"Paying the Piggy"

[Glyfair]

I never thought I'd actually ask a question about something I know I've read a dozen times. However, a search of the web can't seem to turn up Piratecat's "Pay the Piggy" fines.

Due to a job shift, I find my monthly game is going to have less time to play in. So, I want to focus the players as much as I can on the game & want to try to have us use that method.

Does anyone out there have his structure of fines? (Well, of course, PC does).

I guess it's not too bad. This is probably one of those things that's better to post every few months anyway.

Glyfair of Glamis

 

[Piratecat]

Skaros just asked about this, too. We stole the idea from a RPGA club who did the same thing, only with higher fines. We don't really give a damn about the money, as the very act of paying the pig - if only for a nickel - is a reminder to stay on topic.

Here are the fines we use, once the game has started and the Pig is formally in effect:

• 
  Out of character bad pun: $.05 (REALLY bad puns may get a refund!)
  
  Out of game comment (ie "Did you see Buffy last week?"): $.10
  
  Old war story ("I used to have a drow ranger with that same magic item! He was really cool! There was this one time...."): $.25

Basically, the Pig does a wonderful job of subtlely reminding people to stay focused on the game. We end up using the money for buying soda; right now, we have about $13 in there.

 

[blackshirt5]

I like this idea, I might implement it into my games now.

 

[Umbran]

We end up using the money for buying soda; right now, we have about $13 in there.

Yah, and let's take a thought - at about a dime a shot, $13 is a lot of OOC comments. While the pig may remind folks to stay on topic, it sure doesn't seem to force them to stay there

 

[Jeph]

$13 is just what he has in there right now . . . Let's guess he's spent about $30 for that group in the past. At 13 cents a comment (average of the 3 fines), that's like 331 comments!

WOW! That's a lot off OOCness!

Of course looking at my own group . . .

-Jeph

 

[Crothian]

If we used this, we could afford steak every weekend.

 

[maddman75]

I think I'm going to start using the pig, though with our marathon games I'll have to put some scheduled breaks in there. Plus there's one guy that'll probably just put a five in there when he arrives

 

[Piratecat]

Hey, it is a ten or eleven year old campaign. But we do have some folks who show up on a bad day and just shove bills in there. It's pretty funny.

Since we game on weekday evenings for only 3.5-4 hours, it helps speed games up. I've had my players who move away bemoan the fact that their new campaigns don't have something similar, so it must work!

 

[Swack-Iron]

But we do have some folks who show up on a bad day and just shove bills in there. It's pretty funny.

Since we game on weekday evenings for only 3.5-4 hours, it helps speed games up. I've had my players who move away bemoan the fact that their new campaigns don't have something similar, so it must work!

Sialia, dang her eyes, has imported PC's piggy to our Delta Green game, and it does indeed work well. Especially fun are the times when one or two of our players have just walked in and dumped a big handful of change into the pig. "Gonna be one of *those* nights."

Our piggy, lovingly crafted by Sialia, is a mason jar with a simple pig-head drawn on one side and a cute curly tail drawn on the other.

 

[Blackjack]

At 13 cents a comment (average of the 3 fines), that's like 331 comments!

WOW! That's a lot off OOCness!

Of course, in reality the tax-to-comment ratio is off. I rarely carry coins on my person, so when I make an off-table remark (technically warranting a dime), I tend to stuff a dollar in the pig. I don't usually make nine more off-table cracks that evening to make up for it.

An amusing side note is that "the pig" is not always a pig. We started with an actual piggy bank, but then after a few Star Wars runs we switched to this hollow rubber Jabba toy; you squeeze Jabba's head and his gaping mouth opens, so you can shove stuff down his gullet. It's quite satisfying. PCat & KC were then given a mechanical Nazgul coin bank, which we used for a while, too. It would make a creepy Nazgul scream when you dropped coins down a slot in its back.

Regardless of the shape of the actual object, though, it's always referred to as "the pig". Apparently the inherent porcine nature of the tax-on-comments overpowers the material shape of the coin storage device.