Need for AL-specific rulings of CoS

Z. H. Darkstar · Mar 10, 2016

Having flipped through my copy of CoS, there are a few things that are either against the normal AL rules or require clarification as to their purpose within the AL campaign.

Without listing the specific places where these things are located, as to prevent spoilers, here's the list of the things that need official AL adjudication:

1. Instances of rolling on Magic Item Tables.
2. Player reward of "Letter of Introduction"*
3. Player reward of "Special Favor"*

*These concepts are generally defined in the DMG, but there should probably be rulings as to what they mean within the context of AL.

kalani · Mar 10, 2016

Q1: The rule would be the same as for previous adventures.

DMs are allowed to roll (on the appropriate tables) for mundane treasure, gold, and consumables (potions/scrolls/etc).
Random permanent items are not allowed (please see the FAQ for Rise of Tiamat).
As with Out of the Abyss - it is possible that the admins may pre-determine the results of some random rolls in a "Curse of Strahd Amendments" document (or something similar). If the results are predetermined, DMs should not roll randomly on any table for those specific entries/locations.
Assuming an "Amendment" document is released - should the admins miss one or more of the random treasure rolls, DMs can roll randomly for those locations/entries (using the above rules).

Q2 & Q3: Could you please provide the page numbers for these entries so that I can look them up myself. There might be a ruling that covers these, or I might need to forward them to the admins for further instructions.

skerritthegreen · Mar 10, 2016

The Admins are aware and discussing.

Pauper · Mar 10, 2016

I haven't yet found either of the things Darkstar references, but I have found something that has a bigger potential impact:

[sblock]The Dark Gifts of the Amber Temple.

Numerous of the sarchophagi in the temple offer Dark Gifts, which, if taken, require the accepting PC to succeed at Charisma saving throw unless it is already evil. If the PC fails, he becomes evil.

Though the sidebar notes that a DM can allow a player to continue to play an evil character, the AL rules only allow certain combinations of alignment and faction, which are likely to be a rare combination for many character playing through this section. As such, some number of characters accepting Dark Gifts will become illegal, and should in theory become unplayable in Adventurers League.[/sblock]

Any guidance?

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Pauper

cr1ms0n · Mar 10, 2016

I'm curious about awarding XP. A great deal of the adventure is social or environmental and, like Death House, the intro talks about milestone awards. Also, unlike past hard covers, there is no Rewards summary at the end of different sections. Is there a plan to release XP guidance to DMs for CoS? Reading through it so far, I have a feeling that with just creature XP, characters will struggle to get anywhere near what they need to not die as they progress through their own story.

Z. H. Darkstar · Mar 10, 2016

cr1ms0n said:
I'm curious about awarding XP. A great deal of the adventure is social or environmental and, like Death House, the intro talks about milestone awards. Also, unlike past hard covers, there is no Rewards summary at the end of different sections. Is there a plan to release XP guidance to DMs for CoS? Reading through it so far, I have a feeling that with just creature XP, characters will struggle to get anywhere near what they need to not die as they progress through their own story.

CoS has the highest frequency for Random Encounter checks out of all of the adventures released so far. There are plenty of opportunities for PCs to rack up kills when traveling out of the confines of the various villages.

Pauper · Mar 10, 2016

cr1ms0n said:
I'm curious about awarding XP. A great deal of the adventure is social or environmental and, like Death House, the intro talks about milestone awards.

I suspect (in fact, I think it's already been said) that the campaign admins will officially discourage the use of milestone XP, even in Death House, as it limits the ability of players to move between the hard-cover adventures and the Season 4 AL adventures, which even this season will be allowed.

With that said, if you're planning on running a campaign just involving the hard-cover, and none of your players will be attending conventions, game stores, or other places where they might play their CoS characters in a different AL adventure, I don't think it makes a huge difference whether you go by milestone XP as laid out in the book itself or by traditional XP. As long as your PCs finish at level 10 with the appropriate amount of downtime days and renown, they should have no trouble transitioning back into 'typical' AL adventures once CoS is over.

With *that* said, I've slowly soured on the 'milestone XP' concept, not the least because it makes things like random encounters feel less like 'cool, a fight' and more like 'can we get this over with and get back to the adventure after taking our long rest so there's no real impact from it'. I'm unlikely to use it when running my own group through the hard-cover, whenever that ends up being.

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Pauper

kalani · Mar 10, 2016

Milestones are only available for Death House (even then it is discouraged). Once players transition to Curse of Strahd (proper), the DM must assign combat XP as normal. The only non-combat XP that the players can earn is any that is specifically listed for completing an objective(s). Assuming that isn't the case, they only earn combat XP.

With that being said, if the party overcomes a combat encounter through peaceful means, they can still earn XP as normal for overcoming that encounter. They can't double-dip this way however. XP is only awarded for any given encounter once

RCanine · Mar 11, 2016

kalani said:
Milestones are only available for Death House (even then it is discouraged).

Despite being discouraged by the admins, you have to be a singularly sadistic DM to put a first-level character through the second half of Death House. Awarding XP by the numbers is all well and good as long as the math works out in the PCs' favor. Don't be that guy that sours a new player on D&D because he ran the adventure counter to the author's intentions.

Inconnunom · Mar 11, 2016

RCanine said:
Despite being discouraged by the admins, you have to be a singularly sadistic DM to put a first-level character through the second half of Death House. Awarding XP by the numbers is all well and good as long as the math works out in the PCs' favor. Don't be that guy that sours a new player on D&D because he ran the adventure counter to the author's intentions.

Yea Perkins (AFIAK) favors milestone xp to tell a story without turning the PCs into murderhobos. So it isn't a surprise that Death House is that way too. There isn't any reason for the PCs to fight a shambling mound except for XPs.