Adventure League Experiences

[HMS Invincible]

I did my first adventure League module last week, and it was quite a different experience from a table of friends.
There was a assimar barbarian 1 PC who also built the life cleric 3, (young, amateur), and Bard 3, (elderly, also amateur), barbarian 3 & Dex fighter 3(two young kids), and a early teen warlock 1. It's levels 1to4, and I'm level 1 as an SS Fighter.

It goes chaotic, the kids wanna murder hobo. That's easy enough, just point them towards evil and they'll do the rest. The girl is pretty lost and I can tell her boyfriend is trying to teach her to "swim" by playing his character as passively as possible. Aka the assimar Barb would run from combat, or refuse to interact with anyone besides the girlfriend and spend his time helping her make decisions. He's not a great teacher, so she just flails about wildly. And I don't think she healed more than once.

There's lots of ad hoc rulings and wildly inefficient play, like casting light spells into eyeballs to blind mooks, and throwing PCs to gain advantage. Or not healing word down PCs but instead hitting people with maces with 13 str.

I have no idea what's going on, so I just start shooting and hope for the best. Everyone has math problems except for the warlock and assimar (who isn't participating). Like people forget about proficiency bonuses, magic weapon bonuses, etc etc. It's crazy.
And then when the module is over, there's a magic rapier as loot, which has a nonmelee cleric rolling off against the Dex fighter, Bard, and me because everyone wants shinies, even if they can't use it.
Is this normal for adventure League to be this crazy?

PS we played shackles of blood. Very rail roady adventure, but kinda fun if you let it happen.

[ZorroGames]

I did my first adventure League module last week, and it was quite a different experience from a table of friends.
There was a assimar barbarian 1 PC who also built the life cleric 3, (young, amateur), and Bard 3, (elderly, also amateur), barbarian 3 & Dex fighter 3(two young kids), and a early teen warlock 1. It's levels 1to4, and I'm level 1 as an SS Fighter.

It goes chaotic, the kids wanna murder hobo. That's easy enough, just point them towards evil and they'll do the rest. The girl is pretty lost and I can tell her boyfriend is trying to teach her to "swim" by playing his character as passively as possible. Aka the assimar Barb would run from combat, or refuse to interact with anyone besides the girlfriend and spend his time helping her make decisions. He's not a great teacher, so she just flails about wildly. And I don't think she healed more than once.

There's lots of ad hoc rulings and wildly inefficient play, like casting light spells into eyeballs to blind mooks, and throwing PCs to gain advantage. Or not healing word down PCs but instead hitting people with maces with 13 str.

I have no idea what's going on, so I just start shooting and hope for the best. Everyone has math problems except for the warlock and assimar (who isn't participating). Like people forget about proficiency bonuses, magic weapon bonuses, etc etc. It's crazy.
And then when the module is over, there's a magic rapier as loot, which has a nonmelee cleric rolling off against the Dex fighter, Bard, and me because everyone wants shinies, even if they can't use it.
Is this normal for adventure League to be this crazy?

PS we played shackles of blood. Very rail roady adventure, but kinda fun if you let it happen.

It can be. DM needs to get his ducks and players on the same sheet. Kids need firm guidance in some cases (had two frenetic pre-teens last month for a few hours (left early to prepare for camp the next day) and passive not involved Dad reading a book at the next table - I have patience with kids but with them “in my hearing aid” that was enough.)

Fortunately that once is the blip from about a year of 5e and many years of OD&D/AD&D.

My rule for DMing D&D (I was a player in the above game) is the same as my war games at cons. Under 13 needs a parent playing or no thanks. I reserve the right to not have immature adults at the table so wild kids fit the same category.

That kind of game gets less than fun quickly for most adults.

[AvvyR]

Wow. That sounds... just awful. I commend you for making it all the way through the session. I definitely wouldn't have.

I never understood the appeal of AL ("It's D&D, but without friends, and there's way more rules!"), but it must be doing something for someone.

[ZorroGames]

Wow. That sounds... just awful. I commend you for making it all the way through the session. I definitely wouldn't have.

I never understood the appeal of AL ("It's D&D, but without friends, and there's way more rules!"), but it must be doing something for someone.

I only play AL now because too many (murder the PCs sociopath or no logic house rules or control freak) bad DM experiences and I have a pretty good idea what I am getting into with AL instead of non-AL games.

