Adventurer's League Gold Limit and Finding a Game

[Dork_Forge]

I've been looking into AL recently and my girlfriend and I decided to try it out, after looking at the season 9 document, the gold seems fairly restricting though?

Limiting gold to 80GP per level in tier 1 and 240Gp in tier 2 seems very low, especially when compared to the cost of equipment, items and, services. Does anyone have any experience with this, is it actually very restrictive in play?

The renown section also allows you to get free rewards, can you choose from a lower renown tier? Inspiration and a healing potion seems like a pretty good deal to start each adventure/chapter with, but going into tier 2 an item of 100GP or less seems a bit meh.

Finally does anyone have any tips for finding AL games for Roll 20?

Thanks!

[Keravath]

The gold is less restrictive than in season 8. The only classes it has a significant impact on are wizards scribing spells and any casters of spells with expensive material components. It also affects how easy it is to buy plate, half-plate and a breastplate for armor. Pretty much everything else is easily within the gold allotment.

Your starting gear will typically include suitable armor and weapons.

All the classes are still very playable. I have played a cleric 1/wizard X to 9th level under the season 8 rules and he has all the spells I would consider essential (though the 100gp required to buy the pearl needed to cast Identify which the cleric gets as a domain spell at level 1 took a couple of levels to accumulate). Most of my extra gold went into purchasing ritual spells. The two spells on each level up went into whatever I considered essential and then I add whatever I think useful to the spellbook when I earn a little more gold.

Heavy armor classes tend to have to wait a bit longer for plate armor and medium armor classes for half-plate. However, in both cases the difference is only 1AC which really isn't a big deal.

The bottom line, in my experience, the gold limitations aren't a big deal in actual play and really only impact specific classes significantly.

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Keep in mind that the 100gp item at tier 2 includes the possibility of purchasing a 50gp healing potion so you lose out on inspiration going in to tier 2 but you can still take the healing potion. (Tier 1 characters probably need the inspiration more since the lower levels can be a bit squishy.)

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I don't have any tips on finding an online D&D game except that Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and D&D Beyond all have looking for group/players forums for games. In addition, there are a number of Discord groups for both D&D and AL. I've seen them advertise here and there but I suspect activity levels vary and you would need to surf around a bit to find the active groups.

[NaughtyTiger]

easy first:
roll20
i like the group at :https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/2287273

they actually hang out and organize on discord (details in the roll20 group.) and host character sheets in that roll20 group.

they "were" running regularly (2-3 games at any given time)


harder next:
season 8-9 rules have clamped down on the gold a lot. (and magic items, and fun)
really only wizard is negatively hit by the gold. you will be able to purchase magic plate earlier than non magic plate
if you go fighter, then choose chain mail+2x hand crossbows as starting equipment, sell it at 1/2 price for what you want.

gold is the least of ALs problems. (i was a big proponent of AL until S8, now I am bitter)

[Davo]

https://www.meetup.com/topics/dnd/ has a LOT of D&D meetups.

[Keravath]

easy first:
roll20
i like the group at :https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/2287273

they actually hang out and organize on discord (details in the roll20 group.) and host character sheets in that roll20 group.

they "were" running regularly (2-3 games at any given time)


harder next:
season 8-9 rules have clamped down on the gold a lot. (and magic items, and fun)
really only wizard is negatively hit by the gold. you will be able to purchase magic plate earlier than non magic plate
if you go fighter, then choose chain mail+2x hand crossbows as starting equipment, sell it at 1/2 price for what you want.

gold is the least of ALs problems. (i was a big proponent of AL until S8, now I am bitter)

Hi! I've played AL through seasons 7, 8 and now 9. I think they overdid the gold restrictions since it impacts some characters more than others.

However, overall, at least where I play, I found that season 8 improved the actual game play experience in most cases at the table. There was more room for role playing and just enjoying the module and overcoming the challenges presented.

Prior to season 8 and 9, the challenges of every module pretty much required combat to obtain maxium XP. Some AL players wanted to always hit the maximum XP for a module which sometimes resulted in scorched earth policies, killing NPCs and choosing the path of greatest XP rather than the path that would make the most sense for the characters. There are quite a few encounters which COULD be solved using social skills, tricking sides into attacking each other, making good use of stealth and lots of other creative solutions that were ignored simply because it would not maximize the XP from the module. (Most if not all AL DMs I played with did not award maximum XP unless the total XP for the monsters killed was equal to or greater and very few AL modules explicitly state awarding full XP for avoiding encounters in a creative fashion).

