Learn about D&D organized play options

[pedr]

Why should they? Honestly ? (and 'because I really really want to' or 'the store in my area suck/don't play/don't exist' are not valid answers)

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The D&D Adventurers League, much like D&D Expeditions before it sees the store, conventions, and other public events as where new players are brought into the game. I know some are going to jump up and down waiving their arms about the three people they brought into the game played in their basement and that is awesome. Get them to go home and run games for their other friends to but that is not the norm (but still awesome). The gaming store for most is the hub of their experiences. That is where they talk shop, play FNM, and pickup some paints and mini's when their spouses are not looking (or helping them pick one out).

<snip>

So once again why should they? They've created a great system to tie-together store play, convention/public play, and home play. If you can hit more then once of those and expand your group of gaming friends then rock out like Winger. Expecting to have access to all of those in a way that is exactly like you think it should be is just entitlement.

I think some of the criticism is the generic reaction to being told that you can't have something. It's not really possible to argue with that - some people will be annoyed no matter what system is in place. I think WotC is making good decisions on the basis of the programme's goals. But there are cogent reasons to critique the design of the Adventurers League. Exile's point is one of them: living campaigns are a better fit for some groups' play style than anything else offered by WotC because of its aggressively episodic and connected-but-stand-alone nature. Being able to organise a group which can play when there are enough people free without worrying about continuity if some players can only make every other session, or only play occasionally, can mean that play happens and D&D groups exist, which wouldn't otherwise. Certainly when I was in Oxford I tried playing in a home campaign, but the group collapsed as none of us were as regularly available as was necessary to sustain the game. I then found the Oxford Living Greyhawk group, and played more than I would have if I'd stayed in the home group. That group (and its LFR successor group) plays in members' homes, but is open to newcomers, advertises on the internet, etc, and has proved to be the entry (and re-entry) point for many. There's a flexibility in home-hosting which stores don't have: the space isn't being competed for by CCG players, the overheads are already paid by the home owner, etc. It strikes me as a shame that programme changes mean that a long-running supporter group of WotC OP will struggle to continue - and the for-sale adventures aren't a suitable replacement, as they're ongoing and written with the assumption that the same players will play continuously. I hope they'll find a suitable public place and engage with Expeditions, but I don't know if that'll be possible, or if they'll consider the cost and additional organisation worth it.

I'm fortunate enough now to live in a town with an extremely well-run and supportive store. Even so I realise that Encounters is a source of some tension - Wednesdays used to be a card and board gaming night; now half the space is filled with D&D. The owners seem happy, but it's not a large store and there are often more people wanting to use it than can fit. Most towns in the UK don't have stores, of course, and there are plenty of places more than an hour's drive from a retail game store, let alone one with enough space for gaming. WotC's decision to assist stores in maintaining their position in the gaming culture is excellent - but it's definitely not the case in the UK that "for most" a store is the hub of gamers' experiences. After all, one British owner of a popular D&D discussion site is vocal about having never been to a game store! Stores not existing is a reasonable critique of a programme which seems designed largely to encourage stores to support D&D. Certainly in the UK - and plenty of other very-high-rent places, nothing D&D does will cause someone to open a store that they wouldn't otherwise, and in many cases running AL is actually a net cost, as it can reduce space and effort used to support Magic (and Yu Gi Oh, and L5R, etc!)

Now having said all that, I think there are improvements with AL: using the same story for Encounters and the for-sale adventures is great. It basically provides what people have been asking for since Encounters began: access to the adventure for those who can't play at a store. Clearer support for conventions and game days is also good, and might encourage the development of some more small events. One of the major criticisms of LFR of course, was that because everyone could play almost everything at home, conventions which existed to run LG games folded. I'm not sure the AL set up will support small conventions in the same way - the LG regional system was an extremely artificial distortion of the small convention market - but proving a reason to set up game days is a good thing, and might encourage some public play and increased visibility of D&D in those areas without stores.

 

[SidSad]

Sorry, I didn't want to start a home play vs store play discussion. I love playing at home. It's where my friends are, to drink and talk and play. If I started selling stuff, it would be the whole store experience. But I understand that's not the case of many players, for whom the organized play in stores are the best option, if not the only one. So nothing to be discussed here, they are both valid ways of playing.

I just don't think one should be more or less encouraged then the other. There are good reasons to play in stores already, they don't need exclusive content to be more atractive!

