With the announcement of the Adventurer's League, confusion has reigned supreme about how Encounters and Expeditions are all supposed to fit in with our weekly public games.
We were running Encounters with Murder in Baldur's Gate and Legacy of the Crystal Shard but the players and DMs grew frustrated with the adventure formats and resetting to level one every couple months. For the past month or two the DMs have been running their own adventures to keep the players engaged.
With Tyranny of Dragons on the horizon I am planning on running a table with the official Organized Play materials. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to expect nor what to tell the players that I am trying to recruit.
So, to make a long story short, what, exactly, should my players and I expect on Wednesday nights at my FLGS?
I believe the organized play details will be released late July. I would suggest continuing with what you are doing, or run the adventurer in the starters set when released.
Fhorthsof has got it. Encounters will continue on Wednesdays and depending on how quickly a gorup runs through the material there may be a few weeks at the end that Expeditions could be run on Wednesdays. At the same time, Expeditions can be run on any days that the store/organizers want.
I have to say I am pretty confused with this new system.
Something that allows players to play up to high level on sanctioned play would be nice.
You are allowed to play up to high level. The Expeditions and Epic adventures that are offered at conventions, public play events or stores will allow higher level play. You can also play the printed adventures all the way through at your store (though after you get past the initial part offered for free by Encounters, someone would need to own the book).
So I could start a group off in store on Wednesdays running Encounters, then when it finishes, move that group to a different evening at the store and carry on the campaign under the Expeditions system, and also start a new Encounters group on Wednesdays?
Or also I could just ignore Encounters and play the published adventures such as Lost Mine of Phandelver, and/or Hoard of the Dragon Queen as Expeditions (at the shop)?
Chimpy20 wrote:
Does anyone know if Hoard of the Dragon Queen will be based around Moonsea? I think I'm a bit confused since the adventure in the Starter kit is based near the Sword Coast and no where near where Expeditions is meant to be played.
So, if I understand you guys correctly, there is no linear progression past the first few character levels if we want to maintain the weekly Wednesday night games.
We can start with Encounters Season One and then after that we'd have to somehow get the players to come back on another night (which is not going to happen) to continue with an Expedition adventure to get out of the low level play.
Alternatively, we'd have to give up on trying to play Encounters Season Two and just run Expeditions. This has the negative side effect of confusing new players that may have only read about the Encounters program online (this is how I started public play). Not to mention that we'd also be missing out on the Encounters Season Two content ourselves.
I like the Expeditions concept of bigger-than-Encounters adventures that can be played outside Wednesday night. It may not work for all the groups out there but that flexibility is pretty awesome. However, to keep restarting Encounters over and over again without the players receiving the gratification of seeing their characters grow is a major disappointment.
If this is the case I am not going to be able to recruit players into the Organized Play; they'd be much happier developing their characters over time in the old 3e adventure paths they're running through. After the character churn of finishing Against the Cult of Chaos, Murder in Baldur's Gate, and Legacy of the Crystal Shard none of the players at my FLGS are going to want to commit to this wacky system.
I'm hoping we receive some hard information that contradicts my sky-is-falling interpretation of the rumors soon since rounding up players is about as easy as herding cats and I'm going to need some time to get the players to the table(s).
Encounters season One and Two both start at level one (as all Encounters seasons due and always have, since they are intended as an on-ramp for new players). The Expeditions adventures cover various levels (depends on which one you select, but they include 1st-level events as well as higher level ones) and they can be played anytime (including the same night as Encounters events are normally played). You could also continue the published adventure that the Encounters program begins, and just keep playing that on Wednesday nights. (Encounters begins each of the published adventures with free material, but it doesn't include all of it, so you would beed to purchase the book to get the whole adventure). I don't see any sky-is-falling senario since you can literally do just about anything and keep playing.
frothsof wrote:
Encounters has been put on hiatus at my LGS because I've been feeling burned out by the weekly schedule and I was waiting to see what the new organized play model would look like. I'm looking for someone to take up DMing duties for Encounters.
