Exclusive Adventures for DnDAL

[Scorpienne]

1) Is this a good/bad idea? Be specific. Be polite. Provide reasons.

Given that that this has been in discussion for a couple of years, and given that it's already a done deal for WF, why is the hoi polloi only being asked now what we want?

Having said that, I know most if not all of the Admins and have played many of the past modules they've written. I'm sure they'd be good. (If they have the time to write them.)

I think it's overall a good thing because it adds more voices to the shared song. There are a lot of pros and cons (most of which have been done to death here already), but I think it's more positive than negative.

2) How likely are you to invite an Admin who can bring this adventure to your event, assuming there is some cost? (Admins are basically volunteers and we are not being paid to even write this adventure. We are doing it to give out more content and because we want to give you value if you bring us out. That said, we can't afford to pay to fly all over the country to come to your con. None of us are wealthy.)

My husband and I run a fair few game days and small cons in the Atlanta area - and a few big ones. Even DragonCon isn't gonna pay a penny to fly you guys out to run games. They're just not. I could get you a badge, easy, but that's about it. No room, and certainly no flight. :-( Any con we're running on our lonesome would include a steak dinner and a badge, but that's about all we can do, and that would be out of our own pocket.

3) How likely does this make you want to come to a convention or store that has one of these adventures at their event?

Sure! I love exclusive stuff that helps out stores and cons.

4) Assuming we eventually retired the adventure and released it to the public, what is the right timeline for that? (Note its not tied to a season and writing them for free is not something we have tons of time for, so think in terms of multiples of years.)

A year. That's plenty of time for it to be exclusive.

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So CahPahkah, if this lead to something like the ability for DMs to do a MyRealms, would you be against that as well? (since not everyone could play them)

I am not in favor of allowing/creating a Myrealms setup for AL.
If it was done it would need to give out low exps, low gold and no magic items or consumables.

OMG BRING BACK MY REALMS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!

So, while yes, the rewards are barely worth it for a player, the kinds of players that eat this up aren't playing it for the phat loots. They're playing them because it's a ghost of a shadow of a remnant of the local-story system we had in LG. Love it or hate it, LG had some seriously driven local fans. This allows folks to tell some of our own stories.

Yes, your mileage may vary, A LOT, depending on the author. That's why con coordinators should be super mega careful about who they allow to run MyRealms adventures. If the adventures are terrible because your best friend and her little brother wrote them, then people aren't going to be coming back. Having said that there is a *heck of a lot* of quality writing talent out there that isn't contributing to the relatively small authorial pool in D&D Adventurer's League.

Paige

 

[Pauper]

I prefer a chai tea latte with honey and cinnamon.

Note to self -- up the wire transfer to $8.50.

--
Pauper

 

[Cascade]

OMG BRING BACK MY REALMS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!

Paige

MyRealms was very different than the LG regional content model.



1) I think its a good idea but does need oversight.

2) The group I support would consider this. We run 2 medium sized cons a year.

3) I already go to Gencon and Origins for the unique content. Now I'll be going to WF also based upon recent announcements.

4) 6 months (long enough to discourage waiting but not necessarily so far out of season with the story).

 

[Tia Nadiezja]

Reducing exclusivity, honestly, is something I like in general, so seeing Fai Chen and special promos show up at the game stores where the vast bulk of actual AL play happens would just utterly delight me. The idea of Epics showing up at more conventions is also delightful - I'm aware that the format for Epics basically mandates convention exclusivity (you're not going to get enough players for one on a standard day at a standard store), so having them show up at more conventions - and smaller conventions - is the best way to make them available to more players.

I love the idea of there being more content. I really, really love it. But once an adventure's written, shouldn't anyone be able to run it? There's four admins. Game stores run on a shoestring budget as-is. More content exclusive to those who can bring in the admins to run it seems to me like making the rich richer while the poor stay poor. The basic idea sounds lovely and good, but the implications leave a sour taste in my mouth.

Given how much I argue with the admins around here, what I'm going to say next might be a bit of a surprise: Admins should be paid. I have no idea how many hours Skerritt and the others pour into running AL, how much sweat and effort they spend on it, but I know it ain't small. Now it's being suggested that, in addition to all they already do, they also start designing content themselves. That's sounding like a full-time job at this point, or more than - I don't know how any of you manage to get any sleep or time with loved ones in on top of what you're doing for AL, and it honestly bugs me that you're asked to do it for free. Nothing but props for y'all.

 

[Tia Nadiezja]

We would like a minimum number of tables to be run (usually 10, though we lower that number for non-US cons), it cannot be geographically/temporal close to some place else that ran the epic, and your con has to have a good reputation (for example if your con has been caught doing naughty things, we are not rewarding you with an epic).

The "geographically/temporally close" thing will likely lock me out of epics forever, since the big local con for me that does all the epics is one that's run by people who, quite frankly, have made it clear that people like me aren't going to be made to feel safe or welcome there.

 

[Dracoprimus]

do you mind us asking what about "people like you" are not welcome at this con?

 

[Tia Nadiezja]

It'll start an argument if I do. The people who run said con are really, really both popular and polarizing among gamers. I'll PM.

 

[Dracoprimus]

your PM indicates that you are in the Puget Sound area. I plan on organizing the AL events at ECCC and Pax West in 2016. I'm hoping to get an Epic at at least one of those. Maybe even and Admin for one of these exclusive adventures. I want to publicly say that "people like you" will be fully welcomed in those DnD AL events. WotC has made some efforts to make DnD as inclusive as possible. AL is following suit. And I fully support that. If you can manage a pass, come introduce yourself.

 

[Tia Nadiezja]

your PM indicates that you are in the Puget Sound area. I plan on organizing the AL events at ECCC and Pax West in 2016. I'm hoping to get an Epic at at least one of those. Maybe even and Admin for one of these exclusive adventures. I want to publicly say that "people like you" will be fully welcomed in those DnD AL events. WotC has made some efforts to make DnD as inclusive as possible. AL is following suit. And I fully support that. If you can manage a pass, come introduce yourself.

WotC and AL have been great on inclusion.

 

[Azurecobalt]

I realize that I'm super late to this thread, but just to toss in my two cents...

I am fine with exclusivity on a temporary basis. If it helps pay the bills and generates more concept overall, that's great!

What I'm less comfortable with is the "you'll never experience this unless you travel to a con." Great for mid-western US players, less great for everyone else.

I'd say make everything exclusive legal a year after release, which is about two seasons later. So if the lucky few got to play a Cleric of Kelemvor (Death Domain, anyway) in Season 1, now everyone can play one in Season 3. Release the epics to convention staff two seasons later. And so on.

A lot of media already works this way. HBO gets certain movies before the networks can show them. Some Hollywood people got to see Star Wars before the rest of us. And so on. But that doesn't matter that much because I'll get access to that content eventually. It would be nice if the AL did the same thing - otherwise there really will be a "pay to play" aspect, and that's a shame.