And when I said "I want everything" I was being self aware of how I would sound petty for dropping the game entirelly only because I can't play the whole story. I know how it sounds, but I'm not a hater or anything like that!
Do you guys ever read comic books? If there are some big event in a comic book, I'm compelled to read ALL the tie-ins. It disappointing not to have access to some of them (specially the launch event!).

It's all about the storyline to me. If there are ways for me to follow it only with the two adventures, I'm ok.

 

[Alphastream]

Latest article on the Adventurers League site touches on the recent conversation regarding the different play option relationships. I liked this:

D&D Encounters is just a taste of Tyranny of Dragons

D&D Expeditions supports the events in Tyranny of Dragons

D&D Epics serves to make pivotal events more interactive and reachable!

Also worth catching the recent article by Shawn Merwin on writing the Defiance in Phlan series of adventures. These will run at Gen Con and PAX (and can be ordered for stores or other public locations).

 

[Alphastream]

I added the dates for the Hoard of the Dragon Queen / Tyranny of Dragons season. Here's how it works.

- Stores officially finished up Dead in Thay last week. (Some might decide to go a bit longer)
- There is a break from July 23 to August 20. This is an excellent time to run the new Starter Set adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver. Certificates were provided if the store ordered the kit, but you can play without them (certificates just allow trading of any magic items).
- On August 20 HotDQ begins. Stores and public places receive a pdf with a pretty and printer-friendly shortened version of the adventure. You can also run Expeditions adventures.
- The season runs through February 11, 2015. There will be a brief break there as well, as the Tyranny of Dragons season runs through March 11.
- March 11th the next season (not yet announced) begins.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

So once again why should they? They've created a great system to tie-together store play, convention/public play, and home play. If you can hit more then once of those and expand your group of gaming friends then rock out like Winger. Expecting to have access to all of those in a way that is exactly like you think it should be is just entitlement.

If you want a real answer to this, I can give you one. It won't be one that makes you happy, though.

The problem is, we now live in a world where you can get everything extremely easily almost immediately. The internet has created a culture where if something exists, it is available, is likely free or very cheap. Not only is it available but it is delivered to you instantly.

The RPG industry has grown roughly parallel to the video game industry. In the early days of PCs, the only places to get software was computer stores. Stores had huge shelves of games and other software. Then, after the advent of modems came BBSes. Computer geeks and those really in the know could now find shareware and freeware from their favorite BBS and could skip the stores entirely. Then came the internet and it became even easier to get what you wanted online and avoid having to go to a store. But only the truly geeky and nerdy used the internet in those days. Everyone else went the easier route and bought video game consoles. That began the rise of Nintendo, Sega, and Sony and their consoles.

PC gaming started falling further and further behind. You needed to know things in order to use a game on your PC. You needed to know how to set up your video card, you needed to be able to configure Windows correctly. So PC gaming almost died. Until the advent of Steam. Which is when the computer game industry realized that in order to survive they needed to make it as insanely easy as possible to buy and acquire PC games. Steam installed and configured the games for you in a simple process. It downloaded them off the internet so you didn't have to leave your home. Then it connected multiplayer to your friends quickly and easily since you had a list of them in all of your games.

Unfortunately, it caused the downfall of many computer stores who no longer had customers coming in to buy software anymore. Which caused all sorts of promotions to get people into their stores. None of which worked. You could order your hardware online to be delivered to your house. You could get all your software from the internet for cheap or pirated for free. Most computer stores are now closed.

The RPG industry has followed almost the same exact formula, just slower. Gaming stores were the hub of everything years ago. You needed to buy all your books there, all of the gamers in your city would go there because there was no other way to meet people into the hobby.

Now, slowly over time the internet has had the same effect on RPGs that it has on video games. The internet is where we connect with other players and plan times to play and places to meet. More and more people have tablets and laptops where they can easily access all of their gaming materials in PDF form along with electronic tools that make gaming easier.

These days, it's completely possible to run and play in a regular game of D&D without ever setting foot inside a store. You download the PDF of your favorite game from the company's website, you bring it to the table on your tablet and you use electronic die rollers instead of buying dice. You then ask on your favorite message boards if anyone wants to play and schedule a time that works best for you to play. You can even play over the internet if you aren't all located in the same location. More and more this is becoming the norm.

The problem is that this entire campaign is designed from the ground up to say, "Stop playing your way. Play our way instead."

