Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 6556720" data-attributes="member: 5143">The way I like to think of Organized Play is a lot like an MMORPG.  You create a character for WoW and then you can join any group of people you want playing any quest that exists in WoW.Adventurer's League is a lot like this but with tabletop D&D instead.  Adventure's League consists of 4 different types of play:  1. D&D Encounters, which is meant for beginner players that runs Wednesdays at stores for a couple of hours.  Right now, D&D Encounters is over but it will be starting again with the Elemental Evil storyline.  The DM will be running the first couple of chapters of Princes of the Apocalypse (the printed WOTC adventure coming out in a couple of weeks).  It will likely take a couple of months to finish these chapters and most DMs will hope you come for all of it.2. D&D Expeditions, which is designed more like a TV show would be.  They must be run in a store but can be scheduled whenever the DM or store wants.  Each adventure lasts 4-8 hours (generally 4) and is self contained.  You get a mission and accomplish it in the 4 hours.  Everything is wrapped up, people get XP and gold and everyone goes home.  You never have to play again if you don't want to.  But the adventures are part of a longer story arc that all tie together to form a larger campaign.  Adventure 1 might be saving some people who were kidnapped and Adventure 2 might be defeating some monsters in a forest but it's likely that both adventures will involve cultists working for the Temple of Elemental Evil and both are part of their larger plot.3. D&D Epics, which are large SUPER adventures that can only be played at large conventions like Origins or GenCon.  These events often involve major story points that affect the whole campaign.  They involve 20+ tables of players.  Often there is interaction between the tables(like all 120 players are part of a big battle and you can get up from your table and go to a different one to help them).4. Home Play adventures.  These are adventures that are "approved" as official Adventurer's League adventures.  In the next season, there will be 3 of them: Lost Mine of Phandelver, Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Rise of Tiamat, and Princes of the Apocalypse.  You can run these at home(or in public if you want) and as long as they are run using the Adventurer's League rules then the characters are approved to play in any of the other Adventurer's League campaigns.The thing to note about the campaign is that each time you play you might be adventuring with different characters as people might not show up one week or more people might show up or people might just play a different character each session.  Characters are created using special rules.  The characters can ONLY play Adventure's League adventures.  Though they can freely move from one game to the other.  You could play a session of D&D Encounters then play in a 4 hour D&D Expeditions adventure then go and play in the next session of D&D Encounters.  You could play with a DM at one store then go to another store and play with them instead.  Your DM might be different each week.Keep in mind when you play Adventurer's League you are part of a global campaign.  You could go to GenCon and play a bunch of adventures there with your character and come back with all of the XP and gold and magic items you find.  Your character is considered to have traveled to the new location and adventured there when you were there.Because of this, the campaign gives up a little bit of "realism" in exchange for the ability to travel and to play wherever you want.  You might meet other characters who have played the same adventure you have but different things happened for them.  You might play adventures out of order and therefore "go back in time" to help people who died in an adventure you already played, and so on.  Most of us take this with a grain of salt since we are used to it.  However, it can be jarring for people who haven't played in an Organized Play campaign before.The beauty of Adventurer's League is that there should always be a place for anyone to join the game.  Most stores have a scheduled time to start and it's polite to show up at the beginning of a session and stay to the end but individual stores and DMs might be more lenient.If stores are properly following the Adventurer's League rules then they shouldn't be turning players away.  If someone is there and has a legal AL character then they should allow you to play.  They do need to follow the rules, however.  Which means each table can only be 3 to 7 players.  They can't have 2 player tables or 8 player tables.  Some stores or DMs will restrict it to less players because of room at the table or other reasons.  Other stores or DMs might not have read the rules well enough and might be turning people away.  Hopefully you don't run into that.Also, adventures have a tier, as MerricB says above.  If they are running an adventure that is for characters 5-10 and you only have a 2nd level character, you can't play that adventure.  When I run games at our local store, I try to make sure everyone can participate.  I have 2 DMs running games and if new players show up, we will make sure one of the DMs runs a 1-4 adventure so they can participate.  Our regular players have been very good at accommodating new players by playing their low level characters and replaying adventures they've already played in order to make sure new players get a chance to play.So, basically, you want to ask what adventure is being run and whether it allows level 1 characters to be in it.  Then you just need to make sure they have enough room at their table and show up at the scheduled time.  It might be good to ask the store or the DM in advance to make sure you don't waste the trip.  But I've found most of the Adventurer's League players to be great and they'll find a way to work with you.  I have confidence.</blockquote>

Verification