Due to the inconsistancy of rewards available (0sc - 75+gc) a flat 'reward' cert is a better base line.

I haven't got my PC with me to tally, but the average seems to work out at around: 300xp / 1gc / per round over the 35 rounds my PC has done. The gold might be as low as 80sc average, but its in that 80-100 range in the long term.

With a bonus reward for multiples (Heirloom talent seems a good balance).

Examples:

You are correct that you only get the Volunteer when you eat the mod, and the Replay everytime after that. I personally dislike this, and I guess this can be my continued campaign against something I deem unduly unfair and kind of crappy for people sacrificing their ability to play mods

I did not realise on second and following runnings of a module that the GM got the replay cert

In the original campaign judges got ... nothing. They ate the mod unless they'd played it before. Sometimes that sucked. But it also worked. There were enough mods that you could count on more coming around the bend so taking turns eating one wasn't a big deal. Plus there was the various xp caps that occasionally forced the tempory retirement of PCs till the story arc caught up with where they were. See Sean Smith and the old Cap'n Jack. This has been the traditional model in Living campaigns like Greyhawk, Living City, Living Death, Jungle, Force etc etc. And perhaps worth it's mentioning that you couldn't (legally) replay those mods either. Certainly not a perfect set up.

I strongly approve of the changes in Arcanis and other systems that result in judges getting "something." (And less relevantly note that I grudgingly approve of allowing the replay of mods).

But I also believe that the real reward is the 4 hours with friends and the enjoyment of running/playing the mod.

I don't particularly object to the ideas that judges should get the player rewards or have the ability to turn their "generic" GM rewards from one module (X) into another module (Y) if there is a blank line that can be filled in. But if we tinker with rewards, what is most important to me is that the end product is simple and elegant. There are already a number of things the campaign does slowly...maybe too slowly. I worry about putting anything new on their plate. So I think simplicity HAS to be key to any proposed changes.

on the issue of getting more GMs ... I'm all for it.

But I would note that several times I have volunteered to run at Origins and not had a table of players. This includes the first BI at Jappa (Where is your God Now), a slot last year, and both of my Friday slots for this years Hard Point 8 this year. So it seems to me that either I'm just unlucky. Or there is a surplus of judges at Origins - my guess. (Or maybe the slot marshals don't think I'm a good judge...hopefully not, but you never know).

Ultimately I think the issue of rewards is a very minor component of finding or encouraging judges either at big cons or closer to home.

Agreed 100%.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I'm of mixed opinions on your statement about GMs for Origins. On the one hand we did release judges pointing to have more than we needed for given slots. On the other, I don't typically GM at Origins, but because of how hard a time they were having of getting judges I volunteered to run. Maybe that's just the natural cycle and I hadn't really noticed before.

In terms of how big of a deal it is to get rewards or not, I don't know. It may in part depend on whether your general inclination is more run or play. You're more on the run side and it shows at your tables. You're well prepared, people have fun and I've never heard anything but praise for experiences with you. I am more on the play side of fence and hope it doesn't show too much at my tables. If you're more on the play side, the character advancements tend to matter more.

One of the advantages of the old 3.5 days is that people were generally familiar with the system and there was a low to no threshold of investment needed to get a local group set up. Once you got people hooked on the setting, all of the additional materials and crunch were enticing. There was more of an opportunity to get people hooked first. There was a lower barrier to giving it a try.

As for how to get more groups started / GMs I expect it's a combination of factors that could help improve things. I guess we'll see how things progress.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

To use Paul's terms, I'm definitely more on the "Play" side of things, but as a Harvester and as someone who would like to see more people get into Arcanis, I love running things as well.

In terms of game days and local conventions outside of Origins / GenCon, I generally run things that have been out for a while and that I've already played. This is fine by me and I'll be honest I like the idea of trading Cert for Cert, since if I'm running an Intro mod for 4 tables at a convention because everyone is new and there's interest in it, I have no use for 5 replays for an introduction mod, but my secondary could use a replay / volunteer for another equal slot mod, I'd want to use that.

At Origins or GenCon, there's two things to consider: Someone who is running an event is not only likely 'eating it' (Unless there's the rare Slot 0) but also missing out on playing something else at the same time. Granted, for some the perk of a free badge or free (shared) room and board is incentive enough. However, for a lot of folks, that isn't a big problem (They are already sharing or whatever). I hope that as a GM, players enjoy being at my tables. I try to keep things entertaining, quickly moving, challenging, and fun for all.

I would love it if we had more Slot 0s run by the Authors or something, which would help alleviate the feeling of 'eating' modules. However, I also feel that giving GM's a cert just like a player would get the first time is great. I'm on the fence on the 'replay/rerun' aspect of whether we need reply certs or not. I understand that some magical items or special rewards may want to be limited to primary characters, but things like money, experience, fame, common reward items (runes, exceptional weapons, etc) should still be on replay certs. Otherwise, if someone's primary character dies, retires, or whatever, their secondary is going to be woefully under-equipped compared to other primaries. While equipment isn't a 'huge' factor in the campaign anyone who thinks it doesn't make a difference is deluding themselves.

John

Ok, I've gone back through and reviewed the CPs vs. the VCPs for the released mods. There are certainly mods where there are more significant discrepancies. Overall though, someone who has eaten every mod will be in roughly the same place XP and gear wise as someone who played it all. There are some minor unusual items and some story items that have little to no monetary value that you'd miss out on. The other place a GM misses out a bit is in fame, though to date fame has had little to no bearing on the game.

There have been a few mods where the Volunteer cert makes a special allowance for a GM that eats the mod with good reason. As long as those kinds of exceptions continue to be included, things are probably fine as they are.

For items that are truly story / plot moving rather than valuable or mechanically advantageous, it might be nice to let a GM who eats a mod get a copy. Having a particular map or other found item doesn't have any impact until it comes up in a mod again, and that may be one they play rather than run.

One other thing I wanted to comment on was Volunteer vs. Replay. Of the 46 mods I looked at, only 8 had replay certs vs. separate volunteer and replay certs. Of the 8, 6 of them are in the 2nd story arc, though not all 2nd story arc mods have RP certs.

It certainly seems to be the trend to add more RPs rather than just VCPs.

Anyway, thanks to the staff for doing a good job of managing the rewards, even if it isn't always clear to the rest of us that it does balance out.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

So a lot of mods dont get replay /voulnteer certs, the stated reason in the past was that it took time and effort to make those things.

AND people want more in the way of Judge rewards

SO here is the simple solution to both of those problems:

Make one cert, if it is on the cert then everyone at the table gets one, including people that replay the mod or eat the mod or judge the mod.

If it is a one per table kind of item, make a relic page for it, and people that are playing the mod can figure out how to distribute the relic item.

Bottom line of my proposal is make it simple, make it easy, make it so that new players dont even notice it.