We have friends we met through AL that are a ball to play the game with.

[Contrast]

I've played quite a bit of AL recently. Most of the people I've played with knew(ish) what they were doing so I don't think I've had anything quite like you're saying.

I did play last week in a game with 3 people who had never played before. This would have been fine but the least knowledgeable one was playing a druid and was being instructed on how to build his character by one of the other new players who also didn't know what they were doing. I'd normally try and coach him through it a bit but he was sitting on the other side of the table to me so I couldn't without disrupting the game and what advice did get cautiously offered at the start of the session was overruled by his friend. As a result he didn't have a damage cantrip and blew his 2 spell slots in the first two rounds of the first combat, leaving him with nothing for the remainder of the session :smallfrown:


And then when the module is over, there's a magic rapier as loot, which has a nonmelee cleric rolling off against the Dex fighter, Bard, and me because everyone wants shinies, even if they can't use it.

I'd suggest just taking a breath and passing on loot unless you really really want it. More loot will come along and when it does, you'll be able to point out that your character has no magic equipment yet.


PS we played shackles of blood. Very rail roady adventure, but kinda fun if you let it happen.

In my experience all the AL adventures are pretty railroady. Comes from having to get stuff done in a single session with restrictions on what you can fight and what loot you can get - you must always start and end in the same place and only a limited list of stuff is allowed to happen inbetween. You just kinda have to accept it for what it is.

[willdaBEAST]

We have friends we met through AL that are a ball to play the game with.

I played a year of AL and that was my experience as well. I then formed a home game with the players that were most inclined to role-play.

The main issue I have with AL is how chaotic it can be. I often felt punished if I didn't build a character who was a leader or self-sufficient, due to the revolving door of random players and the amount of wrangling that requires (both from the DM and other players). Another big downside is the lack of a session 0, so I often saw problematic character concepts ranging from the kleptomaniac rogue and characters who either had no motivation to adventure in a group or were so selfish that no party in their right mind would travel with them. AL also seems to attract players who treat DnD like a MMO. They're obsessed with gold, xp and loot. To each their own, but that's not my preferred style of play. I also gotta say, while it's important to encourage new and young players, I noticed a pattern with young teens and pre-teens. Without fail they had no idea what was happening when their turn in combat came around and would require a recap every round.

It is a great way to meet players and play DnD with less of a time investment outside of the session.

[Theodoxus]

I've experienced all these things in AL. From folks who need their hand held through the entire session, to DMs who just want to make the world their own (not really allowed)... and everything in between.

One DM thought that Persuasion was basically Super Charm, capable of influencing critters far beyond what it should do (with fewer consequences than if charm person had been used).

Another didn't really know the rules well (and as a player the week before, had his hand held the entire time!) Fortunately, he had a flair for the dramatic, so while I ended up being his Co-DM, adjudicating RAW for him - he kept the actual plot rolling. It wasn't bad... but I kinda felt sorry for the 1 first timer we had at the table.

And that's what I see mostly. Every week, there's a few new to the game people rolling into the FLGS. Which is great, if only we had DMs willing to teach the game. Mostly, it's newish players training fresh faced newbies and making a ton of mistakes. There's a few older grognards, like me, that step in - but not all of them have the same level of system mastery...

I enjoy AL for the crazy combos I can build and try out every week... but I prefer the homebrew - I agree with those who use AL to get a new (or fill out) set of friends for a weekly game outside the AL box.

I also blatantly steal from AL modules, incorporating them into my own campaigns... they make fantastic side quests that you know how long they'll take to run.

[ZorroGames]

I plan to DM more after September when wife returns to Choir/Handbells but I want to play when she plays right now so she gets the positive feedback she needs to feel comfortable after 30+ years away from the game.

Lots of regulars right now at FLGS and when they move down to the next block in a bigger building they will hopefully need more DMs even than now. I see at least two regular groups in the making already and I want to alternate playing and DMing for now.

I am not willing currently to spend a lot of time making my world yet again (3rd time) and, TBH, if I did suffer a febrile insanity attack and start a campaign/world it would be AL compatible just because I would want the players to be able to take their PCs to an AL table after the campaign ends. Mostly it would involve cutting races out as PCs. The Most non-AL thing would be maybe allowing one “+1” for Race and another for class, at most, if that.

