Your AL Experiences Wanted

[MightyDog16]

I hit up my local game store hoping to get in on Adventurer's League only to find out everyone basically called in sick. Meanwhile there were 3 lively Pathfinder tables going on.

What are your AL experiences? Are the adventures fun? How long is a typical session? I'm trying to decide whether or not to go back and try to track these people down or if it's a waste of time.

[SwordChuck]

I hit up my local game store hoping to get in on Adventurer's League only to find out everyone basically called in sick. Meanwhile there were 3 lively Pathfinder tables going on.

What are your AL experiences? Are the adventures fun? How long is a typical session? I'm trying to decide whether or not to go back and try to track these people down or if it's a waste of time.

If you have a good DM and half way decent PCs then AL can be decent.

I prefer home games but my friends are DMing AL so I'm a bit biased to begin with. Before I joined their games I tried AL and the DM was absolutely terrible, was using 3.P rulings that didn't even make sense in 5e. They really need a better way to make sure DMs know what they are doing.

The other DM was very... Off the rails and we didn't do the official stuff.

The actual adventures are decent, most of the ones from the Dragon Queen and Elemental Evils wasn't anything I haven't seen before. Not very inspiring for the most part, you can tell they were made for young/casual gamers (which yes, they need to be).

I say to try to join the AL game again and get to know the group and see where things go from there.

××××
Since the two bad DMs I've been playing in my friends games and have been going through official stuff.

[MightyDog16]

Yeah, I like my home game too. I'm the DM at home so I miss playing a PC, main reason I was looking into AL. Plus I'd like to have a level 5-7 character for KublaCon this year.

[HeyBJ]

I agree with pretty much everything SwordChuck has said, so no need to repeat that stuff. Our sessions last about 3.5-4 hours, depending on how investigative the party feels that night. But as to whether or not it's worth your time, that depends completely on the people you're playing with. I almost gave up on AL because the DM was pretty bad, but since reaching Tier II, I moved to a different table with a much better DM and a fun group. Now, I look forward to it every week.

[coredump]

I have had pretty great experiences, at two different stores. But I also recognize that it is very dependent on the DMs and Players involved.

I would check it out and see how it is at that store.... you can also check and see if any other stores in the area run AL. Each will have a slightly different personality.... one may match you better than another.

[PracticalM]

I have had average experiences with the AL group a local store.

One GM and I don't mix well. I just don't care for his style.
Two or three of the other GMs I enjoy playing with.

Sometimes I get asked to GM if they need someone. In general since I run a homebrew game at my church I prefer to play but I have no problems helping out. I wish I got more feedback about my GM style as I would like to make improvements.

I find AL often has players that want to stay on the rails of the adventure and not really do much roleplaying. Also, there are some players that use their knowledge of having been in the adventure with other characters or having run the adventure to get the most treasure and experience out of the session.

Also I find some of the AL adventures to be written poorly without much assistance if the players go off track. There are some cases where NPCs are given adequate directions to their motivation but some just make it really hard.

Too many adventures set up the players for no really good reason.
1. One of the adventures is set near a woods where no one should trespass due to a previous agreement. Naturally the adventurers have to trespass. My initial thinking as a player was, why should we compound the trespass with even more trespassing?

2. The very linear and fairly boring Oubliette Iron Hills adventure ending with a predictable fight against enemy forces coming from a different direction.

3. Shackles of Blood. Forcing players to be defeated when really the set up could have been to tell the characters to get captured. Only interesting thing about this adventure was finding out how many licks does it take to get to the end of a Moon Druid's hp.

[SwordChuck]

Oh I forgot...

A lot of the time, even when my friends DM, you can be rushed to get done with the session.

There are a few different reasons for this but from what I hear they only have so long to do so many games u too the season or whatever ends.

