Extra Life: Let's Raise Money for Sick Kids!

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We gamers have a chance to help sick kids on Saturday, November 7, by doing what we do best: playing games! Extra Life is a 24-hour video game marathon to raise money to help kids at Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. All the money raised for Extra Life will go directly to the Children's Miracle Network Hospital of your choice. I am playing for the Dell Children's Medical Center, located in Austin Texas (the home of Portalarium, and only a stones throw from their offices).

This year, I will be streaming Shroud of the Avatar live for 24-hours over on my Twitch.tv channel. I've asked the community to create as many events to show off the game as possible for that day, and hope that the list will continue to grow.

Now I'd like to ask all of you to help make this happen! Some of our community members have been generous enough to offer me some prize items to giveaway during the event, so everyone who donates will have a chance to win something! The list of prizes is in the next post, and will be given away every two hours, with grand prizes to be drawn at the end of the stream. I will contact all of the winners to get contact information.

If you are not content to just help me and want to start raising money for your local Children's Miracle Network hospital, you can! I've created a Team on Extra Life for anyone in the community to join. Team Reno Zephyr takes its name from the Words of Power that Richard revealed during the R19 Postmortem, and means "Healing Wind". And that is our goal, to bring health, life, and support to sick children like a breath of fresh air! You can help!

Join Reno Zephyr by signing up for Extra Life 2015 at http://www.extra-life.org/team/reno-zephyr

You can support me directly at http://www.extra-life.org/participant/browncoatjayson. You don't need to create an account or login to pledge, just click the Support Me button, select a donation amount, and fill in your information. Its helpful if you include your forum name in the message, but you can mark the message and donation as private if you only want me to see it. Once the pledge is confirmed, you will receive a tax receipt via email. Make sure you use a valid email address, so I can contact you for prizes and other announcements! (Thanks @Balec Fares deCani for pointing out how confusing this was!)

Thank you all for helping me heal sick kids, show off Shroud of the Avatar, and do great things!

 

Prizes
Thanks to our generous community, I am happy to announce that there will be a LOT of prizes available during this livestream!

There are three tiers of prizes available. The first will be drawn every two hours, and anyone who donates for me during the event is eligible to win.

• Add-On Store Credits in $5 (5), $10 (2), and $20 (2) denominations
• Steam keys for Kingdom (2), and RPG Maker: VX Ace Deluxe
• T-shirts (3), Beanies (2), Oracle Coins (2), Lord British/Darkstarr Challenge Coin, and a set of Lord British Pint Glasses, all from Relics by Rild

A second tier of prizes have a higher value, so only those who donate at least $25 will be eligible to win. These will be drawn at the end of the livestream.

• Steam keys for Fallen: A2P Protocol and a Shroud of the Avatar Adventurer pledge
• Four (4) Aether Vibration Amplifier Consoles, courtesy of Avatars Radio

The grand prizes are quite unique! The top three supporters will be announced at the end of the livestream, and will have their choice of prize! You can donate multiple times, and I will calculate your total if you want to compete for these excellent items.

• A signed Shroud of the Avatar: New Beginnings comic, with the one-of-a-kind original comic board used to create it, courtesy of Indi Martin and W.O. Billman II. This is a unique prize from a fabulous artist!
  
• A Custom Lego Mini-figure of your character, courtesy of Joseph Drasin. You will get to work with Joseph to make sure it matches your character. The last time this prize was offered, someone upgraded to a Duke pledge just to get it!
• A handcrafted ceramic mug decorated with Lord British's symbol, courtesy of Relics by Rild. Lord British himself has a pair of these mugs, but it has never been available for sale! You will be in exclusive company with this prize.

Prizes are limited to one per person. If you win a higher tier prize, I'll redraw a winner for an earlier prize. Thanks for understanding!

Thank you to everyone who donated prizes! The generosity and compassion of this community never fails to amaze me!

 

Calendar of Events
7:30 - 8:00 AM: Introduction
8:00 - 9:00 AM: Character Creation and the Tutorial
9:00 - 11:00 AM: Deck creation, skills tutorial, and game mechanics
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Church of the Dark Star with Amber Raine
12:00 - 2:00 PM: At the Bear Tavern
2:00 - 3:00 PM: Welcome Quest
3:00 - 4:00 PM: Gustball
4:00 - 5:00 PM: "The Shape of Things to Come" by the Caverns
5:00 - 6:00 PM: Avatars Radio Race
6:00 - 7:00 PM: Shardfall Free-for-All
7:00 - 8:00: Port Phoenix Social Night
8:00 - 9:30 PM: Vengeance 1-on-1 PVP Tournament
9:30 - 10:30 PM: Fishing with Winfield
10:30 - 11:00 PM: Journey to the Hidden Vale
11:00 PM - 1:00 AM: Dragonsmeet at the Hearth of Britannia
1:00 - 2:00 AM: Yo, Hometown Cribs
2:00 - 3:00 AM: Grand Tour
3:00 - 5:30 AM: Open Questing
5:30 - 7:30 AM: Explore Novia! with royalsexy
7:30 - 8:00 AM: Thank you and Signoff

(Many items listed come from the Avatars Circle Events calendar.)

