Building a player community

[Darth Jerod]

I just read over on the WotC Forums, and responded, that it is unfair that people who run D&D Encounters get free stuff. Examples are; the actual adventures themselves and stuff like The Village of Homlet (which I never got a copy of) or the new version of The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.

When reminded of the fact that we volunteer to run encounters every week and this is a thank you (note we do not have a copy of this yet) the poster pretty much says he does not want to sit down and play the game with a bunch of kids he does not know. Plus he needs to drive an hour to get to the closest store, and he has a pretty established group of players already so why should he go. Encounters is a way to get new players to the table anyway, not something for established players.

I had a discussion about this with the store owner and manager where I work and run D&D at. Players who actually do more to hurt the hobby more than help it. It is not just D&D but extends to other game genres such as say Magic the Gathering. I have seen MTG players walk out of FNM because there was no players of suitable challenge to them left in that store. My opinion, we do not want you. Ever hear about having fun?

Same thing goes for D&D Encounters. If you think it is for new players and just kids, you are wrong. In my store we regularly have between 20-30 players each week, old and new players, regulars and some who show up every now and then when their free time permits. We have players from established campaigns looking for something different than the norm, to people who dislike campaigns and really like the one encounter a night aspect of the game without devoting a big amount of time per session.

If you want to sit at home and run your game that is perfectly fine as well, I was content to do this for a long time as well, but I never went around saying WotC was being unfair for thinking about the game stores where the new blood is found. Face it, without game stores there would be no more game companies. WotC has made a successful Organized Play program that is attracting new players to stores that participate, these stores then get higher status in the WPN and can qualify to get the books a bit early or even at all with the Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium.

I chose to run encounters not because of the free stuff, woohoo I get some Fortune Cards, I get some initiative trackers or status cards for ongoing damage. Yes I also get the adventures but I would probably never run them as is for my regular group, besides they play in encounters. Getting The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is a perk, one that I work hard to get, one that I put a lot of effort into to make sure the players keep coming back to the store week in and week out.

We had 15 kids tell us last week they would not be coming back because of school starting up. Guess What? They all showed up this week, they made a stink and the parents chose to carpool them each week since they are all school friends. 24 players tonight, we are building a community, we are building the next generation of gamers.

I just gave the newest DM a free DM screen she is 12 years old. She has 4 players who play in encounters. That is what it is about, the free stuff that is icing on the cake. It is all about the experience and knowing you are making future gamers.

I just had to say that. I would not have been able to sleep until I got it out of my system.

[D'karr]

I just read over on the WotC Forums, and responded, that it is unfair that people who run D&D Encounters get free stuff. Examples are; the actual adventures themselves and stuff like The Village of Homlet (which I never got a copy of) or the new version of The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.

Is it unfair that WotC is looking for a way to reward those DMs that are actually volunteering of their time to grow the community? That is really the question.

If someone wants to have their own group and run games at their house, more power to them. That is already a reward in itself, they have a local gaming group. There is no way for WotC to track that in a fair way, specially when in the past people could self-report their games. With an OPEN PLAY program at PUBLIC venues, WotC has a better chance of getting real gaming reported. In addition, it is a way of getting others interested in playing because of the "low cost" of entry. Show up, play, have fun. You don't even need to have books.

WotC is interested in growing the community because, face it, the gaming community is not getting any younger. At some point you have to bring in new blood, and the Encounters program is a very efficient way to do so. Since it runs entirely on volunteers it would make sense that WotC would want to reward those that are giving back to the community with their time.

The Encounters program keeps getting bigger in our area. Providing an incentive for DMs is a good way to get more of them so we can actually meet the demand.

[gaming tonic]

Encounters is a huge boost to the brick and mortar game store as well. WOTC and Pathfinder Society are building a base of new gamers and expanding the hobby. The benefits to this are enormous. More gamers so when the players in your home group, move, die, or whatever you can find new players. The store owners get people in their stores and they may buy things. If somebody gets something for free then that is good marketing. Encounters to me seems like a loss leader for WOTC, but they make back their money with product sales and DDI accounts. On a personal note if you want the stuff for free then be a benefit to the gaming community and spend 3 or 4 hours one night a week running a game for those who have less experience than you and may benefit from all your wisdom.

