TOPIC: Player Replacement Policies

jedibcg wrote: Maybe all the runs I have done (which isn't a bunch) were doing it wrong but I always buy all the tickets for my group and never have experienced this so I don't know why a policy change would be needed because it sounds like they have been following the policy that we are all suggesting they change to.

It is possible that the hostesses have not been following the policy properly in your case. Technically, if someone bought all the tickets, but does not have all 10 players present at sign-in time, the hostess is not supposed to give out the armbands for the missing players.

Now, if you get the bracelets, your friends show up, and they sign waivers and put the bracelets on, then everything's peachy keen!

But if your players don't show up, and the tickets don't get handed in, it's TD which gets shorted. So it's in their interest to fill the slot with Waitlists/Generics.
Or if your friends show up but don't sign the waiver when they put on their bracelet, then TD could be legally responsible if something happens in the Dungeon.

I can see why, due to these possible scenarios, TD doesn't want to deviate from their policy. What I'd like, tho, is to see if we can find a better way - where TD gets their money, and their legal coverage, and players who have the ticket(s) in hand still get credit for their tickets.

I don't think you are following. TD always ends up with all ten of my tickets and my group ends up with all the bracelets. They get a waiver from anyone playing. If someone is going to be late. I have told them I have the ticket and will be turning it in shortly. If my player shows up they turn in the ticket and the waiver. If they don't show up I turn in the tickets and get the wristbands.

The scenario you describe does not take into ghosts which are part of TD policy. If I turn in all 10 tickets and 1 waiver. Then I get 10 wristbands and am soloing the adventure.

Maybe a clarification needs to be made as to what time you need to turn in your ticket by as a ghost vs them filling the spot but it hasn't been an issue for my group. Maybe we are cutting my missing players shorter than TD would have and that is why we haven't ran into it. Again all I can say is that I do this every year with multiple full runs without any issue. TD gets the tickets and we get the wristbands.

It should also be noted that this year (I don't know if they were doing it previous years) if you just turned in your ticket without going on the run (not getting a wristband) they were giving you 7 packs (I think it was 7) for you ticket.

I bought out a full run this year and didn't have any problems. Of course, my whole group arrived about 10 minutes before the start time. I believe that is the reason a lot of people don't have problems is because as long as everybody is there by the start time they don't try to sell the slot. The problems come from back-to-back events that cause people to not be there right at the start time.

In my opinion, if the ticket is not present at the start time, TD should be allowed to fill the slot with generics. If somebody has the ticket and is waiting for the player it gets a little harder. With the ticket present there is not the danger of TD losing the money for the ticket sale, but it is still hard on the volunteers.

I like the idea of some sort of waiver identifier. That way the run bands can be handed out to whoever has the tickets, and they can distribute them as needed without the danger of somebody not signing the waiver.

Whatever is decided, I think the policy should be posted somewhere on the forums so everyone can see it and is aware of it. If everybody knows the policy it should help cut down on people arguing with the volunteers about it at least a little.

jedibcg wrote: I don't think you are following. TD always ends up with all ten of my tickets and my group ends up with all the bracelets. They get a waiver from anyone playing. If someone is going to be late. I have told them I have the ticket and will be turning it in shortly. If my player shows up they turn in the ticket and the waiver. If they don't show up I turn in the tickets and get the wristbands.

Thanks for clarifying.
I do (or I think I do) understand - You are making sure your group is ready on time, and the hostess is aware that all the tickets are present.

The gray area is where you say "If someone is going to be late" ... We encountered situations where the hostess was made aware that a player was going to be late, but the slot was given away anyways. We were not given any choice to turn in tickets/get wristbands/run with ghosts.

The scenario you describe does not take into ghosts which are part of TD policy. If I turn in all 10 tickets and 1 waiver. Then I get 10 wristbands and am soloing the adventure.

In one instance, yes - it did. We let the hostess know we had the tickets, but the next thing we knew, 2 newbies were walking into our (Nightmare) run. We were not given the option to wait for our final player (who was coming off a Volunteer shift) or to turn in her tickets and run the empty slots as ghosts. (We were actually running with ghosts already - each player was going to wear two armbands, so we had 2 tickets to turn in.)

Maybe a clarification needs to be made as to what time you need to turn in your ticket by as a ghost vs them filling the spot but it hasn't been an issue for my group. Maybe we are cutting my missing players shorter than TD would have and that is why we haven't ran into it.

I am certain the timing is a big part of it. There is an official policy about when exactly the tickets must be turned in by, but we had not yet hit that time. Nor were we given any notice that they were selling our slots for generics. At the very least, we could have turned in the physical tickets, and run with (more) ghosts!