Ideally what will happen at my LGS is Encounters will be run weekly on Wednesdays like it always has. In addition I will run Expedition adventures on a monthly basis (probably Saturday).
This is how we plan on handling things at our store.
We currently have 5 tables of Encounters each Wednesday night. We will be finishing out Dead in Thay.
When the season starts, we will begin Tyranny of Dragons at first level. At the end of the season, each player can decide of they wish to play on as an Expedition game, or to start over with the new season of Encounters at 1st level again. For our store, everyone has pretty much stated that they wish to keep playing whatever adventure it will be, in this case, ToD. Since Wed. night is the night they all play, we will sanction most of our tables as Expedition games for Wednesday nights. We will also keep at least one Encounters table going for new folks to come in.
Beginning this Saturday, we will be sanctioning Lost Mine of Phandelver games that will run concurrently until the new season starts. That will probably get those characters to about 5th level. Too high for Encounters, but perfect for Saturday Expedition games. They can then take that character and anything they received from Phandelver, into the Expeditions play.
For the Expedition specific adventures outside of the current Epic Storyline, we will continue Saturday events. If there is a 5th level Expedition adventure that is available at the start of the new season, then we will be ready for it from our Starter Set sessions.
DasFalke wrote:
In case it hasn't been made clear, under the new program:
D&D Encounters runs Wednesday nights, as it always has. Starting in August, it will use the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure, using the first parts of it. After you finish you can continue with the next Encounters adventure or you could also decide to play the rest (at the store or at home, whenever you choose). It is thematically the central experience of the Tyranny of Dragons storyline. It does not take part in the Moonsea.
D&D Expeditions can be run on any day in a public location (primarily conventions or game stores, but you could run it at a school hall or library or coffee shop). It is more like a traditional living campaign, such as Living Forgotten Realms or Living Greyhawk. A store could offer it for players to get a deeper experience beyond Encounters, and they can use the same characters. Expeditions are episodic/serial in nature, like chapters in a story or episodes in a TV show. They are based in the Moonsea and use the Factions more heavily, providing you with a deeper experience over time.
D&D Epics are special events run only at major conventions. One-time events, they kick off new seasons. These are not run at stores or home. They may or may not take place in the Moonsea, but likely will take you to fantastic locations. They link to the overal theme, often resolving key issues in an interactive format involving many tables working at once.
All three of these make up the Adventurers League program. (I keep a thread on EN World with summary information)
if you are currently playing Encounters, you can continue. The new program then also opens up the potential, if you choose, to play Expeditions, play the rest of the official Tyranny of Dragons adventures, and go to a major convention to play an Epic. How deep you want to go is up to you.
When does the Hord of the dragon Queen Encounters season begin?
there are 3 official weeks left in Dead in Thay.
I need to move my groups to the Centre area to givbe them enough time to comple the DoomVault prior to the finale on the 23rd of July.
does Horde of the Dragon Queen start on July 30 or later, like august 20 - after Gencon?
Galahad67 wrote:
Skerrit wrote:
I'll be running the D&D Encounters program at the start of each season, then replace it with Expeditions once the free Encounters material has been exhausted. It should work fine.
TSRO_Kip wrote:
Alphastream1 wrote:
I think there is a risk of running D&D Encounters and Expeditions, yes. But what I've noticed recently is the people playing D&D Encounters in my area tend to be repeat customers and they want magic items, character leveling, gold and games beyond low level.
TSRO_Kip wrote:
Feetz wrote:
TSRO_Kip wrote:
TSRO_Kip wrote:
Availability:
Now: Starter Set/Lost Mines of Phandelver L1-5 (16-24 hours). Store (certifictaes) or Home.
08/08 Players Handbook (8/19 Some stores). Store.
08/14 Gen Con: EX 1,2,3 - 8/17, 8/16 Epic1. Con.
08/20 Encounters L1-4 (20-30+ h) Same content as HDQ L1-4. Certs. Store.
08/19 Horde of the Dragon Queen L1-8 (30-60+ h) 8/8 at some stores. Home/Store.
08/18 Expeditions EX1-1 (1h, 5 versions), EX1-(2,3) (2x4h). All L1-4. Public.
