TOPIC: Newest Newletter 9/27/16

MasterED wrote:

Jeff Martin wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

MasterED wrote:

Incognito wrote: Maybe the better implementation is that the XP from GHC cannot bring your total XP to above 10,000 XP?

I concur. See it can happen (Incognito and I agree)!

Ed

I'd agree with that also.

Thanks for the feedback. The issue is not just one Con in 2016. We needed a rule that would be workable for years to come at our non-Gen Con events. It needs to be something easy to understand as well as something the programmer can do -- and "checking level" mechanic seemed to fit best. I could be wrong.

I would go out on a limb and say this is doable as long as the XP stickers you create can distinguish the con and the run. The programming is trivial.

Ed

Yes the way this is programmed does matter. You could exploit the system by doing the following (assuming no change to WYC):

GHC 2016 - 4k XP
GC 2017 - save your codes (4k XP)
GHC 2017 - 4k XP (total 8k entered)
GC 2018 - save your codes (8k saved now)
GHC 2018 - enter a 1k (total 9k) and then a 2k (total 11k) - now you can't enter any more GHC codes. Then enter your saved GC codes (+8k, total 19k).

Profit! With your 6th level +1 treasure after only 2 years. Normally it takes 4.

To be clear... Do I think anyone would purposefully do this? No. Do I think offering XP at the smaller events is a good thing? Yes.

Incognito wrote: I guess if you did just reach 5th level this GenCon, the easy fix is for you to go back into "Edit 2016 XP" and give yourself LESS XP. (So instead of completing 7 rooms on Hardcore, you could do 5 rooms on Normal). Just bring your XP threshold to right below 10,000 XP (I guess you could lose a level this way?). Then you will be able to get all the XP at GHC.

Huh, you can edit it down, and then again back up? That seems like a problem.

Jeff321 wrote: Profit! With your 6th level +1 treasure after only 2 years. Normally it takes 4.

To be clear... Do I think anyone would purposefully do this? No. Do I think offering XP at the smaller events is a good thing? Yes.

I don't know if I agree that no one would do it. I can totally see someone with a gamers brain thinking ok Ill enter only Satellite XP until its useless, then back fill my GC XP.

I'm not sure that it matters in the grand scheme, we do live in a world where XP is on the honor system and you can just email Jeff if your "missing" a year.

Jeff321 wrote:

MasterED wrote:

Jeff Martin wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

MasterED wrote:

Incognito wrote: Maybe the better implementation is that the XP from GHC cannot bring your total XP to above 10,000 XP?

I concur. See it can happen (Incognito and I agree)!

Ed

I'd agree with that also.

Thanks for the feedback. The issue is not just one Con in 2016. We needed a rule that would be workable for years to come at our non-Gen Con events. It needs to be something easy to understand as well as something the programmer can do -- and "checking level" mechanic seemed to fit best. I could be wrong.

I would go out on a limb and say this is doable as long as the XP stickers you create can distinguish the con and the run. The programming is trivial.

Ed

Yes the way this is programmed does matter. You could exploit the system by doing the following (assuming no change to WYC):

GHC 2016 - 4k XP
GC 2017 - save your codes (4k XP)
GHC 2017 - 4k XP (total 8k entered)
GC 2018 - save your codes (8k saved now)
GHC 2018 - enter a 1k (total 9k) and then a 2k (total 11k) - now you can't enter any more GHC codes. Then enter your saved GC codes (+8k, total 19k).

Profit! With your 6th level +1 treasure after only 2 years. Normally it takes 4.

To be clear... Do I think anyone would purposefully do this? No. Do I think offering XP at the smaller events is a good thing? Yes.

Well, one thing we could do is to start removing the "Edit Old XP" buttons. Keep it to just 1 or 2 years worth.

I don't think it's good that you can still edit 2013 and 2014 XP....

Side thought: it sounds as though this could quickly increase the number of people at 5th level (or at least quicker than in the past). By itself, I don't see that as particularly good or bad. But has any more thought been given to having a physical repesentation for 6th level? Increasing the speed for acquiring 5th level while still using the 5th level token as a check for the bonus token draw feels like a less than ideal idea. Then again, maybe this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things.

MetaphoricDragon wrote: WOOHOO! I can hit 5th this year!

Congrats!
I know it's something you were looking forward to!

Picc wrote:

Matthew Hayward wrote:
Taking a cross section of those opinions, you'll find some folks that think GHC should not offer XP at all. Some XP is being offered, so they are not getting all they want.

