D&D 5E So what happened at GenCon with relation to 5th edition?

[Jester David]

Living Forgotten Realms wasn't replaced. It continued to run alongside D&D Encounters. However, it's fair to say it wasn't supported as much as D&D Encounters.

It also wasn't particularly popular, likely a combination of the 4E rules and the adventure content.

Same company ran Living Greyhawk for eight years. D&D Encounters ran for four years.

I'm only tangentially aware of LFR, but wasn't there some overseer change? A shift in the general management?
I know the program got moved off the WotC site

 

[MerricB]

I'm only tangentially aware of LFR, but wasn't there some overseer change? A shift in the general management?
I know the program got moved off the WotC site

The main thing that happened was Wizards invented "Organised Play", which was directly concerned with promoting D&D in game stores. From it, we got the D&D Encounters and the Lair Assaults, both programs only available to stores. Meanwhile, LFR was slipped sideways into the full control of the "RPGA", which really - for all intents and purposes - was a bunch of volunteers with some Wizards support. This was back in 2010; apparently a major problem with the early LFR was that Wizards had to approve every adventure*, and there were just too many for them to do it in a timely fashion.

At least that's how I saw it - I was very involved in running the OP, but not with LFR.

However, I think a bunch of the LFR folks are now helping in the Adventurers League, which really brings the two programs back together. It's a weird beast in many ways: the focus on the published adventures is really new, with the LFR-like Expeditions adventures supplementing the program.

 

[Evenglare]

...apparently a major problem with the early LFR was that Wizards had to approve every adventure*, and there were just too many for them to do it in a timely fashion.

Hmmm. I wonder what they could have done so that they could approve those adventures in a more timely fashion...It's almost like laying people off left and right was a bad idea.

 

[Mistwell]

Hmmm. I wonder what they could have done so that they could approve those adventures in a more timely fashion...It's almost like laying people off left and right was a bad idea.

From what I can tell, WOTC has roughly doubled the number of people working on D&D since the start of 5e. You hear about the firings, but not the hirings. They're not laying people off left and right, it's almost the opposite.

 

[Evenglare]

From what I can tell, WOTC has roughly doubled the number of people working on D&D since the start of 5e. You hear about the firings, but not the hirings. They're not laying people off left and right, it's almost the opposite.

You'd think they would fire their PR guy then because who ever it is, they are doing a terrible job with WOTC's image on the internet. Aside from that though, you DO hear about the hirings. It was huge news when Monte Cook joined the 5e team again for that brief period, and other similar news stories appear.... albeit very infrequently. Seriously, they need to get a new PR guy.

 

[Mistwell]

You'd think they would fire their PR guy then because who ever it is, they are doing a terrible job with WOTC's image on the internet. Aside from that though, you DO hear about the hirings. It was huge news when Monte Cook joined the 5e team again for that brief period, and other similar news stories appear.... albeit very infrequently. Seriously, they need to get a new PR guy.

Unless it's a "key hire", I don't know of ANY PR guys who announce all the regular hires and fires at a major large company. Personnel changes are not that important. In fact, there may have been personnel changes at your favorite smaller RPG companies other than WOTC that you never heard about, and nobody ever made a stink about them. WOTC gets some "special" treatment on the internet sometimes. Treatment which no amount of PR can address. They could give money away to cancer research and some would complain that they should be investing that money back in the fans, or another charity, or something else. No PR can help with people who behave that way, you just gotta ignore it...which is what they've done for the most part.

 

[Charles Rampant]

$150 to play D&D sounds like a lot, but then Games Workshop routinely charges £60-90 per head for its events at Warhammer World. Meanwhile a smaller tournament would charge £10-15 per day, roughly, for Warhammer.

I suppose that the opportunity to play D&D all day twice in a row - presumably getting through a medium sized adventure in one go - could be fun. I last did RPG convention play at the Student Nationals here in the UK, several years ago, but that is always with two separate games on two separate days.

Did the people who went find the money well spent? I'm guessing that you could play D&D all weekend at a convention for about a quarter of that price normally?

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Are you sure? I wasn't there, so I'll believe you, but this photo is also floating round as the AL area.

View attachment 69621

I'm sure. The room had a big D&D banner over it. I walked in and saw very little D&D. Many, many board games though. My friend's wife was playing a board game there in fact. The Middle Ages boardgame looked cool. And a vendor was even selling Magic cards in one spot.

However, I saw Mike Mearls walking out all alone from the Hyatt. That was the most exposure I had to WotC all weekend.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I've not done Gen Con in years, but always in the (distant) past there were dividers between tables for roleplaying. How reasonable is it to play in this space?

For board games (which the room mostly was) not too bad. I ran my own RPGs and had a small room in a hotel with only one or two other RPGs in the same room. It was great. Would not want to GM in a big echoing hall.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

$150 to play D&D sounds like a lot, but then Games Workshop routinely charges £60-90 per head for its events at Warhammer World. Meanwhile a smaller tournament would charge £10-15 per day, roughly, for Warhammer.

I suppose that the opportunity to play D&D all day twice in a row - presumably getting through a medium sized adventure in one go - could be fun. I last did RPG convention play at the Student Nationals here in the UK, several years ago, but that is always with two separate games on two separate days.

Did the people who went find the money well spent? I'm guessing that you could play D&D all weekend at a convention for about a quarter of that price normally?

A ticket to a four hour RPG costs $4 at Gen Con unless the GM ups the price to make money. By contrast, you could play the D&D four game set up for $10 each or buy all four at once for $150. Overpriced in my opinion.