[Torgairon]

my 3 AL sessions were pretty negative, and ended up leading to a fairly long hiatus from any tabletop games, from my last one to now. I would chalk this up to two main factors:

1) bad luck with the adventure path. I came into the local AL right as the group was finishing up Hoard of the Dragon Queen, one of the earlier WotC adventures. without excessive spoilers, the last episode involves a lot of seriously overpowered encounters which in turn seems to involve a good deal of politicking with the various established groups. fine in theory, but on the table it was a total mess, with the group of 6 split into a husband-wife duo going around and chatting up everyone and the rest of us just sitting around. I was really passive the first session, just trying to get my bearings within a complicated castle layout that we were ostensibly sneaking around (even though nobody was being terribly covert); by the second I was more acclimated and ready to try out my archery fighter I'd rolled up, but there was no combat to be had yet. all in all, we spent 6-8 hours and 2 sessions on preparing for the actual drama of the episode. this was due to:

2) the DM. our DM was a young guy barely out of high school. nice guy - the entire group was nice, and the group dynamic was really chill and easygoing, which is partly why I came back for session three - but had absolutely no ability to keep a table moving at an acceptable pace. this was apparent before the third session in that he let the uninteresting negotiations dominate the previous two without any attempt to force the issue or declare a moratorium on time-wasting, but when the battle royale between the PCs, dragon cultists and some other monsters occurred, things got really dire. every player's turn (as a group of level 4-5 pcs) took 10+ minutes: some of that was due to the serious disconnect between the players' interest levels and their spellcasting classes, where the two clerics and ranger were constantly leafing through spell cards, and the rest was due to the DM himself going off on unrelated tangents and encouraging the players to, stopping play entirely. consequently, also taking the enemy turns into account, in that session I got three turns over 4 hours, where I would sheepishly take two shots at the enemy masses and be done within a minute.

incidentally, as a level 4 archery fighter I should have only had one attack per turn (outside of action surge). I had two because, presumably as a holdover rule from another edition or game entirely, the DM ruled that two actions were possible if you didn't use your allotted movement that turn. I shrugged at the time and kept shooting my ~8 damage arrows, until half an hour later when the L5 wizard finally got a turn and unloaded two fireballs into the enemy throng, doing hundreds of points of damage. dumbfounded, I thought to inquire how many more 3rd level slots he had (this not being a table where the DM cared a whit about metagaming), until I realized that this wizard had just looted a staff of fire which gives you at least two more fireballs every rest. that was when I stopped caring, put a smile on and really got into the off-topic talk, until the session ended. as everyone was leaving the store, the DM pulled me aside and apologized, for no reason in particular. I'm a bit of a rules lawyer and even though I didn't contest the 2-action rule much at the time, I assume it showed on my face how much the flagrant system-breaking got to me to warrant a general apology. I waved it off politely and never went back to that group again.

most of my post-AL thoughts are about whether trying to fix that DM was worth it, because I haven't gamed in months since my original group that taught me how to play D&D died off and I've been focusing on finishing up my bachelor's. my conclusion has generally been no, that their group dynamic was totally fine taking 20 minutes to talk about anime and crack jokes multiple times a session even though the store was charging us to use a table, and that I was the outlier there. I hope this constituted an interesting read, and in closing I seriously doubt that most AL play is quite as beyond help, especially if you have the time to work with the offending parties or even change your own expectations.

[SwordChuck]

AL seems to be very official until you actually get to the gameing group. Like AL is trying to be legit but they have no quality control over the people running AL so it feels like a bunch of chaos.

[djreynolds]

AL seems to be very official until you actually get to the gameing group. Like AL is trying to be legit but they have no quality control over the people running AL so it feels like a bunch of chaos.

Very true, and some unoriginal builds. Is everyone a moon druid in this party? But playing a pick up game is nice.

[Mjolnirbear]

It was great having a game again. Without AL, I'd not be playing.

However, there are problems.

1) Continuity. The people who were here last game aren't here today. It happens with every group, but more so with AL.

2) People. We got stuck with this kid we nicknamed "...the Terrible" because he cheated, he pouted, he sulked, he threw dice that didn't roll the way he wanted and constantly wanted the story to be about how awesome he is and can do everything. And his father, who was present and also playing, only chastized the most egregious examples.

