TOPIC: Question on class selection policy - reserving cards

The lengthy forum discussion in regards to the 3rd level benefit brought to mind a question about another common scenario I see in pick up groups: one person reserving cards for friends who arrive later.

Is there an official policy on this? Nothing seems mentioned in the PHB, aside from the from statements that you choose your class, with the implication that class selection is one per person. But, it's fairly common to see one person arrive 30 minutes early and reserve classes for an entire group. Someone walking in even 25 minutes early may find a majority of classes already "taken" by people who arrive much later.

My guess is this isn't allowed under current rules. That said, it seems difficult to challenge "reserved" classes without coming across as a jerk and undermining party cohesion before the event even officially starts.

Any advice on how to deal with this situation?

It would be nice if the Coaches started the class selection process at the event start time (or whatever time is agreed to) and voided any "reservations" or selections of classes made before that, unless there was already unanimous consent.

I'm of two minds about this:

1. It's nice to have the cards out early so players can start to read / understand them.

2. It's obnoxious when someone is holding onto multiple cards - most people won't fight it they'll just take what's left.

3. In a perfect world the coach would take back all cards, give a brief spiel about character selection, and then let the party pick - but in practice this would eat up a lot of time.

I suspect the benefits of having the cards around early outweigh the costs.

Have not run into this before. I think I would challenge the not present player for a roll off of class. Since they are not present to roll, I'd then take the class card and say we can let the coach sort it out if necessary.

At present, you can't pre-reserve "officially" any class but if your group is coordinated (through the forums, for example), it is common for people to agree on classes before the training room. Officially, I don't believe the coach puts any selections into "concrete" until they are filling out the party card - once it goes into the party card, it is more or less set in stone (it could be changed but it's a jerk move to do it as it's a pain for everyone).

In the future, with e-ticketing - the concept could be extended to allow for vendors to have visibility into the e-ticket system that would give them visibility into who bought what. Based on that, they could create sites to allow for digital selection of classes, difficulty, etc to customize individual games and send email to the ticket holders to let them get everything set-up. Of course, that still assumes everyone responds within a group and understands what they are selecting (unlikely on both counts). The issue of tickets being dropped and changes would add another level of complexity to this. With all that said, it could be done and would be a great benefit to the overall experience.

Fred

It happens frequently. Normally it isn't a problem. I don't believe there is an official policy.

Most of the time if someone has reserved a card for their friend who is still coming and someone else wants it I just ask them to set that one aside until both parties are there to resolve who gets it.

In the event that I'm done with everyone else's stats and have made my way back around to the player wanting contested class who is present it normally just goes to them because the other guy didn't show up. If they show up after that they get whats left since everyone else is already recorded.

You cant reserve a class, even for yourself.

That said, i understand not wanting to cause conflict. BUT an important thing is to make your preference known. You dont have to approach it like you are challenging them, but let them know 'i prefer to play ranger, that is what i am best equipped for.' Maybe the other person is happy to play something else. Maybe they will start a discussion about which of you should switch (perhaps part of this is talking about other adventures that each of you will or wont get to play your class). OR if they are the ones who act like a jerk and refuse to give up the class, party cohesion was probably a lost cause anyway, so find someone official with TD to sort it out.

Thank you for the advice, all.

It seems like this situation happens more frequently than invoking the 3rd level benefit, which has received quite a bit of back and forth. I was fairly sure that reservations weren't official policy, but didn't want to add to the noise in the other thread.

kurtreznor wrote: That said, i understand not wanting to cause conflict. BUT an important thing is to make your preference known. You dont have to approach it like you are challenging them, but let them know 'i prefer to play ranger, that is what i am best equipped for.' Maybe the other person is happy to play something else. Maybe they will start a discussion about which of you should switch (perhaps part of this is talking about other adventures that each of you will or wont get to play your class). OR if they are the ones who act like a jerk and refuse to give up the class, party cohesion was probably a lost cause anyway, so find someone official with TD to sort it out.

In the instance I had this year at Gen Con, I did make my preference known, but I couldn't really have a discussion because the person who wanted the class wasn't there and didn't show up until significantly later. The friend who reserved the cards wasn't really in a position to discuss on the absent player's behalf.

By the time the absent player showed up, the coach was already getting the party card filled out, so there wasn't really a lot of time for discussion. I do appreciate the advice, though.

Marcques Domask wrote: I see in pick up groups: one person reserving cards for friends who arrive later....Is there an official policy on this?

no

Druegar wrote:

Marcques Domask wrote: I see in pick up groups: one person reserving cards for friends who arrive later....Is there an official policy on this?

no

Should there be?

Mike Steele wrote:

Druegar wrote:

Marcques Domask wrote: I see in pick up groups: one person reserving cards for friends who arrive later....Is there an official policy on this?

no

Should there be?

If anything I think the statement that there is no policy is a statement that there is no rule under which you are allowed to sit on character cards for classes you are not playing.

Did the ACs iin Epilogue receive any feedback regarding class selection?

Have we heard from any players under level 3 in any of these threads?

Have coaches had major issues around this? (For me, less than once a year over the last 6 years.)

Or are we chasing our tails?