Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 5:34:29	In the adventurers league at my local game store we started with 2 consecutive sessions where we began at first level got 2nd level and played the next session at 2nd. Then on my third visit we suddenly were told that today’s session would be using 5th level characters. Luckily I had been playing with creating characters and had a third level I could easily level up to 5 and get in. Now Im told for next week we are going back to the third level characters. Im wondering is this by design? It would have seemed far more logical and more enjoyable to have played the upcoming third level adventure in order as to allow us to enjoy leveling up our characters and get some of the continuity I tend to enjoy. I find the collection of resources and the development of my character as part of the fun and this style has thrown that off. This has turned adventurers league into just character experimentation and killed my emersion a bit.
#2 Primarchx Apr 23, 2015 5:42:56	How many DMs are running at that store?  How many players?  Encounters is only meant for 1-4th but I've seen some Encounters DMs continue with their core players and just run Casual Play with HotDQ/RoT at higher level in the same time slot because that's what they want to do.
#3 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 5:49:49	There are usually 2 DMs who seem to be running the same adventure side by side. Also the number of players who show up varies wildly. I asked one of the DMs if this would be along term thing and they indicated that it would continue for many months but that was before the level 5 session. I will try to get a second to ask one of the DMs about it and try to make my persuasion check to get what I want ;) Still having fun trying out different builds and if thats all it ever is I will still keep playing especialy if we keep this up into higher levels. Thanks.
#4 LefferDP Apr 23, 2015 6:46:40	Sounds like your store is just following the Season 2 progression for Expeditions. DDEX2-1 is for 1-2 level and DDEX2-2 is for 1-4 level while DDEX2-3 and DDEX2-4 are for 5-10 play.   Then on my third visit we suddenly were told that today’s session would be using 5th level characters.
#5 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 6:55:32	I have learned to ask at the end of the session what levels the next session will be using. As far as I know there is no place these things are being posted and no one has made me aware of any. For the level 5 session we were told to either level up our first characters to level 5  but that they would no longer be valid when we went back to level 3. Or to just build a level 5 character from scratch for the next sessions. Thanks for your response.
#6 LefferDP Apr 23, 2015 7:18:22	MaximumPain wrote:
#7 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 7:48:14	So I was just supposed to not play in the level 5 session? I made it to every session offered and earned all experiance I could earn but there was no way I could have made level 5 in two sessions. I even noticed a guy with a level 7 eldrich knight last night and there was no way he made that level in the 4 sessions that have been offered only one of which was a level 5 session. Seems the DMs are running it fast and lose. Of course I think getting people playing is the most important thing. Originally I was excited by the factions and the potential to play in a wizards organized game where my character could level up session to session and learn about a part of the world I know nothing about. Also building relationships with other character run by people I dont know where we experiance things in the world together. Its turned into a character testing ground where character development is meaningless and relationships are flippant as the groups are unstable. Last night we had 9 players which was just chaos and greed as we bothced the whole mission by splittling up and characters running to loot chests triggering new areas in the middle of feirce battles which we were losing badly anyway.
#8 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 7:48:55	Looking at the guide you posted. Thanks.
#9 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 7:50:37	Not sure where the catching up rules are in all those documents if you could give me a hint please? Thanks.
#10 LefferDP Apr 23, 2015 8:09:19	MaximumPain wrote:
#11 Coredump00 Apr 23, 2015 9:08:58	It sounds like your store is being a bit fast and loose with the AL rules.  Just so you know...   The only 'valid' process for an AL character is to start at 1st level with 0XP, and to go up levels as you gain XP. IF you are 4th level, and need to play in a Tier 2 adventure (levels 5-10), then you may spend Downtime Days and Gold in order to "Catch up"  to 5th level. (in theory, catching up with your friends that are already 5th level and waiting for you) You may not start at any level besides 1 You may not "jump" or "catch up" except for 4th to 5th (or 10th to 11th) You may not go back down.   It sounds like they are playing various Expedition modules. (are they taking about 4 hours each?) Some of those are Tier 1 (lvls 1-4) and some are Tier 2 (lvls 5-10). If I were them, I would  make sure to have a Tier 1 module going each week....but they don't have to. You can ask them to do so, or just keep checking what they are running each week.   Are these games on the weekend?  You may want to ask if they have an Encounters session you could get involved in; where they are running the beginning "Episodes" of Princes of the Apocalypse.
