Good luck!
My DM no-showed a few weeks ago, the jerk.
Man! You can play if a player misses, but you gotta show up - or at least let people know if you're not going to make it.
My only window into this world is Stranger Things…
I actually think a D&D group from AH could be a lot of fun. I haven't played since college, but have a certificate around here somewhere from the old Tex-Con(Pax but a lot smaller, and a long time ago), at which me and my group emerged gloriously triumphant.
I played a lot starting shortly after college, maintaining the same group for about a decade until kids and careers broke us up. The poker playing friends in my original story are very closely based on that D&D group. Our DM from those days (Frank in the story) currently DM's (over zoom) for a group that includes my son and the kids of another one of our tight group (Tim in the story). Sadly, this new group only started after the real Tim had passed away.I actually think a D&D group from AH could be a lot of fun. I haven't played since college, but have a certificate around here somewhere from the old Tex-Con(Pax but a lot smaller, and a long time ago), at which me and my group emerged gloriously triumphant.
You made me snort coffee through my nose18th January
This ode is brought you by Nine
A member of Penny’s design
It’s size is a shock
And a girl with a cock
Is deserving of building a shrine
With apologies to @PennyThompson
Led by @ChloeTzang, we are trying to get our ducks in a row for 2026 competitions. Time flies during this part of the year, and before you know it, Valentine’s will be upon us. So, forget about gray skies and pouring rain, get your loved up stories ready for the Valentine’s Day Competition, which starts early January.
[dates will be revised if applicable]
You can begin submitting on (or before): January 10
The last day to submit is: February 6 at 11:59pm EST
Winners will be announced on: February 13
Here's the rules:
Author must copy and paste the phrase "VALENTINES DAY 2026" to the "Notes to Admin" field of the submission (quotes are not needed).
- All submissions must be stand-alone stories created for this contest theme.
- We will allow authors who have won in our monthly contests within the last 6 months to win in this special contest. However, if you have won a prize in one of the last two special contests, you are not eligible to win in this one. (I'm still going to enter, just because I'm that romantic)
- A story has only to accrue 25 votes to be eligible, rather than the 50 required for the monthly contest.
Again -- PLEASE do not forget to put the EXACT phrase "VALENTINES DAY 2026" IN THE "Notes to Admin" FIELD - NOT the description field or anywhere else.
Submissions must have a Valentine's Day theme: i.e. Cupid, soulmates lost and found, high quality chocolate gifting, etc. Be creative! Please don't just submit a normal story that just happens to contain red roses. That would not be in the spirit of the contest, and readers (aka voters) will likely punish you for your trickiness.
Bring your questions and comments here, we're all here to help each other!
[content liberally plagiarized from the 2025 announcement by @Duleigh - who will be running Halloween and Winter Holdiays next year]
UPDATE
Given @Eosphorus’s question below. You don’t have to set you story on Valentine’s. My entry last year spanned a year between two Valentine’s days. You could do a monster fucking romance in space. You can do an elf falling in love with a goblin in a parallel universe. But romance and Valentine’s adjacent stuff is required. Maybe in universe instead of chocolate and flowers you have pangalactic garglebalsters. You could have an enemies to lovers story set on Mount Olympus and featuring Cupid and a male demigod…
It's this one. The only caveat is that your have to have gotten at least 25(or maybe 50? I can't remember) votes in order to qualify to win.
Comps work on the same rating as any other story, the average of all the votes cast. I believe, that if they can’t separate two stories to three decimal places, then they might look at either number of views or votes, but that’s just based on me having read others taking about it.
50 was for the monthly comp when it was still running. It’s 25 for comps.
You have to have 25 people vote, any value to be in the running for a contest.
Some potentially fraudulent votes, it’s well established that you can avoid sweeps if you have a little basic knowledge.
And the people with that knowledge tend to hit me right out of the gate during every contest lol. I'd be annoyed if I wasn't sure they were hitting everyone.
It’s driven by insecurity. The knowledge that their work is inferior.
