D&D 5E No News From Winter Fantasy 2015?

tuxgeo · Feb 7, 2015

In years past there have been many posts of news from "Winter Fantasy" in Fort Wayne, Indiana; however, I haven't seen anything here this year.

Today is the third of four days for that convention. Is there anything to report? Did WotC even have a presence in Fort Wayne this year?

Morrus · Feb 7, 2015

They have one person (was it Chris Tulach? I can't remember), but that's all.

thalmin · Feb 7, 2015

I expect attendence is pretty light, considering the very heavy snowstorms experienced by Fort Wayne and the entire Great Lakes and Northeast regions of the country just prior to the convention.

TerraDave · Feb 7, 2015

It was a TSR con back in the day, and, years later, was the D&D eXPerience, where many exciting announcements were made.

Clearly not the case any more. I also wonder about the decision to move it from the mid-atlantic to the midwest, given both the number of big cons there and, especially, the weather.

fjw70 · Feb 8, 2015

thalmin said:
I expect attendence is pretty light, considering the very heavy snowstorms experienced by Fort Wayne and the entire Great Lakes and Northeast regions of the country just prior to the convention.

I went a few years ago to play in the first 5e public playtest and it was pretty lightly attended then too.

That was an interesting trip. Early Sunday morning my wife called and said my daughter had been throwing up all night. So my son and I skipped the morning session (We were going to play Lords of Waterdeep) and drove home through a snow storm. Then my son threw up in the back seat of my car about half way home.

Ah, good times.

tuxgeo · Feb 8, 2015

Alright; I guess it's not too surprising, considering the various things that have been said from WotC recently about the size of their release schedule this year.

I had been going along with the wishful speculations that some people had been posting, which were to the general effect that any surprise announcements might be made at Winter Fantasy this year, based on the remembrance that WotC had provided so much new information at that Con during the years between the 5E announcement and the 5E release.

Kroad · Feb 8, 2015

I just got back from this. It was my first time attending so I cannot compare to years past but overall I had a very nice time. It was on the small side - maybe a few hundred attendees in total - but a very experienced and friendly crowd. A lot of the players were folks that either spent most of their time gm'ing at other cons or were affiliated with the actual adventurers league organization. I don't think there were any major product announcements, but they did premier 4 new adventures (played them all) as well as a magic item trading post so I think those were fairly significant pieces of 5e AL content.

All in all while there wasn't much going on outside the games themselves (a small vendor hall and the game library which didn't get much action) the tables were full and people seemed pretty satisfied. I'd certainly go back again and recommend it for others looking for a low-key, but concentrated gaming experience.