#12 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 9:58:05	We started in MulMaster for the low level modules. Then still in mulmaster for the level 5 we did a mission with a mud filled tower which went off very well. And last night we went to some mines with a medusa and some land sharks which did not go so well due to to many players being greedy and splitting up and being random. The games are every wednesday and it seems like there are 3 DMs who may or may not be there on a given week. In my opinion people should be helped to play if they dont have the correct levels. Of course with a random selection of players who may or may not make it to any given session that has to be hard. we had a kid join us with a poorly made claric who I helped up to 5th level and helped to tune his character to decent power. He had came by the previous week but was turned away due to not have a character. He really wanted to play and Im glad he got the chance.
#13 Skerrit Apr 23, 2015 11:23:27	My suggestion for your store (since you seem to have multiple tables), would be to run different adventures. Run through the low level adventures at one table and the high level adventures at another. The in season 2 adventures are not intended to be played in numberical order all by the same character (which is impossible since the level bands are different). As someone pointed out, the high level adventurers are for those with characters that made 5-10 last season with the low level track for those 1-4.
#14 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 11:28:26	I will discuss this with the DMs the next chance I get. I actually wouldnt mind being a DM if they are short handed. Im already running my own weekend game right now and have a lot experiance running various versions of D&D and several other RP systems.
#15 Avross Apr 23, 2015 11:32:26	The underlying core of the problem is that the progression of Season 2 Expeditions doesn't work for a "Run them in order". DDEX2-1 and DDEX2-2 are for first tier characters (1st/2nd and 1st-4th respectively) and DDEX 2-3 and DDEX 2-4 are for second tier characters (5th -10th).   AL rules do not allow for you to jump your character around in levels (beyond the "Catching up Rules" which allow you to 'skip' 4th and jump to 5th.)     Why did they design it this way? I'm not sure myself, but I would suspect that it's because you have a bunch of players who ran all of Season One and want to continue with their existing characters.   The expectation seems to be that new players to Expeditions should run 2-1 and 2-2 and then skip to 2-5 and so on.    ...the problem is that not everything is released, and you're going to run out of content quickly.   What options do we have?  We beat this to death at our LGS, and didn't come up with a great answer.   Talk to your local organizer about what they are doing....but here were the choices as we saw them: Run the Season One Expeditions (again) until people have characters which can legally (by AL rules) run Tier 2 content. Run Encounters sessions until people have characters which can legally (by AL rules) run Tier 2 content. Run Lost Mines until people have characters which can legally (by AL rules) run Tier 2 content. Create 5th level characters and accept that you're off the rails and no longer running AL-legal games.   And as much as this SUCKS...if, one week, your store is only running a Tier Two Encounters session (for whatever reason)...then according to AL rules you can't play.     Somewhere along the line, they thought it would be a great idea to release the Season Two content in conjunction with various cons....and from a PR standpoint, that might have been the right call...but it left a hole in the available content.
#16 Skerrit Apr 23, 2015 11:37:29	Avross wrote:
#17 MaximumPain Apr 23, 2015 12:22:52	Looking at the adventures page for AL I have discovered that they are running them in the exact order they are listed on the page verbatum. Just gonna have fun and see where it goes. Thanks for all the responses everyone.
#18 Byakugan01 Apr 24, 2015 5:33:00	Sounds like the table you played 2 expeditions...then they possibly skipped several chapters into the module and are running through the main earth cult 'temple'.  That area should be  -really- hard for 5th level characters.  The land sharks can still KO squishy characters in 1 round at that level. Especially if they have riders.    I assume they skipped stuff cuz they are way ahead of where folks ought to be at this point...if they did 2 expeditions then they've only had 4 sessions max since the season started.  Level 1-4 is supposed to take 9-13 sessions.      Our LGS has a table that has been running nothing but expeditions. Basically the expeditions reward more xp and magic items so they are min-maxed and a bit loot happy.
#19 MaximumPain Apr 24, 2015 8:15:46	They had 2 tables that ran all low level stuff for two sessions then switched to the very tough lvl 5 content. Non magic users should have had some kind of magic weapons as several things we encountered had resistences one a group of golems that only the casters could hurt. Luckely in the first adventure we were caster heavy so we managed to deal with the puddings and elementals and at least stuff was only resistant rather then immune like those damned golems. Of course with the party splitting up and not working together that encounter was much harder then it had to be... part of the fun of an open table though lol. I will be curious to see what next week brings as this whole deal is fast and lose. In a way I like the ability to just try different characters out once I got over the loss of continuity and the fact that the parties are different every week due to no shows. Id rather see people be able to join in and play and have fun then be forced to follow strict character rules that really wont matter in the long run.
#20 MaximumPain Apr 24, 2015 10:13:53	Im going to jump ship and start playing at another location that sounds like they are running this correctly. talked to the coordinator as I was buying my DMs guide today and he told me they are running encounters until everyone is ready for the 5-10 level content. Spunds like a better environment.