[Darth Jerod]

GT, if I did not have to check on dinner right now and get ready to Nerd Rage with the newest episode of Thundercats I would respond.

But once all that is over I am going to respond to your post and tell you what happened at my store this past Wednesday Night before and after encounters.

---------- Post added at 08:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:04 PM ----------

First I am going to preface this with a statement about the store I run games at and work part time.

Fair Game is a great place, it is a friendly place and I owe a lot to them for giving me a place to practice my DM'ing skills and a place to play great games and run my own campaigns. The owner is a great guy and the store manager is also a cool guy.

That being said.

I had heard the warnings Encounters was coming to an end at the store. I despirately tried to find some solutions because the thing I was being told was, the kids were out of control, and no one was buying anything outside of snacks and pop. I though charging might be one way to "thin" out the crowd of those kids who just showed up because it was something cool that their friends were doing.

He has many reasons for doing what he did. I have heard it from no one buying things to it is out of control and that these kids need to learn to play somewhere else.

I say he does not understand what Encounters is, they also did not have a plan for just how popular it had become. It was drawing crowds larger than FNM (Friday Night Magic) which also meant no revenue stream. I love magic but if one more night of Magic hits that store (they have three nights already) I will scream.

This past Tuesday the hammer fell and they would tell everyone following the game. I warned a few people that sat at my table regularly and in the end they opted to not even play that night and stood outside the store venting (actually plotting out their Assault on Lair Assault) but content that they still had my weekend game they played in, that and Lair Assault.

A lot of parents were flabbergasted, they really were. They offered to pay to keep it going, something that surprised them I think. I said they should be doing it but what do I know? Heck some of the offers I got I could have started a new business.

Some kids took it real hard, my heart was breaking. One kid in particular had come to me for advice on starting her own game. I think she is like 10 or 11 and she is super smart and will end up being a writer at some point in her life, her mom is a writer so it goes to guess it will happen. She had tears in her eyes. I walked up to them and told her she was welcome in my Saturday D&D games so that she can learn real D&D and not encounters. She got super excited, it means more players at my game but they all usually do not show up. No big deal I could not let someone like her walk away and possibly have her D&D future squandered.

The hobby is expanding but there is no incentive for these kids to buy books. Only those who a)want to play with friends B)play in my weekend game are buying product. This was why I looked at the business model of paying to play where the money goes into a gift card for them to buy product or whatever else in the store they want. I think the owner did not like this as I could see it in his face. He was surprised by the parents saying they would pay to have the kids play.

I also think some store owners do not understand what Encounters is, he said he tried working with WotC but he obviously did not like what response he got. I believe this was at Gencon on Trade day. So he had been thinking about this for a while.

WotC is getting great advertising but is it effective if not a single person is buying books?

DDI is great, but here is the thing I am struggling with in my own game, the players do not buy any of the books they just use the character builder to make characters. For what they pay (or not pay cough) for they get all the material to make a character to play. There is no incentive to own the book, there is no rule for encounters that they need to own a book and bring it with them.

In my own store campaign, I just instituted this house rule: The character you play, you must own the book for that character and bring it with you for every session.

I got positive response from all the players so far. I make some exceptions, like the Class Compendium stuff, if they have the PHB they can use my printouts for them. If there is something cool from Dragon I will show it to them and let them decide if they want it.

If there could be some way to give an incentive to owning the books to play and for the store to recommend a DDI subscription they would do it.

The free stuff is nice but we built a great community, and it just kind of burned down. We will probably start Encounters up again next season with a small group. then ramp up again next year but I will demand they have more organization in how it is run. I will probably offer to organize it and find the local DM's.

This store has given me a lot, a new group of players and some fun times. I just think we are the exception and not the rule.

Encounters is a huge boost to the brick and mortar game store as well. WOTC and Pathfinder Society are building a base of new gamers and expanding the hobby. The benefits to this are enormous. More gamers so when the players in your home group, move, die, or whatever you can find new players. The store owners get people in their stores and they may buy things. If somebody gets something for free then that is good marketing. Encounters to me seems like a loss leader for WOTC, but they make back their money with product sales and DDI accounts. On a personal note if you want the stuff for free then be a benefit to the gaming community and spend 3 or 4 hours one night a week running a game for those who have less experience than you and may benefit from all your wisdom.