Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Emirikol Mar 07, 2015 8:16:32	All, I'm considering jumping into DMing for AL, but I'm hesitant.  I'm not sure why I would do this over other organized play.   As a DM, I'm just serving myself out for a game store and I have no control over the events, the players, etc.  Why would I do this and not some other OP where I have control over everything?   Thanks for advice,   jh
#2 TheBreen Mar 07, 2015 17:23:22	Emirikol wrote:
#3 devlin1 Mar 08, 2015 16:50:40	It's no different than running one-shots at conventions, and I've done plenty of that. The difference with AL is that there's virtually no prep -- I don't have to come up with a scenario or pre-gens, which I almost always do when running non-D&D games -- and DMing earns XP I can give to my AL characters.
#4 Coredump00 Mar 08, 2015 18:24:00	Emirikol wrote:
#5 Tyranthraxus Mar 08, 2015 20:13:00	No Prep? No Prep!!!   I just ran Tyranny in Phlan. There definetly WAS prep. Spell prep. Lots of spells, me selecting the right pawns to use. Drawing on grid maps.
#6 devlin1 Mar 08, 2015 20:18:30	Tyranthraxus wrote:
#7 Tyranthraxus Mar 08, 2015 20:40:02	Devlin: You ran a 1-4. Tyranny is 5-10.    I prep for every game I run.
#8 devlin1 Mar 09, 2015 0:02:46	Tyranthraxus wrote:
#9 Enevhar_Aldarion Mar 09, 2015 0:33:27	devlin1 wrote:
#10 Tyranthraxus Mar 09, 2015 0:49:10	Which describes me. In fact , I dont think Ive played or run a theatre of the mind game since University.. a looong time ago.   I often play spellcasters and casting cones diagonally or straight requires me to see who Im targeting as well as spheres, squares, radial effects and so on. Ive also yet to encounter a dm for AL who does not use grids and minis. Perhaps I will one day.   All of my Tier 1 scenarios have also been run using Grids, and all 3 of my AL games run by others have also had them using grids and minis.
#11 Mommy_was_an_Orc Mar 09, 2015 7:01:42	In general, even if you go Theatre of the Mind, there ought to be prep. The author(s) often put in things that determine how NPCs might react to X and that can be critical to how the mod plays out and the experience going forward.  And just because you played it as a player doesn't mean your DM ran it correctly either. Always a good idea to double-check.
#12 AlHazred Mar 09, 2015 8:00:12	Every DM has a different comfort zone. Some DMs run with no prep, and trying to prep doesn't really help them; others require prep for every module, no matter how short. What really matters is, are the players enjoying the game? There's no wrong way to DM -- if the players enjoy the game, then the DM is doing fine.
(Reply to #10) Coredump00	Tyranthraxus wrote:
#14 CahPahkah Mar 09, 2015 11:20:02	Emirikol wrote:
#15 Pauper Mar 09, 2015 11:26:13	I've occasionally just put out the encounter map and had folks mark their positions on the map with pencil. There are lots of options for running encounters.   -- Pauper
#16 caecafortuna Mar 09, 2015 17:21:43	As a new DM and running a game for strangers, ToTM has worked out really well.  More creative narration makes the game more immersive and faster combat w/o minis allows us to cover more ground than other tables at our store that utilize minis.
#17 Skerrit Mar 10, 2015 6:14:42	Starting with the season two adventures, there is now gold rewards for the DMs.
#18 Kalani Mar 10, 2015 6:44:41	Of which I am eternally grateful.   Out of curiosity - can DMs claim the gold award for previous sessions they have not yet claimed.   For Example: I have an unclaimed DM award dated Feb 25th (HotDQ, EP7). If I gave this award to my S2 character, would I be able to claim the 300gp in addition to the 600XP & 10 downtime?
#19 Skerrit Mar 10, 2015 6:45:17	Kalani wrote:
#20 Kalani Mar 10, 2015 6:47:14	Thanks for the quick response. I figured as much.
#21 Tyranthraxus Mar 10, 2015 19:23:26	From what I read however I finished Part 1 of Lost Mine (dming) last week. As I havnt yet recorded the fact I ran it, I CAN claim gold for part 1 now? Most Excellent. Ive created a Deep Gnome Transmuter as my new GM baby. ( I get a gm baby to 4, then let her go native with 20 downtime then start again)