Hi.
Surely there are some people in here going to Gencon.
Are any of those planning on Blogging their characters trials and tribulations whilst at Gencon? Cause it would make for excellent reading.
If you are and its not going to be posted in this forum, please leave a url linking to it.
Thanks!
I second this. I would really like to know how the epics go!
Thirded (because the events I wanted to attend were Sold Out when I finally went to look)
and 
BRJN wrote:
I am sorry to hear you found the event disappointing. You should most definitely give feedback to Baldman Games who were the ones organizing the event itself. I am certain that constructive feedback would improve the event for next year.
As far as Wizards making an appearance goes - it has been a well known fact for over 6months that Wizards would not be involved in GenCon this year. I am sorry that you were under the expectation they would be organizing and hosting the event, but this has been known for a very long time. Wizards' had no involvement other than making the certificates, banners, etc for the D&D AL Hall.
It might help us to understand your complaints if you gave more information as to what your expectations were. Did you have any complaints or criticisms as to how the Adventurers League itself was organized, or conducted, or are your complaints mainly dealing with logistical issues at the con - in which case, feedback should be directed toward Baldman Games.
Kalani wrote:
Kalani wrote:
Wgmccandles2 is being very kind indeed. It's a vast understatement about how horrific the event was.
I want to be clear that this had NOTHING TO DO with DMs or people working the con. They worked hard and gave major effort. WOTC and Baldman Games have a lot of explaining to do. The message most of us got was that they din't give a rats rump about the players and couldn't care less if the game faded away into oblivion.
And I'm being kind too.
Hi,
Whatever they are doing, GenCon was epic... An EPIC FAIL!!!
I predict that having not being there this year will go down as the most cataclysmic mistake in the history of Wizards of the Coast and maybe Hasbro.
After the great buzz created in 2014, the outsourcing of GenCon game play to Baldman Games (BMG) resulted in a situation where hundreds of people walked away wondering if they would ever attend again and many wondering if they will every spend another dime on the product again.
Before I complain in detail and this gets lost, not one bit of what I am posting here is a complaint of any DM. I had some absolutely great DMs! Yeah, I had one DM that needed a lot more seasoning, but when you have 100 volunteers, well, your bound to have a bell curve of talent. My all-access DM was great. If it wasn't for her... well, she is a hero, let me just say that. It's amazing what a great DM can do with garbage. This also has nothing to do with the players at my tables. They too were terrific. Hanging around great people softens the hurt and pain.
So, on to the crux of the matter...
1) Rip Off - The All-access pass which cost $150 was a complete swindle. It was, effectively, the combination of 4 events. If you purchased the 4 events separately, you paid $40. The difference between the two options last year was that players who signed up received the brand new Player's Handbook and an advanced copy of the Monster Manual (both retailed for $49.99 at the time). This year we received 4 certificates for adventure's league. That is 4 cardboard sheets which many people left on the table. Based on the math, each sheet of cardboard cost me $25. (sarcasm).
2) Epics modules were a disaster - What can I say. Whoever wrote this, wrote crap. I could write a book about this but I'll just give you one example. I played in the mid-tier module with 4 others. The climax of the weekend had us facing off against the big-bad guy and our table defeated him before he got an attack. It was so stupidly easy that our DM called over a marshal of some sort who had the bad guy reappear. Once again he was slaughtered within minutes. Between both the season 2 and season 3 epic sessions we had about 2-3 hours where we sat around and waited because of the timing schedule.
3) Non-Interactive Interactive Epics - As I mentioned, there were two epic sessions, season 2 ending and season 3 launch. Neither made a player feel like he or she was involved in something that impacted or was impacted by anything else. In other words, we just blew through a module, hacked some demons and went home. At the end of the first epic, the lights went out in the hall at midnight before there were any announcements (GenCon and the convention center are at fault for this, I'm sure) so I guess I'll be kind and give them a bye for that. But at the end of the Saturday night Epic some BMG captain tried to shout over the noise of thousands of people to the 300 or so participants. Yes, I said shout. He didn't have a microphone. Nobody heard squat.
4) Players felt abandoned - At least I did. Where was WOTC? Players and DMs felt like they were given up for adoption by their parents. I felt particularly abandoned because I don't play Adventurer's League (AL) in stores. There was squat for home play gamers. (It's impossible for home game players to meet the rules for AL because we don't have access to the DM stuff). But more than that, there were a couple of banners over the crowd but nothing else. The setup looked like little Sally's Lemonade Stand compared to prior years. No displays, no giant beholders, no giant drow....no nothing. It's easy to say that WOTC failed but that would be too kind. They DIDN'T EVEN TRY.
There's a lot of nit-picky stuff that I would say in a different year but the disaster of 2015 was so huge that it would be meaningless to even bring those (otherwise serious) issues up now.
I didn't want people to walk away thinking this was some good experience when it was a disaster. I cannot help but think WOTC lost MANY loyal customers this past weekend.
I want to thank all those who played AL games over the weekend and hope you had a good time. For those that did not, I encourage you to be specific about what you were dissatisfied about and make sure you bring to the attention of this who can make adjustments. Other than the fact that BMG ran DnDAL games at Gen Con, they are not the campaign and the campaign admins are not under their employ, other than some DMed while at the con. We do not control them or how they do anything and while we have passed along the positives and negatives that we witnessed, that's the extent of what we can do. It is no different than any other staff that runs AL at any other convention. When you post your complaints to the AL staff, please understand that other than speaking about what we saw and what we experienced with the BMG staff (which we have done) there is nothing we can do to effect a change beyond continuing that dialogue (which we will do). We get none of you money and have no money to give you for things at the show. Indeed some of the nicknacks given out (randomly by the admins) at the show were paid for by the admins out of our own funds.
Also, WOTC was not at the convention, something that was known publicly for nearly a year. They appear to be getting out of the convention business as their presence at conventions (as a company with a big booth and large outlay) has diminished significantly over the last few years. WOTC is not BMG either, so while you can pass on your thoughts to them as well (they do not really monitor these forums, you should call customer service), posting that you are angry with them is also misplaced as they don't run conventions (just like they don't run you local stores game). I'm sure WOTC and BMG will talk about how to improve the experience but neither party is really active on this forum.
Greg Marks
DnDAL Associate Resource Manager
Skerrit wrote:
Neptune0923 wrote:
Wow........ And I was upset about what WF was possiable going to look like and this D&Ds big show and it was a trainreck! Ok
Skerrit wrote:
I am happy to pass your comments along as best I can as a volunteer for both WOTC and BMG, but I just want it to be clear that the AL admins are not BMG and are not regular employees of WOTC, so when you post here, you are complaining to people who share your pain and other than asking a few others about what can be done (much like you) we don't have any authority to force any change other than to stop production of AL adventures which is not what I expect anyone is asking for.
