D&D "ask me anything" on Reddit 1/15 at 3 pm PST

[skerritthegreen]

Heh! Sorry, I should have been more clear. I apologize.

You seem to be saying that the AMA today won't cover AL stuff. The Official DnD twitter account says that it will. That's my confusion. I've misunderstood something somewhere?

Paige

It definitely covers AL stuff. It won't cover AL questions that are not really related to the new change (or things controlled by the Admins and not WOTC).

 

[skerritthegreen]

Most conventions aren't businesses -- they're run by volunteers for the benefit of their communities. That's also why many conventions don't take specific steps to grow beyond what their organizers are comfortable with, because that's the level of financial and time support they can afford.

I run five conventions in WI and IL (which you are certainly welcome at, but if you don't come by we'll always cross paths at Gamehole). If I lost money on them, I wouldn't run them.

 

[kalani]

I think the confusion surrounds the fact that new conventions often run at a deficit for the first year or two, in the hopes of attracting more interest in the Con (much like any other business). The goal is always to make profit however, unless of course the CON is set-up as a nonprofit (with the profit above running costs going to charity). I attend a nonprofit anime-con in my city each year for example.

 

[Steve_MND]

Even so, as best I can tell, the cost of gaining the mods is a one-time fee, not like a once-per-table or even a once-per-con thing. Once you have them, you have them. And at an average of 3 bucks per mod, let's say, that's literally pennies per convention player. If a convention is honestly an extra 10-15 dollars away from surviving each year, they've got far more pressing issues to deal with than a handful of mods.

Now, if that were a per-table or even per-day fee, sure, that might be something to be concerned over. But I haven't seen anything to suggest that yet. As mentioned previously, this is quite similar to the way the Pathfinder Society OP campaign operates, and it's worked out quite well at conventions and such for many years now. One might argue whether this is the proper path for AL to have headed down, but the path is well-worn and tested, at any rate.

 

[darjr]

At smaller cons you can only run a mod once or twice before everyone interested has played it. Not to mention the next season comes along and the old mods are not as popular. Finally GM's will be scheduled, they may get slot they run for a mod they really don't like.

Finally these folks running public games are volunteers. They are running games for folks they might not game with otherwise or even know. They are dealing with having to go to the con like everyone else sometimes getting a free badge or comped, maybe.

 

[Pauper]

The goal is always to make profit however, unless of course the CON is set-up as a nonprofit (with the profit above running costs going to charity).

That's where I'm coming from -- with the exception of private companies like Gen Con LLC and the group that runs DragonCon, my understanding is that most gaming convention organizing bodies** (like the Magnetron Council that runs Con of the North, my largest local gaming con) are set up as non-profits. This doesn't mean they don't try to make money, but it does mean their goal is not primarily profit.

Some organizations donate profits to charity, others bank profits in a fund to protect against years where they run a deficit.

** - Game conventions can also be thought of as a subset of fandom conventions in general, of which anime, SF/fantasy, etc. are also types. Some of these are run by professional, for-profit organizations (the various Wizard World conventions, for example), many others are run by non-profits (including San Diego Comic Con, run by the non-profit Comic Con International).

/pedant

--
Pauper

 

[Scorpienne]

(Put this in the original post too)

Reddit AMA - here's my take. You should look at Mike and Chris' answers and draw your own conclusions.

https://www.reddit.com/user/mikemearls
https://www.reddit.com/user/Onnatryx

There is a hope that reviews/ratings will help sort the items on DMsGuild.

They are focusing on PC stuff because that's their biggest demand. (Classes and that kind of thing.)

More art coming to DMsGuild.

Can use FR specific monsters, NPCs, and spells in DMsGuild.

Nothing in the store is okay for AL play *except* the adventures that are clearly marked adventurers league. There are no plans to pull modules that people have written for the store into DDAL.

No plans currently for mods to retire. If they change their minds, they'll let us know well ahead of time.

It is totally okay if you want to play around with one or more of the other continents in the Forgotten Realms. Kara-tur, Al-Qadim, and Maztica are totally part of the DMs Guild allowed content.

Stores will get a free launch event package, including an adventure. They can run the adventure week after week if they want to. The season 4 launch event will be directly from the print product. After that the following seasons launch events will be brand new material.

WotC will reach out to people who've published good stuff to create more or revise it for an AL or published product.

Mike Mearls "We've seen what happens when we do too much content, so the plan is to take things slow."

No news on digital versons of the 5E core rulebooks.

No other logos provided, only the DMsGuild logo.

You can reference other material in the DMsGuild in your DMsGuild document, as well as materials that WotC has made available under it, but not things OUTSIDE the DMsGuild.

MM says the DM and/or players "should" purchase the mod to run in a store (rather than the store). But it wasn't a clear "must".

Reporting tables played - it only helps a store increase their WPN credit. If they don't need to increase their credit, then they don't have to be bothered with reporting. Reporting for home play is entirely unnecessary.

Don't intend to add any more material to the SRD (other than necessary updates).

You can add a color quote from a FR novel, but don't take paragraphs wholesale.

If you're writing for DMsGuild, you can absolutely use beholders and illithids and all of the other proprietary monsters.

Forgotten realms stuff includes anything that was published with a forgotten realms logo on it.

You can play the encounters stuff at home now.

Several people want to convert old mods to 5E. That's legal for DMsGuild IF you put it in the realms. They hope authors will do more than a straight conversion and put their own spin on it.

 

[DLIMedia]

I think the most important thing that came out of this AMA is that you can finally make adventures with "product identity" creatures in them, even if they're not Realms specific.

https://twitter.com/BrainClouds/status/688117543676985344

Bring on those beholders, guys!!!

 

[Anthraxus]

Did you post your questions from post #2 in this thread(on the Reddit AMA), Scorpienne? I didn't see any of those addressed in your recent post.

 

[KahlessNestor]

I run five conventions in WI and IL (which you are certainly welcome at, but if you don't come by we'll always cross paths at Gamehole). If I lost money on them, I wouldn't run them.

That's my neck of the woods! Though I have never been to a con.