I'm being told by someone that play at home for Hoard of the Dragon Queen isn't official for Adventurer's League, and that Encounters stops at level 5 - meaning that there's no support past the current season of Encounters outside of finding sessions of Expeditions and jumping in.
If I run my players through Hoard of the Dragon Queen, can they use those characters (at whatever level they land) in other organized play games?
I can see where people would be confused, since sometimes Adventurers League is treated as a single program.
My understanding is that Encounters and Expeditions are two different programs within the larger Adventurer's League structure, though there are ways to play the same character in both:
- If you start a character in Encounters, that character can play in Expeditions games of the correct level band, even if the character is still being played in Encounters.
- If you start a character in Expeditions, that character can join an Encounters season as long as the character is level 1 or 2.
Since Encounters is targeted at new players, it features low-level characters; character playing Encounters need to be level 1 or 2 to participate. Higher level characters (including characters that have just finished an Encounters season) cannot join an Encounters game.
Home play, by my understanding, is effectively 'Expeditions at home' using WotC published modules rather than the ones available to store organizers. (Currently Horde of the Dragon Queen and Lost Mine of Phandelver are both available for home play.) As long as players are logging their play sessions, and the game is being run by AL standards, those characters are legal to play in any Expeditions modules of the correct level band, and while they are below level 3 can join an Encounters season concurrently with their home play. Once those characters hit level 3, though, they're no longer legal to play in an Encounters season.
I'd appreciate a heads-up if I'm mistaken or confused about this, as this is how I plan to organize my FLGS's Adventurers League play sessions.
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Pauper
Huh. Is the level cap on Encounters going to go up? You'd naturally hit 3 pretty fast given the difficulty of the fights in encounters.
That's the biggest point I think I might be confused on -- my understanding is that the 'Encounter-cized' versions of the published mods are just the episodes that get you to level 3, because once you hit 3 you're no longer eligible for further Encounters play.
It could be that you can finish the Encounters season you start (or join) no matter your level, but you just can't join a new Encounters season with a level 3+ character.
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Pauper
I have to say... I think I'm even more confused now. 
How is one supposed to use things like the Faction system if Encounters - the only form of organized play a lot of stores will be doing regularly - caps at 3?
TiaNadiezja wrote:
Page 34 of this Encounters season is a page titled Additional Play.
Ask your local Encounters organizer which option from this page they plan to do once the season is over (if any).
Short version ...
(1) purchase Hoard of the Dragon Queen and keep going. The kit includes certificates for doing so.
(2) play Expeditions
When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. In my case, my "hammer" is my previous experience with the RPGA. So, in those terms my view is…
The Adventurers League is a real-world organization. The admins are the executives, the regional coordinators are subordinate officers (whose specific powers have not yet been made clear) and the regular players and DMs are the membership. So the AL is the erstwhile replacement for the RPGA.
The "season" is the metaphorical complete "living" campaign. In the current case, the Tyranny of Dragons. Each season (campaign) will last for months, rather than years. Although characters will be allowed to carry over from one season to the next, the focus of each new season is likely to again be capturing new players.
Within the campaign, there are three types of adventures (modules).
* Epics are the super-modules which can only be played at a few large, exclusive conventions. They are special in lots of ways, including perks for players, characters and DMs. They may also influence the actual course of the campaign. If you don't go to these conventions you'll never play one, though you may read about the results after an event is retired.
* Encounters is the opposite end of the spectrum. Designed specifically to bring in new players (and thus new revenue for WotC), these adventures are for beginning characters only. They are recommended for characters of 1st and 2nd levels, though a forum entry from Skerrit indicates that characters up to 4th level are permitted. (This is the first "Tier" of character levels.) By design, they are meant to entice new players to take up the hobby for the first time (or to return to D&D after an absence). Because of this focus, players who wish to continue playing Encounters-level events will eventually need to create additional characters as the old ones "level out."
* Expeditions are the continuation of the Encounters story lines. For example, the first three "episodes" (out of eight) of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure are made available for free in PDF form for stores to run as Encounters episodes. In order to run the remaining five episodes (which would be as Expeditions), someone has to purchase the hardback adventure book. Thus, if WotC is successful in hooking players they see a financial return and the hobby survives. ;o)
Both Encounters and Expeditions may be run as "home play" events in addition to public events. The primary difference is the level of support from Wizards. Home play events do not receive materials like magic item certificates (required only for trade, not proof of ownership) or the very cool folios for DMs and factions. However, by recording all the relevant information in the characters Adventurers Logsheet, all the results of home play are 100% legal for public play (including conventions) as well.
I hope I've explained this well, and look forward to learning from any errors I've made. ;o)
TheBreen wrote:
Uthrac wrote:
TiaNadiezja wrote:
Uthrac wrote:
TiaNadiezja wrote:
TiaNadiezja wrote:
I think this graph shows it nicely:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?301888-Learn-about-D-amp-D-organized-play-options/page30&p=6368826&viewfull=1#post6368826
My plans at the moment, and why I'm suddenly asking all these questions:
While searching for a store that is doing Encounters, I missed the first session, and the second session conflicted with the schedule of a regular player in my home game who's interested in playing AL stuff. I was going to dig up some players, plus her, and run the first two sessions of Hoard so she and I could go to an Encounters game together and she wouldn't feel like she'd fallen behind (and I could see that first session, myself).
