Going to my first Adventurers League game tomorrow.

[Noje]

Since most of my D&D friends have moved away for school, I've been in a D&D drought for a while. I normally play 1e but, as you can imagine, it is really hard to find people interested in 1e. Recently I heard of Adventurers League and found a shop nearby hosting sessions. I'm not sure what to expect from it. What are your experiences with AL?

[huttj509]

Since most of my D&D friends have moved away for school, I've been in a D&D drought for a while. I normally play 1e but, as you can imagine, it is really hard to find people interested in 1e. Recently I heard of Adventurers League and found a shop nearby hosting sessions. I'm not sure what to expect from it. What are your experiences with AL?

It depends a lot on the store/group, unfortunately, so is difficult to say definitively.

My experiences were good. By the book, welcoming group, multiple tables going on including one that was specifically doing tier 1 (levels 1-4) for if anyone new to things showed up.

The modules I did tended to be more to the point/focused, because you really want to finish things in the time allotted, so digressions and plot tangents weren't common.

[Kintar]

Be prepared to feel like you are playing an MMO instead of DnD. AL seems to lend itself to players who focus on playing known adventures with chars who "need that item for their build".

The DM's have a very small amount of freedom of changing a game and that's generally limited to upping or lowering the enemy count for difficulty purposes. (Before the new "season") If the adventure reward said it was a longbow and there were no Archer inclined players, too bad. Best case is your store had the "cert" for that longbow so that the char who "won" it could have a hope of going to a convention and participating in "Fai Chen's Fantistical Fair" to trade it for something they actually wanted.

Actual roleplaying is rare. There's really no reason. You're not going to alter how the session is meant to go and you're more likely to anger the other players, who have already played through it with their other char(s), and know what the best way to win is.

[Keravath]

AL can vary a lot and depends on the players who happen to be in your group.

Depending on the store and the number of players in your area the store may run several tables usually in different tiers.
Tier 1 is level 1-4
Tier 2 is level 5-10
Tier 3 is level 11-16
Tier 4 is level 17-20

Have you read over the AL rules on character creation?

- standard array or point buy only
- sources used for your character is players handbook +1 other source ONLY (so you can't pick a race from volo's a class from Xanathars and spells from SCAG)
- published sources only - no unearthed arcana
- all characters have to start at level 1 - so you create a level 1 character you want to play and bring it along
- you will need a log sheet to record each game played - name of module, who DM'ed, their DCI number, any special story awards, what magic item was unlocked, adventure check points and treasure points earned.

Season 8 shifted away from awarding XP and gold for modules. In my experience so far this has actually increased the level of role playing and creativity in games since previously players often felt the need to kill everything in order to maximize XP ... so, at least where I play, the change for season 8 rewards has created a more enjoyable and varied play environment.

That said, roleplaying tends to be a bit less than in a consistent group since you don't know the players as well .. the amount of role playing is also strongly player dependent.

Also, when creating a character for AL, it can often be useful to have a variety of spells and capabilities since you never know what other characters the other players might bring. I have played in parties of 6 or 7 with 4 rogues, another with 4 bards, another that had no healers ... so being a bit flexible with your character capabilities can be useful ... especially in terms of spell selection (this won't matter at 1st level but comes into play as your character advances).

Finally, I'd have to say that I generally find it fun.

[Inscrutable]

Be prepared to feel like you are playing an MMO instead of DnD. AL seems to lend itself to players who focus on playing known adventures with chars who "need that item for their build".

The DM's have a very small amount of freedom of changing a game and that's generally limited to upping or lowering the enemy count for difficulty purposes. (Before the new "season") If the adventure reward said it was a longbow and there were no Archer inclined players, too bad. Best case is your store had the "cert" for that longbow so that the char who "won" it could have a hope of going to a convention and participating in "Fai Chen's Fantistical Fair" to trade it for something they actually wanted.

Actual roleplaying is rare. There's really no reason. You're not going to alter how the session is meant to go and you're more likely to anger the other players, who have already played through it with their other char(s), and know what the best way to win is.

