TOPIC: 2019 Volunteer & Other Special Token Suggestions

James J Krot wrote: I would love to see a Charm of Charisma at some point.

Why? You'd trade a charm slot for a second figurine?

Matthew Hayward wrote: The str/dex/con cycle is a bit of a snooze fest for me.

I like the ideas mentioned above like a +1/2 focus charm, and or a +1/2 saves charm.

Completely agreed. Focus charms would be a great way to break the cycle while being desirable to encourage volunteering.

Or how about a slotless vol token with a cool effect?

I know the price increase has been an issue. I didn't do N3, and a big reason was the cost (I was the N3 AC, so I had seen everything and knew all the puzzles). Gave me ore to spend on boardgames! My regret is that this will knock me way down on the list of top players.

But as far as the price goes, I like to think about how the experience compares to other things: I went to the Hollywood Bowl this week, for a screening of Star Wars: A New Hope with the LA Philharmonic playing all the music live. That was like $75 a ticket. A Broadway show can be hundreds more.

I hope the next price increase isn't too onerous.

Wade Schwendemann wrote: Does the +1/+2 Focus charm have enough of a need that it will help drive volunteers?

I think whatever we do needs to help increase volunteer rolls.

Or an ioun stone, bead, or heck even a belt.

Picc wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote: Encouraging vets to buy out tickets because they can subsidize their tickets squeezes out the newbies who can’t. And without newbies, token sales and TD withers and dies.

I think this is where we differ.I don't actually believe that newbies are being squeezed out or that vets are buying out runs because treasure is such an attractive value proposition. At least not yet, not at gencon anyway. GHC rarely sells out, and while I cant speak for Origins or Pax having never been to either of those I imagine its the same. From my experence a fairly large number of the people coming through my coaching room every year are new anyway.

I can only speak for me, and since I am TD Vet and have access to all the TE's for max treasure I can tell you I have consistently bought less and less runs at GC over the last 3 years. I didn't even run N3 there. I am only planning on doing a few runs at the other cons as well. I would be interested in hearing from other TD Vets to see if their ticket buying trends have changed.

Regardless, I think the volunteer token should be significant (not necessarily a TE) and I would suggest there be than 1 for a year to keep the supply lower and encourage more volunteering.

Ed

I only ran two Dungeons at GenCon. I subsidized my Son's group (the poor college students) again. But I'm not sure I will do so again next year.

I ran N1 twice at Origins and will run N2 and N3 again at Gamehole Con.

So if we are running less at GenCon and tickets still sell out, there must be new demand.

I too am hoping for a very modest increase in ticket prices next year.


I'm actually ok with the the Dex and Con Charms. I have to clear some Ioun Stone slots for the next two nuggets.

MasterED wrote: Regardless, I think the volunteer token should be significant (not necessarily a TE)...

Agree 100

I thought it was bad a few years ago when they upped the price to above $50. Now that it's at $78, that feels unsustainable.

IMHO, the main problem is that the extra price is for fancy sets and animatronics that the "haunted house" crowd loves. For those that love the game and are fine with using our imagination, we would prefer the older, cheaper price with the less fancy dressings.

bpsymington wrote: I know the price increase has been an issue. I didn't do N3, and a big reason was the cost (I was the N3 AC, so I had seen everything and knew all the puzzles). Gave me ore to spend on boardgames! My regret is that this will knock me way down on the list of top players.

But as far as the price goes, I like to think about how the experience compares to other things: I went to the Hollywood Bowl this week, for a screening of Star Wars: A New Hope with the LA Philharmonic playing all the music live. That was like $75 a ticket. A Broadway show can be hundreds more.

I hope the next price increase isn't too onerous.

Ha! Maybe the price should go higher to weed out some more top players on the XP charts!

MasterED wrote:

Picc wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote: Encouraging vets to buy out tickets because they can subsidize their tickets squeezes out the newbies who can’t. And without newbies, token sales and TD withers and dies.

I think this is where we differ.I don't actually believe that newbies are being squeezed out or that vets are buying out runs because treasure is such an attractive value proposition. At least not yet, not at gencon anyway. GHC rarely sells out, and while I cant speak for Origins or Pax having never been to either of those I imagine its the same. From my experence a fairly large number of the people coming through my coaching room every year are new anyway.

I can only speak for me, and since I am TD Vet and have access to all the TE's for max treasure I can tell you I have consistently bought less and less runs at GC over the last 3 years. I didn't even run N3 there. I am only planning on doing a few runs at the other cons as well. I would be interested in hearing from other TD Vets to see if their ticket buying trends have changed.

Regardless, I think the volunteer token should be significant (not necessarily a TE) and I would suggest there be than 1 for a year to keep the supply lower and encourage more volunteering.

Ed

Volunteer tokens need a massive overhaul.

With more and more cons, that is exhausting the volunteer base while also significantly increasing the supply of volunteer tokens (which decreases value and floods the market).

