Ad-hoc certs in AL?

[skerritthegreen]

Its an actual AL cert, that's pretty much the definition of "Official documentation, such as a D&D Adventurers League certificate, might provide exceptions to the allowed rules." (ALPG, p.3)

 

[Pauper]

So this paper napkin I got from Shelly Mazzanoble at GenCon 2015 that says I get Odo the Circus Bear as a familiar is an official AL certificate?**

Sorry to seem so snippish about this, but I think, based on your earlier response in this thread, that you recognize this is a problem. Since the admins hands seem to be tied, the only way to head this sort of thing off is for the community to take matters into its own hands.

--
Pauper

** - This is a joke; as far as I'm aware, Shelly Mazzanoble wasn't at GenCon 2015, though she was a member of the AL Wizards team at that time.

 

[skerritthegreen]

It is a real cert, using the actual cert template (the same one all the other certs you apparently will accept are made from), issued in a legal adventure by a wizard's employee who also happens to be the big boss of D&D. The fact that it may have other problems with the way the philosophy of the campaign is not relevant to whether it is legal and DMs should allow it.

If you have an issue, you need contact customer service. You may not however, refuse to recognize it as a legal certificate.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

It is a real cert, using the actual cert template (the same one all the other certs you apparently will accept are made from), issued in a legal adventure by a wizard's employee who also happens to be the big boss of D&D. The fact that it may have other problems with the way the philosophy of the campaign is not relevant to whether it is legal and DMs should allow it.

If you have an issue, you need contact customer service. You may not however, refuse to recognize it as a legal certificate.

If this had been pointed out a lot sooner in this thread, I think a lot of the uncertainty would have been dealt with. As it is, until your post here, everything I was reading made it sound like Mike took out a blank piece of paper and wrote up some certs on the fly and signed his name to them.

 

[kalani]

Sorry for any confusion. Mike Mearles created an OFFICIAL AL certificate (Called "Awakened Mind") for his DDAO game which allows the bearer to play a Mystic. The problem was that nobody on the campaign staff knew anything about the certificate until it was mentioned on FB. Here is the photograph of the certificate which was posted on FB.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

As a DM my only issue with MM's cert is that I would have to be conversant with rules not cited in the ALPG or ALDMG. I have no issues with the player bringing it or the validity of the cert itself. Rather, the issue would be that I would not necessarily be familiar with the class and its' abilities, as a DM should be to run a good game.

 

[kalani]

A good rule of thumb in this instance, would be to expect the player to bring the relevant information to the session with them. If nobody at the table has a physical copy (or digital copy) of the latest Mystic class, the DM would be well within their rights to ask the player to play a different character for that session and for them to bring a copy of the Mystic class with them to the next session.

The player has a legal certificate, however if they are unable to provide the rules source upon request, a DM is well within their rights to ask them to play something else (as they have no way of looking up a rule source as needed during the session).

 

[Inxanity]

This thread is very interesting. I can't really explain why it's interesting to me, because I am horrible at putting thoughts to words. Something to do with the degrees of separation or such between WOTC, the AL admins who work at WoTC, the volunteer admins, and the DMs/Players. All very fascinating when added to all the other little intricacies between now and back when AL started.