Joining mid-chapter

WilliamCQ · Jan 17, 2018

For fixed duration sessions campaigns, is there a rule about players not being able to join a chapter once its started? ie: For a chapter that would on average last 3 sessions, a player want to join the 2nd, can s/he?

Thank you kindly

AriochQ · Jan 17, 2018

As I understand it, there is no rule against this. But...the player may not have previously ran any portion of the chapter and would no longer be able to run any portion of the chapter in the future except with the group they joined. Essentially, they miss out forever on the portion they missed.

jodyjohnson · Jan 18, 2018

Characters can miss out. Players can just make more characters.

WilliamCQ · Jan 18, 2018

jodyjohnson said:
Characters can miss out. Players can just make more characters.

Does this mean they can leave part-way, arrive part-way, or both?

AriochQ · Jan 18, 2018

Both. But once you start a chapter with a group, you must run that chapter with that group. For example, you could start ToA chapter 3 and attend sessions 3, 4, and 7. You would miss some content with that character but you can come and go at will. You would not be able to run Chapter 3 with any other group with that character, even if it was content you had missed with the other group. Chapter 3 is 'locked out' for that character.

Pauper · Jan 19, 2018

AriochQ said:
For example, you could start ToA chapter 3 and attend sessions 3, 4, and 7. You would miss some content with that character but you can come and go at will. You would not be able to run Chapter 3 with any other group with that character, even if it was content you had missed with the other group. Chapter 3 is 'locked out' for that character.

A good answer, but not quite precise:

If you only play part of a chapter with a character, you can return to the same chapter with the same character with a different group. This rule prevents you from being effectively forced out of campaigns like Storm King's Thunder and Out of the Abyss, where a chapter can cover most of a tier of play. However, you are not allowed to participate in any encounters that character previously played within that chapter. If for some reason you must participate in an encounter you previously replayed, your character receives no reward for doing so (as the character already received awards previously).

So, if you played a number of sessions of Storm King's Thunder with a group who chose to travel to Bryn Shander, but didn't level high enough to go to the next chapter, you could return with a different group to the same chapter of Storm King's Thunder as long as that group wasn't also travelling to Bryn Shander. Likewise, if you participated in the encounter in Out of the Abyss where your group received the intelligent sun sword, and had to return with a different group to the same chapter of Out of the Abyss, your character would not be able to participate in that encounter.

I'd like to be able to link to an explanatory admin post saying the same thing, but can't find it. However, everything noted above follows pretty logically from the FAQ entry on 'Can Parts be Replayed' (FAQ 7.1, p.13); a group can agree to return to complete an unfinished chapter or (DD-series) adventure, but cannot replay any encounters previously played.

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Pauper

AriochQ · Jan 19, 2018

Pauper said:
A good answer, but not quite precise:

If you only play part of a chapter with a character, you can return to the same chapter with the same character with a different group. This rule prevents you from being effectively forced out of campaigns like Storm King's Thunder and Out of the Abyss, where a chapter can cover most of a tier of play. However, you are not allowed to participate in any encounters that character previously played within that chapter. If for some reason you must participate in an encounter you previously replayed, your character receives no reward for doing so (as the character already received awards previously).

So, if you played a number of sessions of Storm King's Thunder with a group who chose to travel to Bryn Shander, but didn't level high enough to go to the next chapter, you could return with a different group to the same chapter of Storm King's Thunder as long as that group wasn't also travelling to Bryn Shander. Likewise, if you participated in the encounter in Out of the Abyss where your group received the intelligent sun sword, and had to return with a different group to the same chapter of Out of the Abyss, your character would not be able to participate in that encounter.

I'd like to be able to link to an explanatory admin post saying the same thing, but can't find it. However, everything noted above follows pretty logically from the FAQ entry on 'Can Parts be Replayed' (FAQ 7.1, p.13); a group can agree to return to complete an unfinished chapter or (DD-series) adventure, but cannot replay any encounters previously played.

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Pauper

The first part of the quote seems to contradict your version.

"A group of characters that play only part of a chapter or adventure can’t return to that chapter or adventure unless the entire group agrees to do so. That is, if a game runs exceedingly long and all players and the DM agree to meet the following weekend to pick up where they left off and finish the game. If this occurs, appropriate entries should be entered on logsheets to reflect this.
Replaying the entirety of a portion of an adventure you want to replay is not permitted.."

It really makes no sense to restrict a group of characters but then allow an individual character to return to a chapter. If there was a later change or clarification, they should update the FAQ.

Pauper · Jan 19, 2018

AriochQ said:
The first part of the quote seems to contradict your version.

"A group of characters that play only part of a chapter or adventure can’t return to that chapter or adventure unless the entire group agrees to do so. That is, if a game runs exceedingly long and all players and the DM agree to meet the following weekend to pick up where they left off and finish the game. If this occurs, appropriate entries should be entered on logsheets to reflect this.
Replaying the entirety of a portion of an adventure you want to replay is not permitted.."

It really makes no sense to restrict a group of characters but then allow an individual character to return to a chapter. If there was a later change or clarification, they should update the FAQ.

Depends how you interpret 'that play only part of an adventure or chapter'. If you interpret this as a requirement to be included in the 'group' that can agree to continue the game, then there would appear to be a contradiction -- but note this also implies that, if a player can't make a game, the rest of the table can't continue the game without that character, since that character is part of the 'group that played only part of the adventure or chapter', and can't agree to continue if they're not there.

(Edit: note as well that this would arguably contradict a thing we both agree on -- that a player can drop out and re-enter a hardcover adventure -- since once they drop, they're no longer part of the 'group' that played through the previous session.)

If, on the other hand, you interpret 'group' as 'the players at the table right now', with some of them having already played part of the adventure at the previous session and the rest only getting to play part of the adventure at this session, then the 'group' can agree to continue without contradiction. Note, though, that the rule still restricts the characters to only playing encounters that none of the characters has already played. I don't see anything in the rule that invalidates this interpretation; ergo, no contradiction.

It could stand to be a little clearer, I agree, but then a lot of stuff published by AL could stand to be clearer. Regardless, if you ask the question on one of the Facebook groups, you'll eventually get an admin chiming in to say that joining a group already playing through a hardcover adventure is absolutely allowed.

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Pauper