General Discussion Thread X

[Rae ArdGaoth]

I think I agree with Patlin. I have no idea what the rule is, but I think that the judges should get DM points only for the time period when they actually DM. The judges are an integral part of LEW, and I agree that they provide a degree of stability that is lacking in other PbP games (don't I know it!), but I didn't become a judge to be rewarded. Personally, I think having a say in what gets approved and the dynamics of LEW is enough of a reward for judging.

Also, a DM could run a game for a long time and then disappear right at the end. Should the judge get 12 months of credit for 1 week of work? I think the "Credit for time DMing" rule is the most appropriate.

 

[orsal]

Also, a DM could run a game for a long time and then disappear right at the end. Should the judge get 12 months of credit for 1 week of work? I think the "Credit for time DMing" rule is the most appropriate.

That's exactly why I'd be so opposed to giving substitute DMs credit for the full adventure. If you wanted to reward them a little extra -- and I'm not keen on that, but then I never cared for DM credits to begin with -- then add a fixed "adventure recovery" bonus, say 1 extra credit, instead of varying the bonus according to how long the adventure had been running before they took over.

 

[Manzanita]

I think giving DM credits for time spent DMing is sufficient.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I think I agree with Patlin. I have no idea what the rule is, but I think that the judges should get DM points only for the time period when they actually DM. The judges are an integral part of LEW, and I agree that they provide a degree of stability that is lacking in other PbP games (don't I know it!), but I didn't become a judge to be rewarded. Personally, I think having a say in what gets approved and the dynamics of LEW is enough of a reward for judging.

Also, a DM could run a game for a long time and then disappear right at the end. Should the judge get 12 months of credit for 1 week of work? I think the "Credit for time DMing" rule is the most appropriate.

But the Judge has been giving up her own time plodding through the adventure for twelve months so that they could be prepared to pick up if the GM dropped.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

But that's part of the judge's judgely duties. A judge takes on administrative responsibility so they can have some say in administrative decisions. Technically, the judges should be following the thread anyway, regardless of whether the DM drops or not. Right? So should judges get "Judge points" just for judging? I definitely think not.

 

[Bront]

But the Judge has been giving up her own time plodding through the adventure for twelve months so that they could be prepared to pick up if the GM dropped.

meanwhile, a Judge also has more opertunities to pick up GM credits if need be, and if he has to take over, has an already preped adventure droped into his lap.

While I agree it's slightly unfair, it's also the burdon of a Judge, and to do anything else would make it a perk to be a Judge, and that's not something we realy want unless you took the feat.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Okay, I admit I have a bit of a personal stake in this:

What about if someone who is not a Judge takes over a battered and double-stalled adventure that lost the Judge after the GM so that it doesn't die, dropping their own character in the process so that the others don't also get double-screwed by being locked in a dead game with no denouement or treasure?

Is that a special case?

 

[Rystil Arden]

has an already preped adventure droped into his lap.

But usually the GM who drops out does not leave notes. IMO it is at least 20x easier to just make a new adventure than it is to finish off a stalled one in a way that is consistent without knowing what the GM's twists were going to be.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Wait a second... Rystil, are you talking about... yourself?

I do think that having your character drop out so you can DM was good of you, and I would agree that it is more difficult to pick up the reins of a dead game than to start a fresh one. In your special case, I think the argument could be made that you deserve a few extra DM credits to compensate for the lack of XP your character is getting. But! Not too much, I'm talking one or two here, because though your character did drop out, you are getting DM credits, which don't exist at all in most campaigns.

I stick to my position on a judge taking up a dead game, though.

If you feel that you deserve some DM points, by all means present it to us here, with specifics. I think we can all agree that we don't want anybody's work to go unrecognized.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Wait a second... Rystil, are you talking about... yourself?

I do think that having your character drop out so you can DM was good of you, and I would agree that it is more difficult to pick up the reins of a dead game than to start a fresh one. In your special case, I think the argument could be made that you deserve a few extra DM credits to compensate for the lack of XP your character is getting. But! Not too much, I'm talking one or two here, because though your character did drop out, you are getting DM credits, which don't exist at all in most campaigns.

I stick to my position on a judge taking up a dead game, though.

If you feel that you deserve some DM points, by all means present it to us here, with specifics. I think we can all agree that we don't want anybody's work to go unrecognized.

I wasn't at first, actually. But then I realised that it had implications for me also.

The thing is--let's face it folks--in the situation of direct comparison to being a player (only the case in my special case where I went from being a player to GM), GM credits suck. They directly cancel the lack of time XP, leaving the real adventure XP as the difference. I had assumed the rule was to give the takeover guy/gal all the GM credits, and by my calculations I would still be taking a huge XP loss if that was done, but I did it because I felt bad for my fellow players, and the game came within an inch of ending with no treasure at all and terrible XP for the time we waited (at least one player was thinking of retiring that character because of how awful a train wreck it was!).

I was just making sure I was wrong in the first place--We'll deal with this one when I finish (I'll show you the XP the character would have gotten if I hadn't recused myself and the total XP for the GM Credits, and hey, if you want to give him XP as if he was a player in the encounter or some other idea if you prefer not to give out GM Credits, I'm cool with that too--it'll be more ) I'll admit that I'm going to be a bit disappointed if I wind up getting "a few" (1 or 2?) more GM credits, but I did it for the players and not for the XP, so in the end it's all cool, just sad for me (it's always my luck with games too ) It's mostly my fault for misreading the rules and getting my own hopes up. It's a silly human fallacy that we feel much worse about having something taken away than we do about not gaining an extra, and I unfortunately thought that the takeover-guy/gal-gets-all-the-credits rule existed, so even though you aren't taking it away (because it never existed), it feels like it.