TOPIC: Ghosting proposal for smaller conventions

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Wade Schwendemann wrote: Would people buy "ghost" tickets if instead of 10 treasure tokens they got 6 token 10 packs? What if it was 8 or even 10 token 10 packs?
.

I think if they wanted 10-packs, they'd just buy 10-packs, not a ticket, and TD wouldn't have to give the Con a cut.

If ghosts had a much lower treasure cap at the satellites, but also had the option of getting a refund in credit towards tokens, then I don't have anything to say about that. If capped loot were the only option, I probably would.

Satellites are "on sale," I assume, to attract new players. That's going to skew things until we reach a steady state.

As long as supporters of the game who get bailed on aren't getting screwed out of the price of a ticket... That would be my big concern.

The next question is how to allow DoubleDown at satellites. Maybe that waits until TD goes to four dungeons, like GenCon

I'd recommend against having multiple means of reimbursement for ghost players, like either some amount of treasure chips or sealed packs. That seems to often lead to confusion. The one year Ghost players were supposed to get sealed packs instead of treasure chips, weren't a lot of people getting both the treasure chips and the sealed packs?

I think some people got both, yes Mike.

Brad,

What I am saying is that people who would otherwise not buy additional 10 packs get some number of those in exchange for a ticket that was bought, but not used by a player. Those people likely wouldn't have bought 10 packs with that money otherwise, but they might in order to be able to do a 5 man run, or if they have a player not show up, etc.

Another option is to give them nothing at all.

Naturally, we are choosing nothing at all right now, and it doesn't seem to be a great option, at least in the minds of those who believe that the more tickets sold, the better for TD.

If the players were going to buy 10 packs instead of unsold tickets I would agree they should just buy 10 packs. I am assuming these are players who would buy unsold tickets but who would also not buy any more 10 packs. I realize that is a specific subset of players, and whether or not we should be catering to such a small group is another question.

I really have no skin in the game as far as wether or not full treasure is awarded at smaller Cons, what I can tell you is that I have been Shut out of TD tickets several years in a row. I got lucky this year but in order to get the runs for our group I had all 5 of us on the phone pressing the button as it went live for GenCon. There was no ghosts involved just live bodies trying to run together. It would really be nice if we didn't have to take off work to make sure we were all able to run together.
I can understand the desire for do a smaller group run due to personalities of other players.

So a lot of the talk on here has been around new players. If they're not able to get tickets they may not know to go to the forum for tickets. For my group it hasn't helped in the past because there are seldom if ever a group of 5 available on the forum.

Mike Steele wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Wade Schwendemann wrote: Would people buy "ghost" tickets if instead of 10 treasure tokens they got 6 token 10 packs? What if it was 8 or even 10 token 10 packs?
.

I think if they wanted 10-packs, they'd just buy 10-packs, not a ticket, and TD wouldn't have to give the Con a cut.

If ghosts had a much lower treasure cap at the satellites, but also had the option of getting a refund in credit towards tokens, then I don't have anything to say about that. If capped loot were the only option, I probably would.

Satellites are "on sale," I assume, to attract new players. That's going to skew things until we reach a steady state.

As long as supporters of the game who get bailed on aren't getting screwed out of the price of a ticket... That would be my big concern.

The next question is how to allow DoubleDown at satellites. Maybe that waits until TD goes to four dungeons, like GenCon

I'd recommend against having multiple means of reimbursement for ghost players, like either some amount of treasure chips or sealed packs. That seems to often lead to confusion. The one year Ghost players were supposed to get sealed packs instead of treasure chips, weren't a lot of people getting both the treasure chips and the sealed packs?

That was done at the last minute. It's a training issue.

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Wade Schwendemann wrote: Would people buy "ghost" tickets if instead of 10 treasure tokens they got 6 token 10 packs? What if it was 8 or even 10 token 10 packs?
.

I think if they wanted 10-packs, they'd just buy 10-packs, not a ticket, and TD wouldn't have to give the Con a cut.

If ghosts had a much lower treasure cap at the satellites, but also had the option of getting a refund in credit towards tokens, then I don't have anything to say about that. If capped loot were the only option, I probably would.

Satellites are "on sale," I assume, to attract new players. That's going to skew things until we reach a steady state.

As long as supporters of the game who get bailed on aren't getting screwed out of the price of a ticket... That would be my big concern.