As for changes to epics, that is something we would like to do and were already exploring. It may mean no more epics at Gen Con since the con is not set up well to do what you are asking for.
AL organization has been a trainwreck since the beginning. Why would GenCon be any different?
I totally get Hasbro's thinking. Pass the handling off to the lowest bidder and then you get to limit your liability. They even get to advertise and have events on a national scale ran almost completely by volunteers. But i dont think they realize we can see what they are doing.
The people running the forums and actually doing most of the groundwork have their hands completely tied. Which is why all the posts that are complaining about the bad convention look like robotic form letters.
I work in the retail industry and one of the things that annoy people the most is when you give them robotic responses as if they are generic humans.
I did all access.
Unless rewards are specified next year, I will not do it. No more of this "guess what you may get" concept.
The interactives were just poorly managed and hardly "interactive".
All in all, the specials just seemed "half-assed". The first had no interactive aspect that I could see. The judge never even talked with anyone after our 1 and 40 min wait - (yes we started extra late).
The second was also started an hour and 20 min late - yes we also started after everyone had completed the first portion.
All in all I was expecting 16 hours of "premium" play and received 11 hours of rushed, apologetic, we'll make it better next time play that hand waved combats, skipped roleplay and just worked to complete the event mentality.
The location simply doesn't support the number of people present. Too loud, too distracting, too preoccupied trying to seat people with generic tickets...it was just bad.
This was my first Gencon without any Pathfinder events in 5 years...next year will be different.
I wasn't there, so I don't have a lot to say specifically concerning the situation at GenCon, but I do have some comments that I feel need to be made.
- Stop treating the volunteers like they work for Wizards of the Coast. They don't. They do have slightly more ability to give direct feedback to members of the D&D team at Wizards, but only on a limited selection of things.
- The volunteer staff needs to stop pretending they don't represent Wizards of the Coast. I know you wish otherwise, but I'm sorry, you do, particularly when operating in an official capacity. such as on the WotC forums. You have all the responsibility but none of the rights or power that comes with being a WotC representative. That doesn't actually matter. You need to start actually owning up to things, like taking ownership of your content (which is a whole seperate issue) and your events.
- All-Access pass people need to stop complaining about swag. You got exactly what was promised in the All-Access pass description. The fact that it was a lot less than last year is immaterial - you knew the price point and you knew the confirmed benefits of participating, with the hedge of 'there might be more'. There wasn't.
- WotC isn't doing conventions because stepping up and running a big ass convention booth is expensive, and WotC (particularly the D&D side) has no money. They have no people, they have no money, and Hasbro is trying to find a way to fix it. Until it gets sorted, I wouldn't expect WotC to return to the conventions in an official capacity, so that'll be years.
Specifics:
I played in the mid-tier module with 4 others. The climax of the weekend had us facing off against the big-bad guy and our table defeated him before he got an attack. It was so stupidly easy that our DM called over a marshal of some sort who had the bad guy reappear. Once again he was slaughtered within minutes. Between both the season 2 and season 3 epic sessions we had about 2-3 hours where we sat around and waited because of the timing schedule.
Seeing this thread made me scratch GenCon off the list of potential cons to attend next year. My con buddies and I were looking to finally hit up a convention outside of Florida. Finding a con with a well-organized AL program is what's important to me. Does BMG handle all of the AL at larger cons? If so, then I might just give up on trying to find a larger con that provides AL and see what local cons are offering. As someone with years of con experience as both attendee and panelist/volunteer/staff, I'd much rather support a local con that knows what they're doing than attend a large event that has troubles operating without training wheels, aka WotC support. As a matter of fact, this caused me to stop typing this post and reach out to a local convention to see if my AL group can assist them with any AL games they might have been considering running. Seeing this mess makes me want to shield my group from the same fate at local conventions.
However, the thing that disheartens me the most is that this debacle is having a negative PR impact on both the AL program and the brand itself. I'm just glad that none of my players attended GenCon, as I'd be worried about the experience causing my player count to drop or incessant complaining taking over the session.
Excellent break down Ainulindalion. The systemic problems you brought up are for the most part the real issues. GenCon 2015 was just a very visible symptom. Kind of like a cold sore is a symptom of herpes.
But other games have found a way to overcome the many challenges Wizards faces in running a profitable RPG; and done so with far fewer advantages.
Last year many old players, like myself, who have been loyal for decades, were at the end of our rope. So we pinned our hopes to 5th edition. For six beautiful months everything seemed to be coming together. Then something happened.
I don’t think its to late for 5th edition to be the game everyone hopes it will be, with great content, and a thriving community. I’m just worried WOTC is not going to be able to make it happen, and even more concerned that isn’t even their goal.
As a GenCon attendee I feel like a bit of a sucker. I don’t want to feel even more like one for supporting DnDAL, or 5th edition in general. Maybe I’ll get over it, maybe I wont. But before I drop DnD entirely, I really do feel now a responsibly to let WOTC and Hasbro know their current strategy and outreach efforts (or lack of) are losing them valuable customers.
I'm glad I nixed GenCon this year. Did a several other, local ones, which were very good AL experiences. Maybe next year we'll all be playing Sword Coast Legends, instead... 
Ainulindalion wrote:
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
Greg, please don’t think we are blaming you. The forum you moderate is simply the first and easiest way for people to record their issues. Sadly, I left Greg Leed's cell number in my other kilt.
I for one am really glad you are willing to support the DnDAL and moderate these forums. I was also really impressed with the BMG's DM's and volunteers at GenCon.
Thank you for everything you do.
The info on the $75,000 is interesting though. Maybe WOTC needs their own Con to launch things from and host premier events? Or maybe it just needs to find the right venue? If PAX is that, then they need to let thier fan base know and we will support them.
Skerrit wrote:
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
Well... my AL experience at Gen Con was good, on the whole. A couple so-so DMs, one never-play-at-your-table-again DM, but otherwise I have no complaints. I played several games (and ran two), and found mustering pain-free every time. BMG staff were helpful and friendly. I enjoyed the Epic on Thursday night. Yeah, there wasn't really any visible interaction -- someone from BMG came by to whisper something in our DM's ear a few times -- but whatever, it was fun. We got through it with almost zero combat, but that's because we had a good plan and an enthusiastic DM, not because it was too easy (although to be honest, it was probably a little too easy, but we avoided so much combat it's hard to say). Still not convinced the experience was worth $14, but then again the others probably weren't worth $10 either, so what're you gonna do. It is what it is.
Regardless, I'd play more AL next year, based on my experiences this year. Hell, D&D ended up being the only game I played all Gen Con, which is frickin' nuts.
Skerrit wrote:
Kalani wrote:
[quote="Skerrit"]
Ainulindalion wrote:
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
I must admit, when I started this thread I had no idea that this Gencon would of been so controversial.
Usually things go very well. WOTC not putting out any new books for Gen Con put a kink in the swag wagon and some of the problems with the new location in the Hall where not overcome. On the bright side, I heard mostly good things about DMs and the events were well recieved, requests for additional interaction during the Epic withstanding.
Yeah one of the guys I spoke to from Sydney who has just returned said he had a good time (but he wasnt just playing AL) and all his dms were good.
As a most completely disorganised person within my own life, I cant even fathom the effort that goes into organising the event for so many people.
It looks like BMG has posted a response regarding All-Access this year. http://baldmangames.com/2015/08/gen-con-2015-all-access-program/
Skerrit wrote:
I wasn’t at Gen Con this year, but my previous experience with Baldman Games’ run Adventurer’s League has been pretty positive. The DMs were all solid (unlike Catalyst’s Shadowrun Missions, which unfortunately has had some bad GMs). The mustering was a weak spot, I’ll agree there, and could see it getting worse with the larger crowds of Gen Con.
I feel as though the concerns listed in this thread are largely going to end up being a 'tempest in a teapot'. Why?
1. The original complaint is overblown.
I went and read that thread that talked about all the problems with the All-Access Pass; it looks to me like the guy who left the link here blowing up hyperbolically, and a bunch of other folks agreeing that the track was disappointing, but not quite agreeing with the epic rantiness.
Even so, that complaint really only applies to the All-Access program, not to AL as a whole at GenCon. Even the folks complaining about All-Access had nothing but good things to say about the DMs Baldman recruited (except that there weren't enough of them). So long as a solid core of quality DMs are willing to step up and volunteer for GenCon duty, AL at GenCon should be fine, even if the All-Access program (which is by no means a significant feature of Adventurers League) changes or goes away. (If anything, I'd recommend discontinuing the All-Access program, if only to free up those DMs to return to the general DM pool.)
2. The AL at GenCon was a lot stronger than this complaint suggests.
As is typical in a rant, the complaint moves on from its specific points to try painting the entire GenCon experience with a filthy brush. While it's always dangerous to generalize from a specific anecdotal example, I think my own experience is more likely to be shared by others who went to GenCon and didn't participate in the All-Access program:
I went with three other people, two of whom were attending GenCon for the first time. All of us had a great time and were already starting to plan out next year's GenCon the day we got home. One of the folks who attended with me was so pleased with the Season 3 content at the con that he played in every one of the five mini-adventures for Harried in Hillsfar, mustering in with generics for the sessions he didn't purchase in advance.
Mustering was a bit chaotic on Thursday, but improved rapidly as both the Baldman folks and the attendees got the gist of how things were running. Also, when Fai Chen's showed up with only a limited window of time on Friday, people were concerned, but the staff communicated on Facebook what additional times they'd be open, and even chose to keep the Faire open an extended amount of time on Saturday and Sunday. The staff went above and beyond running the Faire, and I (and my tiefling cleric/wizard, who bought a scroll of Agannazer's scorcher) very much appreciate the effort.
3. The biggest problem was the players.
The low point for me and my group at GenCon is illustrative -- on Sunday, in the final slot of the con, we sat down to play DDEX 3-2. The mod itself has some problems, which I may address in a different thread, but the thing that ruined our enjoyment of the module wasn't the module itself, or the DM (who didn't do himself any favors by trash-talking the mod while running it), but the guy playing the Chaotic Neutral gnome conjurer whose character was clearly Chaotic Evil under the AL-legal alignment wrapper.
- In the initial combat, the character insisted on trying to kill the enemies we were fighting, even once it became obvious that the fight was unwinnable. (This ended up costing us a bonus XP award.)
- Prior to the second combat, she summoned her familiar solely for the purpose of trying to steal the First Lord's hat.
- During the second combat, once she'd summoned enough rocks propelled by the catapult spell to punch through the wall of the arena, she indicated a desire to use her remaining spell slots to launch summoned rocks into the crowd.
I did all the mid tier events plus both Epics and a slot of the Hillsfar adventure. Here's my feedback:
Overall - positive but obvious problems.
1. Mustering was poor. None of my games (7 sessions) started on time. We ran out of time twice unable to finish the module and twice more, the mustering problem negated our ability to do more than hack and slash cutting down on the NPC interaction.
Recommendation: Make the slots 5 hours rather than 4 and assume up to half an hour for mustering, the party role-playing meeting, etc. Also - consider online tools to "pre-muster" groups together. This was done on the Gencon community forums for all-access for half a dozen of the groups - this should really be promoted. Draw a hard cap on mustering - after 15 minutes, if you aren't seated, you can't do the event. This means both the players and BMG have responsibilities to run things smoothly.
2. The sound was overwhelming - if you were on the other side of the table from the DM, you couldn't hear them. Removing the castle walls from around the D&D gaming area allowed for more tables but a worse experience.
Recommendation: Put the old castle walls back up - they helped absorb sound (consider even upgrading that by incorporating sound absorbent materials into it). Also, pay attention to what is put in next to the D&D area - Nasgrag seems like fun but was very loud. I did one session next to them and missed half of what my DM said. Consider All-Access being done in a different room.
3. All-Access/VIP: Both All-Access and VIP paid $150. VIP was for 2 epics but you got new copies of all 3 books (I needed to replace 2 of mine so it was a good deal). The benefits were getting better DM's (definitely true - our DM was a rock star - especially good was the first DM we had didn't feel comfortable doing mid-tier and switched with the other VIP DM so we'd have a better experience), getting access to Fai Chen's, and having the same group for all events. For VIP, they gave us an extra hour for mustering - that worked for the first epic but not the second - the second we started late and ended up not finishing because of it.
Recommendation: All-access and VIP should have more space separated from the rest of the groups for better sound control. The extra hour of time should be done every time as well. In terms of swag, Fai Chen was a pretty good benefit - my understanding is all-access also got special certs allowing for things like a rare mount, trading non-certed items, etc. Different players got different Fai Chen experieinces - the group that got Fai Chen customizing the items was a really good experience - definitely continue with that.
4. DM quality: It was good for the most part (only 1 bad DM who had all NPC be the same and didn't tell us critical mission details then went a great deal beyond the module in trying to kill the party (6 waves of fire priests appearing without notice with surprise was a bit much). The other DM's were excellent. One complaint was the DM's didn't get the play much.
