DM Rewards

[Stumblewyk]

I found your post reasonable until you started dumping on free card. At this point, I think your reasoning becomes shaky.

Eh, I have to agree with TikkchikFenTikktikk on the "insulting" bit. It's insulting because it's not even something I can use for my D&D game. On top of that - it's effectively an advertisement. If I want to get any use out of this card at all, I have to purchase another WotC product, that will not be compatible with my existing D&D products.

Call me crazy, but I love to play D&D. Isn't that incentive enough? I love to DM, that's incentive enough to run games. I'm not saying it isn't nice to have freebies, but I would think that the opportunity to play would be the big draw.

Absolutely it is. But, if they're going to end supporting my home game(s) through the RPGA, then don't try to sell me something as you kick me out the door. I don't blame Wizards one iota for stopping the rewards program in it's current form - it has to be cost prohibitive to be mailing things out to everyone who reports a home game.

I have to believe that's where the majority of the nerd-rage is coming from on this. It's not that WotC's said "Sorry, we're not sending you free crap anymore," it's that WotC's said "Sorry, we're not sending you free crap anymore, and oh-by-the-way, would you like to buy Castle Ravenloft?"

 

[Taed]

What venues qualify for the public games?

Could I DM a game at a local coffee shop or diner and get covered by the RPGA as a public game?

Yes. I don't have the quote handy, but as I recall the characteristics were 3 or so: that you have permission to play there, that it's a "public" venue (namely, not someone's house or something like that), and that you won't turn away people (unless over the number of players).

 

[Siberys]

I actually like this change. Since I mean the 'F' in FLGS when I say it, this works just fine for me - I'll just pick up the rewards with the adventure, tiles, tokens (God, I love those tokens), condition cards, characters, and some sort of drink-accessory. So much awesome free stuff.

And, honestly, I missed 2 out of the 3 rewards I wanted; the Dark Sun box and the ship tile. This will prevent that from being a possibility.

 

[Saracenus]

Public Play is now under the umbrella of the Wizards Play Network (WPN) which requires and organizer (the guy/gal who can order) to be affiliated with a game store (preferred) or a comic book store (if there are no game stores locally).

WPN Organizers can order D&D Encounters(DDE), World Wide Gamedays (WWGD), and Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) for public play. They also have the ability to order DCI membership forms and a few other goo-gahs.

If there is no game or comic book store near you and you want to organize public play (it has to be in a public space and available to anyone with a DCI membership) I would contact the WPN rep for your region and talk about options. You can find out who that is here:

WPN Representative Contact Information

 

[Festivus]

One thing I am curious about... is private play going away entirely? It's not accepted for rewards but what if I want to play LFR at home and transport that character to public play? does that still exist or is it going away too? Not that it matters that much anymore, since you can craft a character at 1, 5 or 11th level, but those of us with a level 11 character that has played public and private play, I'd be curious if I needed to re-roll him.

 

[Saracenus]

One thing I am curious about... is private play going away entirely? It's not accepted for rewards but what if I want to play LFR at home and transport that character to public play? does that still exist or is it going away too? Not that it matters that much anymore, since you can craft a character at 1, 5 or 11th level, but those of us with a level 11 character that has played public and private play, I'd be curious if I needed to re-roll him.

Full Disclosure: I am not anyone official with WotC. I was a WPN Organizer up until last month when real life called me away from it.

Private play is not going away. There has just been a split between who can order public play vs. private play.

Organized Play (which includes D&D Encounters, World Wide Gamedays, and the unnamed new program due in 2011) is purely public play. The person ordering these events must be tied to a game store and falls under the WPN program (which also includes Magic the Gathering).

RPGA Gaming (which according to Chris Tulach is only Living Forgotten Realms right now) is both public and private play. Your PC moves between a home game, game store, or convention play with no restrictions.

As a player it really doesn't matter if an LFR game is sanctioned for home play or public play. There are a couple of exceptions to this, notably the Adventuring Company Adventures and the Battle Interactive from D&D XP are public play only so you wouldn't see either of these adventures at a home game (legally).

Anyone can order LFR for home play so long as they pass the Herald Level DMs Test (it's open book folks). Public (WPN) play ordering requires a bit more work to get (affiliation with a store, a call into your WPN rep to get setup, etc.).

Convention only stuff like Dark Sun Arenas, the D&D Championships, last years Ultimate Dungeon Delve, etc. requires a WPN organizer and sometimes a specific convention to run. That stuff will never darken the door of a game store.

So in short, as a player this will not effect you. As a DM/Organizer it is a little more complicated.