In addition, in season 7, I played a number of games where magic item drops were distributed to characters who wanted it to trade who received it just because they had the least items, despite the fact that there were characters at the table who could really have made good use of the item. The magic item lottery and the meta game actions of various players made the season 7 and before system of distributing magic items a source of friction rather than fun.

Anyway, before playing season 8, I too was bitter about the changes, it just didn't seem how D&D should be played. After giving it a chance, I found that it fixed a number of issues I had personally experienced in AL and generally made the experience better.

Season 9 is doing something similar but simplifying it further, making the leveling system simpler (milestones - basically level if you want after a module), limiting number of magic items a character can have by tier, allowing all the characters in a module to have the magic item if they want it and increasing slightly the gold limits.

Anyway, I will continue playing in season 9 and see how it goes, so far it has been fine. The biggest issue could be the faster leveling now allowed but I'm not sure how much of an issue that will really be since higher level content will need folks to run it.

[NaughtyTiger]

However, overall, at least where I play, I found that season 8 improved the actual game play experience in most cases at the table. There was more room for role playing and just enjoying the module and overcoming the challenges presented.

i had the opposite experience at the table in every venue.
prior to 8, we never had a problem bypassing combat if the bard had a good plan.
after 8, folks were too chintzy to pay a bribe or other stuff. you don't really have to accomplish anything and you still get your credit...

i am still reallly pissed that AL blamed the DMs for cheating the system, rather than take any credit for the loot falls of Tales of Yawning Portal.
AL needs DMs, DMs don't need AL, but AL continues to crap on DMs.

[Keravath]

i had the opposite experience at the table in every venue.
prior to 8, we never had a problem bypassing combat if the bard had a good plan.
after 8, folks were too chintzy to pay a bribe or other stuff. you don't really have to accomplish anything and you still get your credit...

i am still reallly pissed that AL blamed the DMs for cheating the system, rather than take any credit for the loot falls of Tales of Yawning Portal.
AL needs DMs, DMs don't need AL, but AL continues to crap on DMs.

Prior to season 8 there were games when a party I was in had difficulties bypassing combat because someone said "If we don't kill them all we won't get maximum XP for the module" ... so in my case the bard's good plan might well be ignored depending on how many folks were intent on getting maximum XP (sometimes it might only take 1 or 2 out of 7 players to trigger the combat).

In Season 8, these folks were more happy to role play since they weren't losing out on something.

So, I think the experience has as much to do with the players at the table as the rules used ...

---

As for gold expenses in season 8/9 ...

There were two approaches to gold expenses in modules that I've run across.

1) Players just pay gold for bribes and stuff in game (which is hardly fair given the limited gold available to characters in AL). However, some characters have a lot of extra gold from previous seasons so it didn't bother them.

However, more often it worked the following way ...

2) Gold payments in the module are just as much "temporary" as the gold rewards. Characters can't keep the gold awarded in modules but it doesn't break anything to allow characters to pay gold expenses in the modules with the same gold found in the modules. So, in some cases, if the mission awarded 50gp, we would just "use" the reward to pay the bribe (it is al roleplaying anyway) if that was what the party decided to do. The AL DM has a lot of leeway in actually running a module.

"You’re Empowered. Make decisions about how the group interacts with the adventure; adjust or improvise but maintain the adventure’s spirit. You can’t implement new rules."

"Challenge Your Players. Gauge the experience level of your players, as well as what they seem to enjoy in a game and attempt to deliver what they’re after."

The DM can "adjust or improvise" as they see fit as long as they maintain the spirit of the adventure and the goal is to have a fun experience for the players. The players don't like paying "real" gold for in game interactions where their gold income is limited. The fixed gold/level idea is supposed to represent the net gold received/level including both income and all EXPENSES, including bribes. It is completely allowable for an AL DM to just ignore bribes if they want or allow for payment with in module currency.

So, in the season 8 content I have played it wasn't an issue but obviously your experience differed.