Recommendation: Don't make the DM's run games 10 hours a day for 3 days. Half lost their voices. Limit DM's to no more than 6 hours per day and give them free GenCon badges and event passes as a player for whenever they aren't running a game.
5. Epic designs: The first was decent - it was difficult but attainable. We did the water path - being on a ship by a giant shark while being boarded my merkoths was an interesting challenge. It really needed another hour of content, though. I thought the first epic was a good resolution to Mulmaster. The second epic was more problematic. It started over an hour late but didn't run over time. We didn't finish (several tables had the same experience) in time. The first part with riding cloakers through the underdark was done amazingly well. The second part wasn't designed well with the necromancer and undead - it was too simplistic. The third part with the Incubi (plural since high tier failed their mission) was a bit of a let-down. Last year's event with the dragon going table to table was far more engaging. I was hoping for Demogorgon or such landing on our table and even running away being a fight for our lives. The second epic had a great start then fell apart (needed better design and writing). The interactive element was poor on both. They were just modules like the rest.
Recommendations:
Interactivity has to get better: Improve how the interactive elements work. I get the first epic only needing limited interactivity (possibly have elements get harder or easier based on what other people do at their tables). Rather than have interactivity be as a group (high tier fails so mid tier gets X) have specific tables interact. Table 8 failed requiring table 9 to handle overflow - but let those tables work together. Supposedly low tier could ask for help from other tables but I didn't see this happening.
Time allotment: Increase the length of an epic to 6 hours including half an hour of mustering time. If a group finishes early, design the adventure in such a way where they can help other same-tier tables.
"Epic feel" needs improvement: The first epic made us feel like what we did would have a lasting impact on Mulmaster (but had a major design flaw since we overthrew the leader of Mulmaster in one of the modules preceding it). The second epic had no epic feel at all. There was no sense of stakes nor that we were taking on a neigh impossible challenge. Last year was far superior in that respect. Have us fight a massive army, a single impossible foe (demon lord, ancient dragon, tarrasque, etc.), etc with the first 2 part of the epic being preparation for the event then how we do in the first 2 impact how we do in the last piece.
Challenge level: Epics promote you risk the very souls of your characters - if they die, they are likely permanently dead. Many elements of this were too easy - (A) more guidance/assistance should be given to the DM's about increasing the difficulty level. Use more than just level - use how optimized the characters are. A 7th level optimized paladin can be far more powerful than a 9th level rogue who had dabbled in several different things. How many magic items people have should be a factor as well - if you have more than 1 before level 5, more than 2 between 5 and 10, more than 4 between levels 10-15 - the characters are likely min/maxxed and the DM should have the tools available to take those out. (B) throw the players off their game - do things like take away all their magic items, limit their usage of feats or other optimized characteristics that force them to work harder (these can be part of the story - in the second epic, low and high tier fought in the arena - I could easily see stripping characters of magic items before the fight and making them struggle to get anything other than their basic weapons given to them by the arena masters). (C) Make the epics harder with bigger rewards (xp for the epics was the same as regular adventures - we got more gold and the magic was a bit of an upgrade - I'd recommend 3 items rather than 2 for each tier though so more people at the table can get something.)
It's still something I'd recommend. If you are chosing whether to go to GenCon or not - never go just for one game. D&D can be fun but there are tens of thousands of events going on. Try true dungeon, try a Catan tournament, hit the board game areas, do a LARP - you won't be able to actually do everything you'd like to try. GenCon is a place to go to do things you can't do at home. Experience new games - get out of your comfort zone, you'll benefit hugely if you do. This year was my second GenCon. I did all the D&D mid-tier events (should have done 1-2 less since my schedule was so packed). I also tried (and got hooked on) Pandemic. I did true dungeon for the first time (and Survived!) I did irreparable damage to the time space continuum in the Friday night interactive Cthulhu game by losing a 2015 Iphone 6 in the year 1999. I did Stink on Wednesday night (note to self: bring a game there as opportunities to just start great games are everywhere) then finished the week with a minor league baseball game a block from the convention hall (nice to unwind with a slower paced event). D&D should be a part of every GenCon but do more than just that.
Fred
I question why your DM did not issue official warnings to the player for disruptive conduct - and then call over an organizer to have him ejected from the table once it continued (see section 3 of the players guide). Just because it is a con does not mean that the CoC rules take a backseat. They are in effect each time you sit down at an AL table, Con or otherwise.
FelwredNew wrote:
Pauper wrote:
Kalani wrote:
Oh, as for the several references in all the different complaint threads to Paizo in the Segamore. I would invite people to do some research as to where a lot of that setup originated 
I think it is awesome they are doing so well, but I do miss the Segamore still...
imaginaryfriend wrote:
I'm not speaking for BMG, so these are just my own opinions, but some of your requests mix BMG, the DnDAL, and WOTC as the same entity, which they are not, and thus some suggestions, while they might work, are not possible. I don't want to make excuses for anyone either, I offer my comments so players might see (from another perspective) why something that seems like an easy fix, might not be so easy.
Cascade.rpga wrote:
imaginaryfriend wrote:
Cascade.rpga wrote:
Have to strongly disagree with you about the state of the events at GenCon this year, Pauper.
I participated in DDEP2 and DDEP3 as part of the Epic VIP experience ($140 for the two events). Part of the set up was supposed to guarantee that I had a kept the same DM and team through both epics. I was assigned to a non-VIP table for DDEP2 and while our DM did an excellent job, it meant that none of my group for the first event were around for the second epic.
DDEP3 on Saturday night was a complete disaster. They didn't have enough DMs and had to pull one of the BMG staff who was otherwise scheduled to play the epic to DM my table. Mustering started at 8PM but we didn't actually begin the event until 9:42PM. Our DM tried hard but he hadn't even read the module because he was initially scheduled to be a player. The result was a muddled mixture of hand waving and being dropped into combat scenarios without any buildup. NPC interactions were nonexistent. The only interaction from people outside of the table for this 'interactive event' were periodic time checks. When the night ended and the results for the group were announced the noise was too great to hear anything they tried to announce.
It was a bad experience.
One thing I am observing in this ongoing post-GenCon discussion:
For every person complaining about the Con and/or Baldman Games, I have heard another dozen odd players saying they had a blast and planned to attend again. This is not an attempt to discredit those who have complaints, only that those who had genuine issues are a small fraction of the total. Overall, it appears to have been a success except for those people who ran into the few problems that did occur (such as a DM who was also a muster volunteer, or issues relating to All-Access expectations vs. reality).
