I'm a regular DM for my local game store and have been running Adventure League for a couple of months now. Since I'm not playing as much as I'd like, I'm glad that the DM gets player XP rewards for running games. However, I'm not sure if I'm reading the rules right.
The Adventure League book seems to indicate that the DM gets XP by "episode" and not by game session. So, I've run 9 sessions of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but have completed only the first three episodes.
This seems to indicate that I've earned 3*300 XP (900 total) while my players have capped out at 2700 XP. Is this accurate? At this rate if I want to join in and play a game I'll be well behind everyone else at the table.....
That is accurate mate. DM exp is never going to keep you up with the players exp despite the amount of people telling you it does or it will. (They will normally say 'Run more scenarios more often!')
I run expeditions. In the early scenarios after 1-1, players cap is between 600 and 450 (ie they can earn max and min). DMs exp is 300. This continues on until sometime later where DM exp drops to 200 exp for Expeditions scenario. Players caps are still 600/450. (this player cap does increase in the most recent AL scenarios)
I get to play Encounters ( so far) and I run expeditions. However for DM's that do both then yeah, you are looking at 300-200 exp episodes /scenarios until you start to hit the 5-10 tier stuff.
Matthew
Okay, I just wanted to be clear that I understood the rule correctly. I thought they may have been loose with their "episode" versus "session" terminology.
Tyranthraxus,
Actually, all Expeditions modules are 200XP times the tier of play (ALPG, p.12) -- the early mods that say 300XP were written before the DM XP rules were finalized and they never got updated.
You might want to update your character logs.
Finarvyn,
Yes, you receive XP based on the number of Encounters episodes you run, as Tyranthraxus points out. Note that if you continue to run Horde as Casual Play after the Encounters season is over, the episodes where the party is expected to be 5th level and above are tier 2, so are worth 600XP per episode rather than 300XP.
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Pauper
Finarvyn wrote:
Pauper: THen my issue here is ,,, why not update them now? Would take someone 5 minutes with a pdf editor.
You cant talk about the change in an online forum or facebook post and expect that information to translate to every dm. THere will be far more dms who rely on the players guide for its accuracy than an online forum/facebook post for the changelog.
Thanks for pointing it out. I was not aware than the 300 for some scenarios had been changed to 200. I assumed they had just corrected themselves and let the earlier ones slide.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
It also doesn't address Defiance in Phlan -- does that then become 200xp for the DM, and only if you run all 5 parts of it instead of 500xp for the entire expedition?
Edited to add: I was also assuming that this was a case of "specific beats general" -- those Expeditions or Encounters marked as 300xp, or Defiance, remained as marked, and anything else (Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Lost Mines of Phandelver, Rise of Tiamat, etc) were under the 200xp rule. That seems like the most sane way to deal with it as the modules are out in the wild, and not everyone is going to see the notice for the change.
Well, Defiance isn't like other modules -- my acquaintance isn't huge, but I don't know anybody who's run all five scenarios of Defiance in one sitting, which is what you'd have to do to get the 200XP you get for running other DDEX mods. (I myself only got through three scenarios when I ran it for our local group.)
In addition, the reward structure for Defiance supports the idea that you can break it up and run individual scenarios at conventions or in other venues where a quick, focused play session is desirable. I'm OK with leaving Defiance as the 'odd duck', because it's already clearly an odd duck compared to other DDEX mods. DDEX1-2 and above are all more traditional mods, so there's no really good reason for them to give varying DM rewards.
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Pauper
Defiance in Phlan is 100xp per scenario, IIRC.
Blade2718 wrote:
Mascle was making the comment that, if you change the award written in DDEX1-2 to match the ALPG guidelines, shouldn't you also change the award written in DDEX1-1 to do the same?
My point was that there are good reasons to leave DDEX1-1 as written, but make sure that DDEX1-2 (and 1-3) match the other DDEX modules for DM awards.
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Pauper
On a related note - I don't know whether this was intended or simply an oversight, but unlike Encounters/Home Play (which grant DM rewards at the end of each episode/adventure) - the various expeditions missions grant DM Rewards at the end of each session.
At my FLGS - most expeditions seem to take 2 sessions to complete in the time slot we have available (2 1/2 hrs). While I don't think its intentional - based on the wording this does allow DMs to gain the XP/downtime twice for a single run through.
Kalani wrote:
Just to clarify, the xp given in the Expeditions adventures is correct. No update needed. You receive 100 for each mini-mod in 1-1, 300 for 1-2 and 1-3, and 200 for 1-4 and beyond.
Greg Marks
Associated Resource Manager, DnDAL
Thanyou Skerrit!,
Looks Pauper, my exp logsheets dont need a changin! 
It is per adventure. Not session.
Looks like my logsheets do need changing!
While we are here, Id just like to take a moment to thank Greg and the team on how well Expeditions are turning out. Ive only run them so far up to Scroll thief but Ive really enjoyed the storyline s ofar. The changeup in tone, the homages Ive been seeing and the enjoyment my players are getting out of it. Its a credit the to not only the writers who we need to hear more about but also the campaign admins for linking up the stories so well.