D&D 5E Public Play

[VenomousFiligree]

I want to organise D&D AL games in a public place with an open invite. I am not a convention (traditional meaning) and I am not affiliated with a WPN store. Can I obtain and run Expedition adventures?

We're looking into it Venomous

Keeping fingers crossed!

 

[smerwin29]

While I am not directly involved in OP efforts this time except for some adventure design work, I think what people need to realize is that the purpose of the D&D Adventurer's League is to do more than simply provide content--it is trying to create different and unique _experiences_. I cannot emphasize that last word enough. The game of D&D, from its very foundation, has been about experiences.

The different tiers of the D&D Adventurers League (AL) correspond to different experiences. Although there are 3 named tiers (Encounters, Expeditions, and Epics), WotC really should have given a name to a 4th tier that revolves around home play. Maybe call it "Campaigns?" This is the home play experience at the root of D&D. People can take part in the D&D AL without ever leaving home by playing the published, off-the-shelf adventures. If you follow the D&D AL guidelines (yet to be published), then the program is absolutely supporting your play experience. You are taking part in the same campaign as everyone else who participates, but you are doing so privately. Again, the Organized Play Program of WotC is supporting the experience you desire: the home play experience.

Now the next type of experience that the D&D AL is supporting is the brief, social, weekly experience. This type of experience is handled through D&D Encounters. This program serves many purposes and has many goals, but the big 2 are to provide support for game stores in order to help support sales, and to give people who want to play D&D and don't have a lot of time a means to play. The program has been going on long enough that I don't need to say much more about its purpose. Yes, it is a shame when game stores refuse to offer the program (as was my experience for the first 7 seasons even though I begged several game stores to let me run it). When the program started, none of the many game stores (all of whom ran Magic constantly) in Buffalo participated. At last count, there were now 7 stores in Buffalo running Encounters with multiple tables at each store--thanks directly to engaged community members who worked hard to show the stores that the program was wanted and valuable to both players and the stores themselves. And yes, it is a shame when a player does not have a local store to run Encounters. I personally have to drive an hour to get to the store where I run a game, so I get it.

The next type of experience is served by the D&D Expeditions program. This is where the whole "public play" question comes to the fore. WotC has clarified (the out-of-touch customer support answer notwithstanding) that any public venue can receive and run Expedition adventures: sanctioning the event through a store is better because then the DM and players get extra perks, but the adventures are still available through non-store public play. That means any location that is open for anyone to come and participate: conventions, game days, libraries, churches, community centers, coffee shops, etc. That is because this particular program emphasizes specifically the social aspect of D&D. The point of the program is not to provide content, although it does. The point of the program is to create a community interaction between players in addition to the interconnected storytelling among the characters of those players. If you are not a social player, someone who wants to play in public with strangers, that's OK. But this program is not aimed at you then.

The Epic program, of course, is the totally unique event that is a "once-in-a-blue-moon" experience. This is for invested players willing to travel far and wide to make a totally unique mark on the setting. These only work when 100s of players are involved at once, so they can only be run at an event where hundreds of players can play at once. Every last inch of play space that WotC can get at GenCon is filled to get as many people as possible into the event.

Again, this is just all my opinion based on what I have seen at seminars (including this past weekend at Origins) and read online. And while you can argue with goals and purposes of the programs, it is hard to argue that, from what we have seen, the programs do a great deal to support those purposes.

Shawn

 

[VenomousFiligree]

The next type of experience is served by the D&D Expeditions program. This is where the whole "public play" question comes to the fore. WotC has clarified (the out-of-touch customer support answer notwithstanding) that any public venue can receive and run Expedition adventures: sanctioning the event through a store is better because then the DM and players get extra perks, but the adventures are still available through non-store public play. That means any location that is open for anyone to come and participate: conventions, game days, libraries, churches, community centers, coffee shops, etc. That is because this particular program emphasizes specifically the social aspect of D&D. The point of the program is not to provide content, although it does. The point of the program is to create a community interaction between players in addition to the interconnected storytelling among the characters of those players. If you are not a social player, someone who wants to play in public with strangers, that's OK. But this program is not aimed at you then.

It is not a completely out of touch customer support answer. The D&D AL Community Manager has stated that it he is 'looking into it', he has not confirmed the above at all.

 

[smerwin29]

Let me rephrase that. In my experience as an OP admin over the last 10+ years, WotC Customer Support is often out of touch with the rest of the departments there. That is not an indictment of anyone--just a fact. When asked directly about the very question of what counts as "public play" at his Origins seminar, WotC OP Manager Chris Tulach said pretty much what you put in bold in my statement: as long as you are playing in a public place and go through WotC's event management system (I cannot remember the exact words he used there), then you get the Expedition adventures and run them in that public place. If you do it through a game store, that benefits you (you get those perks) and the game store (they gain or maintain their Wizards Play Network status).

I cannot say this is the official policy. I can only say what I heard at the seminar.

Shawn

 

[VenomousFiligree]

WotC OP Manager Chris Tulach said pretty much what you put in bold in my statement: as long as you are playing in a public place and go through WotC's event management system (I cannot remember the exact words he used there), then you get the Expedition adventures and run them in that public place. If you do it through a game store, that benefits you (you get those perks) and the game store (they gain or maintain their Wizards Play Network status).

I cannot say this is the official policy. I can only say what I heard at the seminar.

And the WotC D&D AL Community Manager is saying 'We're looking into it' [that you can get Expeditions if you're not associated with a WPN store], so it would still appear to be up in the air....

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Yes, from everything I've seen posted so far, it really seems like Chris Tulach intended all conventions to get a store sponsor to order the adventures except for really big conventions that they'd make an exception for and they'd contact the Community Manager directly.

However, it sounds like enough people are asking that they are looking into alternatives.