D&D 5E Next D&D Next Adventure Scourge of Sword Coast will be PDF Only

[Kinak]

Folks are aware this is exactly how Pathfinder Society (Pathfinder Organized Play) works - right? The products are purely digital, and bought by those who want to run it.

I don't know if people are aware. But, yes, the adventure part of the model is the same there.

But the other half of the deal is that people playing the game in the store are more likely to buy products for that game in the store.

That doesn't mean every storeowner has another event waiting in the wings to replace Encounters. And supporting 5e now might be a good investment in the long term.

But, for those storeowners who do have someone who wants to run an event for a game with products on the shelves, it's certainly worth some consideration.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[darjr]

Folks are aware this is exactly how Pathfinder Society (Pathfinder Organized Play) works - right? The products are purely digital, and bought by those who want to run it.

What I bet will happen is that stores that consistently run Encounters might be sent free codes to redeem.

All they're doing is mimicking PFS - which has a ton of players.

Not exactly. The rules are available in print and there are several digital sources of the rules that are more convenient for some than a PDF, thanks to the Pathfinder SRD and WotC OGL.

Note I DO NOT think it means the end of D&D. But I do think that this way of distributing Encounters material is off tune. I think they should have a non-digital form of the rules in the stores. Even POD.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Not exactly. The rules are available in print and there are several digital sources of the rules that are more convenient for some than a PDF, thanks to the Pathfinder SRD and WotC OGL.

Note I DO NOT think it means the end of D&D. But I do think that this way of distributing Encounters material is off tune. I think they should have a non-digital form of the rules in the stores. Even POD.

That's the way Pathfinder works. But not the way Pathfinder Society works. They publish adventures that are only accessible via a PDF file. Yes, the rules and such are available in book format. But we're discussing the adventures, not the rules. It's also the same way that Living Forgotten Realms adventures have been distributed for years, and Living Greyhawk before it.

The only real difference is that LFR, LG, and PFS adventures are free. The D&D Encounters program is run by the Wizards Play division, the same people who run LFR. It was briefly discussed when LFR first came out that charging for adventures even though they were only available via PDF would help by allowing us to pay the writers instead of relying on volunteers. It was rejected however, as WOTC felt that no one would show up to play if they had to pay for adventures, they wanted it to be as accessible as possible. WOTC instead decided to pay adventure authors out of their advertising budget and give the adventures away for free to try to get the best of both worlds.

It looks like the decision making process might have come full circle and now they've decided to charge Encounters DMs in order to get the adventure so they can run them in stores as advertising for WOTC. Not sure how I feel about this. It allows the Encounters adventures to finally be distributed to people who aren't running the adventure in store, which is good. However, it now is a drain on the DMs who really should be rewarded for DMing rather than charged. Maybe they could give a couple free copies of the PDF to each store to give to DMs.

 

[Plageman]

If WotC keep the same package format -minus the DM Screen- I want them to offer a POD option for the next digital Encounters products. I could live with it.

 

[Cybit]

That's the way Pathfinder works. But not the way Pathfinder Society works. They publish adventures that are only accessible via a PDF file. Yes, the rules and such are available in book format. But we're discussing the adventures, not the rules. It's also the same way that Living Forgotten Realms adventures have been distributed for years, and Living Greyhawk before it.

The only real difference is that LFR, LG, and PFS adventures are free. The D&D Encounters program is run by the Wizards Play division, the same people who run LFR. It was briefly discussed when LFR first came out that charging for adventures even though they were only available via PDF would help by allowing us to pay the writers instead of relying on volunteers. It was rejected however, as WOTC felt that no one would show up to play if they had to pay for adventures, they wanted it to be as accessible as possible. WOTC instead decided to pay adventure authors out of their advertising budget and give the adventures away for free to try to get the best of both worlds.

