I was recently asked to run a weekly table at a new game store. The owner wants it essentially to be first come first serve with the probability of different people each week. What exactly should I run then? Would I be limited to tier 1 Adventurer's League titles?
Without a stable group of people to progress (and expecting open join) I would limit yourself to tier 1 content. You have to presume that skill level will be low, as you do not know who will be attending. It will be much smoother to run a group of experienced players through lower content, then inexperienced players through difficult. Once you obtain repeat players, then you can evaluate a good tier to move to.
The problem with first come first serve is that people who are free early that day will come hang out and you might get a steady amount of people who come hang out all day and play D&D. Or you could end up with it being so random who is going to get to play that people don't even bother showing up.
Most people will be ticked if they show up and find out there is only room for one person to join in. Of course if you rarely go above 4-5 people not a problem.
So I think you have to plan low level adventures cause thats likely what you will end up with.
Exactly how many people are expected to come play?
Sounds fun. None of the stores around here do that kind of stuff unfortunately
I think this is probably why. You end up with a Dm who can only run 4-6 players. You end up not having events when the Dm wants a night off and you either alienate customers by telling them they can't play or make customers mad when they show up and learn they can't play cause the guy who doesn't work and doesn't spend money at the store has been there all day.
I also feel like the adventure league stuff hasn't really caught on as the primary reason to play a tabletop rpg is to be able to do anything and you can't really do that in adventure league as the encounters are all set.
I just don't think it's good from a business standpoint to tell people they can play one week but need to find something else to do the next week. But this is really dependant on how many people are interested in playing. But could also be bad if you end up with consistent players who get kicked out one week.
All this to say is that I think you would be limited to the lower level stuff.
The problem with first come first serve is that people who are free early that day will come hang out and you might get a steady amount of people who come hang out all day and play D&D. Or you could end up with it being so random who is going to get to play that people don't even bother showing up.
Most people will be ticked if they show up and find out there is only room for one person to join in. Of course if you rarely go above 4-5 people not a problem.
So I think you have to plan low level adventures cause thats likely what you will end up with.
Exactly how many people are expected to come play?
Sounds fun. None of the stores around here do that kind of stuff unfortunately
I think this is probably why. You end up with a Dm who can only run 4-6 players. You end up not having events when the Dm wants a night off and you either alienate customers by telling them they can't play or make customers mad when they show up and learn they can't play cause the guy who doesn't work and doesn't spend money at the store has been there all day.
I also feel like the adventure league stuff hasn't really caught on as the primary reason to play a tabletop rpg is to be able to do anything and you can't really do that in adventure league as the encounters are all set.
I just don't think it's good from a business standpoint to tell people they can play one week but need to find something else to do the next week. But this is really dependant on how many people are interested in playing. But could also be bad if you end up with consistent players who get kicked out one week.
All this to say is that I think you would be limited to the lower level stuff.
Actually, Adventurer's League is hugely popular in my area! We use a convention event organizer called warhorn to announce when and which shop a module will be hosted and then people sign up. That way there's not An automatic expectation for a DM to hold a table every week. Are there occasions when I don't get to play a table I want, especially tier 2? Sure, but that's ok ly because we have a wide proportion of players to DMs. That being said, we manage well and people love it here! Enough so that the stores have enough turnout for them to run the Epic modules that are typically exclusive to conventions
I was recently asked to run a weekly table at a new game store. The owner wants it essentially to be first come first serve with the probability of different people each week. What exactly should I run then? Would I be limited to tier 1 Adventurer's League titles?
My suggestion is to prepare two different session, tier 1 and tier 2, which are the most common. For tier 3 or 4 they should tell you beforhand.
Without a stable group of people to progress (and expecting open join) I would limit yourself to tier 1 content. You have to presume that skill level will be low, as you do not know who will be attending. It will be much smoother to run a group of experienced players through lower content, then inexperienced players through difficult. Once you obtain repeat players, then you can evaluate a good tier to move to.
The problem with first come first serve is that people who are free early that day will come hang out and you might get a steady amount of people who come hang out all day and play D&D. Or you could end up with it being so random who is going to get to play that people don't even bother showing up.
Most people will be ticked if they show up and find out there is only room for one person to join in. Of course if you rarely go above 4-5 people not a problem.
So I think you have to plan low level adventures cause thats likely what you will end up with.
Exactly how many people are expected to come play?
Sounds fun. None of the stores around here do that kind of stuff unfortunately
hopefully everything works out for you.