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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 3:37AM
#91
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I was wondering here in Europe we don't really have organized play for D&D. What is it? I mean how can you do this. As far as I have played D&D its some thing you do with your friends.
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 4:23AM
#92
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Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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I am interested to see how the new regional system will work out for the Living FR Campaign. All we have gotten is that there will be fewer regions (at least in North America). Also that every place in the world will be part of a region from the get go, making this a global campaign.
I do hope that the regional system will continue to create materials that can only be played in the region. For those people extremely active in LG, their region became their identity and their play styles often reflected which region they came from. Traveling from region to region became part of the LG lifestyle I would hate to see the convention circuit ruined by making everything available anywhere. I know that our small con is about 30% people who have traveled from out side of the region. When going to even larger cons like Weekend in Dyvers it seems easily at least 50% of the attendee's traveled from out side the region.
I like the region idea and it did work in LG, but that doesn't mean that it can't be improved.
Match the regions to territories in a fairer way: in LG, Michigan gamers got the whole Kingdom of Furyondy while the gamers in the UK got Onnwal. Onnwal has one town of 4,500 population and even that's under occupation.
Make the regions smaller, not bigger: It would be more work, but the language barrier does put a limit on cross region gaming in Europe, is there any reason why Britain can't get somewhere like the Dragon Coast and split in into six to ten sub-regions so we can have more cross-region gaming.
Incorporate online gaming to the region structure: DMs should only be able to run games in their own region but players ought to be able to play in any region without penalties. Make the out of region penalty apply to individual characters (eg, I live in the Westgate sub-region of the Dragon Coast and DM there, but also have a character in Luskan that I play online, the Luskan character shouldn't have a penalty when playing in Luskan, but should if I play him in a convention in the Dragon Coast area)
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 7:21AM
#93
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I like the region idea and it did work in LG, but that doesn't mean that it can't be improved.
Match the regions to territories in a fairer way: in LG, Michigan gamers got the whole Kingdom of Furyondy while the gamers in the UK got Onnwal. Onnwal has one town of 4,500 population and even that's under occupation.
Honestly, I could see Living Forgotten Realms breaking up the game on a much more global basis given the various continents that exist there and whether Wizards of the Coast has a large enough following in some of the other areas of the world. Rather than stretching Faerun across the entire world, you could have Faerun being North America and Europe, the Hordelands could be Russia, Al-Quadim could be the Middle East and Africa, Kara-Tur could be China, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and Maztica could be South America.
If they did it that way, we might even get some support for some of these other realms in the Forgotten Realms.
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 8:45AM
#94
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Date Joined:
Dec 11, 2002
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I was wondering here in Europe we don't really have organized play for D&D. What is it? I mean how can you do this. As far as I have played D&D its some thing you do with your friends.
Thadir,
Organized Play for D&D has taken two different courses.
One is tournament play like the D&D Open at GenCon. In these events, you play pre-made characters and you have a defined goal to achieve in your 4 hour time slot. Another off-shoot of this is pre-made characters designed to interact in a more role-heavy setting. These adventures also have a defined goal for each character, but the goal can be acheived through roleplay instead of through killing the enemy.
The second style of Organized Play is the Living campaigns. This is where the campaign setting is divided into parts, depending on your real world geographic location. In this setup, you have local people that are elected or chosen to coordinate the creation and distribution of adventures that are tied to that geographic location in the campaign setting. So... if your geographic location is Verbobonc in Greyhawk... you play all your adventures there... and all the adventures generally tie together to form a story arc. Since everyone is playing the same adventures, you are all involved with the story.
That's the short version... I'm sure someone can come along and give a more detailed (and probably better) version. LOL
--sam
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 9:26AM
#95
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Date Joined:
Apr 13, 2005
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There is quite a lot of organised play for D&D in the Netherlands - in fact I believe that the Living Greyhawk campaign administrator who is responsible for the European regions is Dutch (Pieter Slijpen). If you search for 'Sunndi' and 'Living Greyhawk' you'll find links to the Dutch groups which play Living Greyhawk - and through them you might find other organised play campaigns, both RPGA and independent.