[NaughtyTiger]

There is a reason why DMs get extra XP for DMing a table of children... and extra XP for new players (definitely collect your DM Quest rewards)

Murder hobos are a given, even as adults.
AL is controlled chaos, drop-in players every week make it tough to for a party.

That said, I love Tier 1 new players. They aren't min/maxing and gaming the system yet.
There is nothing wrong with suggesting they heal or be support as the DM.

[mgshamster]

AL has its ups and downs, but one thing to remember is that it provides opportunity to learn.

Whether that's learning the game as a new player, or learning how to DM, or learning how to play with a personality type or an age group - it provides that opportunity.

As such, while it can be challenging for you to play with a new DM, remember that it's providing a person the chance to learn how to DM. Maybe that person will go on to be a fantastic DM because they had the courage to step in and try to run a game for a few strangers.

At my AL place, half the games I've been in have been run by people who have never DMd before, and the rest of us encrouaged them to try. We helped them along the way and they because better players because of it.

DMing also helps people brcome comfortable speaking in front of groups and helps learn how to do public speaking.

So yeah, it can be awkward at times, but most times it can be fun while also providing opportunity to learn and grow as a person.

[Requilac]

You know interestingly I have had the exact opposite experience with AL; typically the players there have been much more reasonable. The problem I get a lot with home games is that a lot of the time the players are there to hang out with friends and not necessarily play the game, and they can get easily bored and off topic. And on multiple ocassions I have run into scenarios where a group has to break up and divide because emnity between players for outside reasons. At AL this doesn't happen; everyone is there to play the game and people rarely ever show open hostility to each other. What matters during the game is the game, they don't carry about endless streams of unrelated jokes and fulfilling their grudges.

I have never seen nor heard of an experience like this outside of the forum actually. All of the ones I have or heard of where more positive than my home table experiences. And I think the only time I played with a teenager was for exactly one season, and he was probably the most mature one of us at the table.

Of course AL has some downsides to it, but depending on the circumstances it is sometimes the best option. I especially don't like how limited role play is, but I find my ways around that.




I never understood the appeal of AL ("It's D&D, but without friends, and there's way more rules!"), but it must be doing something for someone.

Some people, for whatever reason, are unable to establish a home group or are too shy too. I didn't necessarily want to join AL, but everyone I even vaguely trusted who wanted to play D&D had proven that they weren't interested. To this day I am still trying to get enough people to join a table, but my attempts have failed. My options were basically give up D&D or join AL (later PbP's were also an option, but they don't meet the full D&D experience for me).

[mgshamster]

Wow. That sounds... just awful. I commend you for making it all the way through the session. I definitely wouldn't have.

I never understood the appeal of AL ("It's D&D, but without friends, and there's way more rules!"), but it must be doing something for someone.

For me, I don't have the time to bring over a group of friends to play a game for a few hours. I have a full time job, three kids, and other parts of life that get in the way. Meanwhile, my primary gaming group has their own things, like one guy who works swing shift while I work day shift, and another who is often in musicals at the local theater.

So for me, I find playing on forums using Play-by-Post to be an opitimal solution to gaming. I can dedicate ten or twenty minutes per day to be able to play a game.

But the problem with PBP games is that they tend to fall apart after a few months. An AL game is quick - usually lasting anywhere from 3-10 weeks. It's perfect as it ends just before most games fall apart. And if I have a problem player, a lot of times I can just ignore the problem for just long enough to finish the module and then I don't have to worry about it anymore. I can simply not invite them to the next module.

AL keeps the game fresh for everyone and allows for a mix of players and PCs to interact with each other. It's also great for introducing the game to new players, and it's been great for players to practice at being a DM without having to dedicate week after week of gaming.

[willdaBEAST]

You know interestingly I have had the exact opposite experience with AL; typically the players there have been much more reasonable. The problem I get a lot with home games is that a lot of the time the players are there to hang out with friends and not necessarily play the game, and they can get easily bored and off topic. And on multiple ocassions I have run into scenarios where a group has to break up and divide because emnity between players for outside reasons. At AL this doesn't happen; everyone is there to play the game and people rarely ever show open hostility to each other. What matters during the game is the game, they don't carry about endless streams of unrelated jokes and fulfilling their grudges.
I experienced that to some degree. I had a problematic player in the game I ran for friends who was like you're saying, easily distracted and mostly there to socialize. Whereas it's been much better in the home game I DM composed of people from AL. We're becoming friends, but met through DnD and that seems to change the dynamic. I think it's also harder to get people you've known for a long time to buy into the tone of a campaign unless they already have that interest.

I disagree about the lack of open hostility in AL though, but that's largely dependent on individual experiences. Due to the relative unfamiliarity between players in AL, hostility is naturally going to skew towards more passive aggressive behavior, but I've seen it boil over a few times. I also noticed that there tend to be a handful of problematic players that get shuffled around to different tables. Each DM agrees to deal with them for a time, but never truly addresses why their behavior is an issue.

[HMS Invincible]

I've played quite a bit of AL recently. Most of the people I've played with knew(ish) what they were doing so I don't think I've had anything quite like you're saying.

I did play last week in a game with 3 people who had never played before. This would have been fine but the least knowledgeable one was playing a druid and was being instructed on how to build his character by one of the other new players who also didn't know what they were doing. I'd normally try and coach him through it a bit but he was sitting on the other side of the table to me so I couldn't without disrupting the game and what advice did get cautiously offered at the start of the session was overruled by his friend. As a result he didn't have a damage cantrip and blew his 2 spell slots in the first two rounds of the first combat, leaving him with nothing for the remainder of the session :smallfrown:

I'd suggest just taking a breath and passing on loot unless you really really want it. More loot will come along and when it does, you'll be able to point out that your character has no magic equipment yet.

In my experience all the AL adventures are pretty railroady. Comes from having to get stuff done in a single session with restrictions on what you can fight and what loot you can get - you must always start and end in the same place and only a limited list of stuff is allowed to happen inbetween. You just kinda have to accept it for what it is.
Thanks for the tips.
I'm just hoping that I don't get frustrated, and become overbearing because I get tired of the kids and the newb players. It's going be weird doing "creative"things that might actually work now.

[Oramac]

I've experienced pretty much all of that in AL, both as a player and a DM.

My main gripe with AL was the table size. The FLGS I played at got super popular, which was good, but they didn't have the DMs to match it. So myself and a couple other guys ended up DMing tables with WAAAAAAAY too many players (8-12 players per table).

That kinda burnt me out on AL play for a long time.

Other than that, I actually do like AL. It's a handy format that's (usually) really good for introducing new players to D&D.

EDIT: one more thing that kinda bugged me. With tables that big, there's absolutely no room for actual Role Play. It's basically "show up, sit down, get quest, kill bad guy, get loot, go home". Which is fine for some people I guess, but not the games I'm personally looking for.

[Contrast]

My main gripe with AL was the table size. The FLGS I played at got super popular, which was good, but they didn't have the DMs to match it. So myself and a couple other guys ended up DMing tables with WAAAAAAAY too many players (8-12 players per table).

FYI one of the rules of AL is that tables cannot have more than 7 players. Any more than that and your games aren't legal any more (just in case you ever fancy GMing again and want an excuse to turn excess people away :smalltongue:).

[mgshamster]

FYI one of the rules of AL is that tables cannot have more than 7 players. Any more than that and your games aren't legal any more (just in case you ever fancy GMing again and want an excuse to turn excess people away :smalltongue:).

Yeah.

An 8 player table means someone is not contributing to the gaming community, because that can easily be a table of 4 and a table of 3 with the last person DMing the new table.

Now you have two legal tables, and any of the excess from the 8-12 can join either table.

If none of those 8-12 people are willing to DM for just a few hours, it just goes to show how selfish they're being.

Plus, there's a fun visual of: "Is anyone willing to DM? Anyone at all. Anyone. No? No one? Ok, let's play." Later, at the end of the game, "No rewards. No XP. No Gold. No Loot. This was not a legal game, because we had more than 7 players. Maybe next time one of you will volunteer to run a game."

[NaughtyTiger]

Plus, there's a fun visual of: "Is anyone willing to DM? Anyone at all. Anyone. No? No one? Ok, let's play." Later, at the end of the game, "No rewards. No XP. No Gold. No Loot. This was not a legal game, because we had more than 7 players. Maybe next time one of you will volunteer to run a game."

Welcome to dnd... first time playing? Well you should dm so it's a legal game....