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As for getting credit for not doing anything, I'm not sure I understand. Every time I've gone to play AL, everyone is playing the module with the goal of completing the content since we want to play D&D. In a hardcover the DM could have decided to award less ACP/TCP if the party wasn't progressing towards the goals. Modules were on a per hour basis. However, I've never played with anyone who just wanted to sit around waiting for four hours to get ACP/TCP rather than actually playing the game. I'd have to suggest sitting around doing nothing while playing D&D is more of a player issue rather than a systemic one.

---

On your other topic, I'm not sure I understand why you think that AL blamed the DMs for anything? I've never got this impression talking to the dozen or so AL DMs I know locally. None of the issues AL seem to be addressing have anything to do with the DMs. As far as I know, there were two main reasons for the season 8 and season 9 changes -

1) Address some issues involving player behaviors so as to encourage role playing and eliminate metagaming involving loot drops. The gold issue had more to do with some folks having a bag of holding with 1000 healing potions and multiple copies of every spell scroll remotely usable.

2) Something simpler than XP and gold distributions for new players. Season 8 was still too complicated so they went to season 9 which really is simpler.

I never heard of any issues with DMs. Almost all the issues have to do with content and players abusing it. The loot drops in White Plume Mountain for example should have been limited in the CC from the beginning. Probably all of the modules in TftYP should have had loot modified for AL if only because the modules came from an earlier generation of D&D where loot was typically more plentiful. The Season 8 "evergreen" magic item lists were also a bad idea. Especially the inclusion of legendary items available at tier 3. The AL organizers either didn't get enough feedback or didn't listen to it.

Anyway, I would think even the AL organizers would know that AL goes nowhere without DMs and it is hard enough to find enough folks who want to DM. There will always be DMs bothered by change. I didn't like the season 8 rules when I first read them but in actual play they did seem to address some of the problems.

However, I never saw indications that the AL organizers blamed DMs for anything. It isn't a DMs fault if modules drop a lot of treasure, players collect treasure and magic, or the fact that different players at different locations will have played different content and when brought together there will be a large discrepancy between characters in terms of gold and equipment. None of that has to do with DMs. It has to do with AL administration and vetting of content for AL play.

[Lyracian]

I've been looking into AL recently and my girlfriend and I decided to try it out, after looking at the season 9 document, the gold seems fairly restricting though?
I tried to play in Season 7 but did not have any Tier 2-3 characters so could not join in. Managed to get a new game in Season 8 but by the end of the season all the four local groups I know of had quit running AL! Season 9 is better than 8 as others have said you miss out on the best armour until high levels.

Wizards spell books are slightly more limited than they could be but with a free rebuilds upto level 5 you can trade out spells like Sleep that you do not want at higher levels. I also did the Cleric 1/Wizard 7 build and only purchased one extra spell. With a 16 Int I was quite limited on how many I could memorise each day anyway.


easy first:
roll20
i like the group at :https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/2287273

Thank you! I never did find any on Roll20.

[NaughtyTiger]

As for getting credit for not doing anything, I'm not sure I understand. Every time I've gone to play AL, everyone is playing the module with the goal of completing the content since we want to play D&D. In a hardcover the DM could have decided to award less ACP/TCP if the party wasn't progressing towards the goals. Modules were on a per hour basis. However, I've never played with anyone who just wanted to sit around waiting for four hours to get ACP/TCP rather than actually playing the game. I'd have to suggest sitting around doing nothing while playing D&D is more of a player issue rather than a systemic one.

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[QUOTE=Keravath;24189536]On your other topic, I'm not sure I understand why you think that AL blamed the DMs for anything?
WOTC AL admins (Alan Patrick) explicitly stated that it was the DMs fault on Facebook and Google+. Unfortunately, G+ is dead and i don't do the facebook, so i can't show links.
There is a reason why they nerfed DM rewards and it took an extra long time for those rules to come out (2 months AFTER S8 started).



1) Address some issues involving player behaviors so as to encourage role playing and eliminate metagaming involving loot drops. The gold issue had more to do with some folks having a bag of holding with 1000 healing potions and multiple copies of every spell scroll remotely usable.

2) Something simpler than XP and gold distributions for new players. Season 8 was still too complicated so they went to season 9 which really is simpler.


Season 8 didn't address the metagaming, cuz you could still trade, you can still play module X for prize X. heck it made it worse cuz there wasn't a 1/7 chance of getting magic item X, you were guaranteed it.

