How is AL run?

[username1]

I’m running a dnd club and have been looking for sets of adventures. I’m reaching a point where I will be creating my own. However it’s going to be a lot of work and I would prefer to use premades so my dnd cresting time can be put toward my home games. The only reason I have had trouble finding adventures for this club is the specific requirements:
The tables will change every game
A story must continue in some way
Each game session must be fully finished at the end so a new game can be started next session.
Characters need to be connected to each other by a faction or something of the sorts

My final hope are the AL modules. However looking at some I’m not sure how they are run week to week. Before I buy a season bundle of dms guild I need some information. Are the adventures useable week to week a new one shot each time? How are they run at AL events so new players can join and drop out? If AL adventures work for me what season should I purchase?

[Jophiel]

I've only played and not run AL but, in my experience, they are set up as 3 or 4 part mini campaigns, each part being between 2-4 hours. There is also some sort of theme to the entire season.

Here is an example of how they are constructed. (http://baldmangames.com/dd-adventurers-league/summer-schedule/)

Each portion is self contained and set up so you can drop in/drop out as your schedules allows. For instance, you could do chapter 1 & 3 of a trilogy and miss chapter 2. They are also arranged in tiers I, II, III, IV for levels 1-4, 5-10, 11-15, 16-20 respectively and contain ideas for how to tailor the challenge within the tiers (if you have an average level of 2 or one of 4 in a group for a Tier I).

Edit: FYI, the little bit of Season 8 I've played hasn't been great from a pacing/game play perspective. You might want to look at material from the previous seasons first.

[NaughtyTiger]

I have played and DM'd lots of AL.

The AL modules are self-contained. Most are listed at 2-hours (but they take closer to 3.5 to run)
Some stories are better than others.

I really liked season 1 modules (dragon theme). they will take a party to level 10.
I also liked the season 5 modules (giants theme). they will run a party all the way to 20.
each season progresses a general story along, but the players don't NEED the backstory for continuity.
the modules aren't reusable with the same players.

it takes about 4 modules to get to level 5. then it is a slow grind to level 11. 11-20 are pretty fast.

Official AL play specifically is sucky.
AL play is D&D plus a bunch of rules that strip the wonder from the game.
- no homebrew, UA content allowed.
- you must follow the story
- you don't get the gold or magic item in the module.
- you don't earn XP anymore.
- you earn Treasure Points and Adventure Points. Adventure points are XP lite. And Treasure Points can be collected like Chucky Cheese tickets to buy magic items.
- every character starts at level 1 (this is a problem if a new guy wants to join the table)
The advantage is that you can take your character to a convention or game shop and keep playing with him.

This is a free module for level 12 (a particularly good one) It gives you an idea of how they are laid out and what to expect.
http://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/dragon/18/DRA18_RisenMists.pdf

You can PM me if you want more detail on modules or AL specific rules.

[EternalPrime]

AL adventures might be just what you’re looking for!
Generally speaking, the individual downloads are fully contained four-hour adventure sessions. I’ve had some wrap up rather quickly and run others written with so many options as to make me wonder how anyone could finish in four hours. The first download in a season is usually a multi-part adventure with 4 or 5 two-hour sessions which can be played in any order.
Each season follows a theme and an over-arching meta-plot which can be a draw to keep players coming back, but isn’t so crucial that missing a few chapters will leave anyone lost.
Early seasons will have tier 1 adventures first and higher tier adventures later, however because of pre-existing higher tier characters in the community, later seasons had higher tier adventures earlier in the listing.
As a result, you can’t rely on running the adventures of a single season in numeric order: a season may start with two tier 1 adventures, then skip to a tier 2 adventure, and then back to tier 1 for the third and fourth installments.
Drop-in drop-out play is built into the structure. As long as a character is of the appropriate tier and hasn’t played the adventure before, everything is good to go.
In addition to tier, each adventure spells out the party size and level it is written for and provides multiple suggestions to scale each encounter for larger or smaller parties of any combinations of levels within the tier.
If you plan to run a season as a coherent campaign, read all the adventure outlines first and then decide what order to run them in. Several seasons have enough room to let the party decide where to go next leading to a choice between which adventure could be run next.
You don’t need to worry about AL rules and restrictions unless the players expect that their characters will be “AL-legal” and eligible to play in other AL events at other venues. The AL rules have recently changed and are less intuitive than before. Naughty Tiger has spelled out many of these changes.

Good luck and have fun!