That sounds horrible! Do people actually enjoy that?

[Jophiel]

Must be location/group dependent. At my store, people regularly roleplay and the adventures I've been on often have a strong social component. Season Eight does "treasure points" now where you unlock items by playing specific adventures and then spent your points layer to pick from a table of basic items or from your unlocked items. I haven't seen much of people replaying stuff or "mission optimization". That said, I won't say that my experience is universal either.

[sithlordnergal]

So, it is a bit more streamlined then Homebrew D&d, and like all D&D games your experience will depend heavily on the table. Some groups like to role play, others prefer to roll play. That said, the groups I have run into are pretty open and welcoming. Also, as per Season 8, you gain something called treasure points. This allows you to buy Magic items, and when you play adventures you unlock extra items.

Personally, I have fun with my AL group. Yes, it does limit the DM a bit, but I haven't had too many issues with that. While the DM can't change out the magic item at the end, they can modify encounters a bit to make things more interesting. And I have found that the items in modules tend to be useful.

[Jophiel]

I don't especially like the Treasure Point system but it was put in place exactly because of the "No one wanted this magic bow so now someone has to beg to trade it", etc complaint.

We've had fun with the social component and most AL adventures seem to have maybe 2-4 fights depending on if they're intended for two or four hours. The rest is spent gather clues, solving puzzles, etc. I suppose if you've already done it then you can skip most of that but we've had fun roleplaying through it all.

One obvious benefit for my location is that multiple people can trade off DMing depending on personal schedules or simply whether they want to play or run. If we didn't run AL games and depended on independent campaigns, I doubt we'd have enough DMs to support four tables.

I will note that my AL stuff is with the same general group of people. I keep track of advancement & treasure points on a scratch pad but no one is demanding to know which games my experience came from or where I got that +1 Rapier. Likewise, I'm not traveling to various conventions trying to trade off some item either. I suppose if it was more militant then I'd have more problems with it but we're fairly easy going.

[huttj509]

Must be location/group dependent. At my store, people regularly roleplay and the adventures I've been on often have a strong social component. Season Eight does "treasure points" now where you unlock items by playing specific adventures and then spent your points layer to pick from a table of basic items or from your unlocked items. I haven't seen much of people replaying stuff or "mission optimization". That said, I won't say that my experience is universal either.

Only times I saw people doing an adventure they already knew was either "we need 1 more to fill out the party for these other people who want to do this adventure" or something along those lines. One time it was "I did the first in that chain of multiple adventures before, and now you're doing all of them in a row, so I'll sit back more passive for the first one so I can experience the others."

At the store I went to the 'less roleplaying' sort of stuff was due to recognizing we couldn't easily pause the adventure for a week, since it wasn't necessarily a consistent group, so we wanted to keep things moving to finish at around the expected time.

[Jophiel]

At the store I went to the 'less roleplaying' sort of stuff was due to recognizing we couldn't easily pause the adventure for a week, since it wasn't necessarily a consistent group, so we wanted to keep things moving to finish at around the expected time.
True. When I say people were roleplaying, I mean trying to generally act in character and also describing attacks and stuff, not spending an hour trying to seduce the barmaid :smallwink:

[ImproperJustice]

Unfortunately my last experience was less than pleasant.

Highlights:

Wizard mocked and accused of being a liability for not loading up “DPS” spells, and blamed for group defeat, despite them blowing their spell load on innefectual damage spells against superior foes.

Initial encounter was an ambush that we saw coming but had no way of avoiding due to an NPCs actions. Even attempted Diplomacy, rolled a nat 20 and we still fought because plot demanded it. Should have been a TPK, but GM began fudging rolls at the last minute, after looks from an admin type. Pretty sure we were a party of 6 1st levels against a pack of a dozen 3rd level Rogues, who had us surrounded.

My Paladin was threatened with being stripped of his powers for showing mercy to a starving Warg, feeding it, and binding its wounds. Party yelling that I was aiding an evil beast I should be smiting for xp, and shocked when it showed us a back way through the enemy stronghold.
Veterans were angry because we avoidedan encounter with money/xp rewards.

