This page explains the behind the scenes of our automatic system that determines how players are assigned to sessions.
The Karma Score
Your Karma Score is the primary factor that determines if and where you are placed in a session.
Starting Karma: All new users begin with a Karma Score of 1000 points.
Story Players: Story Players begin with an extra Karma Score bonus. This bonus grants them specific priority when signing up for sessions tagged as "Story" sessions. Story Players are themselves responsible for ensuring they select sessions with the "Story" tag, they will not get any priority otherwise.
How to Gain Karma Points
Signing up and participation
You gain Karma points based on your sign-up outcome and level of participation. While the specific point numbers are subject to review and may change over time, the goal is to create a fair assignment system that rewards participation and attendance. The current system awards karma points as follows:
Join your 1st Choice Session: +1 Karma point (simple reward for getting top pick and attending).
Join your 2nd Choice Session: +2 Karma points (rewards your flexibility and helping fill a session).
Join your 3rd Choice Session: +3 Karma points (rewards your maximum flexibility).
Placed on Waiting List (Did not attend): +4 Karma points (Rewards your patience).
Placed on Waiting List (Attended other activities): +5 Karma points (Rewards your patience and participation).
DMing a Session: +5 Karma points (Rewards commitment and running a game for the community.)
Admins can award additional Karma points for community support, such as:
Helping out during Spelslot events.
Assisting with other Spelslot-related activities (setup, clean up, etc.).
Cancellations & losing Karma Points
The cancellation system is still a work in progress, not all the fuctionality is active yet.
Until the sign-up deadline on Saturdays at 23:59h, you can cancel your sign-up without losing any karma points.
If you want to cancel after the deadline, you can click the 'Emergency Cancellation' button (button is not yet available) to cancel your sign-up, this will cause you to lose your assigned seat to someone on the waiting list, and you will lose Karma points (how many is yet to be determined, but probably, the closer to the Wednesday session, the more points you lose).
Not showing up to a session will make the DM very sad and the Spelslot Board very angry. The board will manually remove karma points in such situations, unless you talk to them and provide a valid reason why you didn't show up. It is up to the board to judge these situations on a case by case basis.
The Assignment Algorithm
The system runs an automatic assignment process after the sign-up deadline (Saturday at 23:59) to fill all available player seats. This algorithm (which is subject to change) prioritizes players with higher Karma scores.
The placement system attempts to assign players in the following order:
Prioritized by Karma: First the system sorts all players from highest Karma Score to lowest.
First Choice Attempt: For the highest-Karma player, the system checks if a seat is available in their 1st Choice session. If yes, the player is placed.
Second Choice Attempt: If the 1st Choice is full, the system immediately checks the player's 2nd Choice session.
Third Choice Attempt: If the 2nd Choice is also full, the system immediately checks the player's 3rd Choice session.
Open Spots: If all three choices are full, the system then attempts to place the player into any session with an open spot that needs players.
This method ensures that players with a high Karma Score are more likely to get their first choice session, while also (almost) guaranteeing that they a seat at a table, even if their most desired sessions are already filled.