christulach: Finished RPGA Members meeting. Big upcoming things: LFR Excursions, D&D Lair Assault, and D&D Experience (Ft Wayne) Jan. 28-31, 2010.
next con for me is Archon
There is a news post that's supposed to hit the front page soon, I'll link it here when (I notice) that happens.
Notes from me are in red and annotated with "W76"
Introduction:
- Meeting hosted by Chris and Andy Collins
- Seminar format (Q&A at end of meeting)
- D&D Organized Play is part of the Wizards Play Network
Worldwide D&D Game Day
- Notes on the history of Game Day
- Notes on this being the "year of 2's"
- September 2009 DMG Game Day - you will be able to create your own adventure event, then turn around and challenge it.
LFR
- History of "Living" campaigns
- Review of LFR details
- LFR is the biggest Living campaign ever
- Averaging one adventure per week
- Expanded play opportunities
- My Realms
- Mini-Campaigns (Embers of Dawn) (GenCon Premier!)
- Adventuring company events (GenCon Premier!)
- My Realms
- Weekend in the Realms on November 6-8. Will feature a first-ever novel tie-in with The Fall of Highwatch
Convention Support
- Convention Delve is a one-hour quick play event run at major cons (and available via download for other conventions
- Ultimate Delve is a 4-5 hour endurance test. Players make their own characters and try to defeat 6 encountes in the time proveded with no extended rests. Available at major conventions exclusively
- D&D Championship runs at GenCon Indy every year as a three-round elimination team tournament. This is Organized Play's oldest program
- Organizing/running your own convention? Support is available for your show through www.wizards.com/events. (Includes the Convention Delve, discounted product prize packages, and RPGA Rewards cards)
The Future
D&D Website and Forum Upgrades
- Coming soon [W76 - VERY soon, read here] the Forums and D&D website (including RPGA) will be getting a new look.
- Organized play pages will become WAY more organized.
- Content will be easier to find
- Users will be able to interact with more tools than ever.
- It will make sense
Testing
- Organized play is committed to testing out any new program offerings before putting them into public release
- Feedback from Delve Night testing was instrumental in OP moving in a new direction with future programs
LFR Excursions
- First new program - testing in Sept.
- Public play only event for LFR
- Essentially brings the mini-campaign idea into a kit with poster maps, printed adventures, and materials the DM needs to run the year-long campaign.
- First excursion will be set in. . . . Undermountain.
Lair Assault
- Next new program testing later this year
- A team of characters pitted agains the biggest, baddest encounters possible.
- Will be compatible with LFR or
- playable outside the campaign
LFR
- Will continue to offer added value in 2010
- Epic play will premier at DDXP 2011 - with a tight story arc
- Next year, expect us to visit a favorite location of our oldest Living campaign players [W76 - hint, hint]
DDXP 2010
- Mark your calendars! DDXP 2010 will be January 28-31, and will be returning to Ft. Wayne, IN.
- We're going to continue to work to make this THE D&D show you MUST attend.
- Expect both great access to D&D staff, but also to be able to play with material that won't be otherwise available for months! (This may even include some sneak peeks of the 2010 campaign setting).
From there it looks like the floor was opened to Q&A - and since I wasn't present at the meeting (as I was working in HQ), my notes end here.
If anyone in attendance wants to add to this list, please do.
[*]Organizing/running your own convention? Support is available for your show through www.wizards.com/events. (Includes the Convention Delve, discounted product prize packages, and RPGA Rewards cards)
[/LIST]
Having just done a convention support request - this link is not yet active or correct.
The only bad bit is the forums go down for a week the next day so we won;t be able to talk about it.
Having just done a convention support request - this link is not yet active or correct.
Looks like the forums added the period to the URL. I've corrected the link.
For simplicity the link should be:
www.wizards.com/events
Next year, expect us to visit a favorite location of our oldest Living campaign players [W76 - hint, hint]
-karma
Or is this going back to Green Reagent or even further back to Polyhedron days?
Oh man I forgot the name of the city-was it Ravens Bluff?
Or is this going back to Green Reagent or even further back to Polyhedron days?
If this is what most people suspect it to be, it's far before Green Regent.
If this is what most people suspect it to be, it's far before Green Regent.
Living City was the oldest one, right? Raven's Bluff it is, then!
-karma
Thanks for the notes Wolfstar, my one bummer with being in the Sagamore for most of the con was missing the meeting and your notes are a nice catch up.
I share your pain, as I seldom left Sagamore.
I share your pain, as I seldom left Sagamore.
I think I glimpsed you outside of Sagamore once. Quit slacking off.
I share your pain, as I seldom left Sagamore.
Bah Wolfstar, I know you had a secret room somewhere, you had no dedication to living in sagamore like that guy who was sleeping on the couch outside the doors in his PJ's every night.
I took notes from this seminar. Does anyone still need them, or has everything that was discussed/hinted at been posted/released already?
If you have anything to add or expound upon, I know I, for one, would love to hear it.
Since Chris' prep notes didn't include (for fairly obvious reasons) the Q&A questions, I'd especially love anyone's notes from there.
Claire's notes from the meeting:
Chris Tulach was joined by Andy Collins (WotC R&D) who said very little.
Chris mentioned that there is team of people who are designated top assist those organizing WPN (Wizards Play Network) events and that you can contact them via the "Help" link on the D&D WPN page or via customer service. The six on the team each have a geographical area that they are responsible for.
