DM rewards are now clarified for hardbacks and Phandelver - by hour?

Scorpienne · Mar 8, 2016

DM rewards are now clarified for all the hardbacks and Lost Mine of Phandelver. Thanks guys. This ends a lot of confusion.

Curse of Strahd Season 4 DM's Guide Page 9 and 10 said:
Dungeon Master Rewards
All D&D Adventurers League adventures award the DM by the target level of the adventure. These rewards are around 25 percent of the maximum XP for players, with a minimum for the lower-level adventures.

DMs running hardcover adventures receive XP for every session, calculated in two-hour blocks according to the average party level for the session. This is roughly equivalent to the D&D Adventurers League rewards above. Downtime rewards for both D&D Adventurers League adventures and the hardcover adventures is 5 days for every 2 hours of play. The Dungeon Master’s character receives a number of gp equal to half the XP earned for each session, whether running a D&D Adventurers League adventure or a hardcover adventure. This new Dungeon Master reward structure is not retroactive to adventures from storyline seasons before Curse of Strahd (season 4).

From Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/adventurersleague/permalink/885237554935133/

from Facebook said:
Tom Christy:
In the ALDMG on page 10 regarding Dungeon Master reward structure "This new Dungeon Master reward structure is not retroactive to adventures from sotryline seasons before Curse of Strahd (season 4)"
1. Does the new reward structure apply to hardcovers such as Out of the Abyss? (I think no)
2. Does the new reward structure apply to the evergreen adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver? (I don't know)

Robert Adducci
1) Yes, since there is no built in reward structure to those books the new system applies to new sessions going forward.
2) Yes, for the same reason as above. #AL_Admin

My interpretation: DM rewards for hardbacks are based on human time, not number of chapters? That's somewhat better because those are hours we spend supporting the hobby....

Pauper · Mar 8, 2016

OK, so for Curse of Strahd (and future hard-cover adventures), you use the matrix where you cross-reference the average party level with the number of hours spent running the adventure, using the largest full amount.

Example: I run an 8-hour session of Curse of Strahd for a group of 4th level characters. I check the matrix for 4-hour block and 4th level, and end up getting 850 XP (425*2). I do not check the matrix for the 2-hour block, which would result in 900 XP (225*4).

Example 2: If my session from the first example runs more than 6 but less than 8 hours, I check the matrix for 4th level and end up getting 650 XP (425+225). I do not divide the 4 hour block into two 2 hour blocks, getting 675 XP (225*3), nor do I 'round up' to two 4 hour blocks, getting 850 XP (425*2).

Hey, we all know someone's going to try it.

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Pauper

Pauper · Mar 8, 2016

Also, can we get clarification that 'target adventure level' is only equal to 'average party level' for hard-cover adventures, and that for AL-published seasonal adventures, the 'target adventure level' is the level for which the adventure is designed? Or, if it's just easier to always make it average party level for all adventures, can we get clarification that that's the way to do it?

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Pauper

Aaron Berkowitz · Mar 8, 2016

Pauper - It specifically says you measure it in 2 hour chunks. So your first example would be 4 two hour chunks, which is 900 XP (225*4). Your second example is 3 two hour chunks, which is 675 XP (225*3). The 4 hour column on the chart is specifically for 4 hour DDEX adventures, and is irrelevant when calculating GM rewards for hardbacks.

felwred · Mar 22, 2016

I am confused on a related point. Hardbacks, LMoP, and DDAL season 4 all appear to use the new xp chart. If we run a DDAL from seasons 1-3, do we use the xp, downtime, etc. listed there or do we use the new system for those if they are run after March 4th?

Thanks!

Fred

kalani · Mar 22, 2016

I just made a major update to the FAQ adding numerous clarifications relating to DM Rewards and the DM Quest Rewards.

http://dndadventurersleague.org/sage/index.php?title=Frequently_Asked_Questions_(FAQ)

In particular, the following was just added relating directly to the DM Rewards themselves.

NEW: DM Rewards – Do the new DM Rewards listed on p9 of the ALDMG apply to older adventures, or only to Curse of Strahd adventures?
The DM rewards apply to any hardcover adventures run this season including Lost Mines of Phandelver, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Rise of Tiamat, Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Curse of Strahd and the Season 4 Launch Event – Death House.

As stated on p9 of the ALDMG, these rewards are determined in 2-hr increments, by comparing the party’s APL (Average Party Level) on the “2-hr adventure” column of the table to determine the XP earned for each 2-hr increment. The DM also earns GP equal to half the XP earned, and 5 downtime for every 2-hr increment.

For example: If you run a 4-hr session of Princes of the Apocalypse for a party of APL 6 characters, you would earn 1000 XP, 500 GP, and 10 Downtime.

These rewards are not retroactively applied for hardcover adventures which occurred prior to March 4th, nor do they apply to any of the DDEX adventures from seasons 1-3. When running past season’s DDEX adventures or the current seasons DDAL adventures, DMs earn the rewards listed in the “DM Rewards” section of those adventures. On rare occasions, the rewards listed in the “DM Rewards” section of an adventure is incorrect. In these cases, the campaign staff will release a FAQ for that adventure with the correct rewards listed. In such cases, use the rewards listed in the FAQ for that adventure instead. In addition, there is no need to reference the table on p9 when running this season’s DDAL adventures – as the rewards for these adventures have already been pre-calculated according to the method listed on the table, and listed in the “DM Rewards” section of those adventures.

Anthraxus · Mar 22, 2016

For DDAL adventures(formerly Expeditions) from season 1-3, we will still be using what's listed in the module for DM Rewards.

Edit: Ninja'd by Kalani.

Pauper · Mar 22, 2016

Kalani said:
As stated on p9 of the ALDMG, these rewards are determined in 2-hr increments, by comparing the party’s APL (Average Party Level)

That's what it says on p.9 for the hard-cover adventures -- full quote:

ALDMG said:
DMs running hardcover adventures receive XP for every session, calculated in two-hour blocks according to the average party level for the session.

For non-hard-cover adventures, though, the phrase used is 'target level':

ALDMG said:
All D&D Adventurers League adventures award the DM by the target level of the adventure.

Is the 'target level of the adventure' equal to the average party level, or is it the level for which the adventure was designed? Example from DDAL 4-1:

DDAL 4-1 said:
This adventure is designed for three to seven 1st‐ level and 2nd‐level characters, and it is optimized for five 1st‐level characters.

So is the award for DDAL 4-1 based on the average party level, or is it based on level 1, since that is the level for which the adventure is 'optimized' and thus would qualify as the 'target level of the adventure'?

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Pauper

kalani · Mar 23, 2016

The DDAL4-X modules are based on the "optimized level" of the adventure. 4-1 is a special case (as it includes 5 mini-adventures). The adventure awards 100 XP / 50 GP and 5 DT per part. As I said above, just use the DM rewards listed in the adventures. The 4-hr column really isn't used by DMs this season.

DM rewards are now clarified for hardbacks and Phandelver - by hour?

Scorpienne

First Post

Pauper

That guy, who does that thing.

Pauper

That guy, who does that thing.

Aaron Berkowitz

Villager

felwred

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kalani

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Anthraxus

Explorer

Pauper

That guy, who does that thing.

kalani

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