RP Team Changes!

[Mallory]

Hey everyone! I have a few big changes to announce for our Roleplay Team.

I will be stepping down as Roleplay Coordinator, effective in the coming weeks as I transition out of this and my Board role. It's been five years(!) since I took on a version of this role to reboot the hosting program, develop settings, and provide support for community events and playables. I'm grateful that I was given the chance to work on all of these things and more, and to all of you who have planned, plotted, and played with me.

The players of Morgan LaFey and Anya de la Rose will also be stepping down from their roles as Assistant Coordinators in the near future. They have done incredible work with hosting, event planning, our calendar, and being supportive and welcoming to our new players. Thank you both for helping me over the last two and a half(!) years and beyond.

The player of Ebon Ilnaren (and Tenball, and Eregor, and very many others) will be taking on the role of Roleplay Coordinator. He has an amazing talent for hosting and inclusivity, and I am confident that his generous attitude and abundant creativity will serve him well.

Congratulations, Ebon!

[Royal]

Thanks for all the hard work. Mallory with helping with the transition from the old site and curating activity throughout the current, and Anya and Gu being the transfusion of new blood that brought fresh life to the community. I'm not lying when I say your presence will be missed but I look forward to seeing a more relaxed and carefree experience for all of you as you step down from the role of staff and into the realm of community member once more and I'm happy to see Ebon continue on the legacy you all created.

[Bailey Raptis]

This is not meant to shortchange the work that everyone did years and years ago, when we all jumped into the unknown and made the transition from Rings of Honor to Rhydin.org, but I feel confident in saying that your work during the transition was important in making it the success that it was. You've been endlessly creative with your ideas for live roleplaying events, settings for live RP, trivia nights at the Golden Perch, hosted shifts and called challenges. You've welcomed numerous new players to this site who never experienced the old days of FlashChat or the old Dragonsmark forums, who may very well have never even set foot (virtually speaking) in the Red Dragon Inn on AOL, or AOL period. You were always generous with your RP, always trying to welcome in new players and new characters, even when it was outside of hosted shifts. Your fingerprints are all over this setting and this site, and will be for some time, even if you are not in a leadership role anymore.

We'll all miss having that oversight, but I (somewhat selfishly) hope that you are still able to give some of that creative energy and spirit to this site and to RP as your time and desire allows.

Now go ahead and take a break, you've more than earned it.

[Josette Wheeler]

Almost all of the events I’ve most enjoyed the most over the past few years have had one of these amazing creative brains attached to them! I don’t know how to properly thank you all for all the time, patience, passion, personal sacrifice, sleepless nights, and seemingly endless well of creativity you have all provided. It is deeply appreciated and I hope you all keep creating for many years to come! I look forward to seeing what’s next for all of you in the future!

[XRusty ButtonsX]

Thank you all, for all that you have done and all of your time and energies in paving groundwork where we can play and flex our creative minds. It's a wonderful space that I dearly enjoy.
<3

[KhaoticBliss]

I had largely stepped away from this community by the time the exquisite efforts of Morgan and Anya came to fruition, but what little I've participated here since then has always included the pair of them and I've enjoyed their welcome, friendliness, willingness to jump in and collaborate more than I can say. Y'all are a powerhouse and I love you and all the efforts you've tirelessly put in to this hobby that all of us love.

And Mall -- Mall you are an absolute *beast* at putting together complex story lines in which everyone can find room to participate and I'm so, so glad that I know you and that I've gotten to play such interesting archs with you over the years.

All three of you have earned a rest, but I want to thank you from the bottom of my weird little writer heart for all you've done for the community. You have made all the difference. <3

[Tippletoe]

Mallory's player was one of the first people to welcome me when I jumped back into this community in 2018. Mallory trained me how to host, how to call, and then invited me onto the RP team where we plotted shenanigans until I moved over to DoS. I had the privilege of serving with Mallory on the Board for a short time.

Y'all, Mallory's player works so hard for this community. This site, this community, as it exists today owes a lot Mal. I have, and continue to, learn a lot from them.

Anya and Morgan's players have put in hours and hours behind the scenes to beautify our community. One example, the several RP rooms that we have to play in are a direct result of their brainstorming, advocacy, and efforts. They have hosted events, supported other peoples events, and have grown so much over the past several years.

