Retiring DM's: HDM SummerBreeze, HDM Boo, DM Ink

[DM SummerBreeze]

I am sure you all know already that DM Ink was on their way out, today is his (Official, for now...) final day where he has officially retired. We all wish him the absolute best of luck and appreciate all of his contributions, his knowledge of the tools we use, his quirky, kind, and always amusing and fun demeanor were always present and incredibly fun.

It is also in this post, that with a heavy heart that I announce my own stepping down as both HDM, and DM overall. I have many reasons for this decision that I probably won't share here, but I will say that I think our current DM team is amazing and one of the best experiences I have had overall on this server, whether as a player or a DM. The things we did together, the comradery and the fun I had with this crew cannot be understated. I will sorely miss working with them once I officially and fully step out of my role and into an occasional player.

I am extremely greatful for the trust the community has given me over my time here and their many (many) votes of confidence that I have received and the conversations and things I have had with all of you and for what I could do to try and keep my ear to the ground for your sake. I wish all of you well and look forward to interacting with you playerside. With that I also chose to throw off the veil of anonymity for better or worse, so that those new friends I have made through this role can continue to keep in touch if they so desire. My player name in game, and on the forums is Rask, and my personal discord is: Elimination#8779

I also wanted you all to know that my stepping down has nothing to do with the playerbase, and I still hold the lot of you in high regard, regardless if our interactions were always positive or not, you've all earned something in my eyes through this experience.

I will be fully stepping down likely some time in October, and I will be using my remaining time to tie some final things up and finish any plots I have hanging around. I do not have an exact day set yet, but I wanted to give out at least a loose timeline here for all of you for transparency sake. It's only fair. Our lovely Rhifox will be taking over as Admin of the DM Screen Discord, along side DM Gixustrat and the admins.

HDM Boo has also made the decision to step back as well, though I will not speak for him and let him also have his piece here in this thread. I will only say that Boo was extremely helpful throughout my DM tenure, friendly, personable and a constant champion for our playerbase every step of the way.


<3

[DM Boo]

Echo'ing what Summerbreeze has already said here.

It's been a great experience being a HDM, and although it's had plenty of ups and downs, I wouldn't trade it for the world. It has taught me so many real-world applicable lessons during my 8 years on staff, and I am confident to say that it has made me a better person overall. It's been fantastic working within multiple DM teams over the years, and seeing the server change and grow, since joining as a ADM way back in 2013. I could not praise the brilliant HDM's I've worked beside during this time enough: Thank you Dialectic, Ditto, Theophanies, Chant, Dialectic again, and now SummerBreeze for your dedication and for helping the server grow. And of course it's been wonderful working with the literally hundreds of people who have interacted with me over that period, many of whom have become good friends or colleges. Thank you all for being pure awesome, and having a dream to make this place the best it could be. NWN has an awesome community, and although we have lost sight of it over the last few years, there's never been a community of more creative, talented, inspirational and dedicated people then we have here who care about this unique game.

Alas, this also means that I will never achieve my goal of seeing someone eventually picking DM Minsc as their name and co-DM'ing with them, but it is what it is.

A few of you might've known my plans to wind down and retire for a while now, and with the fact that the server will shortly be officially supporting an official discord channel I felt that now was a good a time as any to plan my retirement. I've strong feelings about the use of discord in a RP server and overall while I understand its merits, to me personally the cons outweigh the pro's of supporting such and I worry about the sort of culture it might foster, and the direction it may lead the server down overall. I could write so much more about this topic, but that is a discussion best left for another time.

Much in the same vein as SummerBreeze, I intend to finish off any on-going plotlines I have with you guys before stepping down as DM completely. You've all been patient and awesome over the last several months, so I wouldn't just bail on you now.

[DaloLorn]

... I'm thinking now is a very good time for me to come back. New tools to tinker with, enough spare time that I average half a FreeSpace campaign a day, a reported decrease in red tape, a scary drop in the DM population... Where do I sign back up?

[Steve]

Thank you for all your efforts and time given to the Server and the Community.

[Wolfrayne]

We all have to keep moving forward in life regardless of what happens, one can only hope you enjoyed the experience enough to say see you later and not goodbye forever! Thanks for all your hard work, it aint easy but you made it work! good luck with whatever you decide to do next!