How good are the AL adventures?

[Mercule]

With the Wayfarer's Guide out and the Eberron AL set to start (in earnest), this week, I'm tempted to switch settings and ease back on my adventure prep time. But.... I've never even read through the AL adventures. I'd heard, at one point, they weren't real good for playing in a normal campaign. But, that was quite some time ago.

So, are they something you can use like an adventure path? Are they totally stand alone? If they are, are the individual stories generally of decent quality?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

On the whole, I’ve liked the AL sessions I’ve played in, though I think the quality of the DM is what generally makes or breaks them. Some of them do string together loosely, but If you’re looking for more adventure path-y stuff, I’d recommend some of the con-created content ones, which do tend to thread together nicely. Both the CORE and YLRA ones in particular spring to mind as ones that have solid, tied-together narratives.

 

[abs]

Are you running Eberron? Those adventures are suppose to be more like the Curse of Strahd season, at least in design. It's more of an adventure path than a bunch of standalones loosely threaded together. CoS was poorly conceived, in my opinion. They didn't do a good job in vetting the basic story and it had timing issues from a story perspective, among other issues. Editing has improved somewhat from that season. Worse case, it should be an interesting story that might need some sanity corrections from the DM...

 

[Lapasta]

I have never played on AL (it's not available at my country), but I had an eye on getting the Eberron AL Adventure on the dmsguild as soon as I learnt about it. As of now, I haven't purchased it yet, but it has received very poor reviews. I am pondering in getting the "Curtain Call" adventure instead, as it is not only better reviewed, but also has Keith Baker as co-author.

 

[KenNYC]

AL would not make a satisfying campaign for a home group of experienced players. They are very vanilla and by design simple enough to be solved in 2 to 4 hours. It is as primitive as possible with the early levels being nothing more than go from point A to point B, have two fights, pick up an item/rescue someone, and then come home without incident. Honestly, you as a DM could do better off the top of your head.

 

[MNblockhead]

AL would not make a satisfying campaign for a home group of experienced players. They are very vanilla and by design simple enough to be solved in 2 to 4 hours. It is as primitive as possible with the early levels being nothing more than go from point A to point B, have two fights, pick up an item/rescue someone, and then come home without incident. Honestly, you as a DM could do better off the top of your head.

That is often the case, but I've been playing some AL Elemental Evil adventures can have been pleasantly surprised at the puzzle solving involved. That said, they all have to be a bit railroady.

 

[GlassJaw]

I haven't played or run in AL so I can't speak to organized play. However, I've been prepping to run CoS and have been looking at a variety of material to add, including the AL CoS adventures.

Overall, the quest line is decent. Some highs but some very low lows. The background info of the region and the NPCs (Jeny Greenteeth!) and town the adventures are set are cool that the adventures are set. I like the idea of another town on the map.

The quest line definitely needs work if you want to adapt them for a home campaign. It's doable but requires some heavy edits. Luckily, MerricB provides awesome insight on his blog: https://merricb.com/category/curse-of-strahd/

 

[guachi]

The AL adventures are reasonably entertaining. The main issue are the limitations mentioned - that they are 2-4 hours and quite primitive.

As an introduction to D&D or a drop-in to an existing campaign for a little flavor they are much better.

A caveat: I only have experience with Tier 1 AL adventures. Also, I'm horrible at creating adventures so when @KenNYC writes "Honestly, you as a DM could do better off the top of your head" he's not referring to me. I can modify an adventure and weave it in with other adventures just fine. I have no fear editing others. But I have far too much second-guessing on my own creations.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I haven't played or run in AL so I can't speak to organized play. However, I've been prepping to run CoS and have been looking at a variety of material to add, including the AL CoS adventures.

Have you seen this? http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2016/03/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-curse-of.html

/tangent

 

[Davo3]

I've been playing AL about twice per month for four months, T1 and T2. It's strengths and weaknesses are the same - the flexibility.

It's a strength because any five or six characters of appropriate level can succeed with just about any module. I haven't seen any situation where we were doomed because nobody wanted to run a Cleric, or Fighter, or whatever. Plenty of composition flexibility due to overlap of abilities.

And it's a weakness because a character can be optimized for social interactions or stealth or knowledge checks, but any of that can be worked around without killing the mission. The soft skills aren't needed, provided everyone can contribute to combat.

I think AL is great for getting people together, but I'm hoping it will serve as a stepping-stone to a regular group, where we know how to play around each character's and player's strengths and weaknesses. =/