted by Empereur Arthur XX, Pendragon
I'll take Greenland.
*One province in Greenland, not the whole island. I just meant that it could be any of them. Will you be making your own map by the way, or is this also a request for somebody to make it for you?
Proudly under the patronage of The Holy Pilgrim, the holiest of pilgrims.
Here's the map. Feel free to copy/paste it into a post with whatever customizations you want. Nothing about the CSA though please, this is a Christmas IH, not a historical/political one.
Proudly under the patronage of The Holy Pilgrim, the holiest of pilgrims.
Also, for avoidance of doubt, there will be a grace period from now until 3 PM (EST) tomorrow so that new players can sign up. In that time period you can only claim your first province, no others. That should keep it fair for incoming players, considering how quickly this could potentially take off if there's enough involvement.
Proudly under the patronage of The Holy Pilgrim, the holiest of pilgrims.
Founded by Saint Nikolai many years ago, we today uphold the tradition of gift-bringing and Christmas-celebrating, though we sometimes drop firebombs instead of gifts on communist countries and continental europe.
Gov: Theocracy
Religion: Christianity
Leader: Nikolai the Immortal Bringer of Things Nobody Needs
@Dan: Does that include the very first region?
Last edited by Agamemnon; December 20, 2011 at 08:56 PM.
History: Originally Boogeymen to English children and delivering bagpipes and claymores to Scottish children, the Order has had a change of heart after Santa found them to be particularly naughty. So Santa gave them a chance to repair their reputation by offering them the chance to deliver presents in Santa's absense, even if it means delivering presents to English kids.
Last edited by EmperorBatman999; December 20, 2011 at 09:02 PM.
Apparently the nine guests viewing this thread think so as well. Strange, every time I post a new thread it automatically gets swarmed by guests.
Either way, can I count on you joining?
Proudly under the patronage of The Holy Pilgrim, the holiest of pilgrims.
Apparently the nine guests viewing this thread think so as well. Strange, every time I post a new thread it automatically gets swarmed by guests.
Either way, can I count on you joining?
Would love to, but my laptop may be on its lasts legs and isn't functioning properly. I'm on my phone right now, which doesn't permit mspainting :/
Apparently the nine guests viewing this thread think so as well. Strange, every time I post a new thread it automatically gets swarmed by guests.
Either way, can I count on you joining?
Obviously, it's your magnetic charm and quick wits.
Or it's your shampoo.
Elf Present Delivery Corporation
Location: Somewhere in the middle of Siberia
Leader: The Council of the Elves Smarter Than You
History: A ragtag gang of elves who were tired of Santa's Workshop's unsanitary and unsafe working condition, low pay and blatant tax evasion by Santa, they packed camp and moved to Siberia to bring presents to little children and to try to usurp Santa's position as most beloved man on the planet...
Last edited by Jingo Eugene; December 21, 2011 at 10:54 AM.
Jingo Eugene
"A wise man in times of peace, will prepare for war. Peace is boring, and the wise man has nothing better to do with his time." -Anon
For hundreds of years, Black Peter was Santa Claus' closest servant and adviser. He traveled the world delivering presents in his name. Now however things have changed, Santa's alcoholism drove Black Peter from the Christmas Organisation and forced him underground. Since then Black Peter has been plotting his revenge and this Christmas-time is his chance. With Santa out of the picture. His new Christmas present delivery group the Black Peter Corps based in central Alaska, has the facilities and the backing to out-deliver Santa's remaining lackeys. The time of the fat jolly white man is over! It is time for Black Peter to rise!
Colour: (Should really be black but that was already taken) Dark Red Starting Location: Central Alaska Upgrades: None
Last edited by Majonga; December 21, 2011 at 04:44 AM.
"All warfare is based on deception. Hence: when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near." - Sun Tzu
The Christmas IH
(Kip): 1
Originally Posted by Empereur Arthur XX, Pendragon
