Encounters & Renown/Downtime Awards - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 akaddk Nov 30, 2014 22:12:56	This has been very problematic. With 8-9 sessions being required per episode, being there at the end session, even if you've participated in 8 of the 9 sessions, is not a requirement that everyone can fulfil simply due to life reasons. But what if people have been interpreting this rule incorrectly? "Each character participating in this episode can earn a maximum of 600 XP (the amount that will take a 2nd-level character to 3rd level). At the end of this episode, each character also gains 1 renown point in his or her faction."
#2 Tyranthraxus Nov 30, 2014 23:39:49	They can interpret it all they want. If you arnt there for the end of the episode/part session then you do miss out. Im sure Robert Adducii has said that in the thread. GMs give out exp per session. If a gm isnt doing that, then he/she isnt being a proper AL dm and it is not an AL game. Renown is awarded at the end of the episode. So again, if you miss the session then you miss the renown. This has happened to me twice due to 'life reasons'
#3 CoreyartustheSecond Dec 01, 2014 0:08:59	Yeah, that's a problem. You can play one session, and skip the rest, then come back for that last session and get your Renown. It's a problem with the system that no one seems too interested in saying that they're addressing right now (and maybe they have, but I've not seen it). Hopefully it will change with the next campaign. But this first "season" revealed a lot of logistical problems--Renown in Encounters being just one of them. We DMs had to make it very very clear to our players at our specific tables at my store that there was a specfic play date that they had to attend once we realized this was going to be the situation. Some of them got screwed. So I feel your pain. Let's hope it's addressed next time.
#4 akaddk Dec 01, 2014 1:19:50	Tyranthraxus wrote:
#5 Pauper Dec 01, 2014 7:05:54	Going to copy/paste the Q&A from the unofficial Recommended Rulings thread: So I wasn't able to attend every session of the latest Encounters season. What rewards do I get? Your character absolutely gets to keep the XP and gold awarded at the end of each session she participated in. If your character received any magic items at the end of a session, she can keep those as well as long as they are logged. What other awards you're eligible for depend on your DM and whether or not you attended the last session of an episode, since that's when renown and downtime days are awarded (ALPG, pp.10-11). The current consensus appears to be that, if you attended the last session of the episode, the DM can award your character full renown and downtime days for the episode (this is most appropriate if your character reached the XP cap for the episode, in effect 'fully participating' in the episode), or can award full renown and a pro-rated number of downtime days based on the ratio of sessions you attended. (So if you attended two of the four sessions run for that episode, the DM would award you 5 downtime days out of the normal 10.) If you didn't attend the last session of the episode but attend a later session, the DM can award your character pro-rated downtime days based on the ratio of sessions you attended; the DM can also award renown if you attended at least half of the episode's sessions. You would log these awards on your log for the current session with a note that they were awarded retroactively for the previous episode.
#6 akaddk Dec 01, 2014 20:25:03	XP and treasure I have no issue with, it's just downtime and renown that seem problematic. A for instance is one player who has attended roughly 90% of sessions however by bad luck or happenstance or DM's forgetting to award it, has only accrued 1 renown and 10 downtime despite us being up to episode 6.
#7 guachi Dec 08, 2014 20:23:53	Pauper wrote:
#8 TheBreen Dec 09, 2014 11:18:25	I'm starting to DM a second run-through of Expeditions for our group (in addition to one that's a few adventures in, run by another DM). I'm pretty sure that the system I'm going with will be to award full downtime to any PC that participated in the adventure, and renown to any PC that participated in the part of the adventure that earned the renown. However, PCs that don't participate in the final session of a multi-session adventure will not get their renown and downtime days until the rest of the party has completed the adventure. While we have players that can only attend once in a while, we tend to know who they are and are at least in contact with them so it's not hard for us to let them know when they can add the renown and/or downtime. I understand this may not work in places where the player numbers are large and in constant flux, but I think this will work well for us.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

akaddk

Nov 30, 2014 22:12:56

This has been very problematic. With 8-9 sessions being required per episode, being there at the end session, even if you've participated in 8 of the 9 sessions, is not a requirement that everyone can fulfil simply due to life reasons. But what if people have been interpreting this rule incorrectly?

"Each character participating in this episode can earn a maximum of 600 XP (the amount that will take a 2nd-level character to 3rd level). At the end of this episode, each character also gains 1 renown point in his or her faction."

Tyranthraxus

Nov 30, 2014 23:39:49

They can interpret it all they want. If you arnt there for the end of the episode/part session then you do miss out. Im sure Robert Adducii has said that in the thread.

GMs give out exp per session. If a gm isnt doing that, then he/she isnt being a proper AL dm and it is not an AL game. Renown is awarded at the end of the episode. So again, if you miss the session then you miss the renown. This has happened to me twice due to 'life reasons'

CoreyartustheSecond

Dec 01, 2014 0:08:59

Yeah, that's a problem. You can play one session, and skip the rest, then come back for that last session and get your Renown. It's a problem with the system that no one seems too interested in saying that they're addressing right now (and maybe they have, but I've not seen it). Hopefully it will change with the next campaign. But this first "season" revealed a lot of logistical problems--Renown in Encounters being just one of them.

We DMs had to make it very very clear to our players at our specific tables at my store that there was a specfic play date that they had to attend once we realized this was going to be the situation. Some of them got screwed. So I feel your pain. Let's hope it's addressed next time.

akaddk

Dec 01, 2014 1:19:50

Tyranthraxus wrote:

Pauper

Dec 01, 2014 7:05:54

Going to copy/paste the Q&A from the unofficial Recommended Rulings thread:

So I wasn't able to attend every session of the latest Encounters season. What rewards do I get?

Your character absolutely gets to keep the XP and gold awarded at the end of each session she participated in. If your character received any magic items at the end of a session, she can keep those as well as long as they are logged.

What other awards you're eligible for depend on your DM and whether or not you attended the last session of an episode, since that's when renown and downtime days are awarded (ALPG, pp.10-11). The current consensus appears to be that, if you attended the last session of the episode, the DM can award your character full renown and downtime days for the episode (this is most appropriate if your character reached the XP cap for the episode, in effect 'fully participating' in the episode), or can award full renown and a pro-rated number of downtime days based on the ratio of sessions you attended. (So if you attended two of the four sessions run for that episode, the DM would award you 5 downtime days out of the normal 10.) If you didn't attend the last session of the episode but attend a later session, the DM can award your character pro-rated downtime days based on the ratio of sessions you attended; the DM can also award renown if you attended at least half of the episode's sessions. You would log these awards on your log for the current session with a note that they were awarded retroactively for the previous episode.

akaddk

Dec 01, 2014 20:25:03

XP and treasure I have no issue with, it's just downtime and renown that seem problematic. A for instance is one player who has attended roughly 90% of sessions however by bad luck or happenstance or DM's forgetting to award it, has only accrued 1 renown and 10 downtime despite us being up to episode 6.

guachi

Dec 08, 2014 20:23:53

Pauper wrote:

TheBreen

Dec 09, 2014 11:18:25

I'm starting to DM a second run-through of Expeditions for our group (in addition to one that's a few adventures in, run by another DM). I'm pretty sure that the system I'm going with will be to award full downtime to any PC that participated in the adventure, and renown to any PC that participated in the part of the adventure that earned the renown. However, PCs that don't participate in the final session of a multi-session adventure will not get their renown and downtime days until the rest of the party has completed the adventure.

While we have players that can only attend once in a while, we tend to know who they are and are at least in contact with them so it's not hard for us to let them know when they can add the renown and/or downtime. I understand this may not work in places where the player numbers are large and in constant flux, but I think this will work well for us.