Heard a ridiculous thing at encounters tonight

[MerricB]

It should be noted that this is a completely atypical D&D Encounters encounter. The fight is, in no way, fair. It requires a large amount of DM judgement to run effectively, something that your DM likely didn't have in spades.

Cheers!

 

[CM]

The DM rolled a single attack for the close burst to save time ...

Sort of a side-note to the topic, but if I've got a lot of targets to roll against I tend to have the players roll the dice themselves, against their own defense (I just tell them "+15 vs. your Reflex" for example).

Lots of high-fiving and cheering when they roll those 1s, to be sure. On the other hand, the crits reallly add to the tension.

 

[Saracenus]

Ouch, I'm just glad that our turnout has steadily increased over the past several months. When I first joined (season 2, I think, right after Dark Sun) we ranged from 3 to 6. Now we range from 12 to 15 most weeks. I think our biggest turnout has been three tables of 6 when everyone showed. Last night we had 16 including DMs but we were missing 3 or 4 regulars.

Corwyn,

Don't worry mate. My 8 tables will evaporate to 5-6 a week when school starts up in September (that is what happened last year). Its good to hear that your numbers are steadily increasing.

When my table spikes from 6 to 8 in a matter of weeks it strains my ability to get DMs to cover it. So far I have managed but I don't have back up DMs to cover vacations and assorted issues that crop up in real peoples lives. I always try and have 1 or 2 extra DMs that can step in when needed.

To anyone else, when lots of people show up and you only have enough DMs for some of them, I ask someone to volunteer to DM that session to keep the table sizes smaller. I make sure I have photocopies of my session on hand and my dungeon tiles. I try to keep the size at max. 6 and will run a 7 if I have no choice. I refuse to run anything higher than that. So, far I have never had to turn someone away and I have had several of my regular DMs join my staff from just such a request. Several times I have not had to ask.

My two coppers,

 

[Dice4Hire]

Sort of a side-note to the topic, but if I've got a lot of targets to roll against I tend to have the players roll the dice themselves, against their own defense (I just tell them "+15 vs. your Reflex" for example).

Lots of high-fiving and cheering when they roll those 1s, to be sure. On the other hand, the crits reallly add to the tension.

At our table the DM has a differently colored dice for each player. He rolls them all inteh open and we tell him if we are hit.

Saves a lot of time.

 

[Zaran]

My FLGS just started running encounters yesterday. I will have to ask about turnout. I wish it was on a weekend. My commute isn't friendly to any weeknight gaming.

I have to say having encounters on weds was the worst idea that marketing genius had. Dnd takes hours. They would get so many more players when people can stay up late.

 

[Saracenus]

And yet Encounters is thriving in that time slot. 1 to 2 hours on a weeknight is just fine. Its like any other hobby activity.

Sure we could have "more" players on a weekend, but then we are competing with a ton of other activities. At my store we wouldn't have the space for 8 tables on the weekends. I can run at max 5 tables for a World Wide Game Day on a Saturday.

Sunday you are competing against church and it is also a school night. Friday is already Magic time.

We are planning to run Lair Assault Monday nights (possibly a table on Saturdays as well).

My two coppers,

 

[GameDoc]

Sunday you are competing against church...

That statment just created an existential crisis for hundreds of people in two camps:

1. "Chick Tract" style Christian fundamentalist D&D haters.
2. Gamers who forget not every person of faith is a "Chick Tract" style Christian fundamentalist D&D hater, and some of them actually play D&D.

Well played, sir.

 

[MarkB]

We had twelve players and two DMs. When they were trying to decicde how to split the groups betwee the two tables, I suggested everyone be divied up so that each table had all four roles covered.

The only time I can see that possibly annoying people is if it results in players who had been hoping to play together being split onto different tables. But if that wasn't the case, then yeah, I can't see any reason to object to creating balanced groups. It was frequently standard procedure at LFR con games.

 

[corwyn77]

And yet Encounters is thriving in that time slot. 1 to 2 hours on a weeknight is just fine. Its like any other hobby activity.

Sure we could have "more" players on a weekend, but then we are competing with a ton of other activities. At my store we wouldn't have the space for 8 tables on the weekends. I can run at max 5 tables for a World Wide Game Day on a Saturday.



We are planning to run Lair Assault Monday nights (possibly a table on Saturdays as well).

I know I would have abandoned Encounters long ago if it was on the weekend - just too packed and the weekend is when I can get enough hours in a block to run a "real game". Wednesdays I leave work, get a bite to eat, run Encounters, and get home by 9.

However, I'll also be running LA on Saturdays since it's less frequent and takes significantly longer (by current estimates twice as long) to run.

Space is a valid point for me as well. We typically run 2-3 tables. If we got more on a Saturday, we would be rapidly encroaching on GW and Flames of War league days.

Nope, midweek works fine for me.

 

[corwyn77]

Corwyn,

Don't worry mate. My 8 tables will evaporate to 5-6 a week when school starts up in September (that is what happened last year). Its good to hear that your numbers are steadily increasing.

Yeah, I'm wondering what will happen to our tables in September. Last September we were only running one table, and often a small one but Encounters was still growing then, still in it's 1st/2nd season. We'll no doubt lose some teenagers to school but since we have 20-somethings playing now and this is a University town, we may get enough there to compensate.

When my table spikes from 6 to 8 in a matter of weeks it strains my ability to get DMs to cover it. So far I have managed but I don't have back up DMs to cover vacations and assorted issues that crop up in real peoples lives. I always try and have 1 or 2 extra DMs that can step in when needed.

To anyone else, when lots of people show up and you only have enough DMs for some of them, I ask someone to volunteer to DM that session to keep the table sizes smaller. I make sure I have photocopies of my session on hand and my dungeon tiles. I try to keep the size at max. 6 and will run a 7 if I have no choice. I refuse to run anything higher than that. So, far I have never had to turn someone away and I have had several of my regular DMs join my staff from just such a request. Several times I have not had to ask.

My two coppers,

That's basically what happened to me. Half way through Phantom Brigade (two seasons ago) we had enough players that we were pushing 8 or 9 occasionally so I'd sub GM. By Evard I was permanently DMing a table and we have another who steps in when we get over a dozen (maybe 1/3 of the time).