No WotC At Gen Con This Year?

DLIMedia said:

Well I didn't say they were perfect, but I seriously doubt WotC can do any better.

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I'll let you know after Origins! Joking aside, I dunno, but I will say that they would probably do a better job since it is directly their brand.

DLIMedia said:

And the quality of DMs is really a crap shoot... It's a fact of life: some DMs just suck and there's nothing you can do about that.

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I'll agree with you to a point. I can't say I have ever met a bad convention DM, though, but maybe I am more forgiving or have lived a charmed life.

I have only been to Gen Con twice in 2014 and 2015 so my perspective is somewhat limited.

In 2014, WOTC had they had their own play area and small display of books with the debut of 5.0. I have to say I was underwhelmed. I saw some drow actors, a few cool statues, and access to some of the authors. For the unveiling of their new product I thought it would be much bigger. I thought they would have direct book sales, twice the play space, some cool sales area. I don't know why but I thought WOTC and DnD would be 1/3 of Gen Con in terms of floor space. To me it would be like going to the Vatican only to find a single, small church and nothing else. There was just a sense of grandiose vision in my mind and I was somewhat disappointed.

In 2015, there was even less presence. I will put in a great word for Baldman Games. I don't do organized DnD normally. I have two old groups that live out of state and don't have a group in my current location. We get together at GenCon to play together.....Think the Blues Brothers getting the band back together. I did three play sessions with Baldman and the worst session had an above average DM. The other two were fantastic. One of our DMs (blanking on his name) was blind and ran a very smooth game without miniatures. It was a fantastic experience. I was totally shocked because I am normally a miniatures and tactical movement kind of guy. Gave me a new perspective on the game.

My only criticism of Baldman is limited number of sessions. We got to start from 1st level and got to nearly 3rd level playing three sessions. We couldn't adventure any further. They had some higher level campaigns starting at about 6th with much lower number of sessions. There is no way to get pregens or up your character levels through some metric to play those higher level sessions. This is more an RPGA problem rather than Baldman's problem. My inference was there were far more pathfinder games available to play. This too is an issue with expectation. I assumed I could go to gencon and just continuously play DnD every day from start to finish, but there just aren't enough sessions and demand is too high.

Not to thread jack. Can someone explain the difference between Origins, Winter Fantasy, and Gen Con?

broghammerj said:

Not to thread jack. Can someone explain the difference between Origins, Winter Fantasy, and Gen Con?

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They are all gaming conventions, Origins is a little smaller than Gen Con and traditionally is more board/card game focused, where Gen Con came from a more RPG and miniature gaming angle. Although, there is plenty of all of that at both of them now. Winter Fantasy is pretty much all RPGs and is waaayyy smaller than Gen Con and Origins. Last year was mostly D&D and one other RPG that I can't remember the name of. It's a more low-key, quieter alternative to the big conventions.

Winter Fantasy was also at one point called 'D&D Experience' I believe.

cmad1977 said:

Seriously. They talked about this already. Other venues are superior in regards to panels, Q+A sessions and (by far most importantly) media attendance/attention. Gen-con is great for gaming, but to dump resources into it is basically preaching to the choir.

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I think they are misguided in this regard. One of the most common complaints I heard last year about the All-Access Pass was people who had brought family or friends to try out D&D at Gen Con and were disappointed at how lackluster it was compared to the previous year. Gen Con is the biggest role-playing convention but to say that everyone there is already familiar with D&D and so not worth marketing to is flat out wrong. A lot of people coming to Gen Con are doing so to try out new games or to try out games outside of their usual stomping grounds. This includes board game players trying out card games, or miniature game players trying out RPGs.

Another comment I heard a few times last year which saddened me was people looking to play D&D with new players in tow ending up playing Pathfinder instead because Paizo doesn't share Wizards' belief that Gen Con isn't a valid marketing event for their product. When choosing between D&D and Pathfinder at Gen Con, the choice is clear. One game has a huge hall full of banners and stand-ups and hundreds of games going on and a huge presence in the dealer's room and the other has... practically nothing. Baldman Games valiantly holding down the fort for a company that apparently doesn't care enough to show up.

Not intending to be bitter, just frustrated that a game I love will be missing what I feel is a prime opportunity to grow its player base and keep its fans invigorated and engaged.

Has anyone attended Pax Prime? What does the D&D table top look like there? I imagine that Wizards has more of an official marketing and sales presence there since its close to their HQ.

spongebob1138 said:

I didn't expect WOTC to be at Gen Con, as they had said last year it wasn't their focus anymore. Truth be told, it doesn't bother me. I had a terrible time trying to play D&D at Gen Con last year: it was noisy as hell, and I could hardly make out what my DM and other players were trying to say. I'm not even going to try and play any D&D at Gen Con this year, not unless the situation with the room/crowd was going to be different (which I'm sure it won't be).

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D&D has moved to a different location at Gen Con this year.

Dndungeoneer said:

I'll let you know after Origins! Joking aside, I dunno, but I will say that they would probably do a better job since it is directly their brand.

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You know BMG also runs all of the games for WOTC at Origins as well, right?

Tyranthraxus said:

Winter Fantasy was also at one point called 'D&D Experience' I believe.

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Another difference about Winter Fantasy is that since there are fewer attendees, you get a lot more one on one time with designers and other industry folks. A lot of industry people are often there, sometimes they actually get to play, but even if they are not on a panel at the time, they are often in the main hall just talking to people. At Gen Con if you are lucky you might get 2 minutes with Mearls before he has to go to his next event. At Winter Fantasy you might 15 minutes or even see him at lunch and chat. Much more relaxed, much more chance to be like an insider.

skerritthegreen said:

D&D has moved to a different location at Gen Con this year.

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Do you know where? And do you think it will be less noisy??