The big news is that the adventures will no longer be provided to you or your FLGS for free. DMs will now be required to shell out $34.95 to purchase their own copy of the adventure. That’s right; if you want to be the DM and run the adventure for the public play program it will cost you, or the people in your gaming group, 35 bucks for each copy of the book.
If you’re like me one of the reasons you’ve volunteered to DM for D&D Encounters over the years is because you got the materials for free and when it was all over you got to keep the adventure. So why would I suddenly be willing to pay for the same thing I used to get for free? How do I not see this as a slap in the face from Wizards? Give me one good reason why I would even consider buying the adventure? Read on and you’ll find many good reasons.
First and foremost the adventure is compatible with 3.5e, 4e and D&D Next; no more of this “download the D&D Next conversion” step that’s required today. It would seem that all three editions are given equal treatment in the adventure. The book itself seems to be more than just a run-of-the-mill adventure like we’ve been getting. Here are the specs currently available online:
Murder in Baldur’s Gate: Sundering Adventure I (product description)
- 96-page hardcover (size 7.09 × 9.06)
- 64-page setting book describing Baldur’s Gate and its inhabitants
- 32-page adventure book
- Four-panel, foldout DM screen keyed to the adventure
- Illustrated folder
There’s no mention of separate maps, but if you’re running this for 3.5e or D&D Next the 1-inch grid maps aren’t necessary so I don’t fault Wizards for not providing them. If you’re running this for 4e you’ll have to draw them out yourself or use dungeon tiles.
One thing that I noticed about the Murder in Baldur’s Gate cover image Wizards provided on their website is that there is no D&D Encounters banner, logo or anything to indicate this is part of the public play program. If you didn’t know better you’d think this was just another D&D hardcover like so many others on the shelf, and I suspect that’s what Wizards wants. Although their hope is that this adventure be played Wednesday nights at your FLGS there doesn’t seem to be the structure or format that we’ve come to recognize or expect from D&D Encounters. Could this be the beginning of the end of D&D Encounters or is it just a new and different way to present the materials while making a few bucks in the process?
Regardless of what direction the D&D Encounters program is heading, there will still be some support for the public play component beginning with the launch weekend. Murder in Baldur’s Gate begins on August 21, but during the weekend before that (August 17-18) there is a special introduction adventure that sets up the new season. This adventure is free and will be included in the kits provided to your FLGS. The kit will also have a few other items of note.
- 2 copies of the short introductory adventure
- 2 packs of non-player character cards for the DM
- 20 exclusive player maps
- 20 exclusive Murder in Baldur’s Gate d20s
Launch weekend coincides with GenCon so many of the DMs and players will likely be in Indianapolis and will miss the fun at the FLGS. The good news is that the launch weekend adventure is running all weekend long at GenCon (using the D&D Next rules) so people at the convention don’t have to miss out.
Murder in Baldur’s Gate is just the beginning. The next five seasons of D&D Encounters (assuming that’s what it will still be called) will follow the events of The Sundering, the next big crossover event at Wizards of the Coast. The heart of The Sundering will occur through six novels, each covering different characters and locations throughout the Forgotten Realms. However, from what Wizards has hinted, players will get to help decide the outcome of The Sundering based on the results of their play experiences during the five adventures. I’m sure we’ll hear more about this soon.
So there you have it. You know what I know. D&D Encounters is changing. The adventures will be sold like any other book to anyone who wants to pay up. DMs no longer have exclusive content so be mindful of players who seem to know too much about what’s going on.
Personally I’m really hoping that my FLGS will reward offer the longstanding DMs by eating the cost of the books and giving them to us for free, or at least at a significant discount. After all, I know that some DMs have brought in a lot of players and those players have in turn bought stuff and generated revenue for the stores. As long as the public play program continues to provide the FLGS with revenue it might not otherwise receive I think they can absorb the cost of a coupe of books every 13 weeks.
Based on what we know so far what is your reaction to this news? If you’re faced with paying $34.95 for the adventure or quitting D&D Encounters what will you do? How many people think that this is going to outright kill D&D Encounters? How many people think that making the adventure available in 3.5e, 4e and D&D Next might actually bring new players to D&D Encounters and public play?
- Article on Wizard Play Network: Murder in Baldur’s Gate
- Solicitation flyer
View Comments (64)
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1 2 3 … 7 Next »I'd be curious to see if making the adventures playable with 3.5 will get more people out. It seems like that edition is still pretty popular. (Though I'm also guessing most people who like 3.5 have moved on to Pathfinder at this point.)
The module itself sounds like a pretty nice splat book, but $35 seems a bit pricey.
Would this change bring Encounters more in line with Pathfinder's public play stuff? They sell their Pathfinder Society books to anyone, right, with the exception they'll run games in stores? (I honestly know next to nothing about Pathfinder.)
I wonder if Wizard's is trying to move away from the super structured nature of the Encounters adventures. I enjoy coming out and playing, but I feel like they paint a very shallow picture of D&D for new players because of the constraints of the program. D&D Encounters leans heavily on problem solving by combat, and usually feel very linear / railroad-like because each session has to lead into the next.
I'll be pretty disappointed if Encounters fades away. I enjoy meeting up and playing on Wednesdays.
I have been DMing Encounters for our FLGS since Lost Crown of Neverwinter and I agree that the main incentive to do that was so that I'd have some cool free stuff. I don't see me buying my own public play stuff for WOTC's benefit, the store's benefit and the customer's benefit. Lose a DM; lose (in our case) about 18 players.
It's about 2 months too soon to make a decision, but what I've read has me looking forward to a new, more free-form campaign format. After so many seasons of one-shot adventures, my Encounters players are ready for a longer form game. Besides, is there anything else for 4e on the publishing schedule?
It's what we can expect from the whole 5E idea: a money-grabbing scheme for Wizards of the Coast. That Pathfinder set looks prettier every time I look at it while reading news from WotC.
I'm out. I'm done. I already was taking this season off from Encounters, but Wizards has just lost a lifelong DM and one of their staunchest supporters.
At this point, I'm tempted to convert my Lost Crown adventure for Dungeon World and run that, hopefully sell some DW books and help get rid of the drunk elephant that is Hasbro/WotC.
First off, I'm guessing that this came about when they saw how many folks who didn't live near gaming stores wanted to buy copies of the Encounters adventures. Somebody at Hasbro said "Hey look, we can monetize this. How about we do that right from the get-go!"
As for the multiple editions, I like the theory of that. However, if that means they provide less support for all editions, or do something silly like not including edition-specific stats for each monster & challenge, I'll be upset. I don't mind pulling up the 4e Adventure Tools online to get monster stats for a 4e game, but if I have to buy the reprinted 3.5 Monster Manual or slog through those awful playtest documents to find the NEXT monster stats... I will not be a happy camper.
The one hope I have for this, though, is that WOTC has realized that NEXT is nowhere near as appealing as they want it to be (nor will it be, if they keep up with the current basic system), and that maybe they're accepting the idea that 3.5 and 4e are pretty solid systems that still deserve support.
For me, the biggest hit here is not the money... although that will be an obstacle, its not the end of the world. Between stores and players, coming up with $3 a week shouldn't be too hard.
What seems hard to swallow for me is the exclusivity of it all. Participating in organized play meant you got something special! Wizards asked people to step up and be ambassadors for the game. In exchange, you got something cool and something special that no one else got. Now what are you? Just someone with $35 bucks.
Also, it was a way to get people to actually show up to organized play! Want to play this special content? Cool, come out to your local game store and join in! Now I'm sure we are going to see people running this in their basements, privately with their buddies any old night of the week. It takes away from the idea that organized play is being part of something bigger and better than the sum of its parts.
For now, overall, I'm going to say thumbs down... I feel like they broke their own cardinal rule: Don't split the party.
It appears that the store bus the materials, not DMs. Store managers/owners might pass this cost onto the people that okay on the season. Or, they might not. it did not seem to explicitly say DMs must pay for this material.
I think it's about time Wizards of the Coast charged money for this content. Thirty-five dollars is a small price to pay for content that brings people into the store.
I like this new approach to the program. And I especially like the adventure being presented in three rules iterations. Great idea.
Since I buy most of the books anyhow it's just more money I spend on my hobby. As Derek knows, I will gladly run this or any other adventure. I was very sad to see Lair Assualt go, but encounter finishing it would suck big time. Keep some free play happening. LFR is slow down, now this, were is WOTC taking DnD. Guess we should here some after this weekend of Orgins and more after Gen Con
Meh. Our FLGS has mostly switched over to playing LFR instead of Encounters. Some will buy in, but this will only further encourage such trends. We have enough experience and skill in the Madison gaming community that if WotC vanished off the face of the Earth tomorrow, people could easily step forward to produce their own quality content to run for our fellow gamers. Many of us have been sorely dissapointed at the lack of originality in the Encounters campaigns over the years.