Trouble accessing the WotC Customer Service system? See this threadCurrently running LFR and D&D Encounters events in Sheffield, UK. Contact me for more details.
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 9:50AM
#96
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Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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Honestly, I could see Living Forgotten Realms breaking up the game on a much more global basis given the various continents that exist there and whether Wizards of the Coast has a large enough following in some of the other areas of the world. Rather than stretching Faerun across the entire world, you could have Faerun being North America and Europe, the Hordelands could be Russia, Al-Quadim could be the Middle East and Africa, Kara-Tur could be China, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and Maztica could be South America.
I think that would be a great idea, but I would love Wizards to come up with a specifically Indian-style setting and there's some spectacular fantasy movies coming out of there. Quick, someone tell Hasbro how many people there are in India 
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 11:01AM
#97
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Living Greyhawk
1) Reconsider the termination of Living Greyhawk. If it has to be shut down for a few years, at least allow it return with a regional system that is very similar to what we have now.
2) Compile all of the LG canon from the 8+ years of the campaign. The quantity of this material is enormous, and might exceed all of the FR material ever published in sheer word count. Between the mods, the narratives, and the regional documents, there is plenty of material to be used to advance the campaign setting from CY 591 to CY 598+. Learn from the IP challenges that will occur with the production of this book.
3) Show that all of the work done by the LG community was important and release a new Greyhawk Campaign Setting that incorporates LG canon. Unlike the LGG, please produce this as a hardcover book with high production values. Don't be afraid to produce a 400+ page book, but remember that the sooner that its produced, the better it will sell.
4) Allow this new book to be the launch for the 4E LG that starts in CY 601.
5) Produce a new hardcover Greyhawk book every 3-5 years that incorporates the developments in Living Greyhawk.
6) Finally, embrace the fact that WotC has two campaigns, FR and Ebberon, that are driven from the top down, and that it has one very popular setting in Greyhawk that is driven from the fan base on up.
=============================
D&D Campaign set in Western Oerik
Little has been done with Western Oerik. I believe that a 2 year D&D style campaign, designed with the input of Greyhawk gurus like Jason Bulmahn, Gary Holian, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona would hold over Greyhawk fans for a while.
=============================
Manage Expectations
It was not widely expected that LG would end this suddenly. Yes its been mentioned that the Triads were working on three year story arcs that would conclude in 2008. There were also many other signs that the end of LG was
no where in sight.
The region of Ratik was (re)started recently in the middle of this "final" three year story arc. Did the volunteers for Ratik know that they were building something that would soon be ended?
The Triad for my home region of Keoland has been aggressively releasing mods in order to be awarded nine mod slots for 2008. This effort was for naught.
Character creation cards were released for LG twice in 2007. Yes we get to play Snow Elves and Kobolds, but not for long.
The effort to manage expectations not only saves those in charge headaches, but its good customer service. Its shows respect.
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 2:09PM
#98
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Date Joined:
Aug 21, 2009
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You know, as time moves on, and the end of Living Greyhawk looms in the future, I'm getting decidedly more entrenched in the fact that I don't want to play LF. There still appears to be behind the scenes shenanigans about Greyhawk. Wizards is really dropping the ball....
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 2:23PM
#99
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Date Joined:
Aug 21, 2009
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Living Greyhawk
1) Reconsider the termination of Living Greyhawk. If it has to be shut down for a few years, at least allow it return with a regional system that is very similar to what we have now.
2) Compile all of the LG canon from the 8+ years of the campaign. The quantity of this material is enormous, and might exceed all of the FR material ever published in sheer word count. Between the mods, the narratives, and the regional documents, there is plenty of material to be used to advance the campaign setting from CY 591 to CY 598+. Learn from the IP challenges that will occur with the production of this book.
