D&D Encounters, just what the Dr ordered?

[hutchback]

I realize that what I am about to convey is purely anecdotal, but I am curious if others have experienced the same thing.

I have been playing in a weekly 4E game at my FLGS for a number of months. The group I joined had been meeting for some time already. There were regularly 8 of us including the DM, which was too large a group for most people's tastes.

The DM, an employee of said FLGS, had been unable to find another DM. Preventing him from splitting the group.

I had begun to consider running another game as a DM, but D&D Encounters locked it for me. The fact that they were providing the bulk of the materials and presenting a campaign designed specifically to be run in small chunks was very appealing to me as a newbie DM.

The current DM, warned me that it may take some time to fill up the new group, but that I should hang in there because it would happen with time.

Well we launched Encounters with a group of 6, none of whom came over from the old group. Over the course of the last 6 weeks, two more DM's have volunteered to run Encounters each of which are now running groups of 4-6 each week.

In a matter of week's we went from 1 game to 4. The players in each group are predominately new to 4E or D&D altogether.

I can't help that think that Encounters has a lot, if not everything, to do with this. Has anyone else experience this kind of growth in their Encounters group? Do you think this is exactly the kind of thing needed to revitalize interest in tabletop RPGs?

 

[darjr]

Yes, a more casual shorter form public play option was desperately needed. I want something similar for RPGA so I can schedule on any night.

Fantastic.

 

[Piratecat]

The Boston/Cambridge group is definitely growing, with quite a few new players coming in. We've had some people new to 4e and even some folks who have never played D&D at all. WotC gets major credit -- for us, at least, it's bringing new people into the hobby.

We're running two games at a time, twice a night, and those are usually full. I'm enjoying it - it's giving me the chance to try out new classes (telekinetic psion, how I loooove you) and to GM for relative strangers. Fun!

 

[hutchback]

I want something similar for RPGA so I can schedule on any night.

Agreed. In fact I think my group would love to continue in a campaign with these specific characters. Sanctioned LFR adventures of this length would be ideal.

 

[Samurai]

There was just the opposite reaction at my FLGS. No one was willing to DM it, so I volunteered. Only 3 people (all fairly young, about half my age) signed up to play. One of them dropped out after the 1st week, but one of the others brought another friend of his, keeping it at 3 people. It seems interest has been waning over the weeks, and last week, 1 of the 3 didn't show up. I'm not sure if we're going to even last to the end of the adventure...

 

[Jdvn1]

It's been growing, though at a slower clip, here in Houston too.

At my FLGS, it went from 1 table to 2, another (second) store on the other side of town has started running it, and there's interest in other stores too (but, to my knowledge, not enough sets to go around).

I love the chance to practice GMing and test out new character options.

 

[Tharian]

The Boston/Cambridge group is definitely growing, with quite a few new players coming in. We've had some people new to 4e and even some folks who have never played D&D at all. WotC gets major credit -- for us, at least, it's bringing new people into the hobby.

We're running two games at a time, twice a night, and those are usually full. I'm enjoying it - it's giving me the chance to try out new classes (telekinetic psion, how I loooove you) and to GM for relative strangers. Fun!

That's good to know. I'll likely be contributing to that growing number soon as I'm looking at moving into the area in June.

 

[renau1g]

There was just the opposite reaction at my FLGS. No one was willing to DM it, so I volunteered. Only 3 people (all fairly young, about half my age) signed up to play. One of them dropped out after the 1st week, but one of the others brought another friend of his, keeping it at 3 people. It seems interest has been waning over the weeks, and last week, 1 of the 3 didn't show up. I'm not sure if we're going to even last to the end of the adventure...

How were you guys even playing? You need 4 I thought.

 

[Festivus]

We have been pretty stable at 5 tables for sure and one that occasionally flies, but yes, it's popular. Just wish we could have it for Tuesday nights instead of Weds.

 

[Samurai]

How were you guys even playing? You need 4 I thought.

I didn't know there was a hard limit, but we had the materials, and I when only 3 showed up, I had to decide whether to run it anyway or scrap it. I decided to run it anyway. At first I reduced the number of monsters in the encounters, but even with 3 characters, they trounced the monsters. So I've been using the full or close to full number of monsters since then, and they are still winning each battle, though it's tough for them sometimes... the last 2 sessions we played someone dropped to unconscious temporarily before being revived by the Paladin.