In the final battle, an enemy got a lucky shot and downed our Sorceror, played by an 8-9 year old. His father, the Cleric, refused to heal him because he was a liability and a resource sink, and let him die to focus fire on the big bad (Wasn’t needed, rest of the party going strong). Daddy won the day and his son, overtired and hungry, was an inconsolable sobbing lump, laid over his colored character sheet.

Have not been back since.

[Noje]

Alright, update time.

It was not at all like I was expecting. I came 20 minutes early (Like the guy at the store told me to on the phone) and nobody was there but the cashier. When the game was supposed to start, I was joined at the table by someone who had never played D&D before. Another ten minutes passes and the DM shows up. He starts the session with a TPK and puts us in the weird state of limbo-but-not-limbo (He later admitted that he made the session up on the spot). Then, three other players arrive an hour after the scheduled starting time, two youngsters and their dad. The dad was pretty cool, always making dad jokes and quietly letting the kids take the spotlight. The kids treated the game like an MMO as Kintar described, Just focused on getting as many experience points to get them to the next tier on the ladder. As the session went on, the newbie showed signs of "that guy" syndrome ("I seduce the witch!""I loot the slime corpse!").


The session lasted a little over six hours. After I got past my initial expectations, I still had a bit of fun. There was little in regards to role play. For the most part it was more about exploration and combat, which was fun in its own right. The adventure the DM made was interesting and engaging, but a little unpolished. It kind of reminded me of the games I would play at lunch in grade school. Everyone was very friendly and patient. The newbie was so excited that afterwards he immediately bought copies of the PHB and DMG. I'm not sure if I will go to the next game in two weeks, apparently a different DM will be running that one.

EDIT: I just wanted to thank y'all for replying. I don't post often here but I always get a good response when I do :smallsmile:

[Jophiel]

That's kind of weird. Adventure League games are preprinted modules but the DM was just making it up? And they're set for 2-4 hours. Did the DM give you his DCI number and the module info?

[Spo]

Relax and be flexible. I just started AL in September in one state while on vacation and continued in my home state. I play once a week and I always have a good time. I have had about 8 different DM's of varying experience and narrative skills and found something enjoyable in each game (even one of my first games where I got killed by our wizard's fireball - it happened in the last fight so I got to enjoy playing until the very end - literally and figuratively :smallbiggrin:)

I have met several nice people that have invited me to different homebrews outside the store (which was cool but time commitments - family - made it too hard).

For me I used pregens I found online at the beginning to start learning the game again (hadn't played since AD&D) which led me to start creating a myriad of other characters.

Even though some of the adventures may seem "railroady" at times, if you are playing a character that you like to roleplay, go for it. From what I have seen, the GM's like players that make it fun for them instead of just herding murderhobos around (which you find in AL and homebrew).

One thing I found is that a lot of times people that play AL (at least at tier 1) are in your same boat and circumstances and therefore are easy to talk to.

Enjoy and have fun:smallsmile:

[Noje]

That's kind of weird. Adventure League games are preprinted modules but the DM was just making it up? And they're set for 2-4 hours. Did the DM give you his DCI number and the module info?

That's what I thought too. He clearly wasn't using a module (He was just paging through the monster manual) and nobody mentioned anything about a DCI number. From what I gathered the normal DM was sick so the store owner asked if he could DM this session when he showed up (hence, why he didn't have something prepared).

[Jophiel]

Yeah, it sounds as though the scheduled DM couldn't make it so they got someone to just basically throw some D&D at you without being clear about what was going on.

The whole point of AL is that everyone is running from the same pool of adventures and rules so you could theoretically play at any AL table in the world and have a legal character. Part of that is having people mark down the adventure code (something like CCC-WWC-02) and the DM should give you his DCI so, if you ever cared, you could say "I got this sword by running this adventure with this DM".

Anyway, it sounds like this DM wasn't prepared with the AL stuff so just tried to keep the table entertained rather than cancel.

[Keravath]

Alright, update time.

