Baldman Games & WotC On All Access Issues At Gen Con

There were a lot of complaints about the D&D All Access gaming at Gen Con this year. Charles Akins over at Dyvers Campaign has a great summary, so I won't repeat it here - but if you're interested, check that out. WotC and Baldman Games (who run the D&D events at Gen Con) appear to have heard those complaints, because they are taking action to address them - to the extent that they're giving All Access badge holders a free copy of the upcoming hardcover Out of the Abyss, and a free copy of Sword Coast Legends video game!

You need to fill out a form to get your goodies.

"I first want to thank everyone for the excellent feedback so far. We are gathering comments and discussing ways to improve all Baldman Games’ offerings going forward. We will have further posts this Fall asking for more specific feedback.

Baldman Games and Wizards of the Coast realize that we did not meet your expectations with our All-Access Program at Gen Con this year. The way production schedules lined up, it was difficult for us to provide the new products that had been offered in previous years. But have no fear! We want to make things right. We value your support of D&D and our programs at Gen Con and other shows. To that end, we have some stuff to offer to everyone who played in the All-Access program at Gen Con 2015.

Here’s what you’ll get:

One hard copy of Out of the Abyss, the TRPG adventure in the Rage of Demons story, before it hits store shelves, mailed directly to you
One code for a digital copy of Sword Coast Legends, the party-based RPG coming out on PC, Mac and Linux, on September 29th, sent to the email you provide.

If you are an All-Access player from Gen Con, please make sure to fill in the form below completely. The information provided will only be used to ship the book to you, send the code, and/or contact you if we have a problem doing so. It will be destroyed once shipping is completed.

Once again, we apologize for not meeting the expectations of the program this year, and we will work hard in the coming months to build a bigger, stronger, and more transparent program in 2016 and beyond.

David Christ
Baldman Games"

 

[Queer Venger]

I'm really just hoping that this turns into an eye-opener for WotC in regards to their convention policies. I was a judge for Baldman this year, and being in Hall D with the board games and everything else - it was just a mess. I don't think we'll ever return to the days of the TSR Castle, but it would be nice to have the flagship product of the industry (right, wrong, or other, depending on your feelings) stood up proud for all to see and experience at GenCon. I'm excited for the future!

Absolutely the worst experience playing at Gencon, contrast the lovely rooms that Paizo used for their games on level 2 #iwantmymoneyback

 

[MerricB]

Absolutely the worst experience playing at Gencon, contrast the lovely rooms that Paizo used for their games on level 2 #iwantmymoneyback

I'm really wondering about how sustainable GenCon is in general: if it needs huge injections of cash from the companies to have good play areas, then that's a problem.

I mean, the attendees are paying quite a lot of money in the first place. Why does a company running a game need to push even more in GenCon's direction just to have a good play area?

This isn't to excuse the other aspects of the organisation of D&D games at this GenCon, but I'm getting the impression that it's more than just BMG and Wizards where there are issues...

Cheers!

 

[Shasarak]

If both Mike and Jeremy are telling us that Gen-Con is where you go to game, then this is not the kind of reports that you want to see.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

The castle belongs to WotC, not Baldman. So it will not be back unless WotC starts running the games at the Cons again.

Just a small nitpick, but WOTC has never ran the games at Cons. It's always been Baldman. That hasn't changed ever. WOTC donated some decorations to them to make the area look nice and they'd sometimes support them by posting the list of games on their own website to get people hyped about them, but the situation has always been that Dave Christ runs the games.

So there's nothing for WOTC to go back to doing. Other than maybe making things look nice and donating more money.

I mean, last year they did do some "party" stuff, like run a dance party outside as well as have a WOTC dinner party one night. But they did very little in terms of actually running the games.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

The "Harried in Hillsfar" games were up and down. Since they were $4 and easy to get into, I feel like they should get some slack. That said I think they should have a better way of allowing players to jump in and DM if there are physical tables left. The intro quick adventure shouldn't turn people away. I saw more than a few people get told that they were full.

Dave does not like to do "on the fly" organizing. I don't blame him. Once you start along that path, it can cause a LOT of problems. He allocates the DMs he has to events before the Con even starts. Which means that there will be X number of DMs dedicated to running the Intro Adventures during that slot. If he runs out, he runs out. If a bunch of players didn't show to a different adventure he MIGHT have an extra DM that he can get to run another table. But it's unlikely.

That's why all of the events are ticketed and available for order pre-GenCon. To make sure everyone who wants to play gets a chance to and to not provide false hope to people when they go beyond the number of tables they have or the number of DMs they have.

Dave is also very picky about who he allows to DM at his conventions. Anyone who has DMed for him in the past knows that his rules are strict(but fair). If you get a lot of complaints about your DMing, you will not be allowed to volunteer again next year. If you are late for your games, you will not be allowed to volunteer again and so forth.

