You may have noticed over the last couple days that our site and social media have been pretty quiet. (Ok, maybe you haven’t, and that’s alright too. We won’t judge. Much.)

We’d love to chalk that up to simply us being lazy, or that we were away on some exciting vacation. We really would. But… we can’t.

We of the Cardboard Republic staff are located in the Greater Boston area, and the tragic events of the Boston Marathon on Monday have sort of rattled us. This was our backyard. We work in this region. We live in this region. We frequent Boston. We can describe the streets where it happened. In past years, we’ve been down along the route cheering people on. For us in New England, on Patriots Day, it’s a symbolic event for the true beginning of spring here. It’s our end of winter catharsis.

There’s over 50 miles of sidewalk for the Boston Marathon, and for people in the area, it’s hard to not know someone who was out celebrating the event on Monday. We had several friends and family out ourselves, including, as it turns out, folks in or around the blast areas not long beforehand. We’re relieved that no one in our circles was hurt, but that’s small comfort for the dozens upon dozens of people who have been seriously injured or killed. And it’s small comfort for a wounded city: our cultural center, our nexus to the larger world.

We were bewildered, as so many other people have been. The Marathon? Really? There is no agenda with the Boston Marathon. This is an inspirational event where people come from across the world, most on their days off work, so they can run past normal levels of exhaustion. For pride. For charity. For fun. I know gamers who won’t play a game more than an hour long because they won’t find it fun – and that involves a chair and soda. Then you have tens of thousands of complete strangers come to encourage you forward, regardless of your background, your religion, your politics. On their days off. For fun.

We’ll be resuming our normal activities at noon today, as to carry on. If you’ve ever met New Englanders, you’ll know we can be stubborn people – Boston especially so. The events of Monday won’t keep us down for long, and in the end the acts of savagery perpetrated will ultimately have the opposite intended effect. We’ll be back to talking about dice and meeples and stat modifiers in short order, rolling forward. We’d be remiss, however, if we didn’t suggest ways you could help.

Officials have set up a central site for donations to help those affected by this tragedy (because as sad as it is, scammers will take advantage of anything). You can find the link to The One Fund through this post, as well as through the main page for the time being. Additionally, the Boston Firefighters are taking donations for victims, and in a couple weeks we’re sure the Red Cross could benefit from some liquid assistance as well.

Thank you for your understanding in all this. We appreciate it. Now, game on.