It says "So, you'd like to play D&D. We can do that. Instead of playing with your friends when it is convenient for you, you should instead go into a store(which you may or may not have) whenever they decide to run it(IF they decide to run it) and play with strangers. If you don't want to do that, we're going to hold back benefits from you."

This really benefits no one except game store owners. The players could likely get books cheaper online directly from WOTC or from online retailers. WOTC could make more money by selling directly to the players. Players could get access to adventures and books faster and could more readily make impulse purchases and play unplanned games. The only ones who lose are game store owners.

The problem is the entire campaign appears to be designed to artificially prop up game stores by artificially restricting access to adventures. The adventures exist. If they were freely downloadable from a website it could only mean more people playing and the effort being put into writing them being more worthwhile. It would encourage more players to both play and buy books. The campaign is actively saying "You can't have them unless you jump through hoops to get them."

People have been taught by the internet age to really hate and try to work around artificial restrictions like "This content is not available in your country" restrictions on video. The world is global and instant. It is now a Netflix world of "I'd like to watch Firefly now, I'll click on it and it'll begin playing." The campaign is saying "Please report to Fox at 7 pm on Wednesdays in order to watch Firefly."

 

[Alphastream]

The problem is that this entire campaign is designed from the ground up to say, "Stop playing your way. Play our way instead."

We had a program called Encounters, for stores. Now, that adventure can be played at home. And, the content you play in the store, if you want, can be continued at home.

We had a living campaign, which was completely separate. Now it is connected (but supports 2 of 3 channels).

We had published adventures, completely separate. Now it is joined (and entices the store to participate, creating a common community experience).

What we basically now have is the same thing, but tied together. It can seem we lost something, but we really haven't. You can still play in just one channel if you so choose. You can play more if you so choose. You don't have to play any way but your way.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

What we basically now have is the same thing, but tied together. It can seem we lost something, but we really haven't. You can still play in just one channel if you so choose. You can play more if you so choose. You don't have to play any way but your way.

The primary way I used to play both LFR and LG went like this:

"Hmm, I have nothing to do tomorrow, maybe we should play some D&D. I know, I should order some adventures. I'll read through them tonight. Then I'll call people up and see who is available to come over to my house for some D&D. These are my friends who don't have time to play a full campaign so we don't want to start anything that is part of a major story arc or anything. We want to get together for 4 or 5 hours tomorrow to play and maybe never play again. Then I'll order some more adventures to play next week."

The current campaign appears to take that away from me. It appears to say:

"If you want to play Encounters, it must be on Wednesday and it must be an adventure that will take many weeks to finish and it must be in store."
"If you want to play Expeditions, you must tell a store owner to place an order at the beginning of next month for that month's adventures and you must play in their store or convince them to give you the adventures so that you can play at home."
"If you want to play Epics, you must travel to a convention."

 

[Alphastream]

The primary way I used to play both LFR and LG went like this

That's a fair point. If all you wanted was 4-hour one shots with loose connections, then the current program isn't providing that for home play. To be fair, I don't believe that's what most people were trying to do with organized play content (LFR, LG, etc.).

Having seen HotDQ, I think you can still meet your goal. It is fairly episodic in nature - with chapters somewhat like the LFR series where different 4-hour adventures strung together to create a cohesive story. The Calimshan series is a good example. You can take HotDQ and play it in those sections. The heroes are part of the larger factions, so they can easily have reasons to go on specific missions (but not every mission, based on which players you have available). Your problem would be leveling if some players are playing at different rates... but I think that would have been true of LFR as well. You can always choose not to run HotDQ as part of the AL and just level everyone up as needed.

 

[exile]

Alphastream et al,

I appreciate your answers and your enthusiasm for the new campaign. Unfortunately, it is looking more and more like a campaign that is not going to meet my needs. Where I once played LFR side by side with PFS, it now looks like my OP time will probably be given over entirely to PFS.

That said, I still very much want to give AL a chance. I registered for DragonCon with the understanding that AL events would be present there. So far, none have yet appeared on their gaming registration site. Waiting would not be a problem if other RPGs (OP and non-campaign) weren't filling up so quickly. If anyone has any more information about the presence of AL at DragonCon, I'd very much like to hear about it.

Please don't make me waste my entire Labor Day Weekend staring at girls dressed up as Slave Leia. [/Sarcasm]

 

[Alphastream]

Understood. I hope the program can change to meet your needs, or your needs change to meet the program!