D&D Encounters Iteration 3

Though RPGs do not dominate our sales the way they did a decade ago, when they regularly accounted for between 20 to 25% of revenues, they still average a solid 7 to 10% share of sales in the store, mostly due to Pazio’s Pathfinder RPG, but Dungeon & Dragons 4^th Edition still takes the number 2 place solidly and  WOTC’s D&D Encounters program, at least for the first several campaigns, stands, to my mind, as the best developed and supported store-based organized play program I have seen. 

Consider what stores received:  a multi-week campaign designed for first level characters, broken into bite sized segments that a good GM could run in a couple of hours (on a couple of occasions, when our GM failed to show, I stepped in and ran the evening’s play with less than fifteen minutes spent reviewing that evening’s session) and that did not require more than an evening’s commitment from a player.  Since each evening’s game was comparatively self-contained, a session would build on what had happened on previous evenings, while at the same time not leave a new player at a tremendous disadvantage compared to regular players. 

Starting with Murder in Baldur’s Gate and continuing with Legacy of the Crystal Shard, this format changed.  Now , stores no longer received the campaign with each week’s session broken out.  Instead, they had to purchase the full scenario and run it as more of a traditional campaign, with each week’s events more closely tied to what had gone before and players unable to join or miss sessions without having a greater impact on both their character and the campaign.  The new format also required extensive work by the GM in order to develop 2 hour sessions of gameplay so as to fit store time constraints while at the same time satisfying the players.  However, satisfying a request of many players and GMs, WOTC did develop online conversions for the campaigns, allowing DMs to run them using either 3.5, 4^th edition or D&D Next.

This changes again with the next D&D Encounter season, Scourge of the Sword Coast, launching with the D&D Game Day the weekend of February 15, 2014. First, the campaign will only support play with the currently in-development D&D Next rules, though stores may apparently convert the adventure to D&D 3.5 or 4^th Edition  if they so desire.  However doing so requires more work on the part of the store and/orDM, while using the D&D Next compatible various means that retailers do not promote D&D products currently available for sale, rather instead building interest in D&D Next.

The other major problem was that, unlike the previous two campaigns, Scourge of the Sword Coast would only release as a PDF and retailers, according to an email I received from WOTC’s Retail Support Team, would have to purchase the PDF at full price.  This sounded, to me, like a splendid way to kill off retailer enthusiasm for the program, so I contacted Tolena Thorburn, Global Communications Manager at WOTC for clarification. She informed that while WOTC still has to work out the details, retailers that run Scourge of the Sword Coast will receive, along with the Game Day materials, instructions on how to download the adventure at no charge. 

Regarding my other concern, that the next session of Encounters promoted the upcoming (and unavailable) D&D Next rules, rather than the currently available 4^th Edition ones, Thorburn replied:   With regards to the other changes to Encounters, we want to be clear that the Adventure can be played with any rules set, but when it comes to in-store play experiences, Wizards will always encourage retailers to work with our most current product. We encouraged stores to run the first two Sundering adventures in 4^th edition or D&D Next, however the in-store entertainment experience is truly up to the store owners. For 2014, we encouraging stores to focusing on running the adventures using D&D Next, which ties to our announcement yesterday that the new rules system will release in summer 2014.

What stores decide to do with the next season of Encounters should prove telling. While our attendance has held steady, I know of other stores which have reported huge drop-offs in attendance, to the point where they could no long justify continuing with the program, while still others shifted the time-slot to promoting other RPGs such as 13^th Age, Pathfinder (like it needs it) or Numenera.  What happens with the next Encounter season should prove telling as to how players will respond to Next, a version of which WOTC will provide along with the PDF of Scourge.

D&D Encounters Change

As near as I can tell, according to this, stores will only be able to run the next session of D&D Encounters using the D&D Next rules, which contradicts what Greg Leeds said earlier this year regarding The Sundering and how players could use either 3.5, 4th Edition or D&D Next when playing.

This isn't a good idea since D&D Next rules are not available for sale yet and the whole idea of Encounters is to give players an opportunity to play D&D each week, not to playtest the next edition of the rules.

Encounters Changes

If you have not heard, the next season of D&D Encounters will change significantly as the campaign will start with an introductory 2 hour scenario then segue into use of the Murder in Baldur's Gate campaign that WOTC will publish.  Yes, that's right.  For the first time in the history of the Encounters program, the players will have an opportunity to purchase the materials and read them over ahead of time, as the adventure releases in last August, just after GENCON.  WOTC will only provide the introductory materials this time.

Currently, the store plans to purchase a copy of the scenario for use in the Encounters session but this may change.  It depends on how many people keep showing up for the current Encounters season, and how much D&D we keep selling.   Since it is the only one currently in print, we will run Murder in Baldur's Gate using the 4th edition rules, as we do not expect 5th edition to hit the shelves until summer of 2014.

D and D Encounters Changes

WOTC has announced that stating with Session 11 (the August 18th game) of this season's D&D Encounters, you may create your own character instead of using one of the pre-generated ones. Here are the specifics:

Starting with Chapter 3 of D&D Encounters: Dark Sun on August 18, all players may create their own 3rd-level Dark Sun character instead of using the provided pre-generated ones. Here are the rules:

• No divine character classes or options
• No material from the Forgotten Realms^® Player's Guide or the Eberron^® Player's Guide
• Allowed character races are dragonborn, dwarf, eladrin, elf, half-elf, halfling, human, tiefling (PH1); goliath (PH2); minotaur (PH3); mul, thri-kreen (DSCS)
• Pick a character theme from the Dark Sun Campaign Setting
• Characters start at 3rd level with 620 gold to purchase equipment and receive their choice of a +1 magic weapon, +1 magic implement, +1 magic armor, or a +1 amulet of protection

Have fun playing the last chapter of this season of D&D Encounters, and don't forget that a new season starts up on September 22 — Keep on the Borderlands!

Edited to correct the numbering of next week's session.