08/29 Several Cons: EX 1,2,3 + 4 or 5 or 6 - 9/1, ?/? Epic1. Con.
09/22 EX 4,5,6 L1-4 (3x4h) Public.
10/21 Rise of Tiamat L9-15 (40-60h?). Oct 10 at some stores. Home/store.
10/20 EX 7,8 L1-4 (2x4h). Public.
11/17 EX 9 L1-4 (4h). EX 10 L5-10 (4h). Public.
March EX 11,12,13. April EX 14. Encounters Season 20?
Possible Schedule (CC = Character Creation):
Now-Aug 10 LMP Then: CC or join HDQ L5 and/or DM. All venues (home, store (short, long), cons).
08/10 Home: HDQ L1-8 game for DMs, 8/10 CC+HDQ, 8/17 Con, 8/24 HDQ, 8/31 Con, 9/7 HDQ, play most weeks.
Same game: 10/17 Home: RT L9-15, continues HDQ (HDQ L5-8 may pick up characters from Encounters or Expeditions).
8/19 Public, Expeditions: CC, EX1, CC, EX1. 9/2 EX2, [...], 12/23 EX10 L5-10. Every other week or multiple characters.
8/20 Store, casual, Encounters, 1-2h sessions. Table/s A1-? Weekly
8/20 Store, longer, Encounters, 4+ hour sessions, HDQ L5-8, RT L8-15. Table/s B1-? Weekly
Our challenge is that we have a guy that insists he runs Expeditions every Wednesday night, while I run Encounters. The store owner/operator (the same person that has caused us to miss whole seasons of Encounters) seems to think that will be okay. Fine. Whatever. But, here's the kicker. Our Expeditions guy (a gravy-trainer after the freebies) is going to charge $5 per month to players so they can keep their Expeditions games closed. Their goal is to exclude people, allowing for their hand chosen table of players. Meanwhile, I am DMing an Encounters table with seven and eight players every week - the players they don't want. It's not okay. It's a problem.
And I can't run Expeditions at my house like I did LFR with my chosen group of friends. I guess I can charge for it and exclude peope that way. Apparently, that works.
What shall Wednesday nights look like? A freakin' mess at this venue. Not sure I'll be running Encounters in September. I don't know if I have it in me with this drama.
Please, let us play Expeditions at home without sanctioning through a store. We did it for years with Living Greyhawk and Living Forgotten Realms. Nostalgic side note - Nothing grew the brand like the heady days of LG.
Greyson wrote:
Expiditions will burn through scenarios in a 1-3 months IF they run once a week. Right now there is just not enough scenarios to run very long. That is part of the problem with starting a one off type of adventure series like this. Even with Encounters being ran and THEN the expiditions being ran after one season of encounters. It would still run out of encounters/scenarios in 1-3 months at the current output rate. Even if they put out 4 scenarios a month. As each scenario is supposed to last one session. So running expiditions once a week is a little unrealistic at this point and time.
Expeditions is not intended to be a once a week 4-hr experience. There are only going to be about 2 adventures every month or two (at least according to the posted release schedule). Since encounters is also a great way to start new PCs and get a boatload of xp/gp/items, I expect that even the players who do participate in Expeditions events will also want to play the published adventures (which are used for the Encounters program). Expeditions likely work best at conventions and gamedays. (One might note that they premier at big conventions, not specific days for everyone).
Skerrit wrote:
Greyson wrote:
Hey guys, our store is new to Encounters and Expiditions.
Is there a good website or place on WPN that has a step by step on how a store should run encounters?
I run Magic but this is a first? This is a free event right?
I just got my Tyranny stuff, which is 20 player folders (4 of each of the 5 factions) and 4 DM folders, any direction to a website would be great, and this thread at least helped me figure out what expeditions is. 
Try http://dndadventurersleague.org/
Guest590139604 wrote:
yes, I found the website later last night, but thanks for comfirming and also read the 4 page doc, it was ok, but pretty vague, but thanks for the help, Im starting to get the hang of it I think
Just need a couple DM's and Im ready to go
DasFalke wrote: