WINTER GATHER 2013 - Gathering Interest

[Dray]

(Watch this first post for changes once we get closer to the main event!)

Hey guys! I'm formally putting in my bid to run a winter gather this year -- but I plan on doing things like a mix between the Winter Gather and the Flurry of yore and I need your help.

I will be running the Winter Gather (in character) as an invitation from Winter King Gardava'in to other wintery dragons to party it up on his icy mountain palace, have a flight or two, and generally have some fun. There will be an RP-night component, a writing component, and an art component to this year's Gather, though each of these is far from mandatory!

When we have settled the Gather Night event, I will set up a form for sending in your dragon images (which will be distributed at an actual hatching (Flurry)/pickup page setup (Winter Gather) like in previous years. This year, I plan on putting together a 'clutching grounds' page with a jumble of egg images relating to the dragons inside -- if you would like to participate in that by sending in the egg-versions of your dragons, excellent! If you would not, but your creatures do come in some kind of egg-form early in their life cycle, I'd love a description so I can whip the images up. (For creatures to which eggs do not apply, either because they are live-born, or because they show up to the event as adults, that's totally fine. Those dragons will simply be a surprise that crops up on the pickup pages! Bam!)

A little after the call for submissions goes out, I am hoping to advertise the event to various interested parties (Tumblr, maybe if y'all at the Flight Rising forums think anyone would be interested in adoptables and writing and RP nights -- or if you know any artists who might like to contribute to the dragons and pets that will be given away, they might like to know about this, too!) I plan on making this giveaway accessible to everyone:

1) People can fill out the basic form requesting dragons. Once the pickup pages go out, they'll snag their dragons, or pets, or both (depending on what they prefer) and they don't have to write, draw or RP to get anything. They do, however, get put lower on the list if there are not enough dragons to evenly distribute, and they miss out on any of the hatching night shenanigans.
2) People who want to draw but don't want to participate in any writing or RP get preferential treatment if they also want dragons from the Gather: since they directly contributed to the dragons going out, I'll do my best to ensure that they get what they ask for.
3) People who participate by writing Novos (candidates) for the hatching night will get a special RP night all their own. If artists would like to run their own hatchings, we can arrange to have that happen, or I can moderate everything and leave it a surprise! (We'll need to ensure that you have a limit on what your Novo should be bonding. Any especially awesome dragons will be reserved for Novos with written story... speaking of which!)

If artists are interested in creating any 'specials' this year amongst the clutches, or random dragons and pets that they are sending in, the theme will be Winter Court. If you would like to create a special image for one dragon among many, or give it rare colouration, or just set it above the rest, there's a fairly comprehensive list of titles on wikipedia -- though note that King Gardava'in will not tolerate any full-grown dragons above the rank of Prince/Princess (hatchlings, on the other hand, are tolerable so long as they do not remain on his turf after the giveaway!)

This post will be updated as I put together the first Winter Gather page to be less wordy and more show-y, but I wanted to give lots and lots of leeway to people who might want to participate, since drawing all of this and (potentially!) writing up novos can be time consuming. The estimated dates for the first RP night (that is, the actual Gather) should be some time in November. The Hatching and Pickup should be some time in January or February, depending on interest and participation!

[ixris]

This. Sounds AWESOME! Will have to see if I can come up with something for any of these options. XD;

[StarFyre]

I like this idea, as I believe I expressed back when you first started talking about it. =P

[aireona93]

^ ^ Awesome, Dray!

[Dray]

What kind of timeline are you guys interested in seeing? I think I need to put reminders up so that they ping about a week before each bit of the event, or I'm liable to forget! XD

[ixris]

I admit, I am kind of confused by this question. Are you asking like, how long we'll need to write / draw / whatever? Orrrrr.....?

Sundays make me dumb. XD;

[Yulara]

I think this sounds like a lot of fun!

[Yakima]

Maybe I should contribute some wintery Kijana...like ones with rare horsie genes that make them look wintery. (like Z and W and...stuff).

[Dray]

Yes, definitely! I love my one Kijana. It'd be neat to see more!

[StarFyre]

Dude, if we're going to do this, shouldn't we... y'know... start soon? *shifty eyes*

[Dray]

I've got a few drawings down, but the RP part... I don't have more time to devote to it right now! If we can wait until December then that frees up the NaNo-space!

[StarFyre]

December is fine, I was just making sure people hadn't forgotten.

[Starburst]

(slinks in) If anybody's willing to roleplay an Asana hatch/bonding at this, I can whip up another special batch like the one from a couple of years back!

[StarFyre]

Ooh, ooh, i am!

[Shard]

I haven't done diddly for most of the last year in terms of art or rp, though I also didn't give out last year's (... still unfinished) dragons. I'd be happy to do *something*, around here.