RPGSports Round 1 Marred by Technical Problems and Bad DM Calls

[Hriston]

Did anyone else watch this?

It looked like only around 1,200 viewers tuned in during the event.

From the beginning, there was lots of lag, and the sound was cutting in and out throughout the broadcast to the point that it was hard to follow at times.

It took a long time for the game to get going. First there was a lot of unnecessary commentary that seemed to go on forever, and then there was the pick/ban phase during which you were unable to see or hear the players. I think this could have been more interesting.

Once actual play started, the players seemed woefully unprepared. Some of them couldn’t figure out how to move their character’s tokens around the map. They also seemed unfamiliar with their character’s abilities. The player of a fighter tried to cast a spell at one point, which ended up not being a class feature he had on his sheet. And another player who was playing a sorcerer used sorcery points to either twin or quicken (it was unclear which) a spell, which led to the DM making a bad call, allowing the sorcerer to cast two non-cantrips on his turn, which ended up contributing to his team winning the round.

i think the format put a lot of pressure on the DM to make a quick call in this and other instances, but for a tournament like this to work, it should have at least the appearance of fairness. Apparently there was a panel of judges hidden somewhere, but they seem to have remained silent on this issue. And all the commentators had to say about this was that the DM’s call is final, which I generally agree with, but seemed to go against the tournament having been touted as “RAW”.

All in in all it was somewhat disappointing, but I think it might be interesting to see if some of the more glaring issues are addressed in later rounds.

 

[flametitan]

It gets so much better. Hide, ready, and cover rules aren't tracked, dramatically changing the balance of combat.

looking at the rogue pregen, which is an assassin rogue. Like, ok, even beyond the assassin being a terrible choice in pvp (due to the fact that it relies on surprise, which likely isn't tracked,) why does it have proficiency in stealth (when hiding is banned) and why does it have expertise in persuasion?

 

[Dausuul]

Yeesh.

From what I've heard, the way they did competitive play in 1E was to have each party undertake the same adventure, and the goal was to be first to finish (or last to TPK). It seems like that would be a better approach than straight-up PVP, which D&D is really not designed for.

 

[Charlaquin]

Wish I could say I was surprised.

 

[Eis]

why wouldn't they have a few trial runs for each player to get used to their character's abilities etc?

 

[bedir than]

why wouldn't they have a few trial runs for each player to get used to their character's abilities etc?

Why wouldn't they use people who are familiar with DnD? Having a vast majority of the players come from previous esports is like someone starting a bowling league that only takes retired football players

 

[Nutation]

Yeesh.

From what I've heard, the way they did competitive play in 1E was to have each party undertake the same adventure, and the goal was to be first to finish (or last to TPK). It seems like that would be a better approach than straight-up PVP, which D&D is really not designed for.

Not just in 1E; that's approximately how it's always been. (Although, I've missed the last few years of D&D Open since it moved from GenCon to Origins.)

 

[Arksorn]

d20compete

Doing game 2 of d20compete tonight. A somewhat similar competitive format. Come watch and comment on what you like and don’t like on twitch.tv/d20play tonight! Pregame starts at 7:30pm CT and game at 8pm CT!

 

[Hriston]

It gets so much better. Hide, ready, and cover rules aren't tracked, dramatically changing the balance of combat.

I didn't know this. It seems like they could make stealth relevant by using fog-of-war on the VTT they're using. I have no idea why they've made these other changes, but it seems they're obsessed with making the game run faster through misguided streamlining.

looking at the rogue pregen, which is an assassin rogue. Like, ok, even beyond the assassin being a terrible choice in pvp (due to the fact that it relies on surprise, which likely isn't tracked,) why does it have proficiency in stealth (when hiding is banned) and why does it have expertise in persuasion?

Right, when the game began they had already rolled initiative. There was no chance for anyone to hide first. Except for being completely ignorant of the rules, why would they make one of the pregens an assassin?

why wouldn't they have a few trial runs for each player to get used to their character's abilities etc?

Immediately preceding play there's a pick/ban phase where the players choose their characters from a set of around 12 pregens. Holding a session for each player to practice with each character might have been difficult to coordinate. I think it was on the players to read up on the characters before hand. Some of them clearly hadn't done their homework.

 

[Ristamar]

Sounds like my impression of what I had envisioned this to be was significantly off the mark, unfortunately.