Event Details
7:30 AM: Introduction
I'll start a bit early and discuss about what Extra Life is, talk about the Dell Children's Medical Center, explain what Shroud of the Avatar is, and give some background on how things will be done during the livestream.

8:00 AM: Character Creation and the Tutorial
I'll kick off the game by showing the introduction, walk through character creation and the available options so far, and begin the tutorial. I'll try to highlight some of the cool visuals in the Isle of Storms, then progress based on your vote as to what character class to pursue.

9:00 AM: Deck creation, skills tutorial, and game mechanics
We will meet up with Roper Docholiday and anyone else who wants to join us for some instruction in how to build a deck, how skills work, combat instruction, and more. This should be enough to get any new player up and running.

(We will take a break at 9:50 for a quick commercial and the first prize drawing!)

11:00 AM: Church of the Dark Star with Amber Raine
I'll travel to PaxLair's Church of the Dark Star, where we will simulcast Amber Raine's service from Avatars Radio while attending in person. Kazyn Phoenixfyre will follow her with his own thoughts. Their words are always motivational, and make you think.

(We will take a break at 11:50 for a quick commercial and a prize drawing!)

12:00 PM: At the Bear Tavern
I'll travel to the Bear Tavern and meet up with Lazarus for a Lunch with Laz, simulcast on NBNN. The folks at the Bear Tavern are going to show off some live music, have a game of name-that-tune, and we will all participate. Bring your lute!

(We will take a break at 1:50 for a quick commercial and a prize drawing!)

2:00 PM: Welcome Quest
Duke Gréagóir has a Welcome Quest just for us! We will take a whirlwind tour through Jade Valley and Sparrowfall.

3:00 PM: Gustball
Following the Welcome Quest, Bambino will be hosting a Gustball tournament in the town of Owl's Head. Get your teams together, dust off your gustball, and get ready to rumble!

(We will take a break at 3:50 for a quick commercial and a prize drawing!)

4:00 PM: "The Shape of Things to Come" by the Caverns
The Caverns is hosting a special game of The Shape of Things to Come, this time in the caverns of Neath. Teams will try to form shapes called out by the leader. Come one, come all, to this excellent game.

5:00 PM: Avatars Radio Race
Amber Raine and the DJs of Avatars Radio will build and sponsor a race through their incredible obstacle course! Let's see who will be the fastest time.

(We will take a break at 5:50 for a quick commercial and a prize drawing!)

6:00 PM: Shardfall Free-for-All
We will take to the Grunvald Shardfall for an every-man-for-himself free-for-all! Try out your deck in PvP combat against all comers. As you can see, I won't have a lot of time for skill building prior to this, but I encourage everyone to take part.

7:00 PM: Port Phoenix Social Night
We will travel to Port Phoenix, where Kazyn hosts a night of social interaction. This could be anything from music, to gustball, to dungeon runs; we will be surprised and see some great friends!

(We will take a break at 7:50 for a quick commercial and a prize drawing!)

8:00 PM: Vengeance 1-on-1 PVP Tournament
I'll head to Vengeance to enjoy Duke Violation's long-running PVP Tournaments. I mght even try my hand, although I don't expect to last long with all the skilled PVPers in town!

9:30 PM: Fishing with Winfield
I'll join Winfield with my trusty fishing pole, a stack of worms, and maybe my lute, and have a great time on the water. Come by and join us!

(We will take a break around 10:20 for a quick commercial and a prize drawing!)

10:30 PM: Journey to the Hidden Vale
I'll guide new players in how to access the Hidden Vale from Novia, and show off the island.

11:00 PM: Dragonsmeet at the Hearth of Britannia
Rustic Dragon and other Ultima Dragons will meet me at the Hearth of New Britannia in Kingsport, and in the Google Hangout, so we can have a Dragonsmeet! We talk about hot topics of the day, games of yesterday, and rabble about anything! And we will kick it off with the Space Bard's theme song,

(We will take a break at 12:50 for a quick commercial and a prize drawing!)