Part of that is, of course, a kid being a kid. And to be fair to everyone involved, I am not a kid person. But the DM brought his own kid along at one point, and the difference was like night and day. I still don't like a game with kids, but if I had to play in such a game, I'd rather have the DM's kid than The Terrible any day.

Which brings me to point 3), very little control over who shows up. Even great players and awesome people have different playstyles. Gal A likes action. She plays a fighter and gets bored with politics and intrigue. Guy B LOVES intrigue. All his characters are built with talking in mind. Gal C likes moody, dark and emo campaigns, Guy D wants humour and laughter. All valid playtypes. None are necessarily exclusive. But hard to meld together into a single epic campaign.

[rhouck]

AL seems to be very official until you actually get to the gameing group. Like AL is trying to be legit but they have no quality control over the people running AL so it feels like a bunch of chaos.

Don't forget that these people are all VOLUNTEERS. They choose to DM because they enjoy the game and want to help others enjoy the experience as well. And there is hardly such a glut of DMs that they can afford to be turning people away... a lot of the AL tables I've seen are stressed with too many players (8 or more!) because there are not enough DMs as-is.

[SwordChuck]

Don't forget that these people are all VOLUNTEERS. They choose to DM because they enjoy the game and want to help others enjoy the experience as well. And there is hardly such a glut of DMs that they can afford to be turning people away... a lot of the AL tables I've seen are stressed with too many players (8 or more!) because there are not enough DMs as-is.

Well no freaking duh.

But you can still organize them better and make sure they are actually doing what they are there to do.

If you show up to play AL, that is what you should get.

If I volunteer to show up an d paint your house's walls but I decide to paint your furniture I'm pretty sure you are going to have a question about why I saof I would do one thing but did another.

[Nu]

I'm not sure if this is the kind of play experience report you're looking for, but I ran an AL adventure (The Drowned Tower) basically by-the-book on roll20 for a small group of friends, to introduce them to DnD 5E. Since they had played 4th edition for a long time, I thought doing something like Lost Mines would be too boring for them (Levels 1-2 are really a drag for people with some DnD experience). It went well, but it was a little slow, so we're going to need a second session to wrap it up. The adventure was fun, basically breaking down into Introductory encounter>Investigation/Roleplay segment>Dungeon Crawl.

[rhouck]

Well no freaking duh.

But you can still organize them better and make sure they are actually doing what they are there to do.

If you show up to play AL, that is what you should get.

If I volunteer to show up an d paint your house's walls but I decide to paint your furniture I'm pretty sure you are going to have a question about why I saof I would do one thing but did another.

What exactly is your suggestion re "you can still organize them better"? There are already different tiers of regional coordinators in each area. They help with the "organizing" and are your point of contact if you have an issue with a DM. Did you try that with your two previous "bad" DMs? Moreover, did you try talking to those "bad" DMs directly first?

Again, even those regional coordinators are volunteers. WotC lacks the incentive to pour a bunch of money into organizing beyond what they can get from minor perks for those that volunteer because, quite frankly, D&D isn't a cash cow. It's not like Magic where people are coming in and buying booster packs every week. Heck, half the people I see at AL games haven't even bought the PHB!

At the end of the day, "you get what you pay for". I certainly agree that AL games are often not ideal, but the reality is it's either work with the volunteers to improve the system (or volunteer yourself!), or watch it go the way of the WotC forums...

[Knaight]

I haven't seen any in my town, but I haven't really looked into it. However, there is a boardgame/coffee shop which I got to every so often, and I've seen plenty of Pathfinder events either going on or advertised. MtG eats most of their tables for about half of each week. I've seen nothing for AL there, and this is in a university city of about 150,000 people.

[MightyDog16]

This is all great feedback, guys. I appreciate all the anecdotes, but the "bad dm/player" gripes don't apply much to the original topic. I am mainly interested in hearing about session length and whether or not the adventures are well-written or compelling.

[SwordChuck]

This is all great feedback, guys. I appreciate all the anecdotes, but the "bad dm/player" gripes don't apply much to the original topic. I am mainly interested in hearing about session length and whether or not the adventures are well-written or compelling.