In summary:
It was a bad/terrible experience for some players - but an excellent experience for the majority
Here's my two-cents for GenCon, having gotten back from the drive last night, and having a chance to actually sleep well for a change.
To clarify before I comment tho, as people seem to be reiterating these points: yes, I know Baldman Games, the AL Admins, the volunteer DMs and GenCon itself are all seperate entities, and do not work for/are affiliated with WotC or Hasbro, etc. etc. I also know while that may be the case in a technical sense, it doesn't matter.
AL is an official Dungeons and Dragons entity. If Baldman screws up something, it looks bad on the brand and WotC by extension, because they are the ones running the conventions -- even if the circumstances are out of their control. If the AL Admins screw up something, it looks bad on the brand and WotC by extension, because WotC chose them to represent and manage the game -- even if they don't have the sort of control over it that they'd like. If the DMs screws up something, it looks bad on the brand and WotC by extension, because the DMs are the front-line providers of the game's enjoyment -- even if they are just volunteers. And if GenCon screws up something, it looks bad on the brand and WotC by extension, because the implication is that if WotC had been more involved then those things would have happened. More than one company, individual or idea have been tanked not because of actual technical issues, but because of public perception. Managing that is often as important as managing the actual product.
And I also understand that the official AL people here don't have any say in what goes on outside your limited scope. But presenting our complaints here (as well as elsewhere) is important because even if you don't have any actual sway over these things, you can (and in fact should) be sending these concerns up the chain to the people you report to. Eventually our concerns will hit people who do have sway in those situations.
Prior to GenCon, I was looking at the All-Access option, but did not see that there was any information about any of the specifics involved. As a result, I wasn't about to spend three times as much or so on the games than what I could pay for by doing them separately, so didn't bother with it. In retrospect, judging from what I've seen here and on other social sites, and saw at GenCon itself, that was a lucky decision on my part.
I honestly went to GenCon solely for the AL games (as I have been there before under LG solely for those offerings as well). I understand that's a bit of a narrow focus, and don't begrudge the fact tat as a result, I was setting myself up with a bit of an 'all eggs in one basket' scenario. That shouldn't mean that the activities I selected and paid for should be any less professional as a result tho.
Including the five intro Harried in Hillsfar mini-mods and the two Epics, I had a total of 13 official slots of gaming over the course of the convention. I was overall rather disappointed in the quality of the judges, as well as Baldman Game's ability to handle such an operation. I felt the new Season 3 mods seemed more engaging for me, however, so it was a mixed bag.
The quality of DMs to have ranged wildly across the spectrum. Of the 13 slots, I only had judges ask what levels our characters were in 2 slots. This wasn't probably an issue in the Epics (altho I hoped there was still some built-in options to account for a table of 7 1st levels versus 7 4th levels, for example). And it wasn't really a major issue in the 5 starter mods (altho we had a level 3 in one of our intros and a level 4 in another). As to the rest I played, I have no idea how they were determining what difficulty level our table was supposed to be running at (if they even bothered to do so at all).
One of our regular-mod judges was (he admitted) a 4th edition player, and that this was only like his fourth 5e game. He ended up doubling the enemies in the first encounter we hit ("So I could get an idea of exactly how powerful you guys are") and often decided to use 4e mechanics (ranged attacks in melee provoking AoO and +2 and -2 instead of a second die when it came to advantage and disadvantage, for example) throughout the rest of the mod because he was more familiar with them (again, by his own admission).
Another one of our judges (at one of the intro Hillsfar mods) said he didn't award experience "in the standard way," and ended up giving us each almost three times to max XP for the intro (I personally self-capped mine at the correct 100). He also mentioned that in several of the other mods he had run, he had given out lots of extra experience because it "just didn't make sense that you would come to GenCon, pay all this much for games, and then play 3-1 (intro), 3-2 (low tier), and still find yourself unable to play 3-3 (a mid tier)." I don't know how much extra he had been giving out on those, but the implication was that he wanted to make sure players who played just 3-2 had enough to get to 5th level. Ironically, his son, who I later had as a judge for another of the intro mods, was quite a decent DM, despite his young age (and presumably despite his dad's devil-may-care approach to the AL rules).
Those were the worst two, but overall, the quality of judges I felt was just average otherwise, with many not having much familiarity with conventions, and the pacing of the mods there (one had to call the mod about halfway through it because we simply ran out of time). A standout exception was our judge for the Saturday Epic, Jay Africa, who was well-organized, engaging and seemed to be pretty much on the ball. Kudos to him.
As to the Epics, I'll agree the Thursday night one (which I played mid tier) didn't seem all that "interactive" ... certainly less so than the one I played at DragonCon last year. However, I felt that the Saturday one seemed interactive -- we had a log sheet of how may ships we sunk in the flooded arena, how many flags we recovered, and how many 'side quest' objectives we accomplished during the first part. The Thursday one was meh, but I had fun at the Saturday one.
I was very unimpressed with Baldman Game's handling of the convention, tho. Mustering, as others have mentioned, was iffy at best. Mustering started 10 minutes (or more) before the previous slot was done. My Thursday afternoon slot never actually went off -- we had a handful of players standing around at the mustering flag, but apparently they had forgotten to assign a marshal for that flag. After asking around for fifteen minutes, we finally got a Baldman Game's guy to look into our table situation (which I later came to understand was one of the main guys there, if not THE main representative), and he assured us that he'd get us a table. After another fifteen minutes had gone by, with us watching from a distance as he wandered around and talked to other people, the other guys decided to call it, and they all left. When I went back to him to let him know that there was no longer a legal table anymore, he looked confused and asked me to what I was referring. When I told him, he looked unconcerned and replied "Oh, sorry, I forgot about you guys."
*sigh*
I understand that it was still Thursday, and that it was chaotic, and that maybe Baldman was having more to deal with than they had anticipated, but that only provides a reason for the problem, and does not excuse it. When I scowled at his apparent absent-mindedness, he said something to the effect of "hey, don't let it color your experience with us." I'm sorry, but that sort of thing does. Had it been a totally volunteer organization, I would have accepted the situation as just one of those things that happens, but I won't give a professional company that is supposed to be doing this as their actual, paid occupation such a casual pass.
I won't be attending GenCon next year. The main, if not sole, reason I went this year was for the Organized Play opportunities. With my experiences (and the experiences of others more or less confirming them), I have little to no faith that Baldman can run something of this scope by themselves. I'll just focus on my local group for AL play.
Skerrit wrote:
Not in this thread per se - but I am also following similar discussions on FB.
SteveMND wrote:
Kalani wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
I'm not a BMG staff member, I'm only commenting from my experience as a DM for both Epics.