RP can be a really difficult role to navigate, and it can sometimes be a thankless role; we have lots of interests and ideas to balance and days or weeks of work goes on behind the scenes before something actually comes to fruition -- often after many iterations and feedback. The three of you have been amazing, and I hope we continue to see your efforts and leadership in some capacity when you're ready.

Ebon/Tenball/Eregor -- you have been awesome dual-wielding DoS and RP, and I am excited to see what you do as the Roleplay Head Coordinator. You have my support so please reach out if I can help with anything.

-A

[PrlUnicorn]

I feel somewhat blindsided by this announcement and am at something of a loss for words. NGL, it took me back a few years to Lady Helix's departure from DoS when others left at the same time. Like you, Mal, she was a hard worker that gave a great deal of her time and energy to give others a better place to play.

Thank you for all your efforts from welcoming people to taking on the often grinding and underappreciated task of running a weekly shift. You've worn many hats!

That said, I wish you, Anya, and Morgan the best in your retirement from staff.

C.
--------------
Ebon,

Congratulations on the promotion! I'm looking forward to seeing what all you cook up. Let me know if I can be of any help.

C.

[Amaris]

Thank you all that are stepping down for all the hard work you did.

[BardGallant]

Thank you for helping build a stable environment for us all to play in and keeping it alive throughout the years, Mallory. Your contributions will be long remembered. Enjoy your well deserved rest from the leadership role you volunteered for and stuck with for so long. Wishing you all only the best, and looking forward to continuing to support the legacy you're leaving behind. May the future of this community continue to thrive under the leadership of Ebon and whoever is chosen to fill the hole being left behind on the Board. Long live FFRP!

[Isaac Wheeler]

I think everyone on this site knows exactly who is responsible for making it what it is today.

Thank you to Mallory, Anya and Morgan for continuing to be inclusive players and amazing story tellers. Hope y’all will continue to create.

[Jaycy Ashleana]

I don’t really want to be part of an RoD that doesn’t have the three of you. I’m not saying this to get you to change your mind, or stay, or anything like that. Rather, I’m saying it to illustrate what an impact you three have had on my experience here.

Mal, I’ve only known you as staff and a Board member; time and again as I’ve worked with you I’ve seen your love, your care, and your tears for this community. You have always had the betterment of RoD in mind with everything you did. Not only that but you have been generally fair, and empathetic, and have been one of the most welcoming players, IC and OOC, of new/returning/continuing blood. As well, your creativity knew no bounds - people could give the smallest prompt and you’d be off with an event or a story and it was simply incredible to watch.

Anya and Mo, you two are also amazing, both as players and as people. The settings y’all created for players (based on feedback or otherwise) are rich and inviting with all kinds of little play hooks. As well, you two have been on the front lines in helping people and including them and, with Mal and the RP team overall, have done superb work. DoF team knew how good you were from the very beginning; we wanted you for our own but we were just too slow and RP team got to you first (and that didn’t stop me from asking if we could share you!). However, looking back, with all the things you did here it’s better that you were in RP team (even though I still wish we could have had you too!).

The three of you are some of the most helpful, inclusive, and all around good people in RoD, and we are worse off with your leave-taking. I hope you continue to play in RoD and we can at least watch your stories continue, but if not… you have more than earned a rest. You will be sorely missed.

Good luck with life, and everything. Y’all deserve the best.

——
Ebon,

You’re pretty darn cool too. I look forward to seeing what you do.

[Claire Gallows]

I've been on a much needed break from All The Things as of late, so excuse me for being late to the party.

But let me start with Mal,

I won't mince words; our community in its current iteration would not exist without you. As a part of the original transition team when everything happened back in 2018, I was privileged to work alongside you in sculpting a vision for the longevity of our community in hopes of not seeing it fall apart and fracture, as it could have done like times before when AOL decided to do AOL things and all that. Our foundation is you. The others too, but you as a face, as a name, as a tireless force that constantly worked to create and build and grow this place to what it is today. We were at a tipping point in 2018 when you stepped up to the plate. But needless to say, you knocked it out of the park.

