Learn about D&D organized play options

pedr · Mar 20, 2013

Storm over Neverwinter starts on April 10th for 4th level characters, progressing to level 6. It's written by Erik Scott de Bie: http://wizards.com/wpn/News/Article.aspx?x=2013_02_27_DDE - there's player swag again, in the form of a custom d20 (20 per pack).

I can't get into my copy of WER at the moment to check, but I think it's a session 0 and then eight play sessions running from April 10th to 5th June.

It'll be followed by 'Search for the Diamond Staff' (12th June to 14th August) then 'Murder in Baldur's Gate' (21st August to 9th October). The dates on this list are the dates for the sanctioning window, not play: http://wizards.com/wpn/Events/Scheduling.aspx?category=dungeonsdragons but the links are to a bare bones page with those event dates on the left-hand-side.

Note also the Game Days: Vault of the Dracolich on 15th June and Murder in Baldur's Gate on 10th August.

Herschel · Mar 22, 2013

I just don't get the push to use a (not even) half-baked system at public events to push your brand. All the kumbaya-you're-involved schtick in the world doesn't cover the fact DDN is still a semi-useless mess.

Alphastream · Mar 23, 2013

Herschel said:
I just don't get the push to use a (not even) half-baked system at public events to push your brand. All the kumbaya-you're-involved schtick in the world doesn't cover the fact DDN is still a semi-useless mess.

To some, though, right? PAX East just ran the most successful single-adventure D&D PAX event, using D&D Next. They turned away more than 20 full tables tonight - that's how high demand is!

Keep in mind that the average player doesn't follow EN World, doesn't follow Twitter or forums, etc. They barely know that there is a new edition to try out. This is their chance to learn a little about it. This is especially true at PAX.

As with many things, when we step away from micro-analysis, we actually have a great time. I can go on endlessly about the micro-analysis of not having a warlord class, but every time I've ran or played D&D Next at a convention it has been an absolute blast. As a huge fan of 4E, it isn't easy for me to admit that many times my best tables at a convention have been the D&D Next tables. Not everyone has a similar experience, but the vast majority are having an excellent time. For Wizards, this is an excellent tactic. For critical gamers, well, it will always vary by the person asked. (Seriously, where is my warlord!

)

Joe Lastowski · Apr 4, 2013

Hmm... so Murder in Baldur's Gate is going to be a Game Day adventure, a D&D Encounters season, AND a for-sale product that they release (also on 8/20)??? Is that right, or did somebody at Wizards just copy & paste too many times? I mean, if they can tie all three together, that'd be great (like they did with the Neverwinter Game Day adventure, Lost Crown of Neverwinter, and the Neverwinter source book)... but I've learned not to always expect that everything I hope for from our friends at Wizards will come to pass.

As for NEXT, our store's playtests have only been doable with experienced players, all of whom found multiple faults with whatever aspect of the system they were focusing on (a particular class, or spell lists, or certain mechanics, etc). New players have been intimidated by the playtest documents and their lack of cohesion, which is why our in-store Encounters games have always stayed 4e so far... nobody wants to try an untested half-system. But then again, that's just my experience, and it sounds like others (like the folks at PAX) have had different experiences (though I wonder, was there a 4e option, or was NEXT the only game in town?).

MerricB · Apr 5, 2013

Both the tables we ran of Encounters ended up using Next. It's mostly because we don't have many new players - most of them have been with us for the last couple of years. (And they've been playing in my AD&D campaign, so the speed of Next feels familiar to them). This last season has worked really, really well - the players have really responded well to its more free-form structure of the adventure, and Next is functional. Not great, and with holes, but not so apparent in the Encounters format.

Joe, you could play the last season of Encounters using 4E; it was the default. (We almost had one table of 4E players, but they ended up being extremely unreliable in when they turned up).

Joe Lastowski · Apr 5, 2013

MerricB said:
Joe, you could play the last season of Encounters using 4E; it was the default. (We almost had one table of 4E players, but they ended up being extremely unreliable in when they turned up).

Merric, I know Encounters has the 4e option. As I said, that's what our store has been running. I was curious if PAX (where Alphastream said there was a massive bunch of NEXT players) offered 4e options for the game(s) they were running (which would mean that the players preferred NEXT), or if the session was only offered in NEXT, which could just mean that there were lots of people who wanted to play at PAX, using whatever system was available.

MerricB · Apr 5, 2013

Joe Lastowski said:
Merric, I know Encounters has the 4e option. As I said, that's what our store has been running. I was curious if PAX (where Alphastream said there was a massive bunch of NEXT players) offered 4e options for the game(s) they were running (which would mean that the players preferred NEXT), or if the session was only offered in NEXT, which could just mean that there were lots of people who wanted to play at PAX, using whatever system was available.

Ah, right. As far as I can gather, D&D Next was the only D&D system on offer. Two adventures were run: Danger at Darkshelf Quarry (for new players) and Mines of Madness (some experience recommended).

https://www.wizards.com/dnd/feature.aspx?x=dnd/feature/paxeast2013

Cheers!

Alphastream · Apr 5, 2013

PAX East (just a few weeks ago) offered only D&D Next. Before that the conventions offered a mix of 4E and Next. It is hard to predict what future conventions will hold, but it shouldn't be a shock if they switch to being primarily or entirely Next.

It can be hard to predict what the WPN announcements mean. They do sometimes end up being a bit off. And, I can't confirm anything I do know that isn't public knowledge (NDAs prohibit that). If what the WPN page says is the case, it would be really cool. Dungeon is now providing some of the once exclusive organized play adventures (including Encounters), so there could very well be a shift in approach for Next as well.

Edit: Well, looks like the "in the works" column just confirms it as a product!

Alphastream · Apr 5, 2013

A little more info on next week's Encounters season, which returns to Neverwinter, and the one after that, Search for the Diamond Staff. Rich Baker wrote the later, which is pretty cool (he was part of a previous layoff and now working as a freelancer). The same article provides background for those and for the current (and final) Lair Assault.

The article also goes on to say, "In fact, we're going to try out something new this year, using the D&D Lair Assault experience as well as some past convention events as inspiration for our first multiple table cooperative D&D Game Day, taking place on June 15th this year! It's called Vault of the Dracolich, and if you love D&D Lair Assault or taking part in larger-scale events where you can affect changes in real time, you're going to love this, too. We'll have a lot more details in April regarding this play experience." I do think fans of classic battle interactives (as seen in Living Greyhawk, Living Arcanis, LFR, and others) will enjoy this!

Alphastream · Apr 11, 2013

I revised some of the Ashes of Athas section, mentioning that the campaign has concluded. I linked to the forums where the process for ordering adventures (for free) is mentioned. The Baldman web site will be updated soon for that, but I wanted to go ahead and provide the information.

Also, it was disclosed on Twitter that Shawn Merwin and I authored an upcoming interactive D&D Next event for Gen Con. It was also mentioned that Ed Greenwood was involved. I can't share anything else, other than my being very happy with how it came out. I think people will really enjoy the event, and I look forward to talking about it once it is public! If you are going to Gen Con, hopefully I'll see you at the event.

Finally, Random Wizards has had some great interviews with former TSR greats. This included a bit of information on Murder in Baldur's Gate by author (co-author?) Steve Winter. Interesting!