1:00 AM: Yo, Hometown Cribs
The island of Hometown is designed to show off the many housing options in Shroud of the Avatar. I'll head there, talk about a few of the home styles, and show off the excellent decorating talents of the community!

2:00 AM: Grand Tour
Despite the late hour, I'll attempt to recreate Envyco's walkthrough of this month's Grand Tour, probably ending badly. Anyone who still needs this month's Plague Doctor Mask is welcome to join in the attempt.

2:00 AM: Open Questing
Nothing specific is scheduled, so for the new few hours I'll travel to a few different locations, show off some excellent architecture, earn some experience, and likely die a lot. Anyone who wants to group is welcome!

(We will take breaks at 2:50 and 4:50 for quick commercials and a prize drawings!)

5:30 AM: Explore Novia!
We will meet royalsexy at the gates of Owl's Head and explore the wide world of Novia! Come out and have a great time taking in the sights.

7:30 AM: Thank you and Signoff
I'll finish off the event with drawings for remaining prizes, including some excellent physical items. As always, thank you to everyone who supported me, and anyone who watches this and picks up Shroud of the Avatar later to join me.

(I will be saving this stream locally and uploading it to YouTube when it is done. I'll likely break this up into 3-4 chucks of 6-8 hours each, so there may be times where Twitch gets temporarily interrupted. If you are interested in joining me on the stream, send me a PM and I'll send you a link to a Google Hangout!)

 

Has the final list of events been posted yet?

 

This sick kid has no money to donate due to rising medical bills...... But I have an idea for a display/event if needed. I can donate a few challenge coins and I bet an autograph or 2

 

It is still in progress, although most of the day on Saturday has been filled in. You can see the current list in this post; I'll copy it over here when its finalized.

I welcome anyone who wants to throw an event! I'll add it to the Events list if you choose a time to run it. You might also consider joining the team and raising funds, it's free to sign up and there is still two weeks left! If you would rather donate to my cause, prize donations are excellent motivators as well. Just PM me.

 

Throwing one idea out there...
How about a bachelor/bachelorette auction? Where the prize isn't a date but rather help with something?
That way people could be auctioned off with things like
"will decorate your lot for 3h"
"will take you on a tour through the underground of the Hidden Vale, from Owls Head to Ravensmoor without seeing the sky"
"will gather resources for you for 3h"
"me and my merry men will take you as far in chillblains as possible"
etc.

 

Love the idea! If we have a few people/groups willing to do that, we could offer those as prizes, and give the winners a choice of which they want in the order of their pledge.

Again, this could be something that those wanting to raise money as part of the team could offer for their own reward, but I'd be willing to manage it if no one else steps up. Just need to know who wants to volunteer their services!

 

Good idea. I've been wanting to do this for a few years now. But again this year I cannot join in (although it would be a great way to actually start playing the game). Shift change the same time as the event. Damn work... Always paying me on time to pay my bills but making me miss social activities

 

Ok, I've updated the prizes and added the calendar of events to the beginning of this post. I'll be working on getting confirmation for the events to lock it down yet this week, but if anyone has anything to add please let me know.

If all goes well, this might be in the Update this week! Thanks for helping me with this event, the SotA community is awesome!

 

I've been broke this week and I need to buy armor and garb for HoBLotH 3, but I plan on pledging to this next week.

 

Thanks! (I'm in the same boat, I'm saving for the UDIC Reunion in Disneyland...)

 

Steam is having a sale this weekend, and Shroud of the Avatar is 50% off. I'm thinking of picking up a key to give away (depending on finances).

 

Finally donated. It wasn't much, but at least it is something.

 

It's in the new Update! Thanks @dallas!

 

I just put up a poll; you can pick how I answer the questions and which tutorial I visit!

I've also fleshed out the Calendar of Events with descriptions of each. Please vote in the poll, and if you havn't donated yet, please do so! You can give as little or as much as you'd like.

• extra-life.org/participant/browncoatjayson

 

Thanks to everyone who has already donated! So far, I've raised over $200, and the Reno Zephyr team is over $300!

This community is awesome, and I know we can do even better. Please consider supporting me; even a little goes to a great cause. Don't forget, supporting me will also put you in the running for some prizes that will be given out during the livestream this Saturday!

 

I was able to help out a bit for this great cause. Good luck meeting your goal!

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks to the amazing support of our community, there are a ton of prizes that have been added. I've clarified the rules for winning, so please check your donation level. Thank you so much for your support!