EJKruze wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
CahPahkah wrote:
Probably a GenCon thing: don't try to squish 4 x four-hour modules into a single day.
I didn't attend but I did look at the schedule of events. No Con I've attended has ever had more than 3 four-hour slots. The extra time turns out to be needed for mustering, getting lost in the building, grab munchies at SnakShoppe, &c.
+1 to the proposal to model AL Epics on LFR Battle Interactives. My experiences with BIs was good. (I should probably experience an Epic so I can speak from knowledge, no?)
And something that BMG, WotC, GenCon, AL, &c cannot possibly control but YOU can - volunteer to be a Con DM ! This world needs more DMs, it seems.
Skerrit wrote:
Pauper wrote:
My friend who had an All-Access pass just got back from GenCon. He had nothing but praise for the program and felt he got more than his money's worth. Having a dedicated DM for his group alone was worth what he paid in his opinion, esp. once he realized that he had double-booked something. The rest of the group also said they were double booked for one adventure slot. In response - the DM said they had another slot for the same adventure the following evening, and that they could most definitely participate then. The entire group was extremely thankful for that.
Overall, my group rated our All-Access experience as a solid B+. We liked having a terrific DM that was with us from start to finish and could get to know our characters and add depth to the story. It was like a mini-campaign all to itself, where our characters were getting deeper into the setting and the NPCs were reacting to us. It was great. (I recognize that not everyone ended up with a fantastic judge, but our judge truly was better than 90% of the judges I've ever had).
We really liked that All-Access let us muster once and then just go to that table and avoid the wait. That was excellent. We also really liked having a table of 6 instead of 7. I completely understand and support having 7-person tables, because otherwise about 700 people would not be able to play each of the Epics! And, that 7th person is important revenue. Running cons is really expensive and those tickets are vital to ensuring Baldman stays in it.
We liked the certs they received. Fun, interesting, a bit of flexibility, but nothing broken. They seemed to me a really nice sweet spot of nice-to-have, not at all play-to-win, and the kind of thing you can easily do without.
Fai Chen was okay. I found it too limited. You have to have certs to begin with, and they have to be the right rarity. With so few things offered, it was sort of obvious what you could trade for and it didn't really offer that much to be excited about. That's especially true compared to some of the incredibly strong in-adventure certificates which none of us could use because they were a wrong weapon type, etc. I would really rather see Fai Chen as a way to fix that. For example, change the weapon type to another legal-for-the-item option. Or, a longer list of items and sort of like a menu you review it, provide a legal trade, and they write what you picked on a generic Fai Chen cert. Since certs usually lack rules, Fai Chen shouldn't have to hold itself to so few options. Pcik from a menu, write it down, get it signed, done. We understand the idea behind asigned times, though it was hard for us because our assigned time was when we were at an entirely different building playing another game. A menu system would clear this all up for All-Access. Fill out the menu, give your DM the certs you are trading in, show up at the next game and your All-Access judge hands you the certs. No fuss, no wait.
The Epics were solid to great times for us. With Mulmaster, our table never understood what other tables were doing. We felt like it was a random scouting mission, sudden discovery of a big threat, and then we were going to warn the city that other elements might attack... and then someone later explained that different tables were fighting different elements and all the elemental cults had been attacking the city. Oh. There was no interactivity that we could discern, which we really missed. Solid adventure, just not as interactive as we like them to be. The second Epic had a great story and excellent setting. We liked all of the encounters and the challenge level was great. We again wanted more interactivity, but the adventure was fantastic.
The other adventures were arguably as good or better. I found myself thinking that this may be the strongest group of adventures I've seen at a Gen Con. Plenty of Gen Con LG specials were disappointing, as were plenty of LG and LFR adventures. Gen Con can be tough on timelines, which can hurt quality and DM prep. But, these were really exceptional and a lot of fun. Our DMs for the non-All-Access adventures were mostly exceptional and very enthusiastic - focused on delivering a top-notch experience. In our rating forms I think we entered a 3 once for two of our DMs. Everything else was 4 or 5 out of 5.
So, overall, it was a fantastic Gen Con. All-Access is expensive, however. Our group on average felt the tickets would be better priced at $100 (I didn't, I thought it was well priced). Throw in some loot or lower the price, and it would be an amazing can't-miss option for all of us.
If you haven't read what Baldman wrote about All-Access, check it out. The owner is a fantastic guy with a deep caring for the hobby, D&D, and organized play. He has seen just about everything across his years and fought for great organized play more often than most people could ever imagine. His promise to look at the program and make it more transparent, while improving on the various issues, is sincere. This is a very tough business under difficult conditons where support from WotC is ever-decreasing (for other complicated reasons). Constructive feedback is always welcomed by him and his team.
What about this post by Baldman Games on their own forum:
Re: DDEP2/DDEP3 D&D Adventure League Epic VIP Experience
mrlong78 wrote:
Alphastream wrote:
I think some of the complaints while well founded are overblown. My daughter and I attended our second Gencon and still had a great time. It was obvious from the moment we walked in that WOTC had decreased their committment substantially from last year, smaller space, no cool drow statue, no sales booth in the dealers hall. We played 2 adventures, a mid tier DDEX3-3 Occupation of Szith Morcane, which was quite enjoyable, and one Harried in Hilsfar, which ended in 35 minutes and was definitely subpar. In contrast we played our first Pathfinder adventure ever, Scions of the Sky Keep and had a great time. Our DM was terrific, he knew the adventure inside and out, and great play aids, the Sagamore ballroom was very well organized, had great banners and put the D&D presentation to shame. I'm relatively agnostic to rules and systems; I just want a good story and a good DM, but relative to Paizo, WOTC should step up their game.
By the way, do we really know the financials of D&D. Hasbro does not publish anything. How can they claim poverty when lots of smaller publishers seem to do just fine on smaller volume, and when the PHB made it to the top of the Amazon best sellers list. Seems like we aer not hearing the full story.
Kazara wrote:
I remember the two of you showing up at our table for VIP on Saturday. The VIP idea was a good one but wasn't executed well. They were going to include you with our group - based on what happened on the last encounter, I guarantee both of your characters would have died. The mass of Dretches poisoning the group with the 2 Incubi (2 rather than 1 because of tier 3's mission results) blasting would have done too much area effect damage. As it was, we failed because we ran out of time (and it was 50/50 whether it was going to be a TPK or not - our fighter became a thrall and couldn't beat the save even with advantage and was tearing into us pretty hard).
