Lair Assault is a new form of organised play for D&D, that I thought the guys on this forum would be interested in hearing about. You can read the full article here:

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/20098.html

And here's an excert:

Quote"... The first D&D Lair Assault challenge, Forge of the Dawn Titan, will run from September 1st through November at participating hobby game stores, with future challenges following a similar format.

The D&D Lair Assault program is designed for players looking for more complex, strategic, and highly tactical challenges. The D&D Lair Assault program is tailored to groups of players who enjoy solving tactical puzzles, optimizing characters, and using rules to their advantage."

What interest me most is (bearing in mind the current thread on storygames): if you take part in a Lair Assault session, are you role-playing, or doing something else?

Why does reading its description give me "grueling 2e module" warning goose bumps? Spidey senses tingling? Overreaction?
:idunno:

Quote from: Glazer;458862What interest me most is (bearing in mind the current thread on storygames): if you take part in a Lair Assault session, are you role-playing, or doing something else?

Yes, you definitely are.

It's definitely emphasising D&D4's gamist elements, though, and that it can support such a play style is one of it's strengths relative to other games - you couldn't do what is, essentially, a wargame scenario (Or, if you're twelve, a "raid") with many other systems and keep it fun, week in, week out. It's not an event that sounds like it has room for character-based play.

But on the other hand, I've had sessions that have been one long combat; if Lair Assault isn't "role playing", were those really "role playing" sessions?

Quote from: Glazer;458862What interest me most is (bearing in mind the current thread on storygames): if you take part in a Lair Assault session, are you role-playing, or doing something else?

It sounds like it's certainly going ot be more roleplaying than the most recent versions of organized play, whcih seemed to be walking from encounter to encounter with no other activity as if it's a video game.  
 
But it looks like it's emphasizing character build even more than before; old school dungeoneering was more about player cleverness than character build.  It looks like the change in design is also a way to work in fortune cards as nearly mandatory, at least within con play.  
 
I'm jaded though and won't be playing in any organized play or rpga for D&D or Pathfinder so they'd already lost me as player.

I read that as "Liar Assault."

Quote from: stu2000;458887I read that as "Liar Assault."

%Liar

It sounds like straight up wargaming, which is fine, I guess for the game WotC calls D&D.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;458902It sounds like straight up wargaming, which is fine, I guess for the game WotC calls D&D.

passive aggressive edition warring is still edition warring, just without the dignity.

Like OD&D, I think it's up to the players if they want to add more characterization and inter-party banter or concentrate solely on the tactical elements of moving through a dungeon.

Quote from: Ladybird;458865...  you couldn't do what is, essentially, a wargame scenario (Or, if you're twelve, a "raid") with many other systems and keep it fun, week in, week out. It's not an event that sounds like it has room for character-based play.

I agree, but I think this may be a problem. You see, I think that organised play for what is without doubt the most popular rpg in the world, should probably emphasise role-playing, othewise, what's the point? Shouldn't the aim  be to get people to play and enjoy tabletop rpgs, rather than play and enjoy wargame scenarios?

To help things along, here's a good succinct definition of an rpg from the storygames thread:

Quote from: Exploderwizard;458272The GM is the facilitator/ referee.

The players assume a role in an imagined gamespace and react to fictional stimuli.

The story evolves from the process of that taking place.

Quote from: Glazer;458909You see, I think that organised play for what is without doubt the most popular rpg in the world, should probably emphasise role-playing, othewise, what's the point?

I think that idea died long ago within rpga and organized play.  From the little I've seen, in the name of fairness and consistency, they have short canned adventures with largely predetermined outcomes.  All the players earn their little item that they can put on their official sheet and use in the next adventure to show how good of a gamer they are.   It's like the McDonald's of roleplaying, factory made consistency for mass consumption.

First, that definition is horseshit (okay, that's over the top. Let's just say it's too 'meta', not clear enough, and subject to various interpretations as written, which makes it next to useless as a definition).

Second, using the rules to your advantage does not preclude role playing.

That's all I have to say on this thread.

Quote from: Aos;458903passive aggressive edition warring is still edition warring, just without the dignity.

No, you misunderstand me and I guess I wasn't clear enough.  I'm saying if WotC calls this ... variant?  would that be the right word to use? straight up D&D rather than breaking it off into it's own subgame ("Dungeon Assault" or something, whatever) then that's fine.  It seems like a straight-up wargame along the lines of WHFB or WarLord rather than D&D.  D&D - of any stripe and it is entirely incumbent on the DM as to how much this happens - involves a larger percentage of in-character interactions than a tactical wargame though.  It appears to me that they strip that out with this format.  That's all I'm saying.

I wasn't getting all TETSNBN - and I say this as an extremely passive aggressive person.

I've said all the nasty things I'm going to about later editions of D&D...

Sounds liek having turned 4e in WoW they needed to replicate a WoW raid as its a popular element of the game.

I reckon if you turned up to this event with a hobbit who was kind of a reluctant theif who lived to smoke a pipe and never missed 2nd breakfast and chat about fishing the other players might not appreciate it.