Learn about D&D organized play options

Alphastream · Feb 4, 2013

Updated for today's "In the Works" column, which previews the upcoming D&D Encounters and current and upcoming D&D Lair Assault adventures.

The Encounters season starts up on the 6th of February with a 'session 0' for character creation. This is also a time when the players and DM can choose whether to run it in 4E (as in the printed Encounters adventure) or in D&D Next (with the conversion sheet already present in the playtest packet).

In other news, we concluded the Ashes of Athas organized play campaign at Winter Fantasy! Chapter 7 was really well received, including the big finish: a battle interactive on the Sea of Silt. I will avoid spoilers, as there is a chance it might run again at Origins. It was my pleasure to serve as admin and give back to the organized community after so many years of enjoying what others did to create great organized play for me.

And, stay tuned. Recent tweets by Wizards designers described what sounded like a very interesting upcoming D&D gameday!

MerricB · Feb 4, 2013

Just as a note: all options from any D&D 4E book are allowed in the newest Encounters season - it isn't just Essentials, as in previous seasons.

Alphastream · Feb 5, 2013

MerricB said:
Just as a note: all options from any D&D 4E book are allowed in the newest Encounters season - it isn't just Essentials, as in previous seasons.

That's awesome!

Alphastream · Feb 5, 2013

Just read Dungeon's Master, where they have an excellent preview of the upcoming Encounters season. Also, the D&D group forums for this season are up and already full of useful information for DMs!

smerwin29 · Feb 7, 2013

Sorry about the double post.

smerwin29 · Feb 7, 2013

Hi Merric,

You're welcome. ;-)

Herschel · Feb 7, 2013

So when are we going to find out details about the Gen Con offerings this year?

Alphastream · Feb 8, 2013

Herschel said:
So when are we going to find out details about the Gen Con offerings this year?

Next step is to hear the PAX East offerings. Those tend to be pretty light/fast/simple and aimed at a very casual crowd. Gen Con will come after that, and I think it should be really interesting to see what is offered.

And yeah, I'm chomping at the bit too! I'm excited to play some games! In theory this should be the first year in a while where I could actually arrive at Gen Con with proper sleep (no Ashes of Athas or LFR work this time!).

Alphastream · Feb 8, 2013

Here are the official PAX East offerings.

Summary info (more at the link above):

D&D Next: Danger at Darkshelf Quarry - Play the D&D Next adaptation of a new adventure that serves as a prequel to the classic Slave Lords series! This D&D Next adventure is 2 hours long and designed for 2nd-level characters. Characters are provided and rules will be taught as you play.

D&D Board Game Open Play - Choose from Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, The Legend of Drizzt, Conquest of Nerath or the all-new Lords of Waterdeep!

D&D Next DM’s Challenge: Mines of Madness - Are you as cool as the characters in PvP? Are you a Table Titans wannabe? Scott Kurtz's Mines of Madness await! Hurl yourself into a deadly dungeon in search of the fabled Forever Stone, but beware the outhouse! This special D&D Next adventure is 4 hours long and designed for 3rd-level characters. In addition, you’ll be rating your Dungeon Masters to determine the best DM of PAX East 2013! Characters are provided.

Dungeon Command Constructed Tournament - Bring your best Dungeon Command warband to compete in a four-round tournament, with the winner crowned PAX East champion! Build your warband containing exactly 12 Creatures with appropriate cards and miniatures, at least 30 Order cards (no more than 4 of any one Order card allowed), a Commander, and 4 battlefield tiles. The tournament is 4-5 hours long, free to enter, and prizes abound!

And, two seminars:
The Future of D&D - "In addition, you’ll get the download on D&D’s digital future including exciting new games like Neverwinter—the free, action MMORPG from Perfect World Entertainment and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition by Beamdog. And maybe, just maybe, a very enticing new D&D offering coming soon to the digital space will be revealed."

The Art of the Dungeon Master - Need tips for DM’ing with D&D Next rules? Have some rules that need adjudication? Want help building encounters and campaigns? A Q&A session will follow the panel discussion. All levels of Dungeon Masters welcome. Panelists include Chris Perkins, D&D Senior Producer & “Dungeon Master to the Stars” and Mike Mearls, Senior Manager, D&D R&D.

Alphastream · Mar 20, 2013

The latest D&D Next playtest packet just came out today. In the e-mail for it they announce the name of the next Encounters season: Storm Over Neverwinter. This is the second Encounters season to visit the city of Neverwinter, perhaps tying into the release of the Neverwinter video game (I participated in the beta recently and greatly enjoyed it - a D&D game of which we can be proud). 4E and D&D Next are both supported once again, which is nice to see.

PAX East is this weekend (see events above) and if you play the PAX events, I'm curious how they go. I really want to play Mines of Madness!