Interest Dropping Off With Encounters?

[Retreater]

My FLGS used to have a regular 2-3 tables' worth of Encounters going on every Wednesday with new people showing up every week. Recently, there's been no interest - not even a single table of Encounters going on.

Has anyone else noticed this trend? Anything to do with the 5th edition announcement and slowing down of 4E releases?

Retreater

 

[D'karr]

We haven't seen that in our area at all. We run encounters in two different stores, with two dates at each store per week, and we still get tables. We have started working with a 3rd store to do the same thing there.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Just concluded Beyond the Crystal Cave this week with 3 tables. The players at my table had stayed consistent since a few weeks in and included two players who were new last season, while the other two had some migration between them. The DMs were a little less stable than the players.

We have 3 DMs signed up for next season, and one foolish DM (me) running a continuation campaign with Feywild characters.

This was a contrast to the prior two seasons. Dark Legacy of Evard saw less interest from the begining, and Neverwinter saw tremendous interest at Game Day that steadily tapered off. BtCC has been a hit from day one.

I suspect the quality of Heroes of the Feywild has something to do with it.

BtCC had something to do with it, too, it was a good deal more complicated to run than prior ones. Great for maintaining interest, but it was a little tough on a couple of our DMs (which is how I finally ended up runnning).

 

[the Jester]

My FLGS dropped the ball and stopped supporting Encounters months ago, but they aren't very good at D&D stuff. In fact, I've given up on getting it there- I have to special order and hope that they'll get it eventually. Usually doesn't happen, either. Bah.

 

[Kynn]

We just finished Beyond the Crystal Cave and we ended with 3 full tables (one with about 8 players, one with 6, and one with 7). I think it's too early to know if there's a drop-off based on 5e announcement; I suspect there won't be a for a while.

However, what I do expect to see is a drop in Encounters play once 5e open playtesting becomes available.

 

[Echohawk]

I will be very surprised if WotC doesn't use the Encounters/Lair Assault channel in some way for their open playtesting. It seems like an obvious strategy, not just from a testing point of view but also to promote D&D Next to existing 4e players.