XP was not tough. Certainly easier than AP/TP: consult 2 tables in the optional DMG to figure out how to buy the magic item. you have 4x Tier1 TP, 7x Tier2 TP, and 2 Tier3 TP. My 6th level toon died in T2, can i ever catch up if i play with my party? nope, you will ALWAYS be 4 levels behind. (with XP you could be 1 level behind after 3 games.)



Gold payments in the module are just as much "temporary" as the gold rewards.
this was entirely up to the DM. many DMs read the rules as explicitly forbidding it. (including me)


moreover, the "you are empowered" statement is immediately followed by you can't do this, you can't do that....
in AL: can you "disarm", can you use Intimidate with Str, can you say there is a difference between a circle and square on a grid? Nope, EXPLICITLY blocked.
in AL: your party is way overpowered and the 10 zombies will be too easy AND too slow in combat (no HP/no damage, but that is still 10 attacks...) can you use an ogre zombie? nope, it is explicit that you can only add 2 zombies.

[Keravath]

WOTC AL admins (Alan Patrick) explicitly stated that it was the DMs fault on Facebook and Google+. Unfortunately, G+ is dead and i don't do the facebook, so i can't show links.
There is a reason why they nerfed DM rewards and it took an extra long time for those rules to come out (2 months AFTER S8 started).


I'm dont' follow the facebook group (I personally think that is a bad way to distribute information since not everyone is on facebook) but if they were blaming DMs then I think they were wrong to do so.



Season 8 didn't address the metagaming, cuz you could still trade, you can still play module X for prize X. heck it made it worse cuz there wasn't a 1/7 chance of getting magic item X, you were guaranteed it.


The specific metagaming issues I was talking about were:
1) Playing a module to kill everything to get maximum XP. I played a lot of modules where we only received the minimum XP because we role played and solved problems creatively rather than confrontationally. It felt like we were being penalized by playing the game one way rather than killing everything. Personally, I don't think murder hobo is a play style to encourage and I found season 8 and 9 helped in this regard.
2) Players would forego magic items at lower tiers so that they could enter higher tiers with the lowest magic item count and automatically receive the best loot drops. New players who took the cool hat of disguise for fun and role play reasons missed out on the Girdle of Fire Giant strength later due to all the metagaming folks who ignored all but items essential to their build. You also ran into folks looking for rares or very rares to trade so that the girdle could end up going to a wizard who would never use it while the paladin/fighter/barbarian could only look on enviously. It just created a less than fun gaming environment. TCP was too complicated I agree but fixed the issue. I am hoping the season 9 approach will be better.

Folks can always trade, they can always play min/max games no matter what season of AL (and they have done so) but the goal is to let folks play min/max all they want without having their play style impact others at the same table. I think the changes tend to succeed at that goal.




XP was not tough. Certainly easier than AP/TP: consult 2 tables in the optional DMG to figure out how to buy the magic item. you have 4x Tier1 TP, 7x Tier2 TP, and 2 Tier3 TP. My 6th level toon died in T2, can i ever catch up if i play with my party? nope, you will ALWAYS be 4 levels behind. (with XP you could be 1 level behind after 3 games.)

this was entirely up to the DM. many DMs read the rules as explicitly forbidding it. (including me)

moreover, the "you are empowered" statement is immediately followed by you can't do this, you can't do that....
in AL: can you "disarm", can you use Intimidate with Str, can you say there is a difference between a circle and square on a grid? Nope, EXPLICITLY blocked.



can you "disarm"?
- maybe - a battlemaster fighter can using disarming attack, but the disarm action from the DMG isn't available. If someone wants to grapple a creature and try to disarm it then the DM can decide an appropriate skill check. Characters can describe what they want to try, the DM adjudicates it (and that includes a character who wants to try disarming an opponent). They just can't take the specific disarm action described in the DMG.

Can you use Intimidate with strength?
- yes - ALFAQ - variant rules in use - "• Variant: Skills with Different Abilities (PHB)"

Can you say there is a difference between a circle and a square on a grid?
- Yes, why not? - The variant grid rule on page 196 of the PHB does not define area of effect. It only describes diagonal movement on a square grid as requiring 5' of movement. The area of effects of spells are described on page 204. These are circles, cones, lines, squares etc and there are no rules on how to map these to a grid.

"As an Adventurers League Dungeon Master, you are empowered to adjudicate the rules as presented by the official materials (PHB, DMG, MM, etc.). Run the game according to those rules, but you are the final arbiter of any ambiguities that might arise in doing so. House rules aren’t permitted for use in play; the campaign uses the rules as presented in the PHB."

