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

[Rydac]

Sure, if that was the fix we were planning to make, it would be quite simple.

As for the files and edits we hope to make, its not even that we have issues making the changes. We don't physically own the files. We have requested them and that is working through channels. WOTC is discussing how updates should be made: Should they go back to the authors to make changes (since they are now getting $ from the DMs Guild and changing them without their say is kinda questionable but might mean some authors choose not to update)? Should the Admins do it gratis without any pay outside of their normal position? Should WOTC find someway to pay some one (which might mean waiting for a new budget cycle)? Should we just throw it out to some volunteers like you suggest (and make them sign some sort of documents about destroying all copies afterward and not posting to the internet and some how potentially making them liable to the author if they do)? Turns out it not quite as easy as Yeah, just let me open a file and alter a line of text, resave, and we're good.

None of the above are great hurdles.
Have the authors do it? Probably best option.....I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to update the adventure to state the current DM rewards.

Admins do it gratis? fixing all the files is an hour maybe two, so not unreasonable. Especially so since the positive effect for DMs will we hope be quite nice. DMs all spend many hours running gratis.

WotC fix? I'd hope, given the success of D&D, that the tiny cost to update a few dozen adventures to the new DM rewards scheme would not rise to a budget line and waiting for the next budget cycle.

Throw out to volunteers? Sure, I've offered one who'd do all the work. Easy enough to get him or whoever volunteered to sign an NDA.....they've been used by WotC many times for a variety of projects.

I'd understand if there was a response like "our new DM rewards are so cool and varied we can't simply add a blurb to the season 4 pdf guide" but to not adjust the prior season adventures to cover the (hopefully) higher DM experience points and gold pieces?? well I remain mystified that this is an issue. Given the number of DMs who have expressed dissatisfaction with being unable to somewhat keep pace with their friends once games are in tier 2....I'd think WotC would be excited for the opportunity to provide the fix.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

Give them a couple custom classes or race builds that only DMs are allowed to use legally.

 

[skerritthegreen]

With respect to DM awards, this isn't going to be text provided by the module author, so I'm not sure why the author would have any 'skin in the game', so to speak.

Mostly because if we are going to release a new version of it, we'd like to fix the other typos that we know are there. I strongly do not want to deal with a second avalanche of emails/messages about "how lazy are you that you went in, opened up the file and fixed one thing but not the other."

 

[skerritthegreen]

None of the above are great hurdles.
Have the authors do it? Probably best option.....I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to update the adventure to state the current DM rewards.

Admins do it gratis? fixing all the files is an hour maybe two, so not unreasonable. Especially so since the positive effect for DMs will we hope be quite nice. DMs all spend many hours running gratis.

WotC fix? I'd hope, given the success of D&D, that the tiny cost to update a few dozen adventures to the new DM rewards scheme would not rise to a budget line and waiting for the next budget cycle.

Throw out to volunteers? Sure, I've offered one who'd do all the work. Easy enough to get him or whoever volunteered to sign an NDA.....they've been used by WotC many times for a variety of projects.

I'd understand if there was a response like "our new DM rewards are so cool and varied we can't simply add a blurb to the season 4 pdf guide" but to not adjust the prior season adventures to cover the (hopefully) higher DM experience points and gold pieces?? well I remain mystified that this is an issue. Given the number of DMs who have expressed dissatisfaction with being unable to somewhat keep pace with their friends once games are in tier 2....I'd think WotC would be excited for the opportunity to provide the fix.

Please note that at the same time we will be fixing all the typos, updating stat blocks, fixing ambiguities that we see now that the adventures have run a lot, adjust layout due to changes, etc... so its definitely not just an hour or two. I expect its roughly 2-3 hours per adventure more for some of them.

 

[RCanine]

Wow, DMs guild is neat but it complicates the ownership of this a lot if the adventures are published by individual authors and not the Adventurer's League centrally. It sounds like a lot of cat-herding, and I don't envy the admins having to do it.

Personally, I feel like their brainpower is best spent of fixing their publishing workflows on future stuff, rather than cleaning up the first three seasons. A official errata PDF for each adventure would be nice, but seriously we can live with a few typos.

 

[DocSharpe]

Wow, DMs guild is neat but it complicates the ownership of this a lot if the adventures are published by individual authors and not the Adventurer's League centrally. It sounds like a lot of cat-herding, and I don't envy the admins having to do it.

Personally, I feel like their brainpower is best spent of fixing their publishing workflows on future stuff, rather than cleaning up the first three seasons. A official errata PDF for each adventure would be nice, but seriously we can live with a few typos.

The problem is that there's a lot of people who feel that it isn't just "a few typos". I game with a couple people who have done copy-editing, and they have pointed out numerous problems in each modules, including gender changes, dropped concepts, and sentences/thoughts/concepts which completely get dropped. Some people can roll with those problems and probably won't notice, but it's glaring to others.

There's a simpler solution; one which is already in place. There's a group within the AL which have already crowd-sourced the errors and posted a "Suggested Errata" (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g6wYyw972Thm0J2_wvOTDcdzmE02VLW6vfz7ttNIH_A/edit#). Yes, it does mean that you don't have a "nice clean perfectly formatted and proofed PDF". But since it's a living document, you don't have to keep going back to the source and seeing if there's a new version. Just check the doc before you run the module.

Since there WILL be typos and problems in upcoming seasons (because quite frankly, it's unrealistic to assume every new product will be perfect), I think a better use of AL staff's time might be to restructure this kind of living document (maybe organizing it a bit better so that it's not just one giant document).

 

[kalani]

The DMs Guild notifies people whenever there is an update to a file they have purchased. If you buy an adventure, you don't have to keep checking for an update - you will be informed via email if there is one.

 

[Byakugan]

Currently, there is no DMs Guild material that is legal for adventure league is there? I mean other than the DDex modules and the main campaign books?

 

[skerritthegreen]

Currently, there is no DMs Guild material that is legal for adventure league is there? I mean other than the DDex modules and the main campaign books?

You are correct. Currently there is not. We add or remove stuff from story origins, which means that we do it with no ALPGs, which means we're likely looking at S5 for any character content (if any). Its possible that an adventure could be added to S4 if there was a really good one we like and fight nicely (no promises, but its not impossible).