I can't say our situation was representative of ALL cases where slots were given away. Perhaps some groups went over the deadline for turn-in. Perhaps some hostesses didn't know that the party had the physical tickets and were waiting for a last member. Perhaps some knew, but forgot.

It should also be noted that this year (snip) if you just turned in your ticket without going on the run (not getting a wristband) they were giving you 7 packs (I think it was 7) for you ticket.

Yeah..... that was..... weird.
I went on 3 runs where we ran with "retainer" wristbands. On our final run (and only our final one), we were given those extra packs of tokens (I think it was 6). We did turn in all 10 wristbands for that run, and ran with 5 players, and each player got their 1 bag of tokens, plus 6 for the extra wristband. I don't understand why.

Yeah I got that on my Sunday run with ghost as well. I didn't think that was right and said as much because I had ghosts earlier in the week. They said it was a change, I didn't want to argue too much but definitely didn't feel right. It would make soloing TD runs very favorable if they did that on all the runs.

Zankas wrote: If everybody knows the policy it should help cut down on people arguing with the volunteers about it at least a little.

Yeah.... that? No one should be arguing with volunteers.
Especially not when there are more players waiting in line for their turns.

That's why I'm doing all my grumbling and arguing here on the forums

Heh, had I known that was happening on Sunday, I might have kicked my son's friend to the curb and run the ticket as a ghost.

Nah, not really. But I would have thought about it...

jedibcg wrote: Yeah I got that on my Sunday run with ghost as well. I didn't think that was right and said as much because I had ghosts earlier in the week. They said it was a change, I didn't want to argue too much but definitely didn't feel right. It would make soloing TD runs very favorable if they did that on all the runs.

my understanding of the extra packs for ghost tickets; it was being done because there was no wait-list to fill from. it was an incentive to turn in the ticket that you couldn't sell.

Raven wrote: Yeah.... that? No one should be arguing with volunteers.
Especially not when there are more players waiting in line for their turns.

That's why I'm doing all my grumbling and arguing here on the forums

Yeah, I try not to get in arguments with people volunteering time to make something that I get to enjoy. Learning that the policy is different form what I thought and now a ticket I spent money on is useless makes this harder, but I still try to keep myself in line. It is easier if I know beforehand what the policy is.

kurtreznor wrote:

jedibcg wrote: Yeah I got that on my Sunday run with ghost as well. I didn't think that was right and said as much because I had ghosts earlier in the week. They said it was a change, I didn't want to argue too much but definitely didn't feel right. It would make soloing TD runs very favorable if they did that on all the runs.

my understanding of the extra packs for ghost tickets; it was being done because there was no wait-list to fill from. it was an incentive to turn in the ticket that you couldn't sell.

There should not need to be incentive to ghost though. You are already getting stuff for you ticket. I can understand incentive for people that were not going to play and just turning in your ticket for packs which I saw happen before Sunday. Dunno. I thought it was odd.

Zankas wrote: I bought out a full run this year and didn't have any problems. Of course, my whole group arrived about 10 minutes before the start time. I believe that is the reason a lot of people don't have problems is because as long as everybody is there by the start time they don't try to sell the slot. The problems come from back-to-back events that cause people to not be there right at the start time.

In my opinion, if the ticket is not present at the start time, TD should be allowed to fill the slot with generics. If somebody has the ticket and is waiting for the player it gets a little harder. With the ticket present there is not the danger of TD losing the money for the ticket sale, but it is still hard on the volunteers.

I like the idea of some sort of waiver identifier. That way the run bands can be handed out to whoever has the tickets, and they can distribute them as needed without the danger of somebody not signing the waiver.

Whatever is decided, I think the policy should be posted somewhere on the forums so everyone can see it and is aware of it. If everybody knows the policy it should help cut down on people arguing with the volunteers about it at least a little.

There is a policy in the coaches guide which may be found in the resource tab. But here it is:

Minutes Late.....Player Gave Notification?.....Action
3................no............................Attempt to fill slot
3................yes...........................Wait for player
18...............irrelevant....................Attempt to fill slot
36...............irrelevant......Player may not join party in dungeon

It appears to me that there should be a fairly generous grace period if the player gave notification of being late. Not sounding like that always happened. But I have to say from a coaching perspective the thought of a player hitting the coaching room with 6 minutes to go before the training room is not a happy one.

Though that didn't format well thank you Harlax. We now have the official policy where anyone of us can read it. Page 14 if anyone is looking for it. I would suggest calling for a director if someone isn't following policy.