[Adventurer's League] Not making it easy to find DMs

[Sacrosanct]

With Mearls saying you can run the adventure how you want (only guideline being the treasure you hand out) are you more likely to run a game? Sounds like could even house rule stuff as long as you are upfront about it.

Treasure is the only thing to worry about and the recording of who is playing

His response was certainly encouraging.

 

[Tony Vargas]

But my preferred style is to run games like I like to run them. And from what I can gather, that's making it hard to find enough DMs. My understanding is that finding DMs was hard enough already. And honestly, I don't now what WoTC could do to make it easier. They are already giving a bunch of perks to DMs. It's just the nature of the beast I guess.

It's true, I think, that GMs, in general, have perennially been hard to find - it's been a truism of gaming, because GMing is just a /lot/ more work than playing. It's a bit less true of D&D, if only because so many people have become so familiar with it over the decades, so DMs are hard to find, but if you're used to how hard it is to find a GM for some other game you like, really not /that/ difficult.

However, at my FLGS, we've never had trouble getting enough DMs for Encounters. Encounters started with 4e and continued through Essentials, and both those versions of D&D were really quite easy to run. So, while an old-timer wedded to the sandbox style might not be too attracted to the program, those willing/able to run in the more directive style demanded by organized play were common enough. (Actually, even though one of our regular DMs really prefers sandboxing, he's just willing to run organized play, as well.) But, the main thing was that some new players would fairly quickly start DMing, as well. We started with (relative) old-timers running, but now we have 6 or 8 folks willing to DM, and only 3 of them have gaming histories going all the way back to the 20th century. Most started with 4e and learned to DM with it, which, like I said, is pretty easy. So far, only the three more experienced DMs (myself included) are up for running 5e, but I suspect that will change as the others get some experience with the system.

 

[jrowland]

FWIW and IIRC,

The adventure takes into consideration killing Cyanwrath offering potential solutions (he is healed, he is raised, use another half-dragon with identical stats...)

 

[fanboy2000]

FWIW and IIRC,

The adventure takes into consideration killing Cyanwrath offering potential solutions (he is healed, he is raised, use another half-dragon with identical stats...)

It does. You are statistically unlikely to kill him, but in the event you do, someone takes his place in episode three. Fairly straight forward.

Anyone concerned about railroading or it being to liner should look at episodes two and four. It doesn't get more sandboxy in a published adventure than those two episodes.

Episode one is, I think, the weakest episode. It's nothing by one deadly combat after another. Terrible. It's an easy fix, just ratchet down some of the combats and add some flavor to them so it's not just a grinding slog. But a TPK in the first combat is a distinct possibility.

 

[Curmudjinn]

Good to know! Thank you very much. My impression from my reading was that it was very linear because of things like how treasure was recorded, and how Cyan could not die because he was needed later on (sort of railroady).

So you've clarified that part for me. Thank you.

Towards the OP and this post: As a DM, what prevents you from allowing interaction with Cyanwrath(even killing him), and just tweaking a follow-up appearance of that NPC with a similar, newly-named NPC? It is a simple name change and wording of his appearance, without all of the hassle you are putting on yourself in sticking to AL format.

I thought that was a basic function of DMing modules.