Hence compromise.

You have an interesting way of defining compromise. For one thing a compromise generally requites more then one party. "Some folks don't think there should be xp as satellite cons" (as was stated would be the case when GHC was announced). Nuts to those guys, is not a compromise. You need to consider all parties when meeting in the middle not just the protected classes.

I took it as obvious that some people wanted XP at GHC.

They were the other (implicit) party to the compromise.

I'm not going to GHC, and could generally care less about XP outside the facility it grants TD for attracting and retaining players.

While not a huge swing, there were 5 GHC TD tickets sold in the prior 5 days.
14 GHC TD tickets have been sold in the past 5 hours.

Matthew Hayward wrote:

Picc wrote:

Matthew Hayward wrote:
Taking a cross section of those opinions, you'll find some folks that think GHC should not offer XP at all. Some XP is being offered, so they are not getting all they want.

Hence compromise.

You have an interesting way of defining compromise. For one thing a compromise generally requites more then one party. "Some folks don't think there should be xp as satellite cons" (as was stated would be the case when GHC was announced). Nuts to those guys, is not a compromise. You need to consider all parties when meeting in the middle not just the protected classes.

I took it as obvious that some people wanted XP at GHC.

They were the other (implicit) party to the compromise.

I'm not going to GHC, and could generally care less about XP outside the facility it grants TD for attracting and retaining players.

Ok to address that point, I dont see how a loyalty program not granting lotalty points to returning patrons is in anyones interest.

I guess its ok for the people who will level this year rather then next, but as I said creating prefered classes in a community is rarely wise.

I think Im done stating my case though.

Dave wrote: While not a huge swing, there were 5 GHC TD tickets sold in the prior 5 days.
14 GHC TD tickets have been sold in the past 5 hours.

How much of that can be attributed just to the news letter going out or the anouncment of the completion token rather then just xp. Id argue that the news letter doesnt reach a lot of the people low level catch up xp will benefit.

Matthew Hayward wrote:

Rob F wrote:
I still don't get what the "compromise" is????

If you can't make it to a Con then too bad, no XP for you. If you can make it and play then you should get XP. If I sat down with my old time RPG group and said only players below a certain level would get XP for playing a session because other people that can't make it are worried about not receiving any XP I'd probably have a fair amount of sharp objects thrown at me, a bit of WTF'ing, and then a walk out. I get that some people live time zones away, but so what. A person shouldn't be robbed from a participation reward just because another person can't participate.

Of course I'm sure this was all brought up before, some heated debates were had, and hence the outcome. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Unless I'm missing something.

What you are missing is that to some people their spot on the leaderboard is more *gollum* precious than the one ring *gollum*.

A subset of those people have the strong belief that only Gen Con participation should count, or that you should be able to max out XP at one con a year (despite the fact that some top leaderboard people have Gen Con SoCal and True Realm XP - and even True Here's XP for crying out loud! )

Another subset of those people have the strong belief that redux/greatest hits dungeons shouldn't count (despite the fact that some people at the top of the leaderboard have redux/greatest hits dungeons in their XP).

Taking a cross section of those opinions, you'll find some folks that think GHC should not offer XP at all. Some XP is being offered, so they are not getting all they want.

Hence compromise.

For the record, I think you should get full XP for a standard length dungeon at any presentation of True Dungeon.

I'm ambivalent about whether or not there should be an annual XP cap:

• Certainly it would be nice for the folks who care about the leaderboard and are high on it to not have to "grind" con attendance to stay there
• Certainly it would be nice for the folks who care about the leaderboard and are not high on it to have the chance to catch up by playing more
• Certainly it would be nice for people trying to obtain player rewards to get them faster if they attend more true dungeon

My spot on the leaderboard is VERY precious to me - but I'd trade it in a heartbeat for the One Ring!

Please keep in mind that this "less than X level" is not a new scheme. It was used before back in the Marriott days for a mini-event. At that event, only players of 3rd level or less could receive XP for it.

Jeff Martin wrote: Please keep in mind that this "less than X level" is not a new scheme. It was used before back in the Marriott days for a mini-event. At that event, only players of 3rd level or less could receive XP for it.

Jeff, I'm fine with the "below X Level" concept for the alternate conventions. Like you said, it worked fine in the past, although for a lower level. I think it can be abused based on the way the system is set up now, but hopefully it won't be. I think it's great that newer players can get XP at the alternate conventions, hopefully it will increase excitement and ticket sales at GHC.