These are slated to release tomorrow. Here' s the blurbs:
DDEX1-4 Dues for the Dead
Designer: Steve Winter
Characters of Level 1-4
Playtime: 4 hours
Premiere: Fan Expo Canada, August 28-31
Available for Download: 9/22/2014
Available for play: 10/1/2014
For years, the Most Solemn Order of the Silent Shroud has tended the dead at Valinghen graveyard, providing them a peaceful eternal rest. Now, that rest has been disturbed by a necromancer seeking out a key to re-activate the Pool of Radiance. A four-hour adventure for levels 1-4.
All three are now available to download. Currently printing them out and will be reading them tonight alongside my MM. 
Are you running all of them in October Heegz?
Yes! I'm actually going to run them for my home group this weekend, and then for my gaming club in October once we finish LMOP. I should be done reading them and prepped by Friday.
You are running all 3 on the same day? THat would be like a 12 hour session! Are you crazy ? 
Hah! No... I'll probably run 1-4 on Friday. If we don't get it done, we will finish it Saturday. Otherwise I might try running 1-5 on Saturday. My home group is not done with HOTDQ yet though, so we may split things up between that and 1-4. It is really nice doing a trial run at home before running them in public.
DM Heegz: Have you noticed this. For expeditions Scenarios 1-9 are 1-4 tier scenarios. For the last 8 of these you can earn a max of 600 exp or a min of 475.
Scenario 1 is special and you can earn a max of 500 exp (although very very few groups actually would, Id more consistently say 300 exp here).
So doing the Math here means that 8x600 = 5400 +300 = 5700
Now after looking at the PHB experience table level 5 is 6500 exp. This is the 'lowest' level you can be to run in the 5-10 bracket of games..
This is of course all assuming players earn max EXP. If you are playing on Weak/v Weak tables you might even be earning the min of 475 (if there are less monsters = less exp)
Lets say everyone earned 475 for all of those last 8 and 300 for Defiance
8*475= 3800 + 300 = 4100 exp
4100 is a long way belong 6500 exp for level 5.
DM Heegz: Am I missing something here? Is my Math wrong? Im seeing a big upcoming issue here or am I just seeing things?
I haven't looked at the maths yet. Based on what you are saying, they are artificially capping Expeditions so that you can't level out of them until the first level 5 adventure is released. Looks like a pretty sound plan to me. At home I'm not following the XP guidelines. We are swapping out characters left and right and they die sometimes, and well, it is mostly experimental really. I have yet to DM these in the public group and will use the guidelines exactly as published. I'm a bit tired from grading exams, so I won't look up the math tonight. I'll try to make it a point to do so later this week though.
Oh, and I've gone through quite a few of the creatures. Pretty interesting stat blocks, and I'm excited to finish reading the adventures. I think the Expeditions have been my favorite stories so far, or at least 1-2 and 1-3 were. Lots of fun memories that were outside of the norm from my experience.
DM Heegz: Um... what game are you running at home? You do realise that Expeditions scenarios cannot be run at home right? They HAVE to be run at a store and follow the AL rules. I cant run them at the store, keep my copy and then run it at home.
I just ran the math again, you cannot technically take a character through 1-1 to 1-9 and then to 1-10. There is just not enough exp there UNLESS stuff after 1-6 is offering more than 600 exp per scenario.
I think there are going to be a lot of people stuck in no mans land when 1-10 arrives.
Also: DM Heegz the problem is leveling out of the ability to play them, the problem is having the levels required to PLAY them.
At home we finished LMOP, are running Hoard, and just finished the third Expedition adventure, plus fiddling with some homebrew stuff.
My public group is still in LMOP, and going to Expeditions with new PCs as soon as they beat it (or die trying). Saving Hoard for last because I want to see how part 2 plays out at home.
There is nothing preventing someone from running Expeditions at home. I also have a public gaming group, and I keep all my minis, tokens, maps and print outs in the same box. Home play is where I figure out the adventure in preparation for my public gaming group. I can't imagine anyone would have an issue with this. None of these home PCs are used for official AL play, and we don't record on the AL logsheets at home.
I'm not personally interested in playing an official AL PC, and so I don't log my DM hours from the public group either. I think about 4-5 of my players in the public group are keeping their logsheets and most of them are starting their third page already. They are using pregens in LMOP, and when it's not their turn, they are usually browsing my PHB for their next PC for Expeditions.
BTW, I couldn't resist looking at the math. I'm not sure if I'll have read enough to post on them before I get too tired and go to sleep though.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
DM_HEEGZ wrote:
The tier 1-4 adventures that are optimized for 1st level (that's only 1-1) offers 500 xp max. The ones optimzed for 2nd-level offered 600 max. The ones optimized for 3rd-level offer 750 xp max (I think that starts with 1-7, don't recall off the top of my head). That's your difference. Add into that some PCs (though not all) will have experience from Encounters, LMoP or the Epic. Of course we also plan to release some more low level adventures. So even if you only play Expeditions adventures, you will still be able to play the 5-10 tier adventures, even if you can't play them the month they come out you should be able to play them within a month or two.
Thanks Skerrit!
I had actually started to assume that around 1-7 onwards they would start to cater to a higher base level than 2. Thanks for the confirmation however.