Changes to Public Play

There are a lot of changes coming to public play--the most exciting is a very good red, white, and back color scheme. 

And look at that Ampersand--may be the best that we have ever seen, no?

The first real important change I see is a greater clarifications on the roles--we have players, DM's, and Coordinators. I think Coordinators have not been getting nearly the same level of support as the other two roles & an increased focus on communication with the shop organizers is a very welcome change.

Story first is a very good idea. I think it is representative of how most of us have been playing D&D Encounters for a while & improved focus on the story is never a bad thing.

The introduction of factions is also brilliant--it is another great move that I have seen bring a lot of fun to the PFS tables. 

A certificate reward system has been tried before--I think in theory it is a good idea, but it can be very hard to implement and often does not really add much to the action at the table...I am taking a wait and see attitude on this.

Community involvement & more player input to the story has been the Gold Standard since Living Greyhawk, but I am not sure how important this will be at the beginning. My thoughts are that if the story goes well & the factions start to really matter then including more community stuff may work. Either that or just having random shops insert stuff based on raffles or something may work--you know a shop is chosen at random to design the boss dragon for season three or something...but again with this, I am taking a wait and see attitude--I would love to see it work, but I do not think it is required.

Kick off events are ALWAYS a good idea--I would love to see a return to the Great Game Days of years gone past. Also, dropping the mini's and other material on the Game Day would be fantastic. I really like a move towards integrating these with the Encounters seasons, when that was done in the past I think it really paid off.

I am a huge fan of D&D Encounters not only as a way to draw in new players, a la Friday Night Magic, but also as making Wednesday the Day you Play D&D. I think that the routine of playing on Wedensday and knowing that people around the country are playing the same adventure as you was one of the first things that drew me to Encountes.

I think we are moving away from Encounters being kind of central to the story and moving things more to Home Games which I think is fine, but I would like to see a lot of continued support for the Encounters Program and the DM's that run it.

This is the gold in the announcement, in my opinion. CON play is really where I expect to see a lot of growth in D&D and I think that the plan they lay out here is spot on exactly what needs to happen. Really looking foreword to this next year.

Overall, I am extremely excited with the way in which Public Play is moving with the new edition.