We’ll be back at the D&D XP convention this year, from January 27th to the 30th. There’s still time to attend- badges as well as tickets to the many events will be available at the door. Shawn Merwin told you why he enjoys the convention so much, and I’m going to be there running special Gamma World adventures, so there’s plenty of reasons you might want to attend right there.
However, the other reason you might be interested in the convention is for all the news and previews, whether you’re going to attend or not. In 2008, we were there to bring you the first major seminar that revealed many of the first details about 4e as well as interviews and other coverage that filled in more details. Last year, we brought you early word of D&D Essentials, the D&D Encounters program, glimpsed some Dark Sun characters, and were given an early taste of Gamma World.
This year we’re hoping to get a more clear vision of where D&D is going forward, especially in light of recent announcements and, of course, the resultant rampant speculation. Some books announced at Gen Con are now off the schedule, including at least one that filled some gaps in the post-Essentials rules era. Dragon and Dungeon magazines have been shifting around dramatically. We have a Virtual Tabletop coming. There are collectible cards being presented as an optional add-on to D&D to decidedly mixed reaction (including from yours truly.) And then there’s Ravenloft and hints that it will contain some kind of interesting additional component. Hopefully after this year’s seminar, we’ll all have a better idea of where things are headed for the year to come, and that path is filled with cool stuff for D&D players.
As before, we’ll be reporting on what we discover- in the seminars, at the tables, and by talking to the special guests. Shawn Merwin, Vanir, Chris Sims, and myself will all be there in different capacities, and I’m sure we’ll be sharing our experiences with you.
One important question I have for all the readers out there is about live-blogging, especially in regards to the big product announcement seminar that will be happening Thursday at 1. Traditionally, I have tweeted the announcements as they happen, which leads to a high number of tweets sent in a short period of time. This leads to a lot of ReTweets and some new followers… and also a few angry messages from people who can’t quietly unfollow, they have to register their dislike of what I’m doing.
While I’m not a fan of being blocked and reported for spam, I understand that there are some people who don’t want to see a bunch of tweets about a D&D seminar. Then again, we always get good reactions, including folks thanking us for providing the information where they can access it.
Thus, I’d really appreciate it if you to weigh in on the following question:
[poll id=”170″]
If there’s anything else you’d like us to find out, specifically cover, etc. please do tell us in the comments.
Regardless of how we handle it, I expect to have a good time running games, playing games, discovering surprises, and heck, I might even try a game with Fortune Cards…
This is my “other” comment explained.
If you are going to be tweeting it, it would be nice to get a new twitter handle so that the DDXP tweeting does not swamp your regular feed. CHDDXP or something like that.
Thanks, that’s another good idea. The problem tends to be getting people to move over to a new account- my experiences show that pool of people is very low. Just out of curiosity, is there an advantage of that versus going to a web page that posts the updates? Is it a mobile thing?
For people who are on mobiles, if they are following you, and your volume goes up dramatically due to DDXP, could be some surprises when the bill comes in at the end of the month.
My cell phone is the cream of 1990s technology, so it isn’t a problem for me. 😀
In any case, a web-page that collates the tweets (in proper chronological order if possible) as well as posts at the end of the day/weekend summarizing what you find out would be the most preferable option IMO.
I’d like to see live tweeting of very important seminars (that probably only includes the WotC Question/Answer session) but a post-convention article with everything else would be fine. I’m not going to be glued to my twitter feed all weekend, and would like just one place to get all the convention updates.
What if you made a separate Twitter feed (CHDDXP or what have you), and re-tweet some of the most important tweets on the regular Critical Hits feed? Then, people who want to see more will be able to track and follow the special feed.
I enjoy your coverage of it through @criticalhits, especially if it’s backed up with more detailed blog posts after the seminar. That said, I understand what you’re saying about not wanting to flood your twitter stream and risking annoying followers who aren’t quite so interested in blow-by-blow coverage.
With that in mind, I suggest hooking up a new disposable twitter account (@criticalhitsxp, perhaps). Use that to tweet from D&DXP and throw out the odd tweet from @criticalhits directing your existing followers to follow that account for coverage.
