I love you WotC! (DM Rewards Stuff)

[WolfStar76]

Since others have chipped in on the myriad procedures to get up and running as a new judge - including how to register for private play - I'll leave those particular pros to their expert knowledge.

I will chip in, however, that the form I linked above (from the "Join WPN" button) - is a new form. New as in, I added a public venue to my profile LAST WEEK using a different method.

WotC is well aware that the form is less than intuitive, and I can see now that they forgot a few options. I'm going to collate some of the feedback here, and put it into a report for Wizards to read (I'm a Community Advocate on the main WotC site, so I try to keep them appraised of these sorts of issues via weekly reports I send in).

Keep the feedback coming, because I'm going to be pointing to this thread in my report - I expect that the people in charge will poke their heads in and read up (and even if they don't, I'll be quoting some of you).

Thanks all!
Extra thanks to mearlus for pointing me to this thread, and to pedr for chipping in as well.

 

[darjr]

I would love a way to look up rpga numbers based on a name.

I know there is a way via the magic dci application but it is cumbersome and a pain and I have to begin the sanctioning of a magic event.

I can't tell you how many times I'll have a name and a scribble that is supposed to be an rpga number. New folks are easy becuase I've just given them their number, regulars are easy because usually I only have to do it once, it's the transient players that are regulars but will show up on occasion. In fact one of the officers started a database for this purpose. It's still not adequate because we recently had a new player from another store that we have to lookup.

It's not a huge deal, but it would certainly be nice.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

Keep the feedback coming, because I'm going to be pointing to this thread in my report - I expect that the people in charge will poke their heads in and read up (and even if they don't, I'll be quoting some of you).

For what it's worth, I filled out the form and tried submitting it a few times last night and it kept hanging up and telling me an error occured and I should reload the page and try again. I'll try it again sometime today.

I didn't go to customer service yet, mostly because I've been in the CS runaround before and didn't want to deal with it just yet.

 

[mearlus]

For what it's worth, I filled out the form and tried submitting it a few times last night and it kept hanging up and telling me an error occured and I should reload the page and try again. I'll try it again sometime today.

I didn't go to customer service yet, mostly because I've been in the CS runaround before and didn't want to deal with it just yet.

I don't recall if it was last night or the day prior, the WoTC DDI site was having issues. I believe it was resolved by the time night rolled around CST from what I saw.

I'd give it another shot. Historically I've had problems with certain functions on the DDI site when using Firefox vs Internet Explorer.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

Yeah, I tried again and still no luck. I sent an email to customer service, so we'll see what's up.

 

[Festivus]

Are you sure about this?
IIRC, I found ways to sanction 4e Eberron (or other 4e campaign settings) and SAGA games, but nothing else.

How would I sanction my 3e games?

I had always reported my 3.5 home game as "D&D Home Campaign (Other)", even before 4E came out. We don't play that any longer but until my 3.5 campaign finished that was how I was reporting it, and we fnished it after 4E came out. It doesn't say anything abut 4E specific there, so I assume it still holds.

Perhaps Wolf can provide clarification or ask WotC to put "4e" in the title if it's intended only for 4e use.

Wolf, for input my biggest gripe is the interface is clunky and awkward. I would love some new features, like since 80% of my players are the same each meetup, rather than entering 50 RPGA numbers I could have a bank of them saved and choose who was at the meetup, adding new members. The single biggest reporting problem I run into is comprehending someone's handwriting... if I can get them entered and saved, I can just check their name and add them to a game we have sanctioned.

Problem #2 has to do with getting GMs to turn in the paperwork at my meetups. Granted I probably run a few more games than an average home game (We average about 20 tables per month, and climbing), and now with Encounters and more and more weeknight gaming it's getting to be a lot. So perhaps a method where we can sanction, and have the judges do the reporting via a delegated method? We can prefill the games and the DMs, and have them add the players in that played and self-report.

Another big gripe is Story Awards. Can WotC put up one big PDF file will all the story awards in them, so that people can download and print their own story awards if needed? Personally, I just write them down in a log since I can't stand little strips of paper, but sometimes DMs forget to print out two copies to handle 6 players. It would be nice to offer up to players and DMs alike.

I am sure I have more feedback, but my coffeebreak is over

 

[WolfStar76]

I had always reported my 3.5 home game as "D&D Home Campaign (Other)", even before 4E came out. We don't play that any longer but until my 3.5 campaign finished that was how I was reporting it, and we fnished it after 4E came out. It doesn't say anything abut 4E specific there, so I assume it still holds.

Perhaps Wolf can provide clarification or ask WotC to put "4e" in the title if it's intended only for 4e use.

Last I heard, "It's all Dungeons and Dragons" - in fact at DDXP last month, we allowed anyone who wanted to run any edition of D&D to do so right in the main hall.

