Search results

4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen This adventure tries to do a lot... and it manages most of what it sets out to do. It is full of great scenes, cool action sequences, great potential for player ingenuity and RP, and is fun to play and DM. However, it lacks the information to the...

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual I was prepared to be disappointed in this book, especially given how very good the recently released 13th Age Bestiary is - and the 13th Age Bestiary is fantastic because it is such a departure from typical monster books.And yet, the D&D team...

4 out of 5 rating for The Rise of Tiamat This is a really good adventure. It has some fantastic and really fun scenes and a very epic storyline to conclude your PC's career. It is immeasurably higher in quality than the first 4E published adventures, which together formed an adventure...

I really like the quality of the experience with Mines of Phandelver. It's an excellent adventure for both players and DM. You can run it focusing on certain areas, and a new player that jumps in will soon grasp what is taking place in that area. With the emphasis early on prisoners, it is easy...

Glad to help!

It is a great way to start and the Starter Set is fully legal. You can report it through the store as other play, but you also don't have to report it. If playing it at the store, the store should want to report it because it improves their WPN score for the store. Reporting is also useful to...

What about running in a different public place? Use Meetup. Talk to a university/college group. Work with a pizza/coffee place that might want to attract tabletop play. Talk to a book store that also serves food (and has a not-super-quiet area). Talk to a different gaming store. Any of these...

There have been some recent posts with some great information and inspiration: - Chris Tulach, organized play lead, provides a great overview of Adventurers League on the WotC podcast. - Fantastic advice on how to set up a 4-hour training session for new DMs at conventions (or stores), by...

And, it isn't that I don't hear those of you saying you want to be able to play everything at home. I do. I don't disagree, in that I like the idea of playing anything everywhere. No barriers, lots of play styles supported, and no matter what you want to play, you can do it wherever...

Run it in another, quieter public location. If you just want to play D&D with your buddies, that's totally and absolutely fine. You can run the published 5E adventures, easily convert awesome adventures from other editions, or make your own. If you want to help D&D grow, run Expeditions public...

While I agree with some of what you write, I think that takes speculation too far. Much of the current plan is certainly aimed at invested hard-core gamers, just as much of it is aimed at new and casual players. It is always a balance. And, what has been absolutely constant for each and every...

I know this very well, because most of my friends have that same constraint. Which is why Encounters won't work for them... but everything else does. Adventurers League has tons of flexibility: - Home play? Run Hoard and Rise. You can play any day of the week. Sure, getting a group together can...

If the only night the store will support is Tuesday, then run Expeditions on that night or run the same Encounters adventure as open play (but don't call it Encounters). You still are a part of Adventurers League and you still get to be a part of the storyline. You just can't run Encounters on...

My thanks to all of these excellent sites. I've benefited from some of these for years. It takes a lot of work to produce consistently great ideas. Thanks!

Can I get a free eyeroll? ;-) But, yeah, they are separate stories along the same theme. As an example I can now talk about, during the Epic I tried to write in the experience your PC would have as they first learned of some of the key points of the Tyranny of Dragon story: how the Cult of the...

They are a separate story as part of the same storyline. Tyranny of Dragons is the overall theme: Cult of the Dragon, Tiamat, and Thay all bringing a major threat to the Realms. Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat are the two official adventures and the center of the story: played...

Opinions differ very widely, but most of the feedback I've heard online and on stores has Beyond the Crystal Cave as one of the more confusing ones for DMs and probably lost the most players over the course of the season. I personally liked the season and really appreciate what the author was...

This link is even safer! :-) The AL site has an excellent article delineating the Encounters program's recent changes and the various options for Encounters vs casual play.

Morrus interviewed me at Gen Con on D&D Organized Play. Getting to meet him was a lot of fun!

Merric posted a very cool post taking a look at the various AL program on-ramps and play levels and seeing how they weave together. Absolutely worth a read, and this chart is a nice summary.