New DM Quest Rewards available on DM's Guild

Some official Clarifications:

Rewards are Retroactive to March 4th: If you would have completed one (or more) rewards since Friday March 4th, those rewards count even though the DM Quests were not available until today. Sessions prior to March 4th do not count for the purpose of meeting these rewards.

• Death House DM: DMs only earn this reward for completing an in-store Launch Event. This can occur over multiple sessions, and the reward is not earned until such times as the full module is completed. Running Death House prior to March 4th, or running it as a private game will not count for the purpose of meeting this reward.
• Ritual of Scrying: The reward is 500XP for one of your characters each time this is earned (1500Xp total)
• First Timer: You earn this reward the first time you DM at any of the locations this season, regardless of DM experience. The reward is 1 healing potion for one of your characters (3 total).
• Agent of Tarokka: You can choose magic items from table F on p146 of the DMG.

Playtests: If you playtest an adventure(s), it does not count toward completing any DM Quest Rewards.

It was also clarified that if you ran the Epic for Season 4, or 4-1, 4-2, or 4-3 prior to this announcement, it counted, even if it was before March 4.

Z. H. Darkstar said:

EDIT: When it says that you can obtain a magic item that is tier-appropriate, can it be of a lower rarity than what's listed for your tier? For example, would I only be allowed to give Rare items to my Tier 2 character, or could I give Uncommon items as well?

Click to expand...

Yes

Very generous.
I like the player rewards-except for the merchant that sells silvered weapons.

Well, it does say "can feature" -- you can choose not to include it.

When they say "gain 1 renown for each of your characters" do they mean the players' characters?

Edit: Ah, nvm. I get it. They mean each of your characters receives one renown. It was just some weird wording there.

No. It means you (the DM) gain +1 renown for each of your own characters. If you have 3 characters for example, each of those three characters would earn +1 renown. If you had 5 characters, all 5 of them would earn +1 renown.

For Example: I have the following characters - Taevyn Blackwyrm, Malkyn Fenris, Queen Izula, and two others I forget the names of because I don't play them often. When I get this reward as a DM - Taveyn, Malkyn, Izula, and my other 2 PCs would each earn +1 renown.

Players earn renown for completing episodes, chapters, or adventures. If a DM Quest has a player reward, it would be listed as "Player Rewards". "DM Rewards" apply to you (the DM).

...nevermind. Misread the quote.

I am sorely disappointed and even offended by this system for four reasons.

First, it awards experience, treasure, and renown to DM characters. I can't count the number of times that I was called upon to explain the League's reasoning on limited experience, treasure, and renown rewards for DMs as an RC. In a nutshell, it was that they wanted people to play their characters and earn rewards in game to feel invested in their characters, they wanted people to know how to play them when they did play, and they did not want other players to feel undermined by characters who had the same rewards but had not earned them through play. At least these rewards are earned through DMing. However, I thought that reasoning was quite sound from my own personal experience with Living Forgotten Realms and Pathfinder. The existing rewards structure already awards so much experience that people like me who DM a lot can start characters at 4th level. Under this new system, I'll be able to start them at 5th or even 6th level. I already don't feel invested in my characters and will probably just skip awarding this xp to my characters.

Second, it adds a lot of magic items to the campaign. Here again, on a number of occasions as an RC I was called upon to explain to people that 5th edition D&D was designed to make magic items unnecessary and so that those few found would become signature items that helped to define a character. Moreover, I frequently fielded complaints by players that Adventurer's League games felt like magic items hunts and that players were gaming the system in ways that detracted from their enjoyment. I can't see adding all these magic items doing anything but fanning the flames of those problems.

Third, it doesn't award rewards for playtesting, undermining that system. A substantial portion of the games I have run since the League started were playtests, both of League adventures and of Wizards' published adventures. If I continue to do so, I am essentially penalized in comparison to DMs running the finished products, despite the fact that I donated my time to help improve the adventures. Now, in light of my earlier points, it's no skin off my back, as I'm not thrilled with these rewards anyway. However, I resent the fact that my contribution in DMing playtests is discounted in this way.

Fourth, the new system doesn't recognize extensive contributions in prior seasons. It only has one reward for all of the DMing many of us have been doing since the League's inception, regardless whether we ran one session a season or a hundred. On my birthday in August, I'll get over 15,000 xp to apply to a character. As I've already stated, I think awarding that much DM XP to one character is a mistake. A new character would be 6th level! Therefore, I am disappointed with the actual reward. Moreover, that's the same reward I would've earned for running one session each season. The League missed an opportunity to recognize serious achievements in earlier seasons. I honestly feel insulted.

The whole program has not rolled out yet. I suppose I may be eating crow on Monday when some additional material is released, but at the moment I am sorely disappointed and somewhat offended.

To be fair, the only reward that allows DMs to add non-consumable magic items to their adventures requires you to DM all 14 of the DDAL adventures for the season. The last of these won't debut until 3 June (and won't become widely available until later than that). The reward expires at the end of July. So realistically, the number of DMs who will be able to inject extra magic items into their adventures will be small, and it will be limited to a month or so of real time. Not really system breaking. If anything, it's a little disappointing.