Welcome! Welcome! Thrice welcome!
Sil (@Goostradamus), the Right and Horrible Gøøs(e)tradamus, Fuin (@Fuin Elda) of the 3 racoons and I, your humble chronicler, proudly present the NuPlaza ARPYS!
What’s an ARPY precioussss? We have no memory of this place...
Worry not, dear reader(s), your humble chronicler is here to assist. Adhering to the rules of The Historian’s Craft, the humble chronicler attaches or in this case links the primary source: Fuin’s text about the ARPYS. In essence, the ARPYS are the Oscars of the RP world.
Armed with this knowledge let us now go forth now and acknowledge the greatness of our creations from the long year of 2020, and see how the NuPlaza ARPYS are going to function.
NuPlaza ARPYS – a comprehensive guide
In the spirit of democracy and openness of the NuPlaza, the above-mentioned triumvirate has decided that the NuARPYS are going to be chosen by you dear reader(s).
So what exactly do I need to do, I hear you ask. It is a (relatively) simple task. Remember that awesome character you or somebody else created, or a fascinating collaborative story arc? That superbly written post in lore, or that breathtaking artwork in the CoLP you saw? Go through the forums or fora (whichever term you prefer) and find the posts that were written by December 31st 2020 that you would like to nominate for the ARPY award in the following categories (more on those below) and send your nomination(s) to the ARPY e-mail with a link to the post.
Important chronicler’s note on the marginalia: Works that are considered for the nominations are the ones written by the 31st December 2020. You are not obliged to find nominations for every category, you can send one or as many as you like. Also, you can nominate your own work for an award in a selected category – go for it! You worked hard on it!
The categories (and a brief explanation) for the 2020 NuPlaza ARPYS
Best OP Post – the opening post of a thread that got you excited and thinking “Yes! I need to be a part of this! Lemme find a character real quick...”
Best Dramatic Post – we all love a good drama *hauls popcorn*
Best Comedic Post – it ain’t easy being funny dear reader, but we try very, very hard to make you laugh and entertain you
Best Character – any being, plant, animal, object… Everything goes
Best Historical/Canon Character – regardless if they major or minor canon characters or what age they belong to, portraying them is nerve-racking, but when one does a good job it’s very rewarding. You might even get an ARPY nomination/award!
Best RPr – the creative behind the character(s)/story we salute you
Best Small Collaboration (up to 3 people) – small creative collaborative projects also deserve love from us as much as the people who are collabing like doing it
Best GM – give the GMs some love, they work very hard and try their best to entertain you
Best Game – it’s all fun and games until the GM rolls the dice and suddenly you’re surrounded by cave trolls with pitchforks and sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead and now what ya gonna do
Best RPG – as the saying goes: does what it says on the tin with one caveat: the RPG you are nominating for this category has to be an RPG that finished by December 31st 2020.
Best Lore Post – funny or serious, it matters not. Everything goes.
Best Original Artwork – illustrations, paintings, drawings, photography, artistic work that is not-textual… You get the gist of it.
Best Original Poetry– to quote the great Dead Poets Society “We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race.”
Voting and timelines for the ARPY nominations
It’s simple and easy, and I’ve even created a template (mainly because your chronicler is a wannabe Euro-bureaucrat who loves a good template more than Hobbits love their second breakfast) so you can c/p if you don’t want to think about it.
e-mail your nominations to plazaarpys [at] gmail [dot] com (remove and merge as necessary), write the category you are nominating for and include the link to the post. Rinse and repeat until finished. See nice and uncomplicated.
The aforementioned template:
To: plazaarpys [at] gmail [dot] com (remove and merge as necessary)
Subject: ARPY nominations
Category + link to the post (Rinse and repeat until finished).
You have until the 16th of February 2021, Plaza time, to send in your nominations. Then the triumvirate will withdraw into conclave and will go through your nominations (you thought award processes don’t include bureaucracy? Sweet summer children…) Once the triumvirate triumphantly emerges from the conclave (white smoke rises from the ARPY building…) we will post the nominations and we will, once again, ask you to submit your votes for the ARPY categories. Dates and times for the second part of this process will be finalised after the nominations are in.
That’s it! Go forth and nominate!
PHASE II - VOTING
The instructions regarding the voting phase are simple. In separate posts, the Triumvirate provides:
1. information regarding nominees
2. instructions on how to vote
3. link to the post that was nominated
4. a small extract from the nominated post {in addition to the optional commentary from the member of the Triumvirate, usually yours truly }
To vote, you have to click on the Google poll provided with every post, insert your Plaza username in the provided space and pick your favourite from the category.
PHASE III - AWARD & PARTY TIME
List of canon characters appearing at the ARPY ceremony
Ercassie - Maeglin’s evil dead spirit
Frost - Ungoliath and Shelob
Lailyn - Merry & Quickbeam
Moriel - Tilion
Nessa - Pippin
Tharmáras - Fëanor's fëa, Manwë, Elrond, Aragorn, Eowyn and Galadriel.