The next question is how to allow DoubleDown at satellites. Maybe that waits until TD goes to four dungeons, like GenCon

I'd recommend against having multiple means of reimbursement for ghost players, like either some amount of treasure chips or sealed packs. That seems to often lead to confusion. The one year Ghost players were supposed to get sealed packs instead of treasure chips, weren't a lot of people getting both the treasure chips and the sealed packs?

That was done at the last minute. It's a training issue.

There were similar problems with the Treasure Map treasure box. Lots of mistakes were reported in people drawing from the wrong boxes (treasure map box and regular treasure box), like turning in a Treasure Map token to get 10 draws from the normal box. It does sometimes seem like offering choices leads to problems.

Mike Steele wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Wade Schwendemann wrote: Would people buy "ghost" tickets if instead of 10 treasure tokens they got 6 token 10 packs? What if it was 8 or even 10 token 10 packs?
.

I think if they wanted 10-packs, they'd just buy 10-packs, not a ticket, and TD wouldn't have to give the Con a cut.

If ghosts had a much lower treasure cap at the satellites, but also had the option of getting a refund in credit towards tokens, then I don't have anything to say about that. If capped loot were the only option, I probably would.

Satellites are "on sale," I assume, to attract new players. That's going to skew things until we reach a steady state.

As long as supporters of the game who get bailed on aren't getting screwed out of the price of a ticket... That would be my big concern.

The next question is how to allow DoubleDown at satellites. Maybe that waits until TD goes to four dungeons, like GenCon

I'd recommend against having multiple means of reimbursement for ghost players, like either some amount of treasure chips or sealed packs. That seems to often lead to confusion. The one year Ghost players were supposed to get sealed packs instead of treasure chips, weren't a lot of people getting both the treasure chips and the sealed packs?

True - more. Aria less increases the chance of problems or misunderstandings.

That was done at the last minute. It's a training issue.

There were similar problems with the Treasure Map treasure box. Lots of mistakes were reported in people drawing from the wrong boxes (treasure map box and regular treasure box), like turning in a Treasure Map token to get 10 draws from the normal box.

It does sometimes seem like offering choices leads to problems.

Raven wrote: Please: Look at who is ghosting. Listen To Them. Ask them why they do it, and what their incentives are. Know that there's a variety of reasons, and trying to "solve" something which may not even be a problem can hurt others at the same time. Trust that the people who Ghost want the same things you do: a healthy, vibrant, TD community. Also, Trust Jeff to do what's best for his game.

Said much more eloquently than I managed +1 points

Picc wrote: For what its worth I agree with you Brad.

I do as well ..

For GHC all registration groups have opened, VIP, early TD, and general.

At this moment only 52% of tickets have sold. Only 47 of 160 runs are sold out. 37 runs have no tickets sold and another 21 have only 1 or 2 tickets sold

Good? Bad? Who knows?

There is still plenty of time. Event submission is still open until October 1.

Harlax wrote: For GHC all registration groups have opened, VIP, early TD, and general.

At this moment only 52% of tickets have sold. Only 47 of 160 runs are sold out. 37 runs have no tickets sold and another 21 have only 1 or 2 tickets sold

Good? Bad? Who knows?

There is still plenty of time. Event submission is still open until October 1.

Two of those 21 tickets is me attempting to be the only person on a run. I had bought 4 tickets were I was the only one, but folks randomly have joined my Saturday runs. I am beating it is Friday that is looking the most sparse.

I'll be grabbing 4-5 tickets hoping no one joins so I can run nightmare short staffed with my group. Might not work.

Cost of TD tickets at Gen Con was $2,288. Value of tokens drawn (did get one relic and a couple of Ultra-Rares) was around $1,500, and I thought we did well in our draws. So who is farming for a profit?

Also, I like running with a know team (family and/or friends). I'd rather not be forced to run with one or two unknown individuals who may want the same characters of play normal. Thus if I can't fill the slot (though all ten tickets are bought) i'd rather ghost them.

We didn't buy the full slots at GHC due to ghosting rules, so it should get interesting. Bring out the dice! Actually we can kind of switch characters without much of a problem (some less powerful than others though). But not playing at least hardcore will be hard to justify with our level of experience and tokens. Just think of doing 250 HP of damage in one round to a Normal Mega-Monster who only has 200 HP.