This is why he doesn't just let anyone who walks up and asks to DM grab a table and run a game. He wants to vet people. He wants all of their information well in advance and wants them to read through his e-mail of convention rules and get written confirmation from them that they agree to follow them before they can run. This way he also knows where to contact them for various other reasons.

DMing at GenCon is serious business and Dave treats it that way. People are paying to play and he wants them to get their money's worth.

Though, I'm guessing that this year the number of first year volunteers might have been greater than in previous years. With first year volunteers, Dave doesn't know what to expect since there's not a lot you can do to verify how good of a DM someone is.

The Mid Level Track and the Epic finally are a different matter. I did enjoy the gaming and my DM was good. I suspect, but don't have proof that he was not allowed a lot of leeway in scaling the adventures. We cruised through them at a very fast pace and the climax encounters were a lot easier than we would have liked. There were serious organizational problems. The Low Level Track suffered more from them than we did though. Still we lost gaming time to waiting and time at Gencon is very expensive.

The DM had to follow the rules of Adventurer's League in terms of how much they can scale the encounter. If you haven't ran one before, this is the way it works:
The adventure says at the beginning that it is designed for Level X characters. So, for example, level 6. It then has a chart that says if the Average Party Level is above 6, then play the game at "Hard" difficulty. If there are 7 people and the Average Party Level is above the level the adventure is designed for, then play at Very Hard.

All of the encounters in the adventure have a side bar that says something like "Very Hard: The monster has 180 hp instead and his attack bonus is +7 instead of +6"

Beyond that, you need to run the adventure as written. Though you are allowed to add or remove enemies from an encounter if you feel it is too easy or too hard. But the monsters need to come from the encounter itself. For instance, if there are 5 Orcs in an encounter you can add or remove Orcs but you can't add a Dragon.

However, figuring out when to use your ability to add or remove monsters can be very difficult. Some encounters are much more deadly than others and figuring out which are which on the fly can be difficult. Not only that but encounters that one group can breeze past can be extremely difficult for another simply because of the composition of classes or spell choices...and sometimes by pure luck.

Once monsters have been described and are in the encounter it can be difficult to remove them. You need to have them run away or make them start taking useless actions in combat. Adding monsters can be a little bit easier but how they show up still needs to be explained logically. Not only that but if the encounter is against ONE really powerful creature then all you can do is add a second one. Which could possibly be enough to completely kill everyone.

Sometimes, you just need to run that anti-climactic encounter and watch the PCs win without any problem.

 

[Coreyartus]

I think of all things, this year brought to light the non-communication that is happening between Gencon, WotC, Baldman Games, and the volunteer AL Admin staff. One can only hope that the very experienced and long-term players on those teams learn to toss the ball around to each other a little better, empower and trust each other, and stop claiming mea culpa so often.

As a long-term local DM that has invested a lot of time and heart into AL games, and holds Gencon as a dream pilgrimage I've never been able to indulge in (like the vast majority of D&D players), it boggles my mind to hear that sponsorship level stands in the way of facilitating basic logistics like a microphone. I don't know the ins-and-outs of how those things get handled, but it sounds like the venue itself is getting too expensive. If I were Gencon, I'd reexamine its sponsorship structure and get the heck out of dodge when that contract expires in a couple years or there won't be any RPG companies that can afford to participate.

It sounds like WotC's non-participation made a difference. Hope that money they saved is used wisely. It's their OP. They have a bit of "brand repair" to do in some eyes.

Baldman Games bit off more than they could chew. But they're not inexperienced. Someone went on automatic pilot and things slipped.

And AL Admins, the volunteers that they are, get wedged in the middle yet again, perpetually last in the loop and powerless to do anything.

Left hand, meet right hand. PLEASE. Because convention play is getting less and less appealing as time goes on...

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I think of all things, this year brought to light the non-communication that is happening between Gencon, WotC, Baldman Games, and the volunteer AL Admin staff. One can only hope that the very experienced and long-term players on those teams learn to toss the ball around to each other a little better, empower and trust each other, and stop claiming mea culpa so often.

The thing is, I'm fairly certain there is a lot of communication happening between the 4. The AL staff decide what adventures will be run at GenCon and assign writers to write them and have them done in time for the Con. They send the list to Baldman months in advance in time for Baldman to enter the games into the GenCon event system. Then Baldman asks for gaming space, GenCon tells them the size of the space they can spare and how much it costs. Baldman pays and plans the number of slots according to how much space they have an the adventures that AL has available. They ask for volunteers and then figure out how best to assign those DMs.

Meanwhile, Dave Christ, who is friends from a couple of people from WOTC asks them if they can provide assistance. WOTC tells them what they can or can't give this year.

It's been the same process every year. The same thing happened this year. The only difference between this year and others is that WOTC decided to give less than previous years.

From what I can tell the last 2 years we've gotten good stuff from the All-Access Pass. But both years, I got the real impression that WOTC left it to the very last minute to confirm what it was that they could donate, even to Dave Christ himself. Last year he was on message boards weeks before GenCon stating that he still couldn't confirm what swag we'd get as part of the Pass because WOTC wasn't 100% sure if they could swing what they had promised him and a small shipping delay or a problem getting the product to GenCon would mean that he would now have to disappoint everyone that he promised cool stuff to. We got advance copies of the Monster Manual that were signed by the dev team. Which was awesome. But Dave Christ seemed unsure if it was actually going to happen until the last second.

That didn't mean there was a lack of communication. Just that there are a lot of unknowns when planning something this far in advance with so many moving pieces.

The AL staff isn't 100% certain all the adventures they announced will actually be completely by GenCon, but they can work as hard as they can to make it happen. Baldman Games has to rely on promises from WOTC without knowing if they'll come through. Baldman has to rely on GenCon to provide the space and not turn the lights off in the middle of the game. But someone could screw up that as well. But these people all talk on a regular basis.

As a long-term local DM that has invested a lot of time and heart into AL games, and holds Gencon as a dream pilgrimage I've never been able to indulge in (like the vast majority of D&D players), it boggles my mind to hear that sponsorship level stands in the way of facilitating basic logistics like a microphone. I don't know the ins-and-outs of how those things get handled, but it sounds like the venue itself is getting too expensive. If I were Gencon, I'd reexamine its sponsorship structure and get the heck out of dodge when that contract expires in a couple years or there won't be any RPG companies that can afford to participate.

GenCon and its logistics could be discussed for years and never come to a good conclusion. Suffice to say that GenCon keeps getting bigger and bigger and therefore prices are going up and space is at a premium. There isn't a good solution to this. From what I hear from people in the know, Indy is the ONLY good location for GenCon to continue being GenCon. The people in charge of the con believe(rightfully) that the point of the con is that is the focus on gaming...24 hour a day gaming with hotels that you can walk to and from easily. They also believe that being within driving distance of the majority of gamers is extremely important as well.

The only city in the entirety of the US that meets that criteria is Indy. They've investigated other locations before and the answer always is that they'd have to turn the convention into a 8am to 8pm day only convention where people have to take 30 minute cab rides to the convention similar to SDCC and the majority of gamers would have to fly to attend if they want to move the con to a bigger city.

So right now, everyone has to put up with the lack of space and find alternate solutions. And the Organized Play room has done without a microphone for many years. They just got one for the last couple of years so everyone was spoiled.

 

[prosfilaes]

Okay, seriously, this is one classy move on behalf of WotC, N-Space, and Baldman games. A+.

One classy move? Basically, these people paid $150 and got the same thing as the people who paid $40 (who didn't sound real impressed). To give them a book (MSRP $50) and video game (MSRP $60) is just paying back their $110 in a manner cheaper then cash to WotC and less convenient to the customer. It should silence some grumbling, but it's a fairly basic response, not extraordinary customer service.

 

[EternalDungeonMaster]

One classy move? Basically, these people paid $150 and got the same thing as the people who paid $40 (who didn't sound real impressed). To give them a book (MSRP $50) and video game (MSRP $60) is just paying back their $110 in a manner cheaper then cash to WotC and less convenient to the customer. It should silence some grumbling, but it's a fairly basic response, not extraordinary customer service.

This! ^^^^^^^^^^

And what about the people who paid for the all-access passes who don't read various gaming forums and don't know about this offer? Is BMG going to contact Gen Con and make an attempt to reach out to those ticket purchasers? Or are they just out of luck? How many of the 276 people will actually apply for their product vs. how many will never know about the offer at all? And what if they don't play computer games and don't care about storyline modules? They paid for a premium experience at Gen Con and are getting a couple of gaming items that they may not even want or care about. This is a bare-minimum customer service response to a much larger problem. As I said in my previous posts, I am happy that the 276 all-access purchasers will get something for their money but this problem is much larger and much deeper than a small fraction of the total Adventurer's League players from Gen Con getting a couple of items.

 

[billd91]

I'm really wondering about how sustainable GenCon is in general: if it needs huge injections of cash from the companies to have good play areas, then that's a problem.

I mean, the attendees are paying quite a lot of money in the first place. Why does a company running a game need to push even more in GenCon's direction just to have a good play area?

This isn't to excuse the other aspects of the organisation of D&D games at this GenCon, but I'm getting the impression that it's more than just BMG and Wizards where there are issues...

Cheers!

Gen Con's on a substantial growth curve right now, so I don't think it has anything to do with the convention needing huge injections of cash. I think it has a lot more to do with nobody really making D&D at Gen Con a priority any more. There are more comfortable places for them to run D&D events than the concrete floor of the open convention hall that I'm sure someone like WotC could wrangle if they were interested in doing so.