In my experience it's the tier 1 first timers that show up during school break that flood the 8 player tables...

[mgshamster]

Welcome to dnd... first time playing? Well you should dm so it's a legal game....

In my experience it's the tier 1 first timers that show up during school break that flood the 8 player tables...

Wow. Do you often only have a single experienced player show up to AL?

I don't think I've ever seen that before.

[BW022]

Is this normal for adventure League to be this crazy?


Yes or No.

Adventure League (and all organized play games) tend to be "gate way" drugs. Experience players (including DMs) tend to play home campaigns because they know people, have time, can form groups, etc. AL tends to be a pickup game and new players tend to gravitate to the game because they have no way of finding a permanent group to start with.

This said, it really depends on who is running/organizing the game, how many players you have around, ages, etc. If it is a local gaming store in a small community organizing it themselves... probably have a limited pool of experience adult DMs. New players are desperate for a group and the store might accept anyone who can game. Often, even if your AL group does have some good players, they'll tend to eventually form homes groups of their own. This is why most experienced players go to AL games -- as they don't have a home group of their own.

Our local AL group is serious. They have probably 50-60 players, mainly older folks, and they recruit from local gaming clubs, stores, university gaming clubs, etc. They have a Facebook page, use Warhorn, hold conventions, and send DMs/players to other cities to help support other game stores/clubs. DMs are absolute top rate. You wouldn't get an experience like the one you had.

All AL adventures are pretty linear. It's the nature of organized games. In home games, you can go off any do anything, have long term plots, etc. With drop-ins, you need an adventure with a beginning, middle, and end which can be run in a four hour slot. It also needs to be simple enough to allow less experienced DMs to run the module, and to avoid complex choices for new players.

Rolling for magical items in AL is pretty common. Rules are that players are given a chance to decide. If they can't agree, the player with the fewest magical items get the item. If multiple players have the least number of items... they roll off. Intelligent players will often forgo their roll if the item isn't useful to them. However, if a cleric wants and item they can't use... it just means they may not get a chance to roll for the next item.

If you are in a place with a poor community...look for other groups, invite better DMs/organizers, try DMing yourself, look for conventions or college/school groups, etc.

[ZorroGames]

Snipage

EDIT: one more thing that kinda bugged me. With tables that big, there's absolutely no room for actual Role Play. It's basically "show up, sit down, get quest, kill bad guy, get loot, go home". Which is fine for some people I guess, but not the games I'm personally looking for.

The last is why my wife stopped after two sessions. “Get mission, go place 1, kill monsters, go place 2, kill monsters, wash/rinse/repeat, mission accomplished. Boring!”

My wife loved OD&D and AD&D in my worlds and enjoys 5e but despises the AL experience.

The first thing is why I do not like the AL format at our FLGS change. DMs/players sign up for a scenario en masses “3 DMs needed, 21 player slots” and then waitlist. Only to shoehorn who ever shows up into table of 7+ rather deal with excessive table size by limiting players to DMs available.

One DM never prepares because while he will DM happily if needed he seems to prefer playing.

I need to talk with the AL event organizer about the table size, I think I will DM but not with 8+ players. Or start attending Wednesday instead of Tuesday (less players but less DMs at least means the tables run 5-6) though the main Wednesday DM will cancel game at last minute or cram people in rather turn unregistered players or waitlist players away.

[FabulousFizban]

It is too rigid. I told them I wanted to play an awakened cat but that I wouldn't take xp or treasure or anything, I just wanted to play the character. I was told one illegal player makes the whole table illegal and could not play it. lame.

[ZorroGames]

It is too rigid. I told them I wanted to play an awakened cat but that I wouldn't take xp or treasure or anything, I just wanted to play the character. I was told one illegal player makes the whole table illegal and could not play it. lame.

Maybe the other players would have not appreciated being limited by your character? Basically you were not a player character just a NPC.

Edit: Seriously there was a RPG where everyone was a wizard’s familiar though I forgot the name. Maybe that is what you should play?

[Requilac]

I wouldn’t necessarily say that roleplaying is impossible at AL. It’s certainly not as supportive to roleplaying as homebrew games, but it’s far from entirely void. It is a roleplaying game after all, so you can’t exactly take the roleplaying out of it. In fact, most of the games I have played where much more about social interaction and exploration over combat for the most part.