The VIP concept gave us a copy of all three books signed (I needed to replace 2 of mine anyway) - so $150 wasn't a bad deal since I would have paid $100+ for the books anyway. Fai Chen for VIP got skipped (again - a communication problem where the people running Fai Chen weren't told about the slots for VIP - they re-opened it later to make it up to us.)
Fred
EJKruze wrote:
DM quality was brought up a few times - I'd like to comment on that. Overall, DM quality was very good. The exceptions were notable having pretty negative impacts.
I want to give shout outs to:
Eric Bohm ran both epics for our VIP group. Eric was among the best DM's I have played with in D&D. He did a good job understanding the group - how we liked to play and didn't pull any punches. He even brought his own dwarven forge tile set for the dungeon. He was prepared and fully understood what he was running. 4 stars!
Casey (sorry - I can't remember your last name) was very good as well and John Kesot was solid as well. Great NPC interaction - with John, it would have been great to have another hour just for NPC discussions (the discussions between the NPC baker and my PC who had the artisan skill cooking/baking was engaging).
Jeremy was the DM for 2-15 and needed to be more familiar with the module. The handling of the NPCs and fire priests was way outside of what the module was supposed to be - it resulted in what was really a TPK (technically, we ran out of time but all but one party member was down and bleeding out and the baddies in the last area weren't terribly damaged). Prep work for the modules is important - I'd recommend not running a given session if you aren't completely versed in it.
I did one of the Hillsfar arcs as well and had a decent DM - I can't remember his name, though.
Overall 4 of the 5 DM's were solid - 1 was exceptional, 2 well above average. That's better than I will likely see at the local game stores or local cons.
Our VIP experience was definitely better for having Eric DM both of them.
Fred
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
Alphastream wrote:
CahPahkah wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
CahPahkah wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
Kazara wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
Alphastream wrote:
Kazara wrote:
~~Ideas for future GENCONs (and Winter Fantasy and Origins)
1. Bring back the D&D Open/Championship
This was the pinnacle of our GENCON's when it was held. Nothing had us planning and talking and conniving for months ahead of time like this did. If you have never had the chance to play in the Championship, let me assure you that you would have a fantastic time. See this link for a great write up of what makes the championship so special: http://dmdavid.com/tag/bring-back-the-dungeons-dragons-championship/
I know the organizers of the Championship are not part of BMG. Reach out to them. Team up. You will bring more players to both your tables (and they will be happy players at that).
Also, hold both Summer and Winter championships.
2. Limit table size to 6.
Seven is too many. Slows the game down too much. Not enough room at the table for everyone to be comfortable.
3. Help organize a letter writing campaign to WotC.
We are passionate about the game like you are and we want to see WotC get back into supporting it like the top caliber game it is. I'll write letters to anyone at WotC and Hasbro to help make that happen.
4. Get back Sangamore.
WotC needs to step up and get us the premium space that D&D deserves. At the very least, we need someplace quieter. We could barely hear our judge unless he was flat out yelling.
5. Cancel the all-access. Increase the play experience of all tables.
I played the all-access this year, but I am actually not a big fan of it. I believe we can get better games with judges who specialize in just 1 or 2 adventures. A good judge running an adventure for the second time is better than a great judge running it for the first time.
I recommend making the default judge workload 1 special event (an AL special or the championship) and 1 normal event. Discourage taking on more adventures. The more time we give judges to prepare and the more times they can run each adventure, the better each adventure will be for the players.
If there are any other player incentives, make them available to all. If prices need to be raised to cover lodging and other expenses, raise them for everyone.
6. Incentivize judges.
Give every judge that judges a special event an automatic seat in one of the AL specials. Ramp up DM xp, gp, and other rewards during a big con like this. Even add in real certs.
I have played and DM'd at GENCON for 10+ years now. Dave has presided over many fantastic conventions. This year was a letdown, but I am confident he will get back on track if anyone can.
If you have any questions about any of my ideas, please don't hesitate to email me at tgchristy@att.net
One more thing.
7. Return to 3 slots per day. 8-Noon, 1 to 5pm, 7pm-11pm
Too often (almost every slot) the games I played in were rushed. I would rather pay more and play 3 slots a day of unrushed games. Plus, I can't go 16 straight hours anyway and have to take a slot off.
Thanks for all the feedback, comments, and suggestions. Personally I had a great time at GenCon despite the hiccups that occured. I understand and sympathize with some of you that had bigger issues that caused you not to have such a great time. Rest assured that I will pass on what I've learned here both to Wizards and to Baldman Games as much as I can, but as Greg has said, I encourage you to contact Wizards Customer Support at wizards.custhelp.com and BMG via the form on the All Access blog post: http://baldmangames.com/2015/08/gen-con-2015-all-access-program/
Just get more DMs! Unfortunatley this is an issue with the convention location. There are only so many hotels in the city and GenCon only gives BMG a small portion of those for DMs. The DMs pool can only fit into those rooms. Both Paizo and BMG pack in 4 DMs to 1 room. So if folks were sleeping on the floor in their room...that was likely up to them since they probably didn't want to share a room. or there was a room snafu with the hotel. Who know, but the point is there's not room to grow the DM pool by much, so the 7 player tables are likely here to stay. As others have suggested there could be an increased price for smaller tables in the future. We'll see.
The interactions: As Greg said, the Epics will be changing, we're hoping to go longer with more interactive elements.
DM knowledge: BMG's Heral'd Guild is there to increase DM knowledge and support. Ultimately the DMs that run games for BMG should increase in quality as their time in the guild increases. Only time will tell, but that is the plan. We will however try and reiterate DM preparedness and rules (and AL) knowledge.
I hope to see many of you at Winter Fantasy and even more of you at GenCon 2016!
Raddu76 wrote:
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
More swag for All Access players is being mailed to you! Make sure you go here to fill out your form with your mailing address:
http://baldmangames.com/2015/08/gen-con-2015-all-access-update/
That? That's pretty cool right there...
Make sure you tell everyone you know at your tables.
Skerrit wrote:
Cascade.rpga wrote:
As a DM who ran 9 slots at the con (including All Access, so both EPs) this is my feedback. Keep in mind that it is a giant wall of text.
1) If BMG and WOTC want to improve their experience, they really need to give DMs a reason to care. One of the things that I saw as a marshal that really bothered me was treating people poorly (marshals/Dms talking to players and vice versa). While we can't really control what players say to us, we can sure as hell control what we say to them. Some of it is people being tired/hungry/overworked/etc. Some of it is basic common ettiquette, some of it is customers service techniques.
