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 Post subject: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:07 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 7:33 am
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Location: Toronto, Ontario
Hey Aracaniacs,

Just wanted to get your opinion on something. As you may have noticed, we have a lot of regular judges, who run events all the time for us. We have a lot of people who marathon conventions and are consistently there. What I'd like to know is two things:

First, if you don't judge at all, or not very much, why not? And what support could we provide to encourage you to judge more for us?

Second, whether you judge or not, what sort of perks do you think regular judges should get for volunteering their time and energy to ensuring other people get to play? Any ideas are cool, although suggestions like they should all get to play Valinor or elder elorii will likely end up dismissed as unfeasible.

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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:27 pm 
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Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 11:34 am
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Location: Southwestern Ohio
I judged a lot during the old campaign and got pretty burned out by the end. At this point I'm just getting comfortable enough with the rules to judge at home. Have not decided about judging at Origins but it's a possibility. As for incentives swag is always nice but now that we get pretty much full xp and gold for eating mods I'm less worried about that. Still I hate to miss out on cool stuff I might get if I play. Also at this point I'm more willing to judge mods than BIs, not sure if my stamina is up to it these days. :( Not getting any younger...

As for Origins if I did judge it would be 4 slots to get the badge reimbursed. Beyond that I would probably want the time off to enjoy the con. Especially since Origins is the only big con I go to anymore.

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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:49 pm 
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Tony
I have judged before and will continue to do so. The main reason I don't judge more, or don't judge certain events is that I enjoy playing my character. This is perhaps the biggest reason. It would help encourage me to judge more if there were more Slot 0's for events at cons. Sometimes this isn't possible, like in the case of a BI. However, allowing those judges to play a special GM only game afterwards goes a long way towards that. You did this well for ArcaniCon last year, and while the judges didn't get the shiny goodies that many players did, we did get a unique adventure out of it.
Like others, even if I did judge at a convention, 4 slots would be my maximum so that I could play the other games I'm involved in and can usually only play at cons.

As to what I think judges should get (beyond con badges or rooms as they get today) for running con adventures:
1) A full player certificate, with maximum money and XP possible.
2) Choice of 1 or any magic items allowed (some exceptions may apply)
3) Any fame/reputation from the certificate.
4) "Credit" towards additional perks (Tracked year over year). Basically a judge who runs a slot gets "1 Point" and if you accrue say 10 points (all in one convention or by working 3 conventions), you get something. Ideally this would be tangible like a free book, a discount on an order, laser engraved name plate, free miniatures, a special cert t-shirt....basically something outside of "in game" items that shows appreciation.
5) Preferred seating at tables where they are a player. For instance if someone whose run 4 slots is playing and Henry or Pedro or someone like that is available to run their table, that would be fantastic.

John

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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:45 pm 

Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 4:12 pm
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I agree with everything John said except #5. I think it could potentially lead to resentment of some players if the judges always get the seats at "prime" tables. I've seen things like this lead to the feeling of their being an "in" crowd and everyone else. To some degree, I think the decision not to release BIs/specials for home-play is leading to the same thing (there are experiences and xp/gold/items that people who weren't there can't ever get now). On the other hand, I think not releasing them for home play has likely increased attendance at events (I know I generally hate to allocate an entire Saturday at Origins or GenCon to a single event but I'm much more likely to when I know I will not have another chance to play).

Now that I've been GMing Arcanis at home, I've started paying more attention to Certs. The existing ones are completely inconsistent on what is awarded to judges (part of the problem may be that sometimes there is a separate GM cert and sometimes it is a GM/replay cert).
  • xp: sometimes GM certs give a little extra xp. Most often, it is the max player xp but sometimes the GM xp does not include the full possible bonus xp for players. The GM should be granted the max player xp possible.
  • gold: if the player cert is "share of XX gold" then the GM cert is often less gold than the players would get unless there are 6+ players. It would seem better for the GM to get the same as the table he ran (eg "XX gold divided by the number of players at the table") where the starting XX is the max possible gold.
  • Fame/reputation: usually the GM is given this but not always. It should always be given to the GM.
  • Items: this is where the current certs seem designed to get people to not judge events. Most certs don't give the GMs any items (or sometimes only a rune without the base item). The GM should get a choice of items that could be gotten as a player. The only time I don't think this should be granted is if there is an obviously optional combat with items (ex module from Origins 2014 where the mission was obviously over but there was an optional very hard fight).
  • Extra perks: A few of the newest GM Certs have an added GM perk along the lines of "turn in 10 of these and get something extra". This seems like a good idea.

