Be a Hero, Be a Power Gamer

[telerib]

Had the following idea for the upcoming games:
Donate a pint of blood, get a free stat point (maybe two for the D&D players).

Refining the idea further:
If you can't give blood, volunteer ~5 hours to a good cause, get a stat point.

I'm a little leery of going even further and letting it become a cash donation to a worthy charity, but that might be possible if there's a time limit (say, every 56 days so it's fair to the blood donors) on repeats. I personally think it's more satisfying to buy stuff and give it to the appropriate group (50 lbs dry dog food for an animal shelter, $50 worth of groceries for a food bank), but whatever.

Whaddya think?

Comments

[edg.livejournal.com]

That's... a cool idea. I think it'd be even cooler if you could figure out a way to implement it on a mass scale - www.beahero.com or something - but even on a local scale, I like it more the more I think about it.

[cow.livejournal.com]

That's actually a really cool idea. Gives some real world benefit for all the time spent playing games. :)

The trouble with the cash donation thing is, how much is a pint of blood "worth"?

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think it would depend heavily on the gaming group in question. To a bunch of high school kids working at the mall, $20-30 is a chunk of change. To a parent on a budget, ditto. But to an IT professional with no dependents, $30 might not even be noticeable.

In a perfect world, the donator would pick an amount commensurate with their income and budget that still satisfied their conscience that they were making a "worthy" donation. But we may be talking about rules lawyers here, so...

*shrug* It's an idea, and easily tailored to individual groups. A GM may decide that only those who participate in a particular Habitat for Humanity project s/he knows about are eligible for the bonus to try and make it a "group experience." Or whatever. I was originally going to make it "blood donation only," except that I have at least one player who cannot give (she has some marks on her arms that give the Red Cross heebie-jeebies) and one whose iron is usually too low to give. I thought they might like an alternative - and it just grew from there.

[cow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree about picking a pet cause or something, having some kind of alternative. I usually can't donate blood because I get sick a lot, and always end up failing one of the "not having had illness X in the last N days" criteria.

The 5 hours of volunteer time is sensible. I give an hour a week, which works out to about the same frequency one could theoretically donate blood . . .

You keep forgeting me

[hueffmea.livejournal.com]

Remember that I've often asked you to tell me when you are going to donate blood so I can go with you. (Sniff) you've never taken me up on it except once! I'd do it for nothing as long as I have someone to go with.

Re: You keep forgeting me

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I'll let you know in the future.

I think the problem was, you said, "Let me know when you're going" and I heard "Arrange for me to go, including repeatedly calling me and the Red Cross to pick a mutually agreeable date, make the appointments, coordinate a time, car pickups and all."

I didn't really feel like doing all that. :-) From now on, I'll let you know when I've made an appointment. If they have one at a similar time on the same day, you can make your own appointment and we can go together.

Re: You keep forgeting me

[hueffmea.livejournal.com]

No, the facility you are going to and the time would be quite sufficiant, but if you don't want to go with me I'm not upset or anything it's okay.