D&D 5E Public Play

[VenomousFiligree]

Expeditions and Epics content is only available through store, convention, and other public play (libraries, Game Days, etc.)

I'd be interested to know a bit more about what Wizards consider 'public play'.

From memory they were making a big thing about having the main AL games in a store right next to the shiny books, in the hope that people would buy them. Now they're saying you can play in a library and other public places...

What about playing with friends in a cafe or bar?

 

[pedr]

Chris Tulach's latest article says that anything in person and in public is a convention for these purposes. Things online and things in spaces that aren't public are not. If they follow through with this, it appears you could choose a day and publicise it somehow then contact WotC via customer services to register the event, and you'd then get sent at least the digital component of the Expeditions adventures you request. I think the Epic above is a misstatement - Epics will only be at places where they can get hundreds playing the event at once, and I think they'll need some convincing that that could happen outside North America.

 

[VenomousFiligree]

Chris Tulach's latest article says that anything in person and in public is a convention for these purposes. Things online and things in spaces that aren't public are not. If they follow through with this, it appears you could choose a day and publicise it somehow then contact WotC via customer services to register the event, and you'd then get sent at least the digital component of the Expeditions adventures you request. I think the Epic above is a misstatement - Epics will only be at places where they can get hundreds playing the event at once, and I think they'll need some convincing that that could happen outside North America.

Unfortunately, that would appear to be incorrect. Having been in contact with their customer support to see how I could access Expedition adventures and quoting their article:

Conventions describe any in-person public play that does not happen in a game store. This can include actual gaming conventions, as well as a one-off public gathering or game days. The public must be able to participate in an event in order for it to meet the standards of qualifying as convention play (it can’t be a private or invite-only game). It’s best for a convention to partner with a game store, as the store can sponsor the show and provide kit materials to enhance the experience. Conventions can contact Game Support to request access to D&D Expeditions adventures on their own.

They replied (after a lengthy to and fro) with:

Thank you for writing back! Conventions are large gatherings featured around a series of gaming events, such as GenCon, Origins and many others. Though they do not have to be as large as some of these, they would still have to be a convention. They wouldn't be individuals or clubs, or even store events, and as conventions they would have the ability to get in contact with us for more information concerning D&D expeditions. We hope this helps and if you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

 

[pedr]

I hope that this is based on customer service not having been briefed on the new program yet, rather than a final answer - there's over two months until anyone without a direct line to WotC can offer Expeditions anyway, so it might be worth waiting until WotC release more detailed info about how to organise events.

 

[VenomousFiligree]

Here's hoping...

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

From what I can tell, right now they've centered their Organized Play heavily around stores. Stores have to order the materials to run them in their own stores. Stores have to order the materials in order to partner with conventions(thus, the statement above about how "It’s best for a convention to partner with a game store").

They've included the section on conventions in order to provide exceptions to certain cons who are too big to be sponsored by a game store. That way they can get around their own rules for Gen Con and Origins and the like.

I see it being very likely that anyone with a convention smaller than 100 people is going to be asked to contact a local store and ask them to order the adventures for them. It'll technically be called a "convention" in that it doesn't actually have to take place at the store. However, it'll still need to be in a public location and open to the public. And it'll require a store to "sponsor" it.

Unfortunately, I think this will cause a lot of problems. I missed the time to ask our local store to order the first batch of Expedition adventures already and it is unlikely they ordered them on their own. Which means I'm going to have to ask them to order it for the next month. Then I have to rely on the owner being smart enough with computers to order it properly and send me the materials in time. Which he'll keep promising to do as soon as he gets a chance. Then, I have to try to find a public place to play it in. Our game store owner will insist it be his store since he's going through the effort of ordering it for us. However, his store closes super early and isn't open the vast majority of the time we'd want to play in.

At the moment, given what has been announced, I think it'll be impossible for us to run any Expeditions adventures. We already can't play Encounters because the one store that runs it gets the materials to the DMs too late to prepare and run it(they gave the opening weekend packet to the DMs 3 days after opening weekend and was unaware that opening weekend was a thing). The other store that used to do it decided not to stay open later than 6 on Wednesdays and therefore isn't open when Encounters should run.

 

[pedr]

Unfortunately, I think this will cause a lot of problems. I missed the time to ask our local store to order the first batch of Expedition adventures already and it is unlikely they ordered them on their own.

Huh? I haven't seen any suggestion that Expeditions have been made available to order yet. They've not shown up in WER in the UK, and as they won't be available outside the main conventions until September, I wouldn't expect them to be. I doubt you've missed anything yet!

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Huh? I haven't seen any suggestion that Expeditions have been made available to order yet. They've not shown up in WER in the UK, and as they won't be available outside the main conventions until September, I wouldn't expect them to be. I doubt you've missed anything yet!

Sorry, I believe I saw the deadline for ordering the August season of Encounters to be June 8th and assumed that the Expeditions had the same deadline. It appears the deadline for ordering them is July 8th according to http://wpn.wizards.com/en/article/new-benefits-and-programs-dd-organized-play

Either way, we wanted to get a group together to play the August Encounters as a prelude to playing Expeditions. But if the store didn't order it by now then we can't do that. Also, I'm not sure if a store is capable of ordering September's Encounters if they didn't order August's and whether September's contains the certs for the first part of the adventure so we could maybe catch up.

 

[pedr]

Looks like sanctioning for Expeditions begins on July 8th, at least for stores.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

You are correct. I misread, that said beginning not ending.