DM rewards for running Adventurer's League - what are your thoughts?

[skerritthegreen]

I had a fantastic Winter Fantasy. The two things I heard as I played at a variety of tables were 1) Big conventions should provide magic item certificates for all adventures and not just premieres, and 2) DM Rewards should be greater. I would say those topics came up at more than 1/3rd of my tables!

The Admins have plans in the works to address both of those requests.

 

[Motorskills]

The Admins have plans in the works to address both of those requests.

It would be cool to have the certs in place for OwlCon, since they are running a bunch of first, second, and third season modules, as well as a premiere or two.

 

[skerritthegreen]

It is unlikely that the solutions will be fully backwards compatible, but rather for S4 mods onward.

 

[Motorskills]

It is unlikely that the solutions will be fully backwards compatible, but rather for S4 mods onward.

Makes sense, thanks for confirming.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

It is unlikely that the solutions will be fully backwards compatible, but rather for S4 mods onward.

But with DTRPG allowing for files to be updated, couldn't the old adventures be updated to reflect the rule changes? I know that there's a bit of red tape involved, so I'm not getting my hopes up on it happening any time soon. However, I figured that it'd be a worthwhile suggestion based on the tools you have at your disposal with the new distribution model.

 

[Inconnunom]

But with DTRPG allowing for files to be updated, couldn't the old adventures be updated to reflect the rule changes? I know that there's a bit of red tape involved, so I'm not getting my hopes up on it happening any time soon. However, I figured that it'd be a worthwhile suggestion based on the tools you have at your disposal with the new distribution model.

The original files were created with InDesign at WotC (AFAIK). Anyone who has worked with that program can tell you how amazing it is with complexity and detail. Unfortunately it is not as simple as opening word and changing a few things.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

The original files were created with InDesign at WotC (AFAIK). Anyone who has worked with that program can tell you how amazing it is with complexity and detail. Unfortunately it is not as simple as opening word and changing a few things.

I understand that. I never said it would be easy, hence why I said I wasn't getting my hopes up on it happening soon. However, it is theoretically possible. I just made the suggestion as a solution to allowing rule changes to DM rewards being implemented to all adventures, and not just those going forward like we saw when gold was added to the rewards.

 

[KahlessNestor]

It's true that the DM will only be rewarded once for running a particular adventure in PFS. However, this results in the DM/group purchasing more adventures to run which benefits the publisher. In turn, the DM gains access to a wider pool of rewards to draw from for his/her character, including magic items. If I was part of Paizo I would simply respond to your observation by referencing General Mill's Total cereal ads that used to say something like "It takes (x) bowls of your cereal to match the nutrition in one bowl of Total." Point being, the rewards are substantially greater in PFS than AL. You would need to run an AL adventure several times to equal the gold and XP rewards compared to a PFS adventure, let alone the value of the magic items or other adventure rewards (PFS liberal attitude regarding magic items is a whole separate issue).

It's good to hear that DM rewards for AL are being increased. Coaxing more people to sit behind the DM screen is a good thing that enables more players to participate.

Actually, it's not quite as one and done in PFS as that. I'm not a PFS DM, but as far as I know, DMs get full credit for running an adventure, as well as full credit for playing in the adventure. Plus there are DM Star replays. Also, DMs get to add the number of their stars to any time they do their one free swag reroll.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

The only issue I have with DM rewards to be honest is that I want a standard. I dont want to say run Secrets of Sokol Keep earn 300exp (because of a misprint) and then earn 200exp for Embers of Elmwood.

In the same context, I earn 100 gold for Embers of Elmwood and 0 gold for Secrets of Sokol Keep.

Now I understand that these earlier scenarios were created using a program that is very hard to access, only WOTC has it and the current admin/authors dont. Thats cool as Im sure one day the Authors will get access again to the Scenarios (but it certainly has been some time since WOTC were notified of the errors.. I sent them a Customer Service Request back in around Jan 2015 about the same issue)

All that would take to rectify would be to include a line in the Players Guide for season 4 stating 'All rewards for Tier 1-4 are 400exp/200 gold and All rewards for Tier 5-10 are 800 exp/400 gold. This overides all stated rewards in scenarios previously written'

Now Im not envisioning a past revision. DMS cant go back through all their dm logsheets changing things. Youd set a date and from then on it would take effect.

 

[Maxperson]

2) My biggest problem with giving DM awards that are equivalent to player awards for a given module is that it seems to justify the idea that DMs don't actually need to play. The nice thing about DM awards being less than PC awards is that the DM can legitimately get someone to fill in as DM so that she can play from time-to-time. If that equalizes, the DM will have a character that's exactly the same level as the PCs she's running -- and might never actually get to play the character. I think upping the XP for DMs would have an unintended negative consequence of making it more difficult for DMs to get out from behind the screen, increasing DM burnout and causing an even greater shortage of Organized Play DMs than we're already seeing.

If the DM never plays the character, though, it's irrelevant if his PC is the same level. It only matters if he plays, and if he plays then equal rewards are okay.