Combining Feds

[jmello]

With me back in school, a single parent, and working full time (third shift no less), and buying my first home; I've lost the time I once had to play CotG. I love the MMA aspect of POW, the entertainment value of aCe and the historic nature of GWF. How do you suggest progressing and staying current in my feds, with very little time? Any help will be appreciated as I think through how exactly I want to get through this period.

[toasterboy]

I find time to play any CotG related game limited. So I do it in sort of a rotation where I play a bunch of GWF, then a bunch of LOW, then some GWFZ. I always make sure when I'm done with a session of matches I plan out the matches for the NEXT session so I can just set up and go when that fed come around again.

I think once CotGOnline runs a little smoother on a Mac, that will help too. It's a great oo (especially the stat tracker) but I still find actually setting up the game with paper and dice to be easier.

I also probably run shorter years than most folks do. For GWF and LOW I only run about 18 cards 'per year'. For GWFZ I only run 12 cards per 'year' though now with GWFZ ending after PM3, I may only run one more year. Of course if I get caught up and spirit moves I'll just play a few cards for fun.

The important thing I think is to keep it fun. You should never look at playing as a task or something you HAVE to do to get caught up with current storylines. Who says you can't only run 10 cards a year?

Pick your favorites from each edition and combined them in one fed maybe?

I would say It's your Fed Promoter but I feel that's so overused. Oh crap, I just said it.

[Alexander Ubel]

It can be tough running multiple feds with limited time. Toasterboy's suggestions are good ones, although I have longer years and have even went past the official years on occasion.

Running a combined fed can be great fun as you can set up many different fueds and storylines by changing up your beginning roster and debuts.

All in all I would say if it wasn't for COTG Online I probably wouldn't have any time at all to play and is a great way to have all your sets available to you at one time.

[LWPD]

Jun 18, 2008 10:04:35 GMT -5 jmello said:

How do you suggest progressing and staying current in my feds, with very little time? Any help will be appreciated as I think through how exactly I want to get through this period.

You may want to consider some form of time management planning along with the creative trick of time distorting your booking schedule. These both fall in line with planning out a rotation frequency (GWF to POW to Ace, etc.) that works for you.

Booking in 'real time' (one card equals one day of the year...tons of cards for a year) can be overwhelming for anyone with a busy schedule. It may help to plan out how to balance your hobby schedule on a practical level. Decide in advance how much of a game year each card should represent and how many cards should equal a completed game year. Do the same with deciding on how quickly you want to rotate between promotions. Don't be afraid to adjust distorting time if something isn't working for you.

I'll use myself as an extreme example of 'measured pacing' by a busy professional who plays and loves the game. I prefer a very deliberate and detail orientated approach to booking. My GPWN is event/pro wres genre driven. Several annual events that span for a period of weeks (game time) comprise a full game year. The longest event I run real time is the Team Challenge Series, where each weekly event I post equals one card with-in a week, and where 3 posted cards equals one week game time. So it actually takes three weeks real time to hit one booked week! The event runs for five weeks Fed time...so it plays out in 15 weeks 'real time'.

Why so slow a pace? The elements of the event (weekly round robin schedule among six teams...three team match ups a week) demand it. On top of that I have a demanding career and don't have the time to post an event (that's written up to my standards) more than once a week. Would I change? Absolutely not! The payoff is I know 'to the dollar' how much money each wrestler on my roster has earned, what bonuses they secured, what accomplishments they've attained and how this builds from one year to the next..and ultimately what it means when evaluating each wrestler over the course of their career. Those are things that are far too important for me to ever trade in. Plus in line with my events I'll post artwork that coincides with the staff I've built, angles I run and resulting match stip consequences. I even run contests for my readers (fellow Promoters) with various rewards throughout the game year. It's a blast!

Long story short, is that as a very busy person with an extremely challenging schedule I've found a way to make CotG work for me. I measured what was most important to me and set my expectations accordingly. I hope you'll find your own way. This is a great hobby. If you're practical, think things out and set realistic expectations I'm sure you can get everything you want out of the time you invest. Hopefully this helps in some way.

[Avarice]

I use cotgonline...started GWF NB, but got bored...now I'm setting up to mix it with aCe guys pre-entertainment set. That way I can still get some good out of those guys that I haven't used much.