The Bay Area Masquerade

There wasn't room for this in the other poll, and I wanted to put up a poll for this.

How do you want XP spends to be implemented?

(No promise that we'll implement the winner of this, but the input is valuable.)

We currently allow online xp spends?

Uh... I knew that the online sheets were in beta and still had kinks and were INTENDED to allow online xp spends - when did online xp spends become allowed? And do you need a beta online sheet to do an online xp spend?

I was not aware that online xp spends were an acceptable thing currently. Can I get details on how it works now so as to give a more informed vote please?

We do allow XP spends online right now.

We announced this at a listenup a few months ago, but somehow never posted it. I'll fix that soon.

To spend XP online, send a PM to Staff.

(You don't need to use the online character sheet for this.)

May I suggest that if we continue to do XP spends primarily in person, we have a hard cutoff*? People who need stuff urgently should be able to show up a little early or submit expenditures online, or at worst, let Staff know in advance if there's going to be some unusual can't-show-up-before-8pm-have-no-internet-access circumstances**.***


*when listen up starts seems kind of traditional, though I see some merit in shutting up shop five minutes beforehand so R2D2 mark 2 can be stowed and Staff can go straight from listen up into addressing quarters and getting game going.

**I have had these circumstances myself! I totally understand! But I suspect that they're pretty rare, and that really urgent XP spends are likewise pretty rare, and that exceptional circumstances can be addressed as the exceptions they are.

***YES, MY FOOTNOTES ARE LONGER THAN MY INITIAL REMARKS. MWAHAHAHAH.

I echo Lindsay on this one. What she said.

Also:

I *love* the idea of online XP, as I can think about my plan and look at my notes while buying stuff without an implied time pressure of the line behind me. With the % of time used doing this compared to game length each week, this seems nice.

I would, however, worry about staff workload getting too much with adding online XP purchases compared to doing them all at one time, so would like staff opinions on their already impacted and massive game preparation time.


Edit: I voted for the current system, but would be just as happy with primary online XP, if the staff desire that, / the workload gets lower.

I have no strong opinion on this one. I would have clicked "Whatever is easiest for staff" if that were an option.

Thanks for asking tho.

-Paul

I like doing spends in person, but if people also want to do so online I don't see a problem with it. If staff is concerned with how long check-in takes, may I propose that we have two check-in stations? We have four members of staff and I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to divide the sheets up by number to make two separate boxes and two check-in tables. Something like #1-50 on the left and #50-100 on the right, or evens here and odds there. Pulling dominoes might have to be handled by one staff member or another unless we get another set, but otherwise it should speed things up a lot.

I've already effectively split check-in, in that exp spends generally don't happen when you get your book any more. Spends get sent to any other staff member, or to the back of the line. It's really just a matter of anything that can be offloaded, or pre-determined, or whatever, will help immensely. To keep the line moving, it would be really incredibly helpful if people knew what they wanted when they arrived at the table. Since they can't, because they don't have their book yet, it's been working pretty well to send them to the back of the line or another staff person.