The campaign uses the rules as presented in the PHB. The grid representation of a circle is not defined in the PHB, the DM gets to decide which they want to use. I've played with DMs who prefer using a square representation on a grid and others who prefer a circle. As long as the players understand there are no problems. The main reason some folks prefer to use a square to represent a circle AoE on a grid is simplicity but what you use is up to the DM.

By the way, where is it EXPLICITLY blocked in terms of using circles on grids?



in AL: your party is way overpowered and the 10 zombies will be too easy AND too slow in combat (no HP/no damage, but that is still 10 attacks...) can you use an ogre zombie? nope, it is explicit that you can only add 2 zombies.


No it isn't. ALDMG quote ..

"Challenge Your Players. Gauge the experience level of your players, as well as what they seem to enjoy in a game and attempt to deliver what they’re after. Everyone should be able to shine. You can adjust the encounter by adding or removing thematically appropriate monsters."

If an ogre zombie was thematically appropriate, level appropriate and was needed to challenge your players and keep the game fun then you absolutely could add one. The quote from the ALDMG explicitly states that you can adjust the encounter by adding or removing thematically appropriate monsters. It doesn't say that you only have to add 2 zombies due to some balance table in the module. I played some tier 3 modules at the end of season 8 where there were multiple staff of the magi due to the idiotic evergreen list and the DM added SEVERAL thematically appropriate monsters to keep the encounter fun, interesting and challenging. This is exactly what an AL DM is supposed to do. Gauge the ability of the party and adjust the encounter accordingly, ideally without a TPK since no one likes dying but keeping the encounter fun and challenging.

Where I play, the DMs run D&D using the AL guidance and it works fine. It sounds like where you played AL, people were reading far too much into the AL rules than is actually there.

The goal of an AL DM is to run a fun D&D game for the players based on common content adjusted for the specific capabilities of the group of characters/players at the specific table whether it is 3 characters with inexperienced players or 7 characters with very experienced players or anywhere in between. They can't change the spirit of the module, they cant' include house rules like critical misses or optional DMG rules like hitting other creatures when firing into melee or flanking but they absolutely can make use of a variety of optional rules listed in the AL materials, can decide for themselves how to implement things like area of effect on a grid that are not explicitly defined in the PHB, can decide on how specific spells and abilities interact since most interactions aren't defined and can adjust encounters as they decide with thematically appropriate monsters to keep it fun and challenging. (You wouldn't add a dragon to an undead scene but adding an ogre zombie with a bunch of zombies would be perfectly ok as long as it was intended to increase the fun for the players rather than kill them off).



P.S. A home game gives the DM as much leeway as they want to run whatever they want. With a good DM that is awesome, with a bad DM it can be a disaster (having experienced both). AL is something of a middle ground. The closest it comes to being a home game is when they run a hardcover consistently over a long period with mostly the same players turning out. My local game store ran Tomb of Annihilation every two weeks and it took us about 36 sessions to complete. It was as close to a campaign experience I've found yet while playing D&D in AL and everyone had a great time. There were 4 or so players that made most of the sessions and the other seats were filled by folks who stayed 1-2 sessions and others who were able to make almost 1/2 of the campaign. We ended off about 12th level. Honestly, it was an experience I have rarely had while playing homebrew due to all the scheduling issues, real life issues, folks dropping out and being unable to find replacements. In this case, AL really worked well. The one table rule we used was that traded magic items weren't allowed in to the campaign. We could trade and keep the items on the character sheet but we wouldn't actually use them until after the campaign. Considering, ToA is pretty low magic this voluntary rule worked fine for us and there is no AL rule saying you have to USE items you have on your character sheet :)

[NaughtyTiger]

snip

It's kind of funny how we approach limits/freedoms of AL.

You looked at it as you had to kill the monster in combat to get the XP. But DMG makes it clear (to me at least) that you get full XP for bypassing the encounter, too.
You read thematic as Ogre zombie is legit (reasonable interpretation). Discussions pages for AL DMs, including admins, pushed DMs to stay within module scaling.


You blame the preS8 players for saving up for the good stuff. To me that is trade off of instant gratification vs planning and saving.
where i played, we didn't have preS8 players gaming the system for loot and trades. if someone wanted the hat that dropped, they took it.

