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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nobleshield" data-source="post: 9758694" data-attributes="member: 7046916">I'm considering starting an open-table D&D campaign at my LGS since several people have come in the past couple of weeks asking about regular D&D games at the shop (there aren't really any) or wanting to learn to play; usually I'd be trying to push "OSR" style games or older editions (my personal preference) but people want to play D&D, not a game that's "just like D&D but...".  I would plan to use the old "TSR Hobby Shop Dungeon" approach that I read about in Ernie Gygax's (rest in peace) Marmoreal Tomb, which is close to but not quite what the kids nowadays call "West Marches", the main points of which are:1) Sessions are scheduled (ostensibly each week), with one single DM and not necessarily with multiple groups (unlike West Marches). Whoever shows up plays; if necessary, a player must create a new character (or promote one, but I don't think D&D'24 has henchmen anymore) to ensure a cohesive party.2) Each session MUST start and end in a safe place (e.g., a town) to receive treasure and XP (in the old days, this was more important due to 1gp = 1xp, of course)3) If party levels are too far apart, they need to be balanced (by people having to use/create other characters from their stable)The first two points can be done easily enough in D&D '24. The third point is the one that seems to be the outlier because everyone I've talked to is 100% adamant that you can NEVER have varying levels within the same party; everyone needs to be equal level at all times to make things "fair", and the idea of saying "Bob your PC is 8th level, you can't play him in a group of 1st levels you need to create an alt character" is openly hostile, which defeats the whole point of people being able to play as they are able, since why commit to play every week if you know that if you miss a month, your character will just get bumped up to everyone else's level when you come back? In older editions (e.g., 1st and 2nd edition), there wouldn't be an issue since A) each class leveled at different XP rates, and B) it was assumed because of A that you could have a 2-3 level gap between PCs and it would be perfectly fine.I can't figure out how to handle that part and keep the open table—whoever shows up gets to play self-contained adventures in an open-world style game with the current edition—since it's so focused on the "consistent party" gameplay style (which, to be fair, would also have been an issue since the 3rd edition) where everyone is always the same level. I've heard about Adventurer's League, but it seems like WotC has abandoned it except for conventions, as there doesn't seem to be any info on it for D&D 2024.Is there any way to get around this issue? The hypothetical level gap, if some people can play every session and some can play only once a month or two, is the only thing preventing me from wanting to do this right now, because it seems like D&D'24 cannot support that. Still, it's bound to happen if you go with the idea that if this week, 5 people show up, and next week, 3 people show up, PCs shouldn't receive XP for games they haven't played.</blockquote>

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