New Logistician!!

[Anonymous]

Since nobody else has done it, I'm kickin' this thing off..

Congratulations to Sarah D on her recent promotion as the new Logistics Queen!

You're just geekish enough about it to make sure it gets done RIGHT....er..right?


Spoone

 

[Balryn]

Since nobody else has done it, I'm kickin' this thing off..

Yeah... good luck!

May you find a thousand smurf slave workers to cut away any future woes. Doing logistics is sometimes the biggest challenge of the game.

~B

 

[Seattle_Jim]

Yeah... good luck!

May you find a thousand smurf slave workers to cut away any future woes. Doing logistics is sometimes the biggest challenge of the game.

~B

I concur... which is why I avoid it when possible. I'd send a congrats, but a thanks for doing it is more in order in my opinion. So thanks!

 

[Sarah]

It's ok... I'm crazy you know... I *enjoy* logistics. Always have.

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any ideas about making logistics smoother at events? I already have some, but would like to hear some player/staff opinions before implimenting anything.

~Sarah

 

[Polare]

Multiple tag boxes and staff to run them. Move logistics back to the main tavern building and put a ticket dispenser at the door, so when someone is done staff can call "Number 5?" and start on the next person -- this will remove the too many people in a small room syndrome as well as the nasty wait-in-line for an hour in the cold wet outside the small room. Reply to between-game emails with estimated time when update will happen, or even an automated reply like "the logistics staff currently has 10 emails in the queue, currently each email is taking approximately 1 day to service". I know poor Dan got bombarded by emails for logistics requests then follow up emails wondering what happened to Dan, his email, the requests, his dog, or other things as applicable.

The first suggestion is really the most important though. From an engineering standpoint, there is currently one major bottleneck in the daily logistics system (especially Friday night). There is one tag box, and it is inefficient to have too many people trying to pull from that one tag box. There is one printer and one laptop, and it is inefficient to try and have multiple people servicing requests on the same laptop.

For the average person, I would estimate the time flow goes something like:

-Get in line
-Wait in line for N minutes, where N is normally about 15-20
-Talk to logistics staff at laptop. Give build spending requests, changes, argue about inconsistencies, etc. Get card printed. Normally takes about 5 minutes.
-Get tags. Takes up to 10 minutes.

That's 15 minutes of blocking in a 2-stage pipeline -- ugly. To make this better you need more resources in the laptop/print stage as well as the tag handout stage. Alternatively, change the usage of these resources: Force people to send in build spending plans and verify their character status in the DB ahead of time. If they come to the game and their character is inconsistent or they have build to spend that they haven't allocated pre-game, they're out of luck and need to go with what's in the DB. This would cut half the time out of the laptop/printer stage, a total savings of 1/6th the total time. Not bad at all. Duplicating the tag boxes would allow 2 people at once to get tags. Not bad either.

Just some off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts...

-Bryan

 

[Balryn]

For some of us- offering to do prereg Saturday logistics too. There is no reason to wait till 6 Saturday to do logistics. I did it many times earlier when I ran the chapter.

Example- I as Balryn have magic items that are ALWAYS the same. I also memorize an identical spell list each event.

Thus- You could let people get "half-tagged" for Saturday with the regular prereg system.

You could also let people do logistics starting ANYTIME saturday so that when there is a dead time during Saturday afternoon or a few people like yourself don't have to be in a Mod @ 6-8, you could eat lunch and do some tag pulling earlier in the day. (This worked well for me before)

I could give you a list of things, but I'm pressed for time. Be back later.

 

[Nikos_Sonus]

Having done logistics...ALOT...I must offer you my condolences. I'll be sure to send a pretty flower arrangement to the funeral.

 

[Balryn]

Edited post... see next

 

[Balryn]

Okay Sarah.... my partial list of ideas for logistics. I've done many of these things before, so they work. If you have questions or comments let me know. These may or may not work for you entirely based on your own style of running things.

1- Put a character file in place at logistics that has a copy of everyone's character sheet. Logistics can be done on those in order and pull all the non-changing tags (magic items, racials, body, crit attacks, dodges, etc.) Then when players arrive, only spell trees and production need to be pulled.

2- Officially allow tag "bagging" or signing rather than ripping. Instruct people how to do so. If you are worried about cheating, change the tags to have a Day 1 (Friday) rip off section, a Day 2 (Saturday) rip off section, and Day 3 (Sunday- for 3 day events) sections. Then casters can in effect do most ot thier own logistics and save alot of tags / cutting time.

3- Do the "take a number" suggestion Brian suggested. It works great for eliminating bottle-necks in logistics and people can wander outside without having to wait in line behind fifteen other people.

4- Enforce a one player per logistics person rule in the logistics cabin. There is a lot of commotion and OOG knowledge being shared at logistics. If someone has a Necro item they probably don't want everyone else knowing it too. Request that each player wait in the tavern in line and as each player is done with logistics, they grab the next person and send them in. This will reduce the clutter, the confusion and keep logistics marshals from developing headaches trying to deal with 5+ people trying to yell at the same time.

4- Make a logistics book that has the following for each person doing logistics-

Evaluate sheet, Production Sheets (Armor, Alchemy, Potion, Scrolls, etc), Spell Lists, Plot Evaluate Sheet, and a RULEBOOK. I hear many players asking for these things at logistics and they are often missing from the logistics cabin.

5- Advise everyone at game start- that everything in LOGISTICS stays in logistics. Pens, logistics books, etc need to stay there so they don't go missing. Put a sign on the DOOR saying "leave it HERE!"

6- Have characters doing prereg (or filling out the card Sat) write down if they need Plot or another staff member at logistics. Sort all of these people out into the respective person's pile. Then Jim or Dave (or whoever is needed) can arrive at logistics and know exactly who they need to talk to @ 6. I often hear "I need to talk to So and So." at logistics and whoever is in there can't help them out.

6- Keep logistics as clean as possible. Keeping the "one to one" ratio greatly helps this happen. It also helps to make sure that things don't wander off and that players don't leave things behind.

And lastly, do Kerjal's and Gregor's tags last because those punks have more tags than the rest of the game combined. Kerjal is like a John-wu caster :johnwu: and Gregor's tags just make you want to bang your head against the wall :bwall1:

~Barry

(I'll leave comments on Balryn's tags to someone else...)

 

[Seattle_Jim]

1- Put a character file in place at logistics that has a copy of everyone's character sheet. Logistics can be done on those in order and pull all the non-changing tags (magic items, racials, body, crit attacks, dodges, etc.) Then when players arrive, only spell trees and production need to be pulled.

I like this idea.

2- Officially allow tag "bagging" or signing rather than ripping. Instruct people how to do so. If you are worried about cheating, change the tags to have a Day 1 (Friday) rip off section, a Day 2 (Saturday) rip off section, and Day 3 (Sunday- for 3 day events) sections. Then casters can in effect do most ot thier own logistics and save alot of tags / cutting time..

We cannot do this.

3- Do the "take a number" suggestion Brian suggested. It works great for eliminating bottle-necks in logistics and people can wander outside without having to wait in line behind fifteen other people.

We've done something similar, but I'd encourage a revisit.

4- Enforce a one player per logistics person rule in the logistics cabin. There is a lot of commotion and OOG knowledge being shared at logistics. If someone has a Necro item they probably don't want everyone else knowing it too. Request that each player wait in the tavern in line and as each player is done with logistics, they grab the next person and send them in. This will reduce the clutter, the confusion and keep logistics marshals from developing headaches trying to deal with 5+ people trying to yell at the same time.

I agree this would be wonderful and is probably more important than why we orginally moved logisitics out of the Tavern. The idea was if we could not have a bunch of OOG people hanging around for an hour (or more) it would greatly improve the amount of OGG chatter. OGG talking was a huge problem and I am very happy that it has almost disappeared... I'd hate to see it come back. However, I agree it's crazy in logisitics.

5- Make a logistics book that has the following for each person doing logistics-

Evaluate sheet, Production Sheets (Armor, Alchemy, Potion, Scrolls, etc), Spell Lists, Plot Evaluate Sheet, and a RULEBOOK. I hear many players asking for these things at logistics and they are often missing from the logistics cabin.

Again, a good idea. Hopefully with actually having a logisitcs person and/or team we can start having these things come together a little better. The staff in general is low on Rulebooks as we have lent them out at events they have not come back or have been swallowed by Monster Camp.

6- Advise everyone at game start- that everything in LOGISTICS stays in logistics. Pens, logistics books, etc need to stay there so they don't go missing. Put a sign on the DOOR saying "leave it HERE!"

That is such a nice dream... but a sign could help.

7- Have characters doing prereg (or filling out the card Sat) write down if they need Plot or another staff member at logistics. Sort all of these people out into the respective person's pile. Then Jim or Dave (or whoever is needed) can arrive at logistics and know exactly who they need to talk to @ 6. I often hear "I need to talk to So and So." at logistics and whoever is in there can't help them out.

Oh... Plot logistics duty.... *shudder* Alsoa good idea, but I am little concerned about the practicality of arranging it. Logisitics is a very busy time for plot as we reconnoiter and assess the event, not to mention eat. However, if there is a big call for it, we can do it.

7- Keep logistics as clean as possible. Keeping the "one to one" ratio greatly helps this happen. It also helps to make sure that things don't wander off and that players don't leave things behind.

Again, a good idea.

And lastly, do Kerjal's and Gregor's tags last because those punks have more tags than the rest of the game combined. Kerjal is like a John-wu caster :johnwu: and Gregor's tags just make you want to bang your head against the wall :bwall1:

Yeah, I think Matt has more than me!

Now keep in mind, this won't be my job, other than coordinating the plot member bit if we do that, I'm just putting in my 2 cents. If we want to do Saturday cards, I think we still have some, but an electronic copy would need to be remade, as the PC they were on crashed hard and sadly there was no backup.

 

[Kittyfox]

As the one whose done logistics for a few months, I think the best (and most possible) format would possibly consist of:

1: a sign in sheet in the logistics cabin or the tavern, thus eliminating the problem of me getting overswamped and forgetting to write down people that have paid. This would also eliminate the problem of logistics being there for a million years. We call a name, send our runner out to find them. If they're not there in five minutes, they're scratched off their place on the list and we move on to the next person. Late person's name goes to bottom of list.

2: If Anna can spare one, an NPC gofer. Someone who would be willing to RUN everywhere looking for a) the next person on the list b) plot member or c) The person who just left their life tag in the hands of grumpy logistics queens.

3: WALKIE TALKIES. ONLY for Logistics. It would make life much easier on staff if everybody on staff had one so we could get answers to plot questions right away and check on the "plot member A said I could do this" claims that we get so many of. If we could get some logistics-only walkie talkies, I would gladly lock them in my car for the rest of the event. That would alleviate some of the staff concerns I've heard about the idea of WTs.

These three things would make logistics MUCH easier on me.

 

[jpariury]

Does this make Sarah the party responsible for updating the online character DB?

 

[Balryn]

3: WALKIE TALKIES. ONLY for Logistics. It would make life much easier on staff if everybody on staff had one so we could get answers to plot questions right away and check on the "plot member A said I could do this" claims that we get so many of. If we could get some logistics-only walkie talkies, I would gladly lock them in my car for the rest of the event. That would alleviate some of the staff concerns I've heard about the idea of WTs.

I'm not sure what concerns there are about walkie talkies. You have 4-8 of them in chargers or you buy the home stations and put one in monster camp, logistics, the tavern, and perhaps a building in the forest. I used based stations for an event or two and they worked out great. While it may be some extra cash, you'd be amazed how much walking and searching time it saves you.

~Barry

 

[Shikar al'Basteua]

The online character database will not be updated for some time. We have a new version of the database and it does not play well with our current parsing script.

I will make a post if/when we can get this fixed.

-Dan

 

[Aeris]

So if we put in a request on the online DB will it not work? Or should we just write what we want to sarah? Or whoever is doing the online DB?

 

[Balryn]

The online character database will not be updated for some time. We have a new version of the database and it does not play well with our current parsing script.

I will make a post if/when we can get this fixed.

-Dan

Well I could work on an online database but I wouldn't want to write it all up until the new edition is out. I've been editing Access databases at my office for several years now and I was sorta wondering why it was the way it is.

~Barry

 

[Sarah]

You can still make requests through the online DB, it's just not going to get updated. Unfortunately, it's not an access DB in and of itself.

If you're worried about requests maybe not going through on the online DB, you can always just email the logistics address.

~Sarah

 

[Aeris]

okay thank you.

 

[Balryn]

You can still make requests through the online DB, it's just not going to get updated. Unfortunately, it's not an access DB in and of itself.

Yeah... but isn't the national character database an Access database?

~B

 

[Kittyfox]

Think of it this way. . . you're marshalling a scene, it's getting serious, lots of tears and screaming and suddenly you hear a voice coming from your pants. "Hey! I need plot member A! Helloooooooooooooo!!"

That was the main concern. . . ^_^