In your season 8/9 play, does anyone spend TP on the cool hat of disguise?
They didn't when I played. Everyone saved precious TP for the super cool X. like the guy who said "there were multiple staff of the magi due to the idiotic evergreen list".



optional rules
apparently, they (2017) added "Variant Skills with Different Abilities", cuz it wasn't in my previous ones. but that goes to my point... it wasn't allowed before.
circles vs squares DMG 242 Diagonals
you have interesting take on disarm (and optional rules).

There is an explicit rule on disarm.
AL explicitly forbids the actual rule on disarm.
AL explicitly forbids homebrewing a rule on disarm.
But AL allows you "adjudicate" a rule on disarm. *cough*





Where I play, the DMs run D&D using the AL guidance and it works fine. It sounds like where you played AL, people were reading far too much into the AL rules than is actually there.

conversely, where you play, people read far too little of the rules that are there...
which, as far as i am concerned is fine, cuz AL is unnecessarily restrictive.

I think it's great that you have had positive experiences with S8/S9.
I just know that my enjoyment of the game has gone down each year that AL clarifies (clamps down on) the rules.
I think it is good to warn potential players that AL is a wonky form of Dnd, and if they didn't like DnD it might be the AL rules, not DnD.

[MaxWilson]

optional rules
apparently, they (2017) added "Variant Skills with Different Abilities", cuz it wasn't in my previous ones. but that goes to my point... it wasn't allowed before.
circles vs squares DMG 242 Diagonals
you have interesting take on disarm (and optional rules).

There is an explicit rule on disarm.
AL explicitly forbids the actual rule on disarm.
AL explicitly forbids homebrewing a rule on disarm.
But AL allows you "adjudicate" a rule on disarm. *cough*


The PHB also explicitly allows improvised actions, which would include disarming attempts. It's in the combat chapter.

Actions in Combat
When you take your action on Your Turn, you can take one of the Actions presented here, an action you gained from your class or a Special feature, or an action that you improvise. Many Monsters have Action Options of their own in their stat blocks.

When you describe an action not detailed elsewhere in the rules, the GM tells you whether that action is possible and what kind of roll you need to make, if any, to determine success or failure.

If the DM wants to use DMG Disarm as a model for how he rules disarm attempts, it's legitimate.

[Keravath]

Yep :) .. I find it fascinating how we read the same material and then we watch it implemented in completely different ways. I was pretty irritated with AL at the start of Season 8 to be honest. I've been playing D&D for so long that taking away XP and limiting gold really felt sacrilegious. I still don't like the gold but overall play quality seems to be higher in my experience.


It's kind of funny how we approach limits/freedoms of AL.
You looked at it as you had to kill the monster in combat to get the XP. But DMG makes it clear (to me at least) that you get full XP for bypassing the encounter, too.


I agree. Tables should have awarded XP for solving the encounters not killing the monsters but the modules aren't written that way. They don't specify XP rewards for an encounter and since the DM can adjust the difficulty level, the XP is effectively also variable. Many of the AL DMs I played with just didn't award significant XP for bypassing encounters.



You read thematic as Ogre zombie is legit (reasonable interpretation). Discussions pages for AL DMs, including admins, pushed DMs to stay within module scaling.


I'm not on the facebook group (though some of the DMs where I play are) and the key metric in the documentation appears to be making it fun for the players and if that requires some changes to scaling then so be it. I tend to go by what the documents say not someone's opinion that may not be well thought out. (a la JC's tweets which are as often as not just how he would play it at his table rather than an official interpretation of what all the designers as a group intended).



In your season 8/9 play, does anyone spend TP on the cool hat of disguise?
They didn't when I played. Everyone saved precious TP for the super cool X. like the guy who said "there were multiple staff of the magi due to the idiotic evergreen list".


Sometimes. Attunement slots have always been limited. It takes a very strong role playing reason to use an attunement slot for something that has mostly fun/social uses if you have other items that would be more useful. The folks I know who would take the hat of disguise had a particular character concept where it fitted really well.




circles vs squares DMG 242 Diagonals
you have interesting take on disarm (and optional rules).

There is an explicit rule on disarm.
AL explicitly forbids the actual rule on disarm.
AL explicitly forbids homebrewing a rule on disarm.
But AL allows you "adjudicate" a rule on disarm. *cough*



Did you mean DMG 252? I couldn't find Diagonals on 242.