Wolf, for input my biggest gripe is the interface is clunky and awkward. I would love some new features, like since 80% of my players are the same each meetup, rather than entering 50 RPGA numbers I could have a bank of them saved and choose who was at the meetup, adding new members. The single biggest reporting problem I run into is comprehending someone's handwriting... if I can get them entered and saved, I can just check their name and add them to a game we have sanctioned.

Rumor has it (I haven't been able to get a full confirmation on this yet) that there's work underway to allow the WER (Wizards Event Reporter software) to report D&D games. In fact, the documentation download that comes with the new D&D Encounters event indicates you'll be able to report that play via WER. This may be a simple error, but as I said above - rumor has it this functionality is being worked on.

Problem #2 has to do with getting GMs to turn in the paperwork at my meetups. Granted I probably run a few more games than an average home game (We average about 20 tables per month, and climbing), and now with Encounters and more and more weeknight gaming it's getting to be a lot. So perhaps a method where we can sanction, and have the judges do the reporting via a delegated method? We can prefill the games and the DMs, and have them add the players in that played and self-report.

If I'm understanding you correctly - this is already possible. I'll use a convention as an example.

In a convention setting - one person is the organizer. They order/sanction all the tables/adventures - and at the end of the convention, they also personally gather all the RPGA tracking forms, then enter the data themselves.

It sounds like you need one or two people to be the "Organizer" or "Senior GM" for your events. Have them sanction all the play - make them responsible for chasing down tracking forms, and then that person (or persons) could report the game play at the end of the night (or the next day, whichever is best).

Instead of waiting for a handful of people to turn in paperwork, there's only one person to harass this way.

Because there's a spot on the tracking form (and in the online reporting tool) for the GM(s) to be listed per table - GMs still earn their rewards points.

Another big gripe is Story Awards. Can WotC put up one big PDF file will all the story awards in them, so that people can download and print their own story awards if needed? Personally, I just write them down in a log since I can't stand little strips of paper, but sometimes DMs forget to print out two copies to handle 6 players. It would be nice to offer up to players and DMs alike.

Anything's possible - but with a new adventure every week, I don't forsee this as a likely option. If only because maintaining it would be problematic at best - it's also somewhat spoiler-ific.

To that end, however, there's a Yahoo Group/Mailing list called LFR Spoilers - perhaps they'd be willing to help maintain such a list, or they might even have something like this already.

I am sure I have more feedback, but my coffeebreak is over

All duly noted.

 

[Festivus]

Rumor has it (I haven't been able to get a full confirmation on this yet) that there's work underway to allow the WER (Wizards Event Reporter software) to report D&D games. In fact, the documentation download that comes with the new D&D Encounters event indicates you'll be able to report that play via WER. This may be a simple error, but as I said above - rumor has it this functionality is being worked on.

Count me as excited if we can report LFR that way. The web app is cumbersome... data entry is difficult and time consuming. I spend several hours reporting our gamedays.

If I'm understanding you correctly - this is already possible. I'll use a convention as an example.

In a convention setting - one person is the organizer. They order/sanction all the tables/adventures - and at the end of the convention, they also personally gather all the RPGA tracking forms, then enter the data themselves.

It sounds like you need one or two people to be the "Organizer" or "Senior GM" for your events. Have them sanction all the play - make them responsible for chasing down tracking forms, and then that person (or persons) could report the game play at the end of the night (or the next day, whichever is best).

Instead of waiting for a handful of people to turn in paperwork, there's only one person to harass this way.

Because there's a spot on the tracking form (and in the online reporting tool) for the GM(s) to be listed per table - GMs still earn their rewards points.

This is essentially what we do now. It's just that some DMs report stuff as home games rather than our WPN gameday stuff, which nethier I nor WoTC probably want. I'll deal with it through education, but was looking for ways to better enable reporting accurately.

Anything's possible - but with a new adventure every week, I don't forsee this as a likely option. If only because maintaining it would be problematic at best - it's also somewhat spoiler-ific.

To that end, however, there's a Yahoo Group/Mailing list called LFR Spoilers - perhaps they'd be willing to help maintain such a list, or they might even have something like this already.

Yeah, we point people to that LFR Spoiler site but they don't have the story awards. It would be somehing useful, but in the interim I'll just work on it the way I have been, emailing them to people who need them.

Yes it's spoilerific, but wouldn't have to be. Just have a screen with check boxes to download the awards you want and then you don't have to flip through them all. Those who are looking for spoilers are going to find them anyhow... why make things difficult if you don't have to.

 

[pedr]

For the text of story awards, look at LFR Compendium - for each adventure they've added they list the story awards. They don't have the treasure info that's available on LFR Spoilers, but it's a very handy resource.

 

[Jools]

Anybody international got theirs yet? I'm still waiting on mine here in Japan.