It looks like the decision making process might have come full circle and now they've decided to charge Encounters DMs in order to get the adventure so they can run them in stores as advertising for WOTC. Not sure how I feel about this. It allows the Encounters adventures to finally be distributed to people who aren't running the adventure in store, which is good. However, it now is a drain on the DMs who really should be rewarded for DMing rather than charged. Maybe they could give a couple free copies of the PDF to each store to give to DMs.

I run Encounters at a fairly large LGS; I'm curious as to whether they've been told that they will be given free copies. I know we got free copies of the last two encounters seasons.

As for access to the rules - my understanding is that the rules will be included within the encounters seasons; making that a moot point?

 

[darjr]

That's the way Pathfinder works. But not the way Pathfinder Society works. Yes, the rules and such are available in book format. But we're discussing the adventures, not the rules. It's also the same way that Living Forgotten Realms adventures have been distributed for years, and Living Greyhawk before it.

Yes, I know. I didn't say otherwise. My point was that now the ruls AND the adventure are PDF only (it seems so far) and that is a further thing now that many will feel the need to print out themselves. Not a good thing in my book.

The only real difference is that LFR, LG, and PFS adventures are free.

The PFS adventures, afaik, are generally not free.

I didn't have a big problem paying for adventures for public play, mostly. With Encounters, the format it is in, I no longer wanted to run it having to pay for it.

Thanks for reminding that WotC did release those adventures for LFR for free AND paid developers. I really appreciated that at the time. Partially as a consequence I ran a TON of LFR.

Also we don't know what price, if any, the adventure will be. It's possible that it could be free. Or free to those running events.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Folks are aware this is exactly how Pathfinder Society (Pathfinder Organized Play) works - right? The products are purely digital, and bought by those who want to run it.

What I bet will happen is that stores that consistently run Encounters might be sent free codes to redeem.

All they're doing is mimicking PFS - which has a ton of players.

But, if WotC is doing it, it must be terrible, bad for business, bad for gaming and of course, spells the doom of D&D and RPGs worldwide.

It is terrible.

You cannot compare Pathfinder and D&D Nonexistent in this respect.

Pathfinder may have PDF adventures for PDF but the FLGS can sell physical products to those who come and play.

D&D Nonexistent doesn't exist yet. To expect the FLGS to provide gaming space and not be able to sell any D&D Nonexistent products doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[Jester David]

The PFS adventures, afaik, are generally not free.

I didn't have a big problem paying for adventures for public play, mostly. With Encounters, the format it is in, I no longer wanted to run it having to pay for it.

Thanks for reminding that WotC did release those adventures for LFR for free AND paid developers. I really appreciated that at the time. Partially as a consequence I ran a TON of LFR.

Also we don't know what price, if any, the adventure will be. It's possible that it could be free. Or free to those running events.

I believe Venture Officers (the people in charge of organizing play in a region) get the adventures for free.

It's hard to compare as each PFS scenario is priced cheap but is minimally produced with little new art. And they run 4-5 hours and are done rather than a couple hours each week for months.

 

[Cybit]

It is terrible.

You cannot compare Pathfinder and D&D Nonexistent in this respect.

Pathfinder may have PDF adventures for PDF but the FLGS can sell physical products to those who come and play.

D&D Nonexistent doesn't exist yet. To expect the FLGS to provide gaming space and not be able to sell any D&D Nonexistent products doesn't make a lot of sense.

Are we sure there will be no D&D Next items for sale by the time this rolls around?

 

[Plageman]

Yeah no other physical product beyond the novels has been announced. I guess that should there have been more printed adventures planned through the Q1-2 of 2014 they would have been discussed during the last GenCon.

Anyhow I'm fine with having pure digital products but I feel that if the goal of the Encounters program is to draw DM and players into the game store, the PDF format may not be the easiest way to do it... Also the issue is not that they don't have D&D Next ready for the following seasons, it is that they don't have -any- D&D branded game product like a miniature skirmish game or board game to keep the people discussing about it.