The DM seldom gives you great opportunities to role play, so you have to take the initiative for yourself though. This is especially easy to do if you are a spellcaster, and even more so if you are a cleric or warlock.

And I certainly don’t agree with the sentiment that it’s all “kill monsters and their loot”. If that where the case, I wouldn’t spend more than half the session interacting with NPCs, exploring and trying to not get in trouble, and otherwise trying to stealth or talk my way out of combat. And if that where also the case I would get much more gold than the meager amounts I receive. Most sessions I don’t get more than 10 GP. They give out magic items frequently, but rarely are they useful in combat.

I would dispute these cases, and In fact I think that some of the best games roleplaying wise I had were at AL. I have got some stories for those, but unless anyone says that they want to hear them then I will not go in detail.

[ZorroGames]

I wouldn’t necessarily say that roleplaying is impossible at AL. It’s certainly not as supportive to roleplaying as homebrew games, but it’s far from entirely void. It is a roleplaying game after all, so you can’t exactly take the roleplaying out of it. In fact, most of the games I have played where much more about social interaction and exploration over combat for the most part.

The DM seldom gives you great opportunities to role play, so you have to take the initiative for yourself though. This is especially easy to do if you are a spellcaster, and even more so if you are a cleric or warlock.

And I certainly don’t agree with the sentiment that it’s all “kill monsters and their loot”. If that where the case, I wouldn’t spend more than half the session interacting with NPCs, exploring and trying to not get in trouble, and otherwise trying to stealth or talk my way out of combat. And if that where also the case I would get much more gold than the meager amounts I receive. Most sessions I don’t get more than 10 GP. They give out magic items frequently, but rarely are they useful in combat.

I would dispute these cases, and In fact I think that some of the best games roleplaying wise I had were at AL. I have got some stories for those, but unless anyone says that they want to hear about the antics my table got into I will not go in detail.

Very. Jealous. Of. You.

[Requilac]

Very. Jealous. Of. You.

I am guessing you had a vastly different experience then? That might be a result of the way the different stores set it up. At my FLGS they only have AL games on Wednesday which follow the current season and on the first saturday of every month you can attend one shots or shorter modules, and there can’t be more than six players per table on the Wednesday games and seven people per table on the Saturday games. Throughout the rest of the week D&D games are held there, but none of them are AL.

The FLGS also uses Warhorn to organize events so you have to sign up ahead of time, and DMs can thusly wait list accordingly. When you sign up for a Wednesday game, you sign up for the whole season, which also simplifies things.

I definetely hear the lack of DMs problem, but I don’t really see the overwhelming amount of players all that much. In fact, there is only five people at our table currently. We have had a sixth player multiple times, but they never have stayed for more than a session or two. My table has begun to call it “The Cursed Sixth Slot ”.

Maybe your problems are caused by poor organization and planning rather than the nature of AL itself?

[ZorroGames]

I am guessing you had a vastly different experience then? That might be a result of the way the different stores set it up. At my FLGS they only have AL games on Wednesday which follow the current season and on the first saturday of every month you can attend one shots or shorter modules, and there can’t be more than six players per table on the Wednesday games and seven people per table on the Saturday games. Throughout the rest of the week D&D games are held there, but none of them are AL.

The FLGS also uses Warhorn to organize events so you have to sign up ahead of time, and DMs can thusly wait list accordingly. When you sign up for a Wednesday game, you sign up for the whole season, which also simplifies things.

I definetely hear the lack of DMs problem, but I don’t really see the overwhelming amount of players all that much. In fact, there is only five people at our table currently. We have had a sixth player multiple times, but they never have stayed for more than a session or two. My table has begun to call it “The Cursed Sixth Slot ”.

Maybe your problems are caused by poor organization and planning rather than the nature of AL itself?

You tell me. 🤔 We supposedly use Warhorn.

Rather than turn people away who are waitlisted or not signed up at all they cram people into tables. I tried DMing and would have enjoyed it (war gamer ahead of RPGer personality) if not for the attempt to run 8 murder hoboes at a table consistently.

There are plenty of historical, fantasy and science fiction war games out there to scratch that itch.

There are roleplay and roll play elements in D&D. Why have Rangers if you neither have trails to decipher or you just “get there” ? Why have Persuasion, Deception or Intimidation if you never use it?