However, 251 says the following about Area of Effect
"Choose an intersection of squares or hexes as the point of origin of an area of effect, then follow its rules as normal. If an area of effect is circular and covers at least half a square, it affects that square."

However, the DMG isn't used for AL rules at all. :) ... so whatever it says doesn't matter :)

ALFAQ - What rules do I use?
"the campaign uses the rules as presented in the PHB."

ALDMG -
"Optional Items
These things aren’t necessary to run D&D Adventurers League games but might be nice to have.
Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG). This book contains valuable advice on preparing and running games. The DMG also contains descriptions of magic items that might be awarded during the course of play, so it is suggested that you bring that information with you to the table if it is not provided in the adventure."

If the DMG is considered optional to run AL games and the main reason it is needed is for magic item descriptions then any suggestion of how to interpret circles vs squares that might be in the DMG is just a suggestion and the DM can choose to implement it however they see fit based on the rules in the PHB (which don't specify it .. leaving it up to the DM to decide).

As for "disarming" an opponent. I think we both agree we are playing D&D (at least some form of it :)). Players are allowed to describe their character taking ANY action at all.

- "My character jumps from side to side between the walls of the alley to reach the roof"
- "My character leaps over the chasm"
- "My character jumps on the back of the cow and says 'giddy-up'"
- "My character drops his weapon and tries to grab the barkeeps sword before he hurts anyone"

The DM doesn't say, well you can do all the rest but can't do the last because there is no rule for disarming an opponent. It is all covered under the rules for skill checks in the PHB.

"The DM calls for an ability check when a character or monster attempts an action (other than an attack) that has a chance of failure. When the outcome is uncertain, the dice determine the results. For every ability check, the DM decides which of the six abilities is relevant to the task at hand and the difficulty of the task, represented by a Difficulty Class."

"CONTESTS
Sometimes one character's or monster's efforts are directly opposed to another's. This can occur when both of them are trying to do the same thing and only one can succeed, such as attempting to snatch up a magic ring that has fallen on the floor. This situation also applies when one of them is trying to prevent the other one from accomplishing a goal—for example, when a monster tries to force open a door that an adventurer is holding closed. In situations like these, the outcome is determined by a special form of ability check called a contest."

The DM assigns a DC to take away the opponents sword or sets a contested skill check likely athletics (strength), perhaps the DM gives the defender advantage on the check because they are already holding the sword and it is sharp making it harder to take away than to hold.

The rules cover the DM devising skill checks for any action a player decides to take. Trying to take away an opponents weapon during combat would be just such a skill check and it doesn't require home brew rules ... it requires the DM to devise an appropriate skill check which is what the DM has to do all the time anyway since characters will very rarely just do the obvious thing :)




conversely, where you play, people read far too little of the rules that are there...
which, as far as i am concerned is fine, cuz AL is unnecessarily restrictive.

I think it's great that you have had positive experiences with S8/S9.
I just know that my enjoyment of the game has gone down each year that AL clarifies (clamps down on) the rules.
I think it is good to warn potential players that AL is a wonky form of Dnd, and if they didn't like DnD it might be the AL rules, not DnD.

I tend to think we just read what is written in the AL material without interference from AL Admins :). If the AL Admins wanted it to say something else more restrictive then I like to think they might have written it that way. (Maybe it the RAW vs RAI of the AL world :) ).

AL is a bit wonky I agree, especially for a new player, since most of the content was designed around XP, gold and magic items being shared with a party. On the other hand, the convenience, scheduling and not having to organize a group can be real benefits for an experience that, if done well, is pretty much the way D&D runs when playing separate modules that aren't linked into a campaign.

Anyway, thanks for chatting, I think anyone reading the thread will understand that AL can vary from location to location and DM to DM and that if they are interested in trying out D&D then AL isn't a bad option that should be a bit easier to find than most local groups.

[ZorroGames]

One local shop has AL supported two nights a week but home-brew is Allocated to other nights with less attendance (and competition from games like MtG tournaments,) one shop explicitly and openly does not support AL - we don’t play AL here, no one wanted it after season X - and a third shop claims it is AL but the DMs say they are “AL like” games (which is IMO as an 0D&D veteran) is essentially home brew lite.

Check out the shops and try various DMs/shops until You find what works for you. Been that way since the beginning.