Philosophical approaches of PFS and Adventurer's League

[Jabborwacky]

Speaking of which, does AL allow the playing of published campaigns from previous seasons? Does PFS allow older stuff to be run officially?

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Confused? Older stuff in PFS? why are you asking in the AL group?

As for older modules in 5e? At the moment you can run Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Tyranny of Dragoms, Princes of the Apocalypse or Out of the Abyss. (assuming you meet the other qualifiers). Are you referring to the previous 4e modules Encounters had? If so .. no you CANNOT run them in the new Encounters.

 

[MerricB]

At present, nothing has been retired from the Adventurers League - it's all still legal (with the probable exception of the Epics, but they're only available to a very few conventions anyway; you wouldn't have to worry about those!) Otherwise all the published adventures and Expeditions are still legal.

A small number of Pathfinder Society adventure have been retired, but - as far as I am aware - there are not plans to retire any more.

Cheers!

 

[skerritthegreen]

-- the entire social and community aspect of gaming.

And I admire WotC for their apparent dedication here, but I feel that it's somewhat of a misplaced attempt.

Doesn't giving stores something that only they can run help with the social and community aspect of gaming. It gets players into the store and socializing with potentially new people.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Exactly. +1 to above. Anything that promotes gaming at a store location over gaming at someones house gets my vote

 

[Steve_MND]

Doesn't giving stores something that only they can run help with the social and community aspect of gaming. It gets players into the store and socializing with potentially new people.

To a degree, yes. But I look at it this way: only a small fraction of potential gamers have a FLGS near them (many of us live out in the sticks). And while I think those FLGS should be doing whatever they can to promote their local community, I don't necessarily agree that the way WotC should be helping them out is by adopting practices that shut out those that don't have the luxury of a FLGS.

Again, this was in the specific context of the argument someone presented that the B&M stores were the reason why WotC isn't making electronic version of stuff available: they want to force people to go to the actual physical stores to purchase them. Stuff like Pokemon, Heroclix, Warhammer, Magic, etc., might be something that an approach like that would work for, because you have to have the actual physical product in your hands when you sit down to game with someone else. However, I don't think that applies as well to the practice of traditional tabletop RPGs, in which all that can be easily served up just as well on a tablet or laptop as opposed to a hardback book.

 

[Nikmal]

As long as the store is okay with it, there's nothing stopping you from running Expeditions off-site. The only caveats are that the games must be advertised and open to the public. I've started running games at conventions that my store is attending as a means of increased item distribution.

What I would like to see are rules allowing stores to run their own trading post to see excess certs enter circulation without the hassle and cost of getting Fai Chen to come to a local convention. All of my Rise of Tiamat certs are gathering dust due to scheduling prohibiting us from cracking open that book. In order to keep relations high with the FLGS, we have a kinda unwritten agreement to have at least one table running the current season material to encourage sales of the latest product.

One of these days I'd like to stop running my Slot 0 table as a means of creating Ferris Muellers who exist only as a pseudo trading posts. I'd like to have my DMs be able to use those Slot 0 games to further their own characters, instead of our liberal use of the lending rules. I will say that the Ferris Mueller Project has led to less items being left in the dirt, as Ferris may have something the player wants instead. It hasn't broken our magic item economy, as only one Ferris exists for each book/tier of Expeditions. The only things it has done are reduce the amount of fighting over magic items and reduce the amount of certs kept in the store, as every item traded to Ferris ends up like Cameron's dad's car...

DH Darkstar you are right.. you can run them off site and such if the store is ok with it. Aramis Erak you can also play online too, there is a vibrant online community for Expeditions. https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlineadventureleague/ they are running them pretty much any time and day of the week. So while the store might not offer D&D during the weekend and such you can still participate in Expeditions online too.

 

[Nikmal]

Tragically, the whole discussion here seems to smack of the attempt a few years ago to halt the "decline of the traditional newspaper," by various media outlets, and I fear that it is just as likely to work.

As much as I hate to say it, those days are fading fast, and WotC's not going to be able to stop it. B&M stores will never be able to compete against places like Amazon, etc., and they shouldn't try to. Local stores need to reorient themselves to take advantage of the stuff that only a physical store can bring -- the entire social and community aspect of gaming. Trying to prop up the sales end of it just isn't going to work when people can get the hardbacks and such for hal the cost online.

And I admire WotC for their apparent dedication here, but I feel that it's somewhat of a misplaced attempt.

Not only can B&M stores stay in business but I got news for you.. is that they are competing against online stores like Amazon. People are always wanting to play in the game stores. People are loyal to them as well. They like the fact that they can buy items in advance of the release dates of other online venues such as Amazon. Amazon has it's niche but people that buy comics, play MtG and play RPG's, wargaming with miniatures... there will always be a venue to sell them and people wanting to see and handle what they are buying not to mention being able to get the item immediately in their hands upon the release date instead of having to buy it online and wait a few days to get the item.

So while you feel they might not be able to compete with the giant known as Amazon.. they still are and some or doing it so well they are opening more stores and branching out.

 

[aramis erak]

Not only can B&M stores stay in business but I got news for you.. is that they are competing against online stores like Amazon. People are always wanting to play in the game stores. People are loyal to them as well. They like the fact that they can buy items in advance of the release dates of other online venues such as Amazon. Amazon has it's niche but people that buy comics, play MtG and play RPG's, wargaming with miniatures... there will always be a venue to sell them and people wanting to see and handle what they are buying not to mention being able to get the item immediately in their hands upon the release date instead of having to buy it online and wait a few days to get the item.

So while you feel they might not be able to compete with the giant known as Amazon.. they still are and some or doing it so well they are opening more stores and branching out.

Only in the cities.

20 years ago, one could find game stores aplenty across the country. Most of them died in the "d20 glut"... but the writing was on the wall: brick and mortar isn't the normal way people buy books (any books) anymore. People buy books over the internet - either electronic or by having the shipped direct. Why? because they can undercut brick and mortar by about 20% with no loss in profits, and 30% if they rely upon volume pricing to buy their stock.

Why do I not have dead tree of Firefly, The One Ring, or the Mongoose Traveller supplements? Because it's half the cost and no waiting to order the PDFs.
Why do I have dead tree of D&D 5? because other people paid for it.
Why do I have FFG Star Wars in dead tree? Because there's no legal PDF.
I have a large (12") tablet for reading rulebooks.

 

[StinkyEttin]

Going to throw another nod in at exploring online play. I've got a full-time job (and a part-time one), a wife, and two kids, and online play is really the only chance I get to actually play on a regular basis (I DM encounters at my FLGS). It's a nice, practical option to have.