That's the thing, if you have a bad DM/player then no matter how well the campaign is created you aren't going to have a good time.

You may end up playing a time traveling game where you assult the kingdom of mutated kangaroo people in a land called "Aus-Trail-Ah" instead of dealing with cults in Mulmaster.

Session length is very very dependant on DM and the group.

Of you find a good group then stick with them but if you don't I wouldn't waste your time.

My friends did a great job during the elemental evils and underdark games but I haven't been wowed by any official D&D stuff. Battles are either too easy or the DM has to make up a bunch of role-playing stuff cause the players want to explore the world...

Even with a good DM and group a problem is that you become railroaded and for those that love to explore and immerse themselves this can be a big problem.

[Vemynal]

My first experience was last May and it was *so bad* I didn't go to another AL night until this November (and at a different game shop too).

My 2nd and 3rd experiences (at the new store) were so good that I recently bought my own dice, figurine to play with, and have rsvped for the next 3 Saturdays =)

As previously mentioned; a lot matters on the DM and party you end up with.

[Dalebert]

The thing about every game I've ever been in is they almost inevitably tend to fizzle at some point. You lose a player or two. You might gain a player or two. People are flakey. Trying to maintain an ongoing campaign and play the same character and really develop that character, while it is my ideal, is really challenging. AL is a system that seems to have the potential to overcome that.

Mileage varies a fair amount, but I'm loving AL overall. You will get good DMs and bad DMs. You will group up with annoying players and players that make you laugh and that have great synergy with. You will group with dumb players that make you worry for your survival at times. You will group with players that inspire you with their tactical genius. You will group with really quiet players and wonder if they're new or ignorant of some things and then you will make suggestions and they will get annoyed and roll their eyes at you because yes, duh, of course they already knew that.

Give it a chance. I was fortunate that my first game, while far from perfect, was a lot of fun. The DM wasn't actually very familiar with the rules and sometimes inadvertently gimps the characters, but he made up for it by being really creative and not being out to kill us so it didn't matter so much. My 2nd game was disappointing but I kept at it. Overall I have been having a lot of fun and most of the games have been really fun. I've been making a lot of friends with similar interests.

I can only speak to my local experiences here in NH. We seem fortunate to have several groups near me that all function pretty well all in all and have enough participants to keep really steady games going. If you find one group lacking, check around and ask at different stores. My immediately local stores didn't have much going on and I just assumed that was it as I live in the biggest city of my state. Now I drive 30 mins to various AL games but it's worth it.

[MightyDog16]

Thanks guys, I got ahold of the organizer and I'm checking it out on Tuesday. Hopefully it's cool!

[Dalebert]

So I just got through playing a LOT of AL games with my two main characters. I was at a convention yesterday where I played 3 games and I played 2 more games today at two different locations (actually DMed one of them). I had a blast in every single game.

But anyway, another thing occurred to me about AL that I like. I feel more empowered than I do when I'm playing the same character under the same DM for a long-term campaign. That DM is the one and only true GOD to your character. Your character exists in his universe. Now he may be very cool but even the coolest DM will have that one weird take on the rules or even a flat-out house rule that you just can't stand. It's his game so you of course have to accept it and that's fine. Meanwhile, in AL, there are reasonably consistent guidelines in place for characters and DMs. When some DM maybe has something that bothers you and maybe that seems to be particularly unfortunate for your chosen class or race or something, you're not stuck with it. The very next game, it can suddenly be a non-issue.

Was today's DM really strict about bonus action hiding such that it was almost never useful? Was today's DM rolling a random monster encounter every time you stopped to cast a ritual spell? Was the DM being overly tight with opportunities for rests? It was mildly disappointing perhaps but temporary.

Also, do you feel like a particular character is really hurting for treasure? When you DM you can add xp and treasure to any character. Now you feel a little more caught up.

I do find myself wanting to explain the fluff of things more than AL requires. For instance my monk who somehow escaped the Underdark for a couple of convention games and then ended up back in there (and still lost!) and right back with his party for an ongoing weekly campaign game had a fairly reasonable explanation for why. :)