Lets give an example of something I saw that is very negative:
Player comes up to marshalling for a mid tier mod. Marshal asks the player "You have a legal character right?", to which the player response "yes". [Of course they respond yes, even if they aren't sure what it meant. The other side of legal is illegal and they wouldn't make illegal characters.] The marshal sits the player (and the 4 others who bought tickets with them) at a table and moves on. The DM from that table comes to the marshal 15 minutes later and says "uh... those guys are levels 3 and 4, its a 5-10 mod" at which point the marshal goes over to the table and berates them for saying they had legal characters when they did not. The players are now upset with the marshal, the DM is confused, the slot has already started and people aren't having fun.
Here is the way I think it should be handled (and the way all my sections were marshalled)
Player comes up to marshalling for a mid tier mod. Marshal asks the player "What level is your character?". Players who respond with things outside the level range get put aside for a moment, players who respond with something within the level range get question 2: "Cool, what adventures has that character played before?". Players who respond that they just made their character that morning get grouped with the low level characters, everyone else gets a response of "Awesome, I [insert opinion of previous adventure], I think you will like this one, would you head over to table 54 please?". Once the line is temporarily empty, you tell the people with non-legal characters the following: "So, this adventure is level 5-10 and characters need to be played up from level 1 in the adventurer's league. I can't sit you for the adventure, but follow me and we will get you into [name of low tier adventure]. Don't worry guys, this isn't a problem and it happens all the time. If you need a pre-gen or a copy of the AL rules, they have them up at HQ [points at HQ]" You then walk them over to the marshalling area for that other mod, explain to the other marshal what is going on, wish them the best of luck and go back to dealing with the players. The players know what is going on, the DM isn't sat at a table with confused people and the slot is much more likely to start on time.
2) 4 slots a day without extra space is a nightmare. As many have mentioned the people who are marshals are often the people who are running as well. I know, as a marshal myself, I was a little annoyed at having to be constantly late for my group and flat-out told them that I would not show up late to my All-Access table (the other marshal working my area was on top of things, so it ended up not being an issue). It is my firm opinion that all marshals should be attached to tables of generics. People getting in on Generics know they are likely to be seated after other people and having the ability for marshals to go and sit down at the end with their tables of generics would solve a whole slew of problems. That being said, I can see how that is a difficult proposition from a logistical standpoint. Having each slot starting as another is ending, while also using every table you hae and then some, is going to negatively impact player and DM experience. I know that there were times when I needed to be in 3 places at once. At 11:30 - 12:10 the tasks I have to complete make it impossible to give all of those players a positive experience. If, however, there was a break between events (even as short as 30 minutes), this would not be a problem. This does, however, prevent BMG from running 4/day and they lose a good chunk of change.
3) Non-interactive interactives are silly. Literally the best thing about con play in 4e were the BIs. I've heard from several people, including good sir Marks, that this will be changed. I am a little skeptical as the feedback from Epic 1 and 2 was the exact same and nothing got done, but I can still hope. A 3hour Epic is also something that needs to be laid down on an altar and ritualistically sacrificed.
4) Holy crap, get us out of that room. This is a hard one, but that room limits us in so many ways that it isn't even funny. Not being able to broadcast, everything being super loud, decorations and marshalling areas being cramped or non-existant was horrid.
5) I do not, not even a little, believe that WOTC would not have made money off of having a small vendor to sell their books near the play area. There needed to be some way that a player could go from positive experience at table to putting money in WOTC's (or an approved vendor's) hand. I don't know the logistics of this, but I heard far far too often "I just want to buy the book real quick before the game but I just can't find it anywhere." You don't need something with huge bells and whistles. You need a tiny stall that sells the very limited supply of books the edition has to offer so far.
6) The opening of the back panel in the middle of the room was a major blow to the organization of the event. I don't know the details of this, but it made a massive difference. The two dividers in the hall made it possible for people to pretend to hear what was happening. Without it you had to project like nobody's business. People who talk about DMs with no voice are talking about the problems this created. I know I am very loud while DMing and often had to shout.
7) All Access needs to feel "Special". No I'm not talking about extra sway, I'm talking about treating people like they paid $110 for an event and are getting something for it. Comparing All-Access this year, to the first year makes things painfully apparent that the feel of what All-Access meant is completely different. That first year they had their own area, they had flexibility to run things at different time slots with their DM, and they had their own adventure (Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle) to run. It makes a massive difference in how things are perceived. There are a lot of little things that cost very little money that can be done to help preserve this type of thing. An example would be passing around copies of the small part of the EPIC that the players got to play and having everyone at the table (DM included) sign it. Does it really make a big difference? Not really. But it feels cool. That should be preserved.
8) Oh my jesus pre-mustering. DMs have different styles, many of them have vastly different styles. I'm not going to argue the merits of those different styles, but I am going to say it is extremely important that the player style matches up with the DM style. I am a very improv-heavy DM. If you run one of my games are want the story to feel full, that you have choices, and that things react to your actions, my table is going to be a good fit. If you are at my table for a dungeon crawl, or to get a solid idea of how the module is supposed to run for running it yourself next slot, I am a horrible DM to have. It really wouldn't take a ton of effort on anyone's part to have a short Bio so that the All-Access guys can go somewhere to pre-muster (Again, not expensive but effective).
Thank you BMG! Thank you David!
Thank you WotC! Thank you Mike!
Mike, please lobby WotC for us to get more involvement. We want you there, and we want to see D&D in the best location at the Con!
Take Care
Tom
As far as content goes, I would absolutely not want All-Access to have something that the rest of the community does not. That just feels wrong.
Early-access? Sure.
Matyr wrote:
THe best news is that from now on ALL ACCESS rewards will be clearly marked. If everyone is to get a Volos guide to the fungus of the realms that will be listed in the ALL ACCESS pass information. (assuming people actually read it and not just go ZOMG ALL ACCESS PASS! MUST GET!'
Ravix wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
Pauper wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
Pauper wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
Pauper wrote:
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
Pauper wrote:
Be that as it may, Baldman Games and WotC have listened to the complaints and have provided additional swag (Sword Coast Legends, and a free book IIRC), yet these complaints are still continuing to ignore said. Combined, the game and book probably add up to about $100 retail.
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
Pauper wrote:
Kalani wrote:
Then let us hope this time next year we arnt having this SAME discussion and that they either
A) Get rid of All access and just bump up the price of all tickets to their events
B) Downsize AL to a more realistic level to cut even. (but be clear and upfront here in doing so)
C) Keep All Access but know ahead of time what they can provide and what they cannot
Im just concerned that next year we are just gonna get the same rush for tickets, for hotels, for dms and finally a string of emails complaining how things were run, how an epic wasnt an epic and how the noise was herrible.
Pauper wrote:
Pauper wrote:
SteveMND wrote:
Pauper wrote: