On Wednesday nights I normally have the night off.

 Not this Wednesday just past - the 19th.
I had the night shift.
The Mall closes at 9:00pm

The Dungeons & Dragons Encounters thing happens on Wednesday nights from 6 to 8pm.

A father & his son show up around 5:45pm. The father asks me "Do you guys havd D&D classes on Wednesdays or something like that ?"
 Ah! He's asking about D&D encounters.

I told them that YES, we had Dungeons & Dragons encounter game sessions on Wednesday nights - usually two tables worth.

Thankfully my manager was lingering and my co-worker that DMs one of the tables was there.  They talked me through the paperwork . The kid had to fill out this DCI card thing .

Around 6:05pm most of the regulars wandered their way in. About 3 episodes of "LOST" later (there is an overhead TV at the store that is connected to a DVD player) The kid's encounter session is done. He has picked out a REAPER miniature ...and now his Mom is here to picvk him up.

Not only do they get the REAPER Dark Haven miniature - but when they ask about and express interest in a 4/e Player's Handbook, I point out that the two book pacxkage is a good deal. (PHB 1 & PHB 2 shrinkwrapped together)

So that got added to the order.

Not a bad purchase for a kid who hadn't even played D&D just 4 hours earlier. His Mom was talking about bringing him back to the store two days later - so he can pick out dice. She has already said he should get the pretty ones from chessex and not the 'affordable'/cheap ones.

I might not like the game - but I stifle that part of me if it looks like they're having fun and they want to buy the stuff thats connected to it.

Someone in WotC marketing must have more than a smidgeon of smarts for coming up with the weekly Wednesday D&D encounter nights.  It definitely helps a brick & mortar stay in business.

- Ed C.

I am sad that this kind of event seems to be so special today that it's worthy of a forum post.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;382224I am sad that this kind of event seems to be so special today that it's worthy of a forum post.

Save your sadness for something else.

 Just thought it was worth pointing out that not all the folks at WotC are dunderheads.

Whoever came up with "Hey lets do these D&D Encounter Night events at Game Stores!"  had a damn good idea.


- Ed C.

The kid had fun. Far as I'm concerned,

WOOT!

I am surprised at WotC.   Their Friday Night Magic has been an incredibly strong program for quite some time so the D&D night is looong overdue.  

It should be a boon for the stores.   That kid might not live in a bubble.   If he has friends, you may see some more ratlings.

BTW, did the dad play too?  And how old was the kid?  Jr. High or younger? What is the mix of ages among the regulars?

Quote from: Spinachcat;384074I am surprised at WotC.   Their Friday Night Magic has been an incredibly strong program for quite some time so the D&D night is looong overdue.  

It should be a boon for the stores.   That kid might not live in a bubble.   If he has friends, you may see some more ratlings.

I've heard anecdotal evidence similar to this a few times -- it's doing quite well for some stores. Hard to say for sure without seeing WotC's data, as always. I'm running a table at my local comics store and we've grown from four players to six over the course of the season. Two of them are completely new to 4e (1e/2e player and a 3e player) and both are planning on coming back for Dark Sun, which is nice.

Definitely not the wild success we've heard about elsewhere, but the store's doing little to no promotion of the event. They're really a comics store with a sideline in gaming. In total I'd guess we're spending around $50-60 a night on random purchases and minis and so on, and there's no cost to the store, so perhaps that's a success after all.

Quote from: Thanlis;384079I've heard anecdotal evidence similar to this a few times -- it's doing quite well for some stores. Hard to say for sure without seeing WotC's data, as always. I'm running a table at my local comics store and we've grown from four players to six over the course of the season. Two of them are completely new to 4e (1e/2e player and a 3e player) and both are planning on coming back for Dark Sun, which is nice.

Definitely not the wild success we've heard about elsewhere, but the store's doing little to no promotion of the event. They're really a comics store with a sideline in gaming. In total I'd guess we're spending around $50-60 a night on random purchases and minis and so on, and there's no cost to the store, so perhaps that's a success after all.

My local store has 4 tables reserved every week for D&D encounters. They are quite busy there.

I go into the store that night because I obsessively by new games on a weekly basis (this last week it was Savage World's Pirates of the Spanish Main) but I don't participate in the events myself.

Not that I have anything against the program or 4E, but mostly because I'm not a fan of organized play.