Joanne’s Comments

Joanne’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Note: Joanne is not currently a member of this group.

I like that Vicky. I've been wanting to fight some monsters.

Becky, do you think we should submit some books for our first 3 weapon levels? Or are we waiting so we can shuffle things around more? Also should we discard any cards tonight to get something new tomorrow morning? We have nothing claimed yet for card one and only one book for card two.

Catherine wrote: "Hey...I don't know if we are allowed..but Zero Footprint was published this year...for card 4..I think?"

I turned this book in for gold. That was the only option for it because it was finished before Labours of Bookules ended. It's lucky we had a few extra books left over from that game because now we have a nice little stash of gold.

Im really hoping to finish The Boleyn Inheritance today. Its good, but longer. Its #10 in a series, so should probably be saved for that.

Then I'll choose my next read based on what we need at that time.

All of them have a gold feel to me.

I like the idea of focusing first on one card to try to get it completed. Card 5 seems like a good choice like others said. Its worth good xp per book and the tasks are not too tough. Lets try to do that and leveling up our weapons.

Good morning Becky! How are you? I feel like a real chatterbox after all those posts. My fingers were getting a workout.

Gah, I think I'm finally caught up on posts. So much happened after I went to bed last night. Having to wake up at 5am every day is no fun for staying up late.

The Genre Minx wrote: "For the love, it's too confusing. I finished 2 books but have to wait to post them bc I need to figure out what they are good for."

I know. Its hard, especially at this early stage. I'm sure it will be easier once we really get going. Don't worry about making sure you have all the necessary info before posting. Just post what you have. We'll figure it all out together.

Shannon wrote: "I'll have you know I tried to play D&D when I was in the 7th grade and even though I was all that, they boys totally kicked my ass out of the game. Whatever!! I looked totally hot stalking away in my Jordache jeans and my Izod shirt. :) "

LOL Shannon!

Vicky wrote: "Okay, since I need to go to bed 2 hours ago, I submitted Card 5 and discarded 1 and 2. We'll get 2 new ones at the refresh (6am EST).

I didn't submit anything for weapons yet, since nobody else is..."

LOL at that cat. I know the feeling.

I personally am ok with you being a dictator. Just sayin'

Becky ♡The Bookworm♡ wrote: "Another thought about our goal level. I think we are going to struggle when we get to higher numbers in the series. I've looked at what I have and it's not pretty. I'd like to make a suggestion. I have a big hole in my series reads. There are about 5 long series where I'm sitting at 6, 7, or 8. Then I have a 12 or a 15, etc.

I'd like to focus on binging that gap so we have several sets that go up into the teens. I don't want us to stall in the middle of the challenge. The higher our level, the stronger our weapons, and our gold stretches a little more.

Before we make that decision, maybe everyone could take a look at their series and make a list of where they are. It might not be an issue, but it seemed like we really struggled to find the higher numbers (10+) in earlier challenges."

I agree that this will definitely come up when we get to higher levels. I personally don't have a ton of books that I'm higher than #3 in a series, although I do have a few and will be looking at those (already put the next Kate Daniels book on hold at the library).

I am currently reading a #10 in a series that that can be saved for when we get there. Maybe I will look at a long series that I'm lower in and start reading it up. When I get home from work I'll take a peek.

Vicky wrote: "2) We can discard cards whenever we want to, but we will only draw new cards once per day at 11 AM Game Time (that's 6am EST). That said, I think we should revisit what cards we have every night and see what we want to swap out. If we get a card early in the day and no one seems interested or we're struggling to find things for it, I don't see any reason NOT to discard it and get a new one. It's not like the bonuses from the other rounds where there's a limit on them, we can do this every day and I think we need to take advantage of it to fish for more profitable quests.

3) I think we need to set a goal level for our weapon to be by the end of the week. We'll be fighting other teams next week and we want to be ready! I would suggest we aim for either level 4 or 5 by the end of this week to give us a solid weapon.

4) Do we want to grab a few potions to have handy? We have enough gold that we could buy one of each from Jack & Jill's shop. Or we could stock up on specific ones. We may as well use the gold we have!"

These all seem like good points. I definitely think we should put some focus on levelling up our weapon, because other teams will be doing that no doubt.

As for discarding cards, I think this challenge is so new that some of us (ME!) need time to feel comfortable making executive decisions. Its easier when a few people are on to discuss and come up with something together so I'll try to be on in the evening to help with discussion. I know last night I felt nervous even exchanging banked books for gold, and that is a no-brainer as there's nothing else to do with them. Making the decision to discard a card or submit books feels like a big deal to me, so having a solid strategy to back up an action would be great.

Anyway looooooong story short, I like what you've put out so far.

Vicky wrote: "1) I think we need to focus on points per book and not just points per quest. As an example, right now we have this:

Card 1: 4 Book Quest, 2 Experience, .5 XP per book
Card 2: Same as 1
Card 3: 9 Book Quest, 12 Experience, 1.3 XP per book
Card 4: 12 Book Quest, 13 Experience, 1.08 XP per book
Card 5: 2 Book Quest, 3 Experience, 1.5 XP per book

So even though Card 5 seems on the lower end, it would be a more efficient XP boost. Now all the other cards have other bonuses too (gold, potions, etc) to take into account. So we'll likely have to revisit this regularly depending on our cards."

I definitely agree. I think this is what my brain was circling around last night when I was feeling like the first two cards weren't "worth" using books on. The XP per book just seemed so low. I think a good starting strategy is figuring out XP per book and using that as a starting point.

I was looking forward to fighting a monster. Hopefully we can get one on our next card.

This is great Minx. A lot of these ideas and strategies have been bouncing around in my head so its good to list them out.

I'm hoping that a lot of books will work for multiple options. Like you say, its no fun when things are held up waiting for one book to be finished. Too much stress on one person.

I like the idea of doing the cards with more experience first although the last card might be a good one, since it'll only use 2 books for 3 XP, and the tasks are easy. The first two cards are easy but it'll take 4 books to get 2 XP, so they don't seem as good.

I don't think book length matters for this one. Not so far anyway.

I got all of our older books exchanged for gold. Glad we only had about a dozen. It was a bit tedious to do one by one.

Any thoughts on strategy Minx? I'm trying to think what a good way to map out our books would be.

Yay! Ok I went for it. It took me a bit to figure out that it was a "hero action" but we got 1 gold for it and the book shows as used on the player's tab and in the RPG log. Ok I'm going to submit the others.

Anyone online? I kind of want to submit something to see how the spreadsheet works, so I was thinking of submitting some of our previous banked books for gold. I'm kind of nervous though and feel like I need permission/someone to hold my hand. LOL

Would you guys say there are mountains in the background on this one?