3) Show that all of the work done by the LG community was important and release a new Greyhawk Campaign Setting that incorporates LG canon. Unlike the LGG, please produce this as a hardcover book with high production values. Don't be afraid to produce a 400+ page book, but remember that the sooner that its produced, the better it will sell.
4) Allow this new book to be the launch for the 4E LG that starts in CY 601.
5) Produce a new hardcover Greyhawk book every 3-5 years that incorporates the developments in Living Greyhawk.
6) Finally, embrace the fact that WotC has two campaigns, FR and Ebberon, that are driven from the top down, and that it has one very popular setting in Greyhawk that is driven from the fan base on up.
=============================
D&D Campaign set in Western Oerik
Little has been done with Western Oerik. I believe that a 2 year D&D style campaign, designed with the input of Greyhawk gurus like Jason Bulmahn, Gary Holian, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona would hold over Greyhawk fans for a while.
=============================
Manage Expectations
It was not widely expected that LG would end this suddenly. Yes its been mentioned that the Triads were working on three year story arcs that would conclude in 2008. There were also many other signs that the end of LG was
no where in sight.
The region of Ratik was (re)started recently in the middle of this "final" three year story arc. Did the volunteers for Ratik know that they were building something that would soon be ended?
The Triad for my home region of Keoland has been aggressively releasing mods in order to be awarded nine mod slots for 2008. This effort was for naught.
Character creation cards were released for LG twice in 2007. Yes we get to play Snow Elves and Kobolds, but not for long.
The effort to manage expectations not only saves those in charge headaches, but its good customer service. Its shows respect.
And this is the best post to date. Period. Genghis, hats off to you for a bunch of incredibly well-thought-out ideas. But we (Bissel) are still not rejoining the Empire....
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6 years ago ::
Aug 26, 2007 - 4:04PM
#100
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Date Joined:
Feb 11, 2003
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My gaming group would just be happy if we could earn great SWAG by promoting the game that we enjoy to all of our friends.
I wonder how 4e will interact with the D&D Game Day?
Easier tracking of characters is a bonus.
Is it not true that Knights of the Dinner Table foretold of the coming of character registration in one of the storylines? Something to the effect that the players "sold" their characters for real $$ so they could afford new characters. Someone help me out here.
You are correct. But because BA was delinquent on his updates to their characters, they sold them as name level characters, not the current low-level post level drained characters. This highlights a potential problem for doing everything online. DMs have to keep the information up to date and report sessions as soon as possible.
As a senior DM at a gameday, I try to keep everything up to date but it can be hard. If some game doesn't make, I might substitute another one on the fly so everyone can play. Except that I have to put in the order at least 3 weeks in advance. So I end up with too many gamedays on order. If my reporting was required for a character to level up so he can play in another apl bracket, the delay could be frustrating for the character.
I also tend to play things online so that I don't have to burn them. I've found out that you are at the mercy of the dm, who you never see, to get you your ars in a reasonable time. Some DMs are just flakes and you might never get your ars. Getting the flaky DMs to report things online may make things easier, but they are still just as likely to flake out as before and not report.
Getting errors fixed is also something the rpga doesn't do well at all. Some of my players can't login to the rpga website after repeated correspondence. I'm also still waiting on feedback of an error I made in reporting one my of a sessions.
The RPGA could greatly benefit from a help desk along the lines of ITIL (IT reference). You basically have one organization charged with taking the customers calls, creating documentation of the problem in the form of a ticket, and then making sure the ticket is worked on and resolved by the appropriate people.
Presently, the IT staff of WotC doesn't give me a lot of hope for their digital initiative and I hope that LR doesn't use a digital AR or cert unless they fix these problems.
Derek
P.S. I have almost every KODT ever published, but I don't want to go back through my collection to find the appropriate issue. I'm pretty sure I got the plot correct as I remember it.
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