In addition, there is minimal benefit to volunteering at multiple cons since you just get the same volunteer token.

If anything, there is actually a DISINCENTIVE towards doing a lot of cons. Due to TD's new policy, if you do more than 2 or 3 cons, your stipend total reaches the point where TD will report your stipend as income.

Furthermore, do you really need 3 or 4 of the same volunteer token? I think I have like 3 or 4 Tanzanite Cubes. Yippee....

If you want to incentivize more volunteering, there should be higher tiers of volunteer tokens for those that volunteer at multiple cons. Say a Relic level and Legendary level that you can get if you do like 2 or 3 or 4 of the cons.

A Broadway show can be hundreds

No one I know goes to six Broadway shows a weekend.

If anything, there is actually a DISINCENTIVE towards doing a lot of cons. Due to TD's new policy, if you do more than 2 or 3 cons, your stipend total reaches the point where TD will report your stipend as income.

One of, but not the only reason we’ve broken up our cons as “working” and “playing.” Keeping them separate this year proved very successful, rather than mixing them which led to exhaustion in the past. But then I’m feeling old lately. YMMV

Incognito wrote: I thought it was bad a few years ago when they upped the price to above $50. Now that it's at $78, that feels unsustainable.

IMHO, the main problem is that the extra price is for fancy sets and animatronics that the "haunted house" crowd loves. For those that love the game and are fine with using our imagination, we would prefer the older, cheaper price with the less fancy dressings.

-Agree with you here

MasterED wrote:

Picc wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote: Encouraging vets to buy out tickets because they can subsidize their tickets squeezes out the newbies who can’t. And without newbies, token sales and TD withers and dies.

I think this is where we differ.I don't actually believe that newbies are being squeezed out or that vets are buying out runs because treasure is such an attractive value proposition. At least not yet, not at gencon anyway. GHC rarely sells out, and while I cant speak for Origins or Pax having never been to either of those I imagine its the same. From my experence a fairly large number of the people coming through my coaching room every year are new anyway.

I can only speak for me, and since I am TD Vet and have access to all the TE's for max treasure I can tell you I have consistently bought less and less runs at GC over the last 3 years. I didn't even run N3 there. I am only planning on doing a few runs at the other cons as well. I would be interested in hearing from other TD Vets to see if their ticket buying trends have changed.

Regardless, I think the volunteer token should be significant (not necessarily a TE) and I would suggest there be than 1 for a year to keep the supply lower and encourage more volunteering.

Ed

Volunteer tokens need a massive overhaul.

With more and more cons, that is exhausting the volunteer base while also significantly increasing the supply of volunteer tokens (which decreases value and floods the market).

In addition, there is minimal benefit to volunteering at multiple cons since you just get the same volunteer token.

If anything, there is actually a DISINCENTIVE towards doing a lot of cons. Due to TD's new policy, if you do more than 2 or 3 cons, your stipend total reaches the point where TD will report your stipend as income.

Furthermore, do you really need 3 or 4 of the same volunteer token? I think I have like 3 or 4 Tanzanite Cubes. Yippee....

If you want to incentivize more volunteering, there should be higher tiers of volunteer tokens for those that volunteer at multiple cons. Say a Relic level and Legendary level that you can get if you do like 2 or 3 or 4 of the cons.

Agree with you across the board here.

Only reason i did all 3 runs at Indy is functionally my group doesn't do another con. I'm going to have to think long and hard of coming back to Indy to play. I love Gen Con and really it's my vacation.

This was believe it or not my 1st Gen Con doing full time (i've always been part time at Indy but have done full time at Origins). Really limited some of my normal highlights of con. I loved my short stint into DM'ing and that may be a reason i come back next year.

The price increase for me has really bothered me.

For the volunteer tokens I agree and would love to see rewards for multiple cons or even X cons in a season or multi year span. Organizationally there's no difference between someone who's coached for 5+ years and brand new assistant or someone who's the pillar to be relied on.

I volunteer because it i like being a coach that players look forward to every year. It's not really for the volunteer token, especially after last year's part time token.

As a player i'd like to see stuff be available, that'd be the major reason i'd be against adding a treasure enhancer to be a volunteer only token. Or if we go that route have a badge/button for some effect for the season as a special reward.

Not sure what to do to help, i volunteer because i enjoy it but i won't deny it's taking a toll, especially multiple cons.

i am new to year and I would agree that something needs to be done to allow new players to have access the the treasure enhancers. Because now that I’m excited to do runs for the treasure and start looking into the fact that a HoP is 800$ it tough to say how far I will delv into this.
I just wonder if while I don’t think that it will be hard to get people to keep playing but how many new people will ever bridge the gap and become veterans?

In fairness there is almost always s treasure enhancer in print. No veteran started out with a charm of avarice, for the most part they just bought pyp treasure enhancers and stuck around. If you do the same I guarantee in a few years when the ioun stones are done someone will be looking at the tokens you have and making that case that they represent a barrier to entry.