Any chance of the rest of the older Certs (a few modules did have revised Certs released) being revised to include specific GM certs that are consistent?

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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:53 pm 
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Njal Val'Assante wrote:
suggestions like they should all get to play Valinor or elder elorii will likely end up dismissed as unfeasible.

Likely? As in, it might happen? ;)

To clarify, are we talking about convention judge incentives here, or judging in general? I was under the impression that there was already some sort of a reward system in place for judges; in addition to receiving player rewards, I had thought that if a judge sends in proof of GMing 10 games they received some sort of a mystery reward. I was actually thinking about sending in my certificates soon to see what that reward was...if it still exists?

Judging for conventions is another matter entirely, especially considering that your judges are paying money to be there. I do think the rewards should be significant for anyone willing to judge multiple slots at a con. I know that in years past people have received hard copy books as rewards, but it is likely that most of the regular judges already have the books. I would think that you could have some sort of a reward scheme that can be applied to a character of that judge, possibly something like the following:

Judge 2 slots: Free fine quality rune applied to one weapon or armour OR +1 fame with a faction of your choice
Judge 4 slots: Receive a CP with bonus gold/xp (in addition to what was gained from running the individual adventures)
Judge 6 slots: Pick one item from the FiM (from a pre-approved list)
Judge 8 slots: Play as a Valinor or Elder Elorii (maybe? No? okay.)

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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:01 pm 
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I've never heard of this judge 10 slots and send in proof before.

John

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Kelb'Bakari Masalio, Dark-kin Altherian Corsair, Gentleman Archaeologist, and Wandering Bard
"The highest compliment an Altherian can pay you is to shoot you with his flintlock. It means you were worth the expense."


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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:02 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 7:33 am
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Location: Toronto, Ontario
acurrier wrote:
To clarify, are we talking about convention judge incentives here, or judging in general?


Both. At the core, I want to bring more judges in and give our current ones a little bit of a break to actually play. At the same time, one of the biggest impediments to growing the Arcanis community seems to be an unwillingness for people to step up and GM. I know groups that would play Arcanis, if someone were willing to run it... but no one is.

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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:06 pm 

Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 4:12 pm
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Harliquinn wrote:
I've never heard of this judge 10 slots and send in proof before.


I'd never heard of it until recently. I assumed it was a new thing as the only place I've seen it is on 1-2 of the very latest judge certs.

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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:11 pm 
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Location: Ontario, Canada
wilcoxon wrote:
Harliquinn wrote:
I've never heard of this judge 10 slots and send in proof before.


I'd never heard of it until recently. I assumed it was a new thing as the only place I've seen it is on 1-2 of the very latest judge certs.

I thought someone from PCI (Henry maybe?) posted a thread on the forums about this last year some time. It was pretty vague, basically just telling people that if you were GMing a module to put your player's names on the cert, and once you had ten then you could send them to a member of PCI for an unnamed reward.

I just did a search through the forum threads and couldn't find it...hopefully I'm not going crazy here.

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 Post subject: Re: Judge Incentives
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:36 pm 
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Tony,

Mostly i don't judge at conventions these days because I am a full time DM at home.

Conventions are my play time. Also as i have been going to conventions for over 25 years now they are also where i get to hang out and play with the many friends i have met over the years, (When i was judging at the big cons Gen Con, Origins, Winter Fantasy and sometimes Dragon Con) whom i don't get to see other then at conventions.

I do pitch in when i have slots off... I DMed a few tables of LA for Josh and Lindsay at Gen Con last year. But they were mods i had already played... as i said LA is my play time and i tend to guard it!

Heck i hate the idea of writing a mod for LA because it might mean less play time for me! But I believe that's going to change soon despite my fear of less play time... ;)

On the subject of rewards: Personally i would like to see you reward your Convention judges!!! They are important and often miss out on special stuff so the rest of us can play it.

IMO ignore the people who believe that by rewarding your judges your creating a special group of people its BS. Anyone can become a convention judge and join that group if they are willing to put in the time and effort and often cash, they deserve it!

I also say this knowing that i will not be one of those people, as i said above i am sorta retired! ;)



~Tony Scalise

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