Future of the current Adventure League

Seems like this season's HC will work differently- several mildly- or non-connected dungeons, maybe? Sounds like it would be easier to use the hardcover in bits and pieces if one wants to, in Season 6.

Well, it's a short season. There will be 5 other seasons worth of adventures available to run, as well as CCC material. If you don't like it, there are plenty of playing options in AL. Maybe the new short season will turn out to be very fun. We'll see!

Anthraxus said:

Seems like this season's HC will work differently- several mildly- or non-connected dungeons, maybe? Sounds like it would be easier to use the hardcover in bits and pieces if one wants to, in Season 6.

Well, it's a short season. There will be 5 other seasons worth of adventures available to run, as well as CCC material. If you don't like it, there are plenty of playing options in AL. Maybe the new short season will turn out to be very fun. We'll see!

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I'm actually less concerned about this short season and more concerned about the idea of Al content being more tightly integrated with the HCs (which will presumably swing back towards the idea of a single long story, as opposed to a pile of smaller dungeons).

Honestly, season 5 really works for me. It's got two great storylines in Tier 1 and 2, and content in Tier 3 and 4 that people seem to really enjoy. It's practically ideal for letting people play some smaller campaigns, but the content can also be played out in little chunks (out of order if necessary) if you prefer. It's great stuff! Keep doing that and I'm totally happy.

rooneg said:

I'm actually less concerned about this short season and more concerned about the idea of Al content being more tightly integrated with the HCs (which will presumably swing back towards the idea of a single long story, as opposed to a pile of smaller dungeons).

Honestly, season 5 really works for me. It's got two great storylines in Tier 1 and 2, and content in Tier 3 and 4 that people seem to really enjoy. It's practically ideal for letting people play some smaller campaigns, but the content can also be played out in little chunks (out of order if necessary) if you prefer. It's great stuff! Keep doing that and I'm totally happy.

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I would have to agree with rooneg.

I think that the AL should have give a general heads up that this will be short season; which isn't/wasn't common knowledge. I don't think that hard dates are necessary; however, stating that the season is tentatively set for two to four months shows respect for event coordinators that have to answer questions involving the new AL season. "I don't know" just makes us feel like an uninformed idiot.

While I can see doing HC related adventures for this season, I don't think it is good, long term solution. The DDAL adventures really gave a strong, long term storyline to players with inconsistent schedules. I'll also note that many of these players in my area are Active Duty Navy that don't get to play consistently. Changing that dynamic would, in my opinion, be a slap in the face for those members. Plus, Epics aren't really content for most players; they are only content for players lucky enough to be in a place that offers them consistently. Having a season comprised of 50% content that, at least perceptually, cater to AL "elites" does very little in keeping new players, unless one or two of these epics have looser requirements that allow them a wider audience.

In addition, CCC adventures should count for rewards; DMs have no incentive, including many of my DMs that like to play in addition to DMing, in running a CCC under current rewards program. I know many players that would like to play those mods; scrounging up the DMs for them is more difficult though. This will become a bigger issue if the DDAL adventures suddenly become a HC supplement.

abs said:

In addition, CCC adventures should count for rewards; DMs have no incentive, including many of my DMs that like to play in addition to DMing, in running a CCC under current rewards program.

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Since the CCC adventures do offer DM XP and gold, the only part of the 'DM rewards' program that isn't covered by CCC adventures is the DM Quests -- and if this observation is true, given how unbalancing some of the DM Quest rewards have proven to be, then I'd be in favor of retiring the DM Quests and focusing more directly on in-adventure DM awards (say, a story award that you can earn by running the adventure, or running it three times, or running it if you've already run every other adventure in that storyline).

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Pauper

Pauper said:

Since the CCC adventures do offer DM XP and gold, the only part of the 'DM rewards' program that isn't covered by CCC adventures is the DM Quests -- and if this observation is true, given how unbalancing some of the DM Quest rewards have proven to be, then I'd be in favor of retiring the DM Quests and focusing more directly on in-adventure DM awards (say, a story award that you can earn by running the adventure, or running it three times, or running it if you've already run every other adventure in that storyline).

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I honestly don't know what you mean by "unbalancing" here. DM Quests are the only thing that helps to close the gap between the amount of XP you get from playing the game and the amount you get from DMing. Similarly, they let you maintain characters who are reasonably equipped with magic items even if you mostly DM. Even if you bumped the XP/Gold/Downtime rewards for DMing (and I totally think they should, they're way too low as it stands) DMs still need ways to get reasonable magic items, otherwise there's no way they can play at upper tier tables alongside people who never DM.

In my experience excessive magical loot from hardcover adventures is way more unbalancing than DM quests have ever been.

rooneg said:

I honestly don't know what you mean by "unbalancing" here....

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I'm wondering if anyone does.

Pauper said:

Since the CCC adventures do offer DM XP and gold, the only part of the 'DM rewards' program that isn't covered by CCC adventures is the DM Quests -- and if this observation is true, given how unbalancing some of the DM Quest rewards have proven to be, then I'd be in favor of retiring the DM Quests and focusing more directly on in-adventure DM awards (say, a story award that you can earn by running the adventure, or running it three times, or running it if you've already run every other adventure in that storyline).

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Pauper

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You get more for running a DDAL versus a CCC. That is a simple fact that leads many DMS to the conclusion that it far better to DM a DDAL versus a CCC. That was the point.; given a choice between the two, one gives an incentive while the other doesn't provide a comparable incentive. Of course, you could complain about the "imbalance" issue, but I don't see it.

abs said:

You get more for running a DDAL versus a CCC. That is a simple fact that leads many DMS to the conclusion that it far better to DM a DDAL versus a CCC. That was the point.; given a choice between the two, one gives an incentive while the other doesn't provide a comparable incentive. Of course, you could complain about the "imbalance" issue, but I don't see it.

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CCC also doesn't count towards Dedicated DM reward which is useful to get items for PCs advancing in level to other tiers via DMXP. In general they don't count towards any rewards but that in my opinion is the most significant.

Personally I don't care for the reward system as I have almost 200k of unused DMXP and feel like it's cheating yourself of the pleasure of experiencing your PC to some extent. I would rather see some sort of DM level in play that allows you to take more control of modules or add predetermined stuff based on level and not current season rewards since typically by the time you get them for your players as it stands now the season is almost at an end


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I really don't utilize the DMS rewards often either. Mostly, I use them to avoid being "that close" to leveling. Occasionally, I will award items if I fall behind the curb. Well... I do use them quite a bit to avoid level one... I just hate level one as a DM and player.

abs said:

I really don't utilize the DMS rewards often either. Mostly, I use them to avoid being "that close" to leveling. Occasionally, I will award items if I fall behind the curb. Well... I do use them quite a bit to avoid level one... I just hate level one as a DM and player.

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Mine are typically used to either start a character above level 1 (usually 3 if I want to play tier 1 or 4+catch up to 5 if I want to play tier 2) or to skip ahead to the next level when I'm pretty close to leveling up. The Dedicated DM and other Magic Item type rewards go towards items that I really want for a particular character that will be useful throughout their career (i.e. my 8 STR cleric just got some Gauntlets of Ogre Power so she can actually swing Lightbringer, my archer just got herself a +2 Longbow because she'll be happy with that weapon forever, and eventually I'll give my Battlerager a Headband of Intellect so he can be a Tenured Professor of Rageology at Zhentil Keep Community College).