We have AL on Tuesday (crazy busy large tables) and Wednesday (smaller but even less per capita DMs.)

[Jamesps]

You tell me. 🤔 We supposedly use Warhorn.

Rather than turn people away who are waitlisted or not signed up at all they cram people into tables. I tried DMing and would have enjoyed it (war gamer ahead of RPGer personality) if not for the attempt to run 8 murder hoboes at a table consistently.

There are plenty of historical, fantasy and science fiction war games out there to scratch that itch.

There are roleplay and roll play elements in D&D. Why have Rangers if you neither have trails to decipher or you just “get there” ? Why have Persuasion, Deception or Intimidation if you never use it?

We have AL on Tuesday (crazy busy large tables) and Wednesday (smaller but even less per capita DMs.)

I used to pick and choose adventures that I knew only a few players were interested in playing when I DMed AL. Using this strategy I usually managed to run tables of 4-5 while the table across the way ran with 8 or 9. That said, I ultimately dropped out of my local AL game because I was being volunteered to DM too frequently and never got a chance to play.

[ZorroGames]

I used to pick and choose adventures that I knew only a few players were interested in playing when I DMed AL. Using this strategy I usually managed to run tables of 4-5 while the table across the way ran with 8 or 9. That said, I ultimately dropped out of my local AL game because I was being volunteered to DM too frequently and never got a chance to play.

Right now organizer selects one Tier 1 and one Tier 2 module to run at all tables that night.

[Requilac]

You tell me. 🤔 We supposedly use Warhorn.

Rather than turn people away who are waitlisted or not signed up at all they cram people into tables. I tried DMing and would have enjoyed it (war gamer ahead of RPGer personality) if not for the attempt to run 8 murder hoboes at a table consistently.

There are plenty of historical, fantasy and science fiction war games out there to scratch that itch.

There are roleplay and roll play elements in D&D. Why have Rangers if you neither have trails to decipher or you just “get there” ? Why have Persuasion, Deception or Intimidation if you never use it?

We have AL on Tuesday (crazy busy large tables) and Wednesday (smaller but even less per capita DMs.)

Why doesn’t your store just turn people away who where waitlisted or didn’t sign up? The waitlisted people should know that it is unlikely for them to get in because they saw that they were, well, waitlisted on warhorn. And you can just tell the people that didn’t sign up to use Warhorn next time and the player would not make the mistake again. Even if the store doesn’t do it, you could just do it for yourself as a DM.

[ZorroGames]

Why doesn’t your store just turn people away who where waitlisted or didn’t sign up? The waitlisted people should know that it is unlikely for them to get in because they saw that they were, well, waitlisted on warhorn. And you can just tell the people that didn’t sign up to use Warhorn next time and the player would not make the mistake again. Even if the store doesn’t do it, you could just do it for yourself as a DM.

Organizer and other (Main) DMs indicate “fairness” to those who show up. I will not rant on this but I do have a strong opinion.

At least they stop looking at me when they announce “We need another DM” before cramming extra players in. I play and I DM sometimes but after switching to DM twice and getting hit with a late arrival (for #8) and then new unregistered (#7 & #8) players I quit unless I scheduled being a DM. They still pick modules.

[Requilac]

Organizer and other (Main) DMs indicate “fairness” to those who show up. I will not rant on this but I do have a strong opinion.

At least they stop looking at me when they announce “We need another DM” before cramming extra players in. I play and I DM sometimes but after switching to DM twice and getting hit with a late arrival (for #8) and then new unregistered (#7 & #8) players I quit unless I scheduled being a DM. They still pick modules.

Ahh I see, more of a problem with how the organizers work than the actual system itself. I suppose you could try talking to them, but otherwise it doesn't look like there is a solution to your problem. I am sorry to hear that.

[FabulousFizban]

Maybe the other players would have not appreciated being limited by your character? Basically you were not a player character just a NPC.

Edit: Seriously there was a RPG where everyone was a wizard’s familiar though I forgot the name. Maybe that is what you should play?

I asked the players at the table if they were ok with it. The DM suggested i play a tabaxi and roleplay a housecat, but i wasn't crazy about the idea and played a different, legal character instead. I don't know if this makes the idea better or worse, but the character was a masstermind rogue with the lucky feat. I also bumped the charisma score a point because he was a face character and i was only willing to be so handicapped.