TOPIC: Improving the Party Card

I am trying to make the jump to full time volunteering this year. I am a bit nervous about being able to run a Saturday evening minis event, get in the four TD runs I want and do the full time thing, but I am going to give it a shot.

Sleep? What is this sleep you speak of?

I think you can do it but its going to be tight, last year I was able to go full time and got in 4 runs (two per night Thurs and Fri) and a magic tournament on Saturday evening with dealers halls after TD was done on Sunday afternoon.

Harlax wrote: Sleep? What is this sleep you speak of?

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Corinth wrote: Is there a way we can shift some responsibility from the GMs to the players? We already handle our own health, so why can't we handle damage reduction? Put a section in the Player's Guide about what types of damage the tokens can prevent, make it into a chart, and make the players responsible for remembering it in the heat of battle.

I'm already going to make "cheat sheets" for builds of all of my characters (I outfit all 10 people in a few runs every year) so the players will know if they can be surprised, can walk on sand, etc.

We've been doing this for years. We want players to advocate for themselves about their tokens. The DM gets 11 minutes with you and can't possibly scan 150-200 tokens for the whole party. I think that unless a consumable is being used and handed over or it is treasure token related, then the DM shouldn't really question a pouch of Tulz or bracelets of zephyr. If players want yo cheat they can. I'm hoping to get my @$$ kicked in something other than grind. But it annoys me when a DM demands that I waste 45 seconds showing a token like the pouch. Time is of the essence in TD. Parties that can't master the clock, can't master the game. That goes back to a comment I got some snarky responses to when I stated I often won't bother with a spell test but will tell the DM I want the lower value. I know the beads, but 20 seconds is 3% of our time. If we hope three or four rounds then I am burning nearly 10% of our time doing spell tests. And yes it is an average of 15-20 seconds for the DM to get the beads, say umm, decide which one to ask, present the beads, have player shine some light, select bead.

Druegar wrote:

Anthony brown wrote: the 2 people i am not seeing in this discussion are the Coach and DM leads.

Oh really?

Haha.

Cormroc wrote:

valetutto wrote: Ya know, I hear the "Basic Addition" argument a lot.
Leave it off the card and Add it in. That's what some folks are saying and they bring up some good but isolated reasons for it.

What ever happened to basic subtraction? You know the weapon got stuck so reduce the number for the new weapon.

As Anthony pointed out there is no way for the DM to know what needs to be subtracted. If the players walk into a room with a giant and someone slides a +2 Hammer of Thunderbolts how do you know if the party card was filled out using the stats for that weapon or a +5 Slayer Sword.

In addition the DM would have to remember what needs to be subtracted from each stat for 10 players where in the addition suggestion the DM just needs to add the number printed on the token to the number written on the card.

When the player Declared they are using their Free Action to switch weapons, that is when the DM gets to find out what they were previously using. Typically this isn't going to happen. Usually it will be things that remove the existing weapon and the DM will cause that.

and ofcorse you're talking about someone with a Legendary opting no to use it in favor of an UR so there's that.

Harlax wrote: I am trying to make the jump to full time volunteering this year. I am a bit nervous about being able to run a Saturday evening minis event, get in the four TD runs I want and do the full time thing, but I am going to give it a shot.

Sleep? What is this sleep you speak of?

Won't need to do 4 runs since there won't be puzzle and combat.

valetutto wrote:

Cormroc wrote:

valetutto wrote: Ya know, I hear the "Basic Addition" argument a lot.
Leave it off the card and Add it in. That's what some folks are saying and they bring up some good but isolated reasons for it.

What ever happened to basic subtraction? You know the weapon got stuck so reduce the number for the new weapon.

As Anthony pointed out there is no way for the DM to know what needs to be subtracted. If the players walk into a room with a giant and someone slides a +2 Hammer of Thunderbolts how do you know if the party card was filled out using the stats for that weapon or a +5 Slayer Sword.

In addition the DM would have to remember what needs to be subtracted from each stat for 10 players where in the addition suggestion the DM just needs to add the number printed on the token to the number written on the card.

When the player Declared they are using their Free Action to switch weapons, that is when the DM gets to find out what they were previously using. Typically this isn't going to happen. Usually it will be things that remove the existing weapon and the DM will cause that.

and ofcorse you're talking about someone with a Legendary opting no to use it in favor of an UR so there's that.

As a player I probably wouldn't think to notify the DM that I was switching weapons if I had not yet made an attack with any weapons in a given room. Now that I think about it more I agree I am probably in the wrong in this scenario

As for using UR instead of Legendary I agree it isn't very likely, but I did specifically choose the giant and thunderbolts for the example as it is at least plausible. Bump the legendary to the relic and it becomes more so.

To me it still seems far simpler to just add the weapon bonus to the attack rather than remember which players need something subtracted and then adding the weapon bonus back in.

Cormroc wrote: To me it still seems far simpler to just add the weapon bonus to the attack rather than remember which players need something subtracted and then adding the weapon bonus back in.

Or the simplest solution is to just read the party card.

darkangel866 wrote:

Cormroc wrote: To me it still seems far simpler to just add the weapon bonus to the attack rather than remember which players need something subtracted and then adding the weapon bonus back in.

Or the simplest solution is to just read the party card.

I agree and have no problem with that. But I thought this thread was discussing the perceived shortcomings of that system and possible solutions.

I didn't mean to be insulting . . . and it is. But, as I have said before, KISS is the best solution IMO.

valetutto wrote:

Harlax wrote: I am trying to make the jump to full time volunteering this year. I am a bit nervous about being able to run a Saturday evening minis event, get in the four TD runs I want and do the full time thing, but I am going to give it a shot.

Sleep? What is this sleep you speak of?

Won't need to do 4 runs since there won't be puzzle and combat.

Need is a relative term.

I want to do nightmare runs with Team Synergy because as of last year I have the gear to do so.

I want to do normal runs with my son and some old friends who were in my college days D&D group. I equip them, but don't have the gear to even think about nightmare. We are only half a run so we can't count on the rest of the party being anything but newbies.

All of my four runs last year were combat, that's what I like.