The session of Encounters I played awarded XP in a way drastically different from the core rules - by my own math, each character should have gotten a couple of hundred XP; we got 50 each instead. I don't know if reduced XP is a feature of Encounters or just something that DM did. The kobolds we killed alone would have earned more than 50 XP/character, not counting the more powerful foes. I thus don't know if, by giving XP by the rules in Basic, I'd be breaking people's ability to continue using their characters in Encounters.
So... yeah. I've never done organized play before, but having a guaranteed regular place to play instead of DMing sounds nice.
TheBreen wrote:
TiaNadiezja wrote:
[quote="Pauper"]
That's the biggest point I think I might be confused on -- my understanding is that the 'Encounter-cized' versions of the published mods are just the episodes that get you to level 3, because once you hit 3 you're no longer eligible for further Encounters play.
It could be that you can finish the Encounters season you start (or join) no matter your level, but you just can't join a new Encounters season with a level 3+ character.
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Pauper
At the store where I participate, we are doing encounter (for beginner) on WEdnesday, but my DM is telling me that the only diffrence between encounter and expedition it the duration of the adventure. Encounter is suppose to be around 2 hours per episode, while expedition are aorund 4 hours per episode.
but in both encounter and expedition we should go from 1 to 15.
The "level cap" are the Tier of play, so 1-4, 5-10, 11-16, 17-20. So if you play an tier 1 adventure, any character between level 1 and 4 that have been created by the AL rule (point buy 27 point, average HP per level, no houserule in character creation (so if your DM at home let you play a Acid dragon sorcerer and transform fireball into Acidball even if it make a lot of sense, since there is only 2 acid spell in the sorcerer spell list (Acid splash and Chromatic sphere).and play only on adventure release by WotC.
you don't need the item certificate to have an item, but a GM can restrict your magical item if he believe that you have too many (in the starter kit you got a longsword+1, a staff of defense, a rign of protection+1 and a HEW a battleaxe+1 max damage VS plant, so if you come to a game with a greatsowrd +1, the dm will probably tell you you cannot use it, since greatsword+1 have not been released in the starter set, If you come with the longsword+1, staff of defense and ring or protection, the DM might tell you to choose 1 because it seem odd that you would have all the item from the start kit.
Also you the same character cannot play the same episode twice, so if that character already did the complete starter kit, he need a new character to play it again.
TLDR: The player itself doesn't matter. As long as the character didn't do that adventure, obey the AL creation rule and is a level within the Tier boundary, the player can play with that character, but soe restriction might be apply (restricting some magical item or some special ability like Acidball instead of fireball)
Sorxores wrote:
Pauper wrote:
It's easy for a message like this to be lost in an Internet forum. However, Wizards presently offers no place on their site to give feedback specifically for Adventurer's League, so I felt that this was the most appropriate place to so.
Some aspects of the Adventurer's League rules have been detrimental to my play experience in 5th edition. Specifically, the restrictions against private play of Expeditions make organizing for my local Los Angeles group effectively impossible.
In 4e LFR, even when Wizards still organized the campaign, players could register and report their games as private. Starting in 2008, a local player who wanted to champion LFR started organizing weekly games on Friday nights using this private play option. Players would come from all over Los Angeles (a considerable drive with traffic) and hosts would invite the players into their homes. Players took turns DMing. Usually, there would be multiple tables in different places on the same night. The list of people in the mustering emails numbered well over 100 individuals. Considering how many of these people went on to purchase D&D books and DDI subscriptions, Wizards really ought to consider sending this guy a letter of official recognition and thanks 
With 5e out and Adventurer's League in full swing, most of us were very excited to switch over to the new edition. You can imagine our dismay when we learned from our regional AL coordinator that continuing to play as we had is all but impossible. We have been told that our sign-ups for these events must be open to everyone. This has not been a problem in the past, since the organizer has freely added to the email list, and everyone has fair access to the games on a first-come-first-served basis. We have been told that our games must be sanctioned by a store in the Wizards Play Network. This is tricky, but there are many great stores in the LA area who would be happy to support such a large and dedicated group of players. Finally, our games must take place in public spaces, and it is this requirement in conjunction with the second that makes private play impossible.
Though our area contains many game stores, almost all of these stores have strong communities that play Magic: The Gathering and hold weekly Friday Night Magic events. These events take up most of the available play space. These stores only stay open so late, making a game after work and travel to the venue logistically impossible.
Yes, we could play at a public venue other than a game store, but this would likely add an expense that would make the games prohibitive to some players. It also seems to violate the spirit of the AL rules (if not the letter). We could also play on days other than Friday, but this has become an established game time for over six years, and players have made space in their busy schedules to make weekly games possible. Most of our players are busy, working adults from all across LA; I cannot overstate the convenience factor that home play provides.
What makes me saddest about these rules is the loss of player agency. My girlfriend and I frequently volunteered to host and DM during 4e, inviting perfect strangers into our house to play. With the current rules, we can no longer play this game the way we want to play it.
I understand that Wizards wants to support the Friendly Local Gaming Stores that sell their products. However, this cannot possibly be worth sacrificing the beautiful gaming communities like ours and many others'. I hope that the AL organizers will take this into consideration and offer a private play option soon, before they begin to alienate the customers like me and the others with whom I have shared so many great gaming experiences.
(TL;DR: If it's too hard to play the game in a reasonably convenient manner, you discourage participation in the Adventurer's League.)
Sincerely,
Gabe
Sorxores wrote:
Uthrac wrote: