Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Pay to Play

Looks like Dungeon Masters are going to have to start paying for their adventures on D&D Encounters. Each adventure will run 35 bucks. Previously the adventures were free, allowing DMs to pick them up or download them, and the commence to playing them  . . . not sure what the whole idea here is, I guess to get DMs to run adventures for new players and get new people involved . . . free of charge.

This will probably hurt the D&D Encounters program most likely, at least in the short run.

More insight into the Dungeon Master Blog here.

2 comments:

DesignZombie said...

Despite the fact that I personally like the Troll's and Paizo's model better (affordable books and PDF options of those books), I don't see a problem with paying for an adventure... tho, the price is kind of steep.

Price aside, here is why I don't see a problem with the adventures for the encounters being for sale: The store that the game is taking place at will be making money, which means these groups will be supporting their local stores. Is it really that much for the DM to ask if they players can chip in a few bucks each to help pay for something that will go to hours of entertainment for them?

After all, people have been coming and playing for free and having everything practically handed to them without having to do crap. And they get provided to them a free adventure and maps and stuff (which is not that big of a deal, because it would normal cost less that $15 for what they offer).

So, there is some speculation that the model for the Encounters games might be changing or going away after this pay to play thing happens (there is an article about that here):
http://dungeonsmaster.com/2013/06/major-changes-coming-to-dd-encounters-dms-to-pay-for-adventures/

All I have to say is that if I am buying this adventure, screw the whole "Encounters" set up, I'll just run it on my time schedule ;-)

It is strange business model, but my only real beef with it is that you have to pay so much for a book that is less than 100 pages. And they usually don't write that great of adventures unless you love combat, combat, combat, etc.

The only reason why I still put up with their B.S. is that I actually like a lot of the rules innovations they do. But as far as being a customer friendly company, hell no. They get a D in my books.

The Grey Elf said...

Wait, let me get this straight. To get adventures they have to pay a $10 per month subscription to DDO AND $35 per adventure?

Wow. Glad I got off that wagon before it started rolling.

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