It wasn't always easy. In fact, it was really fucking hard sometimes. Frustrating and thankless and all the things that have chased good volunteers off in the past. It's easy to let stuff like that jade you, gods know it jaded me during my time as DoM Coord. It can ruin your fun and ruin your desire to even be around because sometimes it would simply be easier to walk away and go do other fun things that don't feel like pulling teeth without novacaine.

But you didn't do that. You took the hard road because you were at the forefront, leading the way.

My hope for you is that you are able to get back to enjoying your time here (or where ever you elect to spend it) and that your energy can go into purely selfish creative endeavors. Writing for the sake of writing, focusing on characters that have been neglected or shelved because you just didn't have the oomph to keep up with them after everything else was spent on this place. I hope you don't go anywhere, but I do hope you get a break in and that if you do find that you wish to move on to other things, that you always keep your kindness and willingness to look at the big picture.

There are no perfect coordinators, but you, my friend, have set a high bar for those that follow. Thank you. What you built will endure and I hope that everyone recognizes your part in it.

--

Anya & Morgan,

My words won't be quite so eloquent as they were for Mal, but not for lack of your contributions to this place. I'm lumping the two of you together, just since you both came in around the same time and are departing around the same time. But I recognize both of your individual contributions and the different strengths you both brought to the role. As I mentioned above, being a coord in any capacity is a tiresome, thankless position. People don't stop to think that these volunteers are giving up their time, energy, effort, ideas, engagement, and everything else, so that everyone can enjoy their time. You were brought into the fold for your penchant for fun, engaging ideas that encouraged cooperative roleplay across a spread of players. You managed to do that even in the face of negative feedback and some downright incorrect criticism. You kept at it even when it was hard, much like Mal did. You both brought innovative, fresh ideas to the plate to break the doldrums of the "same shit, different day" routine that had been in place for so long. I appreciate your creative efforts, your continued attempts at inclusion, and your perseverance. I don't want this to tip into the negative, but I recognize that the behind the scenes dynamics can definitely make all of those things difficult. I see you, I appreciate you both.

My hope for you both is the same as for Mal. That you get to enjoy your time and create cool things and have fun around here or where ever you might be. I look forward to your creations, if we're so lucky as to get to share in them with you, even as observers.

--

And Ebon,

Don't read all that stuff above, or if you do, don't let it shade your perspective going into this. You're not fresh to the game, but I do hope you still get an opportunity to bring your fresh perspective to things so that you can shape the next chapter of our Roleplay Team. Don't spread yourself too thin, be sure to take time away for breaks, and surround yourself with a team of helpful, supportive assistant sorts. Be ready for a challenge, because that's what it'll be. But they wouldn't have brought you up to this role if we didn't all think you were 110% capable of handling it.

Wishing you the best of luck.



-Claire et al

[Partly Cloudy]

I realize I’m very late to the party here. Life has not been kind to me recently and time has gotten away from me because of it, so please excuse my tardiness.

Thank you, Mallory, for all of the hard work you’ve put into ensuring that our community has remained stable and alive. Five years is a huge commitment to something like that, and I am grateful for the time, energy, and care you’ve put into things. Thank you.

Anya and Gu, thank you for all of the time, energy, and care you’ve put into the community over the past few years, too.

I wish the best for all of you and hope your well-deserved rest refreshes you physically and creatively.

- - - - - - - - - -

Congratulations on your promotion, Ebon. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us all. Please let me know if I can be of any help to you.

[Ebon Ilnaren]

I knew I forgot to post somewhere! I'd said this to them all privately, but still, I wanted to leave a few public words as well. Not a lot, but some.

Thank you to Mallory for bringing me into the RP team three years ago, for encouraging ideas and working to make this a more vibrant world in which we can all play. You've supported RP ideas and events both from within your team and from without. I'm not going to try and do the job your way, because I'm not you, but you have been and will be an example for me. I just hope that, in doing things my way, I make you proud.

Anya and Morgan, you have both been wonderful sounding boards and, at times, devious co-conspirators! We've bounced crazy ideas and schemes off of each other, and it's been a wild ride! Thank you for letting us take that ride together!

You have been and always shall be my friends!

Thank you!
Ebon & Co.