It was not at all like I was expecting. I came 20 minutes early (Like the guy at the store told me to on the phone) and nobody was there but the cashier. When the game was supposed to start, I was joined at the table by someone who had never played D&D before. Another ten minutes passes and the DM shows up. He starts the session with a TPK and puts us in the weird state of limbo-but-not-limbo (He later admitted that he made the session up on the spot). Then, three other players arrive an hour after the scheduled starting time, two youngsters and their dad. The dad was pretty cool, always making dad jokes and quietly letting the kids take the spotlight. The kids treated the game like an MMO as Kintar described, Just focused on getting as many experience points to get them to the next tier on the ladder. As the session went on, the newbie showed signs of "that guy" syndrome ("I seduce the witch!""I loot the slime corpse!").


The session lasted a little over six hours. After I got past my initial expectations, I still had a bit of fun. There was little in regards to role play. For the most part it was more about exploration and combat, which was fun in its own right. The adventure the DM made was interesting and engaging, but a little unpolished. It kind of reminded me of the games I would play at lunch in grade school. Everyone was very friendly and patient. The newbie was so excited that afterwards he immediately bought copies of the PHB and DMG. I'm not sure if I will go to the next game in two weeks, apparently a different DM will be running that one.

EDIT: I just wanted to thank y'all for replying. I don't post often here but I always get a good response when I do :smallsmile:

I’m sorry it wasn’t the greatest experience. It sounds more like an intro to D&D but it had nothing to do with Adventurers League from what you have described.

An AL table can’t be run without at least 3 players. AL can only use the published and approved modules (or the approved hardcover adventures) which support 3-7 players and include guidance for balancing based on number of characters and average party level.

The module has an ID that the DM should give you and there are log sheets that the store should be able to provide or you can diwnload off the internet.

Anyway, best of luck in your search for a game :)

[Bel-Torac]

Everything depends on your game store, dm, and players. If you don't like a certain dm or players, you don't have to play with them. I would give it a second chance and play if the original dm that was scheduled shows up next time. They should be running a adventure with the AL legal stamp on dmsguild and provide dci numbers.

I play and run AL legal games at multiple flgs in my area and they've gone well using the rules. You pretty much get advancement points for playing which levels you up quicker and allows you to get the magic items you want. Yes it's very railroady, but you get to experience different stories quicker. Hardcover book games are more challenging, but can sometimes go pretty slow.

[Sigreid]

It's always rough when your group moves away. You basically are left with a few options.

1. See if your former group has the ability and desire to play over the internet. It can be done easily using a free roller like Rollz.org or a more robust platform like Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds (this is the one my group uses. It's pretty amazing).
2. Work your friends, family, coworkers and see if you can drum up some interest. Be warned on this one though as RPGs are about wish fulfillment and sometimes the nicest guy you ever met is a real D-bag in game.
3. Go to sites like this one and see if you can find a group that will take you. This is how I found my current group, and the one before that. It may take a few tries to find a group that clicks with you, and that's OK.
4. Hang out at hobby stores and chat people up until you can wrangle an invite from people you like.
5. AL or something similar, which I gather from this board can lead to a private game invite. Makes sense, you and the others get to try each other out so to speak before making a bigger commitment.

Playing over the internet has worked really well for my group. We've been doing it for years.

[Samayu]

My Paladin was threatened with being stripped of his powers for showing mercy to a starving Warg, feeding it, and binding its wounds. Party yelling that I was aiding an evil beast I should be smiting for xp, and shocked when it showed us a back way through the enemy stronghold.
Veterans were angry because we avoidedan encounter with money/xp rewards.

This is why AL now runs on Advancement Points and Treasure Points. They're earned per hour of play, rather than per completed combat, so taking pains to avoid combat pays off as well as fighting does.

[Jophiel]

This is why AL now runs on Advancement Points and Treasure Points. They're earned per hour of play, rather than per completed combat, so taking pains to avoid combat pays off as well as fighting does.
This way, you finish the first encounter and find a bunch of gold you can't keep so you use it to bribe off the hired thugs in the second encounter :smallbiggrin: