TOPIC: Technology + Analytics?

jedibcg wrote:
TLDR: Idea is not invalid, just unnecessary today.

Yep, this has been discussed a few times before and it comes down to the same issues. Paper is faster and technology will not help the vast majority of people.

Probably the best way to implement technology in the future would be to RFID the chips. A mass reader could read an entire build in less than a second. The biggest issue with that is dealing with older tokens that would not have an RFID tag. The second biggest (although for Jeff it would probably be the biggest issue) would be the cost increase of each token.

Re: paper - one $300 tablet is going to pay for what, 3000 paper party cards? I'm guessing that's five or six years worth. And you can't eliminate the paper because, as everyone in IT will tell you, systems go down. You need a backup system, like paper. So even if you got the first 40 tablets for free, and only have to replace two tablets per decade, and if you assume the setup, configuration, and maintenance of the hardware and software are all totally free, then no, even then the tablets never pay for themselves. Ever.

Re: consistency - we also know that any interesting software is NEVER 100% bug-free. Forumites are constantly finding errors in the various character builders, and those are relatively simple compared to an active party management system. Something like that will likely be "consistent," but sometimes consistently wrong.

But, I agree with you, Jedi. It's not a bad idea in general. At this stage of TD's life, the game is just not worth the candle, for a lot of reasons.

From my experience the app is great but it would not be timely enough to outfit 12 people in 24 minutes. The user interface isn't bad but it does take time to put in a character and hit calculate.

I would instead suggest that people push the app to the players and not try and focus this improvement to TD. Most people have smart phones, and if they know about the app (We mention it now in each TD101) and get it they will have the time outside of the equipment room to play with it and to set their character up sans the 10 pack they get at the checkin. Once they get the 10 pack it is easy for them to update their character if they have new tokens they want to use.

Reward the players with a small bonus +1 HP isn't game breaking, and is a good thank you for helping. Each person that has his character ready saves the coaches minutes...