Can you actually design a AL 5e world?

[ZorroGames]

I have created my own worlds/Campaigns twice.

1970s in Sacramento, CA, using 0D&D and late 1970s/middle 1980s in Seattle, WA.Twenty players in two groups in the last case... to live and die in DMing...

I would like to create a 5e world compatible with AL.

What are going to be my biggest hurdles?

Thanks in advance.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I have created my own worlds/Campaigns twice.

1970s in Sacramento, CA, using 0D&D and late 1970s/middle 1980s in Seattle, WA.Twenty players in two groups in the last case... to live and die in DMing...

I would like to create a 5e world compatible with AL.

What are going to be my biggest hurdles?

Thanks in advance.

Getting buy in from WotC. As in, won't happen. AL is only 1st-party-published work, except for convention games (which have some convoluted writing scheme).

[Unoriginal]

I have created my own worlds/Campaigns twice.

1970s in Sacramento, CA, using 0D&D and late 1970s/middle 1980s in Seattle, WA.Twenty players in two groups in the last case... to live and die in DMing...

I would like to create a 5e world compatible with AL.

What are going to be my biggest hurdles?

Thanks in advance.

AL doesn't accept personally-written worlds, it's published modules (and special AL scenarios written to add to the modules) only.

[ZorroGames]

Getting buy in from WotC. As in, won't happen. AL is only 1st-party-published work, except for convention games (which have some convoluted writing scheme).

Okay, let me rephrase this. Compatible with AL rules. WOTC does not have to bless my home brew games. I just want players who prefer AL style games to be able to step into the game without long digressions about the setting’s rules. The world, yes; the rules, no.

[ZorroGames]

AL doesn't accept personally-written worlds, it's published modules (and special AL scenarios written to add to the modules) only.

Again, compatible not connected/blessed by Wonks of the Cabal.

[Man_Over_Game]

Okay, let me rephrase this. Compatible with AL rules. WOTC does not have to bless my home brew games. I just want players who prefer AL style games to be able to step into the game without long digressions about the setting’s rules. The world, yes; the rules, no.

So you’re basically just asking for a campaign summary of every AL module to make a world off of?

[SirGraystone]

If I understand what you are asking, you want short adventures without a lot of backgrounds that players can jump in quickly and just play?

[Unoriginal]

Okay, let me rephrase this. Compatible with AL rules. WOTC does not have to bless my home brew games. I just want players who prefer AL style games to be able to step into the game without long digressions about the setting’s rules. The world, yes; the rules, no.


Again, compatible not connected/blessed by Wonks of the Cabal.

Then just take the AL rules and play with them in your homebrew world. I don't see how there could be any hurdle with doing that, so you'll probably be fine.

[Grod_The_Giant]

What are going to be my biggest hurdles?
Fitting the dozens of potential races into your setting, because AL rules mean they're all available. Otherwise... nothing? The AL guidelines don't really change the base assumptions of the game.

[LtPowers]

I would like to create a 5e world compatible with AL.

If you mean you want a custom 5e world that your players can play AL modules in using the AL rules, then you can do anything you want. Just change the settings of the modules to suit your campaign world.

If you mean you want a custom 5e world that your players can play their existing AL characters in -- or take their characters out of and go play AL -- then you can't. Characters played in your custom world are not AL-legal, period.


Powers &8^]

[Arkhios]

If you mean you want a custom 5e world that your players can play AL modules in using the AL rules, then you can do anything you want. Just change the settings of the modules to suit your campaign world.

If you mean you want a custom 5e world that your players can play their existing AL characters in -- or take their characters out of and go play AL -- then you can't. Characters played in your custom world are not AL-legal, period.


Powers &8^]

Technically true, but you could make it work as a one-way transition: If you feel that you've run out of (interesting) AL-legal modules and want to let your players keep their AL-legal characters in your homebrew campaign, you can do that, BUT you must make it crystal clear that afterwards those characters are illegal for AL.

[Unoriginal]

Technically true, but you could make it work as a one-way transition: If you feel that you've run out of (interesting) AL-legal modules and want to let your players keep their AL-legal characters in your homebrew campaign, you can do that, BUT you must make it crystal clear that afterwards those characters are illegal for AL.

Or they can copy-paste the characters on new sheets, so they have an official one which will progress in AL and one for the home games which will exist independently.

[Arkhios]

Or they can copy-paste the characters on new sheets, so they have an official one which will progress in AL and one for the home games which will exist independently.

That would work, too.

[SVamp]

Okay, let me rephrase this. Compatible with AL rules. WOTC does not have to bless my home brew games. I just want players who prefer AL style games to be able to step into the game without long digressions about the setting’s rules. The world, yes; the rules, no.

Simply tell them “AL rules in effect” and don’t allow any homebrew, UA, and only PHB+1 for character creation. In addition, you’ll need to take sage advice as gospel, so those rulings take precedence over your own prefernce, up to a point. (K not quite but ‘official’ rulings obviously carry a lot of weight in official games)

I’m not sure why the heck you’d want to do anything beyond “PHB+1, I need to personally veto anything else”, though.

[Keravath]

"AL Rules" are 5e rules interpreted as closely to RAW as possible. The AL DM, not Sage Advice or any other source, has the final say when there is a gray area in rules interpretation.

This means things like
-no critical misses or other homebrewed rules
-no changes to mechanics you don't like (e.g. healing spirit works as written)

Character creation is straight from the Players Handbook using either standard array or the point buy variant ... no other ways of creating stats. Characters can only use source material from PHB+1. This means you can't build a yuan-ti hexblade or a shadar-kai shadow sorcerer since the first needs volo+xgte and the second mtof+xgte (just as examples).

However, AL does not impose any restrictions on the game world itself. There ARE rules for creators of convention content or guild adept modules that are intended for AL play but these apply mostly to acceptable settings.

If you want to know about what is and is not allowed in AL then just download the AL materials from dmsguild since they are free.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/208178/DD-Adventurers-League-Player--DM-Pack?filters=45470_0_0_0_0_0_0_0

However, characters created using AL rules but leveled using non-AL content are not legal characters for AL play. You can play AL at home by running AL modules. These could be fitted into a homebrewed world as long as the characters ONLY played AL content for XP and rewards. In addition, the content played would need to be logged under the names and designations of the specific modules ... however, it would likely be possible to build a fairly interesting world by incorporating AL modules. This is particularly true if you run the hardcovers. The hardcovers are all AL legal and that includes the dungeons in Tales from the Yawning Portal. In addition, the different levels of the Dungeons of the Mad Mage in season 8 can also be played separately as far as I know (just like playing individual chapters from the hardcovers) so it might be quite possible to build a custom 5e world based only on AL legal content.