Chris broke down D&D organized play activity into 4 main programs, the first being the World Wide Game days (WWGD). Chris went over a bit of the history and purpose of the WWGD. The next one is Sept. 19th to coincide with the release of DMG2.
The second program he covered was LFR.
Play numbers are still wonderful. "Better than any previous campaign or program..."
The Next MyRealms (H3)will come out in Sept.
Embers of Dawn min-campaign started at GenCon and Chris was pleased that it was possible to have Dragon articles on D&DI that feature PC options and information about the area. He seemed to indicate more of this will occur.
Adventures for Adventuring Companies will occur on a semi-regular basis and will have some aspect of competition and /or be a theme event. They will continue to be public play only.
Weekend in the Realms (WitR) Nov 7th & 8th
"Icy Queens Crossing" by Shawn Merwin
The adventure occurs immediately after the events in the book "The Fall of the Highwatch" which releases Nov 3rd. Adventure is designed for Level 2 PCs but has scaling for PCs of 1st-4th level. The kits will come with bound copies of the adventure, poster maps that cover all encounters and tokens (cardboard figures that stand up) for monsters, PCs and some generic ones) and laminated 1st level PCs (much like the ones for the classic delve). The pdf of the adventure will be available for slot zeroes sometime around August 28th.He had some pages from the adventure available for people to look at.
The third program he mentioned was the D&D Rewards program. The program will focus on rewards any DM might want to use in their D&D game.
To participate DM's need to update their information to gain access to the free adventure. If you have not gotten the adventure and you have updated your contact information then he said you should contact customer service. (Note that there were at least 3 of us there who had issues regarding having multiple DMs who live at the same address and only one of them received the adventure.)
He seemed unaware that there were still outstanding issues with DMs getting credit for D&D XP events (I know neither Keith nor I have anything listed) or Origins.
They hope to have a system for larger cons to use spreadsheets (Excel and another systems whose name I did not catch) to upload their table information available soon. However, the exact date this would be available was still a bit fuzzy, though he seemed confident that it would be available by the end of this year.
Convention Support
This program includes the Classic Dungeon Delve. Basically last "seasons" delve will become available for cons to order after the new one premiers. So the classic delve from D&D XP is now available for cons to order (no matter the size) since a new one was used at GenCon.
Chris also explained the reasoning behind having both the "Ultimate" Delve and the "Classic". Apparently they were issues because most of the delve players were of two different types: one would be those new to 4e or were there to try out a different PC class/role and playing quickly was not something they could/wanted to do and the others who were playing for the challenge. So the Ultimate delve is designed as an endurance race (get through 6 encounters without an extended rest ). Only 25% of the tables are expected to complete this in the time allowed. Those who do will have their PCs name (and some information about them including class/race and something about what they did) posted on a "Hall of Fame" page which will be on the website. Ultimate delves are not currently available to other cons.
The D&D Championship program expanded this year to have a "use your own" PC option and is set in Ebberon. Winners received engraved ipod touches besides product.
Convention organizers can get product bundles, $20. get you $60.00 of product (and not old unwanted stuff) and the D&D kits include reward cards. More information at rewards.com/events
THE FUTURE
The D&D website as a whole will be updated soon...possibly as soon as September, but some time this fall. It will be elegant and stream lined. The front page will have less information pasted all over it, instead their will be links to click to get more detailed information as you go deeper. The forums will also be upgrade (going on now in fact) and there will be ways for the LFR community to add content. No more details than that. He did indicate a person at the con people could contact for more info but Andy Collins spoke up then and said that he believed they were keeping details "close to the vest" because they would rather people see the changes than talk about them.
Testing New Programs
Apparently they did a test of a relaunch of the delve program (in May I think) and the feedback they got had them rethink a few things. It also confirmed to management that we should be testing out new programs before launching them wholesale. This is the first time the RPGA has tested programs, in public, before launch.
The next test will occur the weekend after WWGD (so Sept 26) and this for a program called:" LFR Excursions" and it is a Public Play Only program. The kit will include the adventure and possibly other physical materials to enhance play experience. The goal is to drive play to public places. The plan is to have connected stories but to also allow PCs to jump in and out. This is actually the next LFR mini-campaign and it takes place in Undermountain. The actual mini-campaign/LFR Excursion is scheduled to start January 20th. Locations for testing (game stores) will be selected by WotC based on criteria regarding how frequently the location hosts events and spread out geographically. Note that both locations that see a lot of play and those who see infrequent play will be chosen. Feedback will be gathered and evaluated. This offering will be available to order (eventually) by those with "Gateway" access to events.
The next program to be tested is called "Lair Assault." While the Ultimate Delve is an endurance test this will be a sprint. Testing will occur sometime this fall. There will be some method for players to use their LFR PCs (and get xp). Ordering this program (when approved) will require "Core "level access.
Epic level LFR will appear at D&D XP 2011 and will focus on tight story arcs. It is likely to have multiple rounds per adventure.
Chris also hinted that in 2010 there will be some adventures that occur in an area beloved by some of the older members and that the second word in the name of the location is also the name of the skill. Yes he actually said it in that manner. (For the younger crowd he was referring to Raven's Bluff).
D&D XP 2010 Ft. Wayne Jan 28th-31st
There are plans to expand the seminars and Andy hinted that it will be the first place to play in the new campaign setting (not then announced as this was Thursday). It was also noted that this is Not Super Bowl Weekend.
Claire
reposted by Keith