Learn about D&D organized play options

[Alphastream]

I would if my local stores would even offered it...

What about running in a different public place? Use Meetup. Talk to a university/college group. Work with a pizza/coffee place that might want to attract tabletop play. Talk to a book store that also serves food (and has a not-super-quiet area). Talk to a different gaming store. Any of these might work.

LG was pretty special, for sure, for many reasons. Glad you are hearing good things about the AL adventures. I have really enjoyed the ones I have played/run.

 

[kbrakke]

I just started to DM for a store last week and I wanted to make sure I have all my ducks in a row.

1) I am planning to run Lost Mines until that ends and then transition in to HotDQ or Expeditions based on player feedback at the end of it. I wanted to make sure that this is a legal route as far as OP is concerned. If not we can switch pretty easily, but as of last week the store owner didn't have any passwords for the official Expiditions stuff
2) By running lost mines I also want to have the players join their factions that way, is that legal? Or do they need to start aligned with one.
3) Do any of the magic items in Lost Mines require certificates? If so should I be able to find those on the official site if and when I get a password for it?
4) Based on my reading I think that I am supposed to give downtime for each of the 4 episodes of lost mines, or am I supposed to give 10 downtime for the full adventure?
5) As a follow up, is each part an episode? If so do I as the dm get 1200 xp and 40 downtime days total for running the whole things. If not I get 300 xp and 10 downtime days for the full adventure?

 

[Alphastream]

1) I am planning to run Lost Mines until that ends and then transition in to HotDQ or Expeditions based on player feedback at the end of it. I wanted to make sure that this is a legal route as far as OP is concerned.

It is a great way to start and the Starter Set is fully legal. You can report it through the store as other play, but you also don't have to report it. If playing it at the store, the store should want to report it because it improves their WPN score for the store. Reporting is also useful to Wizards. But, reporting does not impact the players or DM.

This Google search has several useful hits with information on running the Starter Set for AL. Wizards also has an article here on running the set.

2) By running lost mines I also want to have the players join their factions that way, is that legal? Or do they need to start aligned with one.

It is fine to start without a faction, though players may want to start with one. It does take several sessions for the first one to be introduced, and it could make some players feel that they should take one of the first ones presented rather than wait and see what all the options are... I'm not sure what is best. It may be good to explain the system and say that they can start with one or wait and hear about them. Then, in the town, do your best to have the NPCs linked to factions come out and say that.

3) Do any of the magic items in Lost Mines require certificates? If so should I be able to find those on the official site if and when I get a password for it?

Certificates are not needed for play and just allow trading of items between players that both have a certificate to trade. The store has to order the certificates. They do this through the WPN system, though I am not sure if they can still do so for this adventure. You might have the store contact their WPN rep.

4) Based on my reading I think that I am supposed to give downtime for each of the 4 episodes of lost mines, or am I supposed to give 10 downtime for the full adventure?

One of the FAQs answers that. It is 10 downtime per episode.

5) As a follow up, is each part an episode? If so do I as the dm get 1200 xp and 40 downtime days total for running the whole things. If not I get 300 xp and 10 downtime days for the full adventure?

You would earn rewards after each episode - see Page 12 of the Player's Guide for Adventurers League.

 

[kbrakke]

Thank you kindly. Most of my searching was somehow centered on just the Wizards site so I never actually went to the adventurer's league site. Huge oversight on my part. But this makes everything much clearer.

 

[Alphastream]

Glad to help!

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Ive been pleasantly surprised how good the Expeditions scenarios have been so far. THe only one I didnt particuarly enjoy was Shadows over the Moonsea and thats because its got far too much content in it for a 4 hour session.

Secrets of Sokol Keep and Dues for the Dead are amazing good.

Ive gone from my first session with 3 players for Defiance in Phlan to averaging now 7 per session for my past 2 sessions... whilst I have new players coming in and out Ive got a core of 4 players now. A Paladin of Bahamut who is really being tested by all these Cultists aligned with Tiamat. Ive loved the interconnecting Stories and characters and am just disappointed we will only get 14 adventures set there (and I have a hope that Season 1 scenarios arnt retired for a looong time)

Personally Ive got no issue gaming in a store. I livei n a small unit and wouldnt be able to host gaming and most halls and community centres charge a fair bit of cash to rent out to run games at. So the store is fine.

Have started to see some level 4's appearing in my game, and Courting of Fire provided my players and their characters with their first really close look at the death saving throw rules.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

The holidays (Thanksgiving to Christmas) are a thing to factor into any plan. I'd encourage checking out some other games in the meantime (there are a lot of awesome board and card games out!), or adventures (you've done Mines and Hoard already as well?), or having someone do a quick home campaign.

It is a bit unfortunate though. I did a lot of LFR because of the sheer breadth of options and ease of play, and AL has definitely gone another direction. I am happy it didn't just copy PFS. Different styles of OP is actually really good, so that people can play something that suits them most.

Yeah, I factored the holidays into my plan. I assumed a 3 week gap in running at the store.

I just didn't expect no new adventures for January and February. The thing is we are trying to run D&D Expeditions weekly at a store to help build a community. I'd like the players in the city to be rest assured that any week they decide to come, there will be a game there waiting for them. I want it to be more casual than a home game so people who can't make it to a weekly game can come once a month or once every two weeks and still play. Meanwhile, I'd like the people who WANT to come every week to also come and have fun.

This is how we ran LFR and LG and it worked fine for both of them. I'd like to get that experience back, but there is likely a lack of adventures to make that happen.

I'd love to play some other games. If it was up to me, I'd just skip the 2 months and take a break from running and do something else until new adventures come out. But I'm afraid that after 2 months of the game being cancelled I'd run into players who didn't get the message that it was cancelled showing up and wondering why we weren't there this week. It's likely after 2 months people who forget to come back and we'd lose half our players. In order to hold the community together we have to keep doing things weekly.

So, it's likely that we are going to run the Starter Set adventure for the people at the store. Though, the adventure is going to feel disjointed and likely lose a lot of its fun since we are going to randomly gain and lose players. I'm not even sure how to run it properly as an AL adventure. I mean, I know all new characters have to start at level 1. But I'm not sure if you can start playing with level 2 characters from AL at the beginning of the adventure. I don't know if the entire adventure is level 1-5 and therefore I should allow people showing up with their level 5 characters who have played D&D Expeditions or not. I'm not sure how to hand out XP to people who miss half a chapter. If I allow level 2 people to start the adventure, then I'm not even sure how to give out XP for the first chapter since it says "Don't give out XP for this