If you are not an organizer then I wouldn't worry about this. If you are or planning to be one then learning about the WPN program is a good idea.

I hope this helps.

 

[Saracenus]

I want to address a few things that have come up in this thread.

1) DM rewards are nice but not necessary.

As an organizer I try and take care of my judges by getting them discounts at the store we run at and I get stuff from judging the big cons that I turn around and give away a lot of my personal loot to my local judges.

Anything I get from WotC is just icing on the cake that helps me keep folks feeling warm and fuzzy for giving their time and sometimes their play opportunities.

Personally, I will judge if there is a reward or not. Its not about the loot.

2) WotC is moving towards bolstering local game stores. This is a very good thing.

Its all well and good that you can move a metric ton of books on Amazon and at the chain stores but to make the hobby grow and prosper there has to be a place folks can go and learn the game. Game stores with space for gaming fill this need.

Now premier stores are getting D&D product 11 days before street date which means they have a leg up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

D&D Encounters is now a destination gaming day(s) that has at least in my neck of the woods completely revitalized in store play in Portland, OR. This in turn has spawned several (I know of 3 so far) home games from folks that have met over a DDE table and liked those folks well enough to bring them into their homes.

World Wide Gamedays bring in a different crowd than DDE (with some overlap).

If resources are being directed at strengthening judges that are willing to provide publicly accessible gaming, this is good for the hobby.

3) Home games are still available. Whether you report them or not is up to you. LFR home play is still available, you should report those so the program continues to exist.

In conclusion, organized play has been making some very good changes that are revitalizing our hobby in very positive ways. It is sad that WotC is not educating the playing public on why these changes are needed and happening.

I know it sucks when something you have been getting goes away. But in the end are you judging D&D for the rewards or for the shear fun of it and the enjoyment that those you play with?

My two coppers,

 

[Festivus]

1) DM rewards are nice but not necessary.

For you perhaps, and for myself as well. However, there are some DMs who DM exactly 5 games and then stop reporting... Now they will probably report none. I thought the purpose of the DM Rewards wasn't so much to say thank you than to encourage that reporting of events. I can say that it will be nice to not have to do so much reporting anymore... not sure if that's what WoTC was after, but since they are changing things so that it tracks backed on downloads it may not matter.

As an organizer I try and take care of my judges by getting them discounts at the store we run at and I get stuff from judging the big cons that I turn around and give away a lot of my personal loot to my local judges.

That's terrific. I might give that approach a try if things keep trending as they have been for my meetup. LFR has been decimated these past two months at my events, dropping from 10 tables to 6 last month, and I have no LFR games on the slate fr September (though a local convention is likely to blame for that anomily, if things don't get better in October we may have what I will call serious implications for our meetup).

2) WotC is moving towards bolstering local game stores. This is a very good thing.

I agree Encounters has been good. On the flip side, changes to LFR have been bad. Although we had a dropoff for Dark Sun, I am hoping to get more tables going for Essentials. I have only 3 tables formed up (as opposed to 6 for season 1, and 4 for season 2) thus far and can't seem to find sufficient DMs for additional ones. Perhaps the rewards changes will help with this... but I doubt it. Asking someone to DM for 20 weeks is a large commitment.

World Wide Gamedays bring in a different crowd than DDE (with some overlap).

Not in my experience. The same folks who come in for encounters are the same folks at the gamedays.

3) Home games are still available. Whether you report them or not is up to you. LFR home play is still available, you should report those so the program continues to exist.

I'll probably keep reporting my home games as long as they allow it... but with DDE I haven't had time for a home game, so I haven't anything to report

I know it sucks when something you have been getting goes away. But in the end are you judging D&D for the rewards or for the shear fun of it and the enjoyment that those you play with?

My two coppers,

What really sucks is when the change is abrupt, and included with a DM reward that has nothing to do with D&D... that is the main thing I am gruff about.

 

[Boregar]

Not in my experience. The same folks who come in for encounters are the same folks at the gamedays.

Slightly off topic, but my personal experience supports Saracenus on this. I have an existing group that plays regularly, so I don't go the Encounters sessions at my FLGS, but I try to get along to all the Gamedays. I prefer the 'one-off' nature of those to the on-going situation in Encounters. (I know they say you can drop in and out of the Encounters, but I would just feel like I was missing something if I did that.)

 

[Festivus]

We see this, almost everyone who goes to encounters also goes to the gamedays. However, Gamedays are a larger draw for us. However, dark sun game day we drew in 5 tables with an average of 5 players per table, about half what we had for PHB3. School starts next week for many, I am wondering about external factors too.