The alternative is to use tags, but experence shows that followers are more likely to unfollow than they are to set up filters for tags they’re not interested in. Using a disposable twitter account makes it an opt-in service rather than an opt-in one, which is invariable a better option.
3 different people in comments have suggested a dedicated Twitter account, so I’ll definitely be looking into it. Thanks folks, and keep the feedback coming.
Recording the seminars and podcasting them ASAP afterward! In addition to the other things.
Another alternative is too keep doing the exact same thing you “on the floor” guys have been doing and ignore (and block) those who would rather complain vocally than unfollow.
The extra Twitter account, while great in theory will, so late in the game, gather much less reader coverage than the CH twitter.
From a personal point of view though, I’d rather not relive the kinds of Twitter echo chamber phenomenon /races I saw back in 2009 and (to a lesser extent) in 2010 at Gen Con. I’m definitively in the ‘tweet about the big stuff” and “more tweet pics” camp.
Either way, I know there’s a market for it and diverting the CH account to focus on that, a mere handful of days a year is not a deal killer for me… and probably isn’t for the silent majority,
i’m one of those that thinks simpler is easier for lazy people like myself. As such,
a) twitter the ‘big’ stuff via the CH twitter
b) have a compilation (with ‘big’ and ‘small’ stuff) updated every day (or twice a day?)
Reason for (a) i feel strange following a twitter feed that will only be active 3 days every year and would i ever get around to actually following the other account? Possibly, but it just takes extra effort (albeit minor two-click effort, but in case you didn’t read it in my sentence sentence, i’m lazy)
And it might start a trend, do you need a separate twitter feed for each con you cover? and so on…
(and from a slightly less-personal and more experience-based perspective, when i was doing operations for a company we did have a separate account for messages related to special stuff – but, really, no matter how many times you said it, there is always some handful that either never gets/sees the message about the different location, or those who will never get around to checking the different location… ‘compartmentalization’ is good for organization in theory, and great if it catches on, but that doesn’t always work out that way.)
And just the ‘big’ stuff via twitter otherwise it might turn into a high fact-to-noise ratio (of course, what is noise to me might be important info to others, so some judgment is needed there)
Reason for (b): it’s nice to read the _big and small_ stuff all in one place at my leisure rather than “as it’s happening”
Of course, all that is just *my* preferences – do i speak for everyone? na. but you asked for opinions so darn it, you’re getting them 🙂
Anyway, i’m going to go back to my room and pout that you’re going and i’m not. 😉
Quick question, Im really looking forward to a coverage on the Adventure Design Seminar (since the one at Gencon was so awesome) are you planning to make something like that with that seminar?
I know the Tome Show is looking to record many of the seminars. If CH is thinking of it too, perhaps it makes sense to collaborate? I haven’t talked to Jeff about it yet, but let me know if I should bring it up.
Regarding the secondary twitter account. It might be overkill, but if you wanted to tweet more stuff, you could create the secondary account and then use the primary to retweet just the big items. However, that might be a bit more work than you want and I’m still not sure how many people would follow the secondary one.
If we did do a separate Twitter account- and I still don’t know if we will- it would be used for any convention reporting, not just DDXP.
I’m not really rigged to podcast, and WotC recorded everything last year, so that’s unlikely… if The Tome Show does it, I’ll definitely link to it 🙂
I will poke Trevor and/or Michael to find out if they are planning on podcasting and, if so, when they hope to have them up. I know that last year, Bart Carroll had some of the seminars up that night or the next day. It all depends if he is bringing his rig with him.
So the Tome is planning on recording the seminars? talk about good news, between that and the CH and Matt James coverages i provably wont be kicking myself for not being able to go XD
Just got in touch with Trevor, and he is unsure on whether or not WotC is planning on recording the seminars. He mentioned that you guys should definitely bring your own gear.
To further my last, Dustin Snyder (@Wolfstar76 in the Twitter), is planning on doing some liveblogging of the seminars via the http://www.baldmangames.com website.
I’m much more interested in PaizoCon!
http://paizo.com/paizocon
-The Gneech