Due to the important occurrences in the month past, this final issue is serving two functions: To give you, the player, the necessary information to continue the Crystal Shores Saga with your character and lead you to the launching of the next step of Crystal Shores RPG Gaming and familiarize yourself with the new land and its features; also, for your character to come upon a copy of this, so they can truly understand it all, what happened, and perhaps ask why..everything is here, and if your character got hold of one of these, (examples of how they've obtained them to follow in articles in this issue) there's a very good chance he or she survived the catastrophic ruin. For the month of December, the final transitions will be made, giving you time to decide if you wish to continue, and directions on how to proceed through the transfer.

What Happened?
--ExiledGM

The entire story of just what happened; what led to the Isle's destruction and the devastation of the lives the Colonists led is brought to you in the Events Section. In this space, I would like to address "What Happened", behind the scenes.

Twenty months ago, in March 2001, Crystal Shores RPG was created. Its premise was that of a medieval, dice-based, play by chat with a comprehensive website and chatrooms on the RPGworlds server, #Pleasuredome and #Terrordome.

The island was discovered by a young cartographer, Lord Axalon Carazzi, who was sent in search of a new land as the home of his family was being stricken by walls of fire and torrential floodwaters. The journey led him to a tropical, seemingly uninhabited island..the rest is history.

Through the twenty months, many occurrences that would've closed a weaker game happened. Staff from another game would enter and flood our rooms with harrassment and spam; they were evicted from the server. Three other games stole some works from our website, and were taken to task for the thefts. During all of the nonsense, rising above all of the garbage, a player base was formed. What surprised me the most was that Crystal Shores provoked strong reactions. Either one loved it or loathed it...there seemingly is/was no grey area. The player base alone, nor the Crystal Shores GMs (who have given more of themselves than any RPG staff I've ever given witness to) should not have had to shoulder carrying Crystal Shores through the dwindling traffic on the server host, however, nor were we about to cater to the "lowest common denominator" (i.e., lowering our standards and allowing those with 'issues', such as godmoding, trolls, those looking to disrupt for no good reason, known troublemakers, etc.) in order to bring more traffic in. The decision was made to, simply, move on: End the Isle of Crystal Shores and move on to the next leg of our journey, as well as move to a new server with more activity.

While we will always appreciate our time at RPGworlds, we were left with little choice but to switch servers. We now leave the decision to our players to join us in our new environment, or retire with grace. While we wholeheartedly encourage our best and brightest coming with us, we do understand feelings of loyalty and familiarity of a server that's been 'home' for extended periods of time. **Also: We don't expect any on the 'new' server to resume their old codes of unethical conduct in our new room; consider that fair warning that said behavior will not be tolerated.

If you'd like to join us, please contact the Help Desk after reading this Edition of the Sandpaper, to find out more. I thank you.

You Can't Take It (All) With You
--ExiledGM

In case you were looking for more information before sending an email about what's in store for you in our next step, I'd like to take a moment and explain what is and what is not transferable to our new game. This is a basic list.

Your XP and GP ARE transferable within the Crystal Shores RPG Gaming Network. But much of your possessions aren't. What do I mean by this?

On the Events page, you will see some notations, such as 'leaving by ship' or 'leaving by dragonback.' At initial registration, you chose a means of transportation. Horses and wagons aren't a viable option to leave the Island. The horses would drown if they even made it to the water, and weren't caught in the lava. Alterio Carazzi the Second, arrogant bastard that he is, couldn't dismantle Carazzi Manor, stone by stone, and have it put back together where he ends up..even if he wanted to. Houses, Keeps, Manors...all real estate is left behind. It was destroyed when the Isle fell. (This is not to say that future quests might not have diving excursions.) Your land-based livestock, unless you have room for it on your vessel (remember..you chose your vessel, if in fact you chose a vessel at all), perishes as well. In other words, if you've got a ship that sleeps four, you can't have ten people plus three horses aboard. If you've got a ship that sleeps four and wish to try and cram seven aboard, that would be permissible upon review by a GM.

It's a matter of you, the player, going to your character sheet and looking at the items you've amassed on behalf of your character. Can you fit all of those cases of liquors AND your complete wardrobes AND your personal armory AND everything else? Or do you wish to take what you can carry, the clothes on your back and some food and water? Remember how ridiculous "Gilligan's Island" was, when these people were on a small ship for a three-hour tour, yet had endless wardrobes and comforts of home...