Have You played In An Official D&D Adventurer's League Event?

Never have. The WotC locator tool is useless - it shows over a dozen stores in my area that participate in Adventurer's League, but most of them actually don't. When I call to check, half of them haven't heard of it before, and the other half said they used to, but stopped a year ago or more. There is one store in the next town over that has an active running game, but it's a 45 minute drive away, and happens right in the middle of my workday. My normal gaming group once tried to run a home AL game, but we found the restrictions too restricting for no benefit.

 

[Morrus]

D&D has always had an Organized Play program of some kind. Right now it's the D&D Adventurer's League, but there have been different iterations throughout different editions going back to the RPGA, focused in 1980 by Frank Mentzer at TSR. These days, you can join in official D&D Adventurers League at many game stores around the world. But what about you? Have you personally ever played in an official D&D Adventurer's League game at a store, convention, or other sanctioned event?

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[hejtmane]

I have not and I will avoid them at all cost

 

[Jer]

Yes actually - I've played at events at Origins a few different times. Last year I know it was "Adventurer's League" but I've played previous years under different names (all the way back to when it was the RPGA branded play - whatever that was).

They're fine. They're convention games where some people bring their own characters. They're never the best games that I play at the con, but they're usually not the worst either.

 

[guachi]

Yes.

The nice thing about AL is the can't turn you away, barring tables being too big/small or your PC not being of the appropriate level for the adventure. It's great for people like me at the time in 2014. I had the 5e books and no one to play with. I hadn't played D&D in years and didn't have a group. Though given my job there are lots of people at work who play. So I went to the FLGS, had some fun, quit because the DM used houserules when he shouldn't have (and basically ruined my PC), but at least I had some players for my campaign. Great place to recruit.

Recently, about six weeks ago, I went to a different FLGS a bit farther away that had recently opened up and needed another DM for AL as their games had too many players - 13 showed up one time. There are a lot of people that only show up for a session or two, so it's frustrating to DM and the adventures have no momentum as players come and go.

However, I like roleplaying enough that I'd hate for someone to buy the rules and have no one to play with. Like last Tuesday where a young girl (junior high, maybe?) showed up and just watched us play for a bit. When we took a break, everyone was really nice to her and encouraged her to show up next week.

The FLGS and AL was a great place to recruit PCs for a store-hosted campaign (which the store also needed a DM for). That's what I really wanted to do. DMing AL is just a means to an end (two ends - my campaign and ensuring new players don't feel completely left out).

EDIT: I can't fathom why anyone would play in AL as a regular (or, only) way to play D&D. It's fine if you have nothing else, but that's about it.

 

[Ricochet]

No, but I have run something akin to it in coordinance with AL, getting materials to use from WotC with their blessing.

The rigamarole of tracking and logging has prevented me from participating, aside from the fact that almost no stores or community centers have anything of the sort here in Denmark, outside of the largest cities.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yes, but 90% of my gaming is with my group and not AL.

Interesting observation though. So far it's 2 to 1, and even many of those "yes" votes are people like me, who play outside of the AL as well. I'm immediately thinking of all the "But it's not AL legal!" responses to why 3PP is not good and/or has no value. Seems that excuse appears to only affect a small % of players.

 

[tsalla]

I gotta say I love AL, and play it pretty much exclusively now. Why? Well, what's not to love? First of all, ALL 5e WotC published adventures can be played as part of AL. But better than that are the dozens of 2-4 hour adventures you can play in a game store, order from the DMs Guild and play at home, or "binge-play" at a convention. Most of them are great (if in need of a bit more editing), and they are better than the sum of their parts, with a different theme each season, recurring NPCs, etc. Best thing is you can play as much or as little as you can/want, with a regular group or with strangers (and a regular DM or a variety), all with the same character or handful of characters. I play monthly at a store, monthly in an AL home game, and once or twice a year at a con.

The "restrictions" are minimal and just help keep power levels balanced when playing with new people. (Pretty much no races that fly at 1st level and keep track of the adventures played and rewards earned for each character.)

If you have a home group with a DM that creates content just for you, great! But for most adults that's rare, and different folks have different availability. AL lets you play when you can and still have a through-line.

 

[Ezequielramone]

Nope, those don't exist in my country.
I don't want to play with estranges in public places for multiple reasons

 

[not-so-newguy]

I play at a store that has been designated as an AL store by WOTC. I started playing there over two years ago. At first, there were 2-3 tables running a campaign and every game was AL material. Nowadays, there are 3 tables going and none of them are AL content. Most of the same people have stuck around through this time. I still happily fork down $5 for use of the table, which gets saved as credit for in-store purchases. DMs are gifted $5 credit for each session by the store.

People still walk in expecting AL. Most of them stick around for awhile at least, since we’ll find them a spot at an available table. Some don't. From what I have done and witnessed at the table, we do our best to accommodate newcomers.

If the goal of AL is to give folks a place to meet and play some DnD, then they have succeeded at my store. If the goal was to play AL exclusive content and rules, then they’ve failed.

I have never attended an event or convention, but a handful of people at the store regularly do.