My Gripe with D&D Experience

exile · Nov 21, 2008

So, I've got a gripe with D&D Experience that I feel needs to be aired here (even though it has already come up elsewhere). I set down to register for events today, and I was saddened to see that only three of the ten slots have adventures for 1st-3rd level characters. Beyond that, two slots had already sold out of events that I (or anyone really) could play in with characters of 4th-7th level. Now, you could argue that I could use those slots to do something other than Living Forgotten Realms, but if I am spending money to travel and play, I should be able to play something that I am vaguely interested in (I absolutely detest the Delve events I have played in previously).

My hope is that, I'll be able to find impromptu LFR events to fill those slots, but even if I can, that does little good for friends who were contemplating coming with me to play their first and second level LFR characters.

So, here you have it...a bit of a gripe, but more than that, an impassioned plea. Please, please, pretty please, increase the number of low-level offerings for LFR play at D&D Experience. Please.

Chad

Scott_Rouse · Nov 21, 2008

Dave "Wavester" Christ posts here. It is at his discretion to add more slots. Let him know what you want and maybe he can accommodate.

You should also post this in the RPGA D&D XP thread

Lhorgrim · Nov 21, 2008

I've never been to Experience, but it sounds smaller than I imagined it. Didn't it used to be Winter Fantasy or something? I figured it'd be a pretty significant event.

Btw Exile, are you still in the land of the Briar Jumpers?

exile · Nov 21, 2008

Crap. Computer ate my witty post.

The short of it. Rouse, thanks for your reply man. Will play more LFR so my elven rogue will be able to handle the perils of Ft. Wayne. May have to eat my low-level friends if the snows are too deep. Hope my marriage doesn't suffer (j/k).

Lhorgrim, yeah, still in Somerset. Where are you now? Attended D&D Experience once about 5-6 years ago, back when it was indeed Winter Fantasy. Not sure about numbers, but it filled a large hotel ballroom if memory serves.

Chad

Weregrognard · Nov 21, 2008

I have a (petty) gripe too: It is no longer in Crystal City, VA close to where I live. If I am to go all the way to Indiana for a con, I might as well just go to Gen Con instead :rant:

The_Baldman · Nov 21, 2008

exile said:
So, I've got a gripe with D&D Experience that I feel needs to be aired here (even though it has already come up elsewhere). I set down to register for events today, and I was saddened to see that only three of the ten slots have adventures for 1st-3rd level characters. Beyond that, two slots had already sold out of events that I (or anyone really) could play in with characters of 4th-7th level. Now, you could argue that I could use those slots to do something other than Living Forgotten Realms, but if I am spending money to travel and play, I should be able to play something that I am vaguely interested in (I absolutely detest the Delve events I have played in previously).

My hope is that, I'll be able to find impromptu LFR events to fill those slots, but even if I can, that does little good for friends who were contemplating coming with me to play their first and second level LFR characters.

So, here you have it...a bit of a gripe, but more than that, an impassioned plea. Please, please, pretty please, increase the number of low-level offerings for LFR play at D&D Experience. Please.

Chad

There are answers over on your post in the DDXP Wotc forums as well but I like to be everywhere.

The two slots of 4-7 adventures that were sold out have been expanded and tickets made available. Tickets are a flexible thing as you can try to predict what people are going to want and when but you never truly know until they go on sale.

For characters in the 1-3 range we have the 3 Open LFR slots where we will have judges with various adventures from 1-7 prep'd and ready. We will also have overflow judges each slot ready to run tables of lower levels whenever possible.

Shows need to create their schedules to meet the needs of their core player base. That core player base is 4-7 right now and thus we have a lot of 4-10 adventures lined up. We have some sprinkling for lower level players to help bump them up to the next level band. We cannot just create another whole track for lower level characters because once you take into account the few that will want to play it, the number of different adventures it would take to populate it, and how many judges would have to prepare 4, 5, or even 6 different adventures and it becomes a problem.

Dave C
DDXP Senior GM and Coordinator

The_Baldman · Nov 21, 2008

Lhorgrim said:
I've never been to Experience, but it sounds smaller than I imagined it. Didn't it used to be Winter Fantasy or something? I figured it'd be a pretty significant event.

Btw Exile, are you still in the land of the Briar Jumpers?

Not sure what you've imagined but the show has hit 1,000+ players on several occassions (but not since it started moving around in 2003). It is a RPGA D&D only show so those numbers with that subset of players I think is pretty large. With the stuff we run and previews that nobody else has I think we count as significant.

Dave C

The_Baldman · Nov 21, 2008

Androlphas said:
I have a (petty) gripe too: It is no longer in Crystal City, VA close to where I live. If I am to go all the way to Indiana for a con, I might as well just go to Gen Con instead

Well at least you recognize it's a petty gripe

It was in Fort Wayne for years before it moved (first two New Jersey, then a different hotel in DC, then the location from last year for the past three years). So people grumped by the bucket load when it moved from the midwest. People grump whenever something convenient to them becomes less so. It's our nature.

The hotel we were in was horrible. They treated us and our guests to the show like crap. We received dozens of complaints over the past few years and were definetly made to feel not welcome (which for how much money we were paying them kinda makes you mad). The show needed to move, it needed to grow more then it was doing on the east coast, and it needed to be somewhere where the costs were reduced in a significant fashion. None of those factors work in DC's favor.

Dave C

Lhorgrim · Nov 21, 2008

wavester said:
Not sure what you've imagined but the show has hit 1,000+ players on several occassions (but not since it started moving around in 2003). It is a RPGA D&D only show so those numbers with that subset of players I think is pretty large. With the stuff we run and previews that nobody else has I think we count as significant.

Dave C

I did not know it was an RPGA only event. Those numbers sound like good turnout for a event of that type.

I imagined it as a regional convention(open to everybody) that moved to different areas, not served by established cons. In my mind I thought of it as the kind of Con with an attendance of several thousand. No reason for me to think that, just the way the mind creates information to fill in the blanks I guess.

The RPGA membership is pretty sparse in my area (very few events, can't get a membership app without an event), so I'm not very educated about the various goings on.

exile · Nov 21, 2008

Dave,

I appreciate your attentiveness to my concerns, especially expanding the 4-7 slots on teh first day. I'm going to go check those out now, but I'm also going to make a point of simply trying to find more LFR play between now and then, so I am a slightly higher level than I had anticipated.

The one thing that, in my mind, would have made this resolution perfect (and still might) would be an increased number of 1-3 slots during the first day of the con (but not at the expense of teh open slots later in the con). A few rounds might be just enough to bump someone who shows up in a timely fashion into being able to enjoy the whole con (i.e. LFR for the whole con), rather than hanging out, waiting to play the late session each day.

That said, even that likely wouldn't be able to help my friend (who was kind enough to me to order and run the WIFR adventure without having a ctually played any LFR) and only has a virgin level 1 character. Oh well, I hear even dwarven cleric tastes good when the Snows of Ft. Wayne threaten starvation.

Chad

My Gripe with D&D Experience

exile

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Scott_Rouse

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Lhorgrim

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exile

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Weregrognard

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The_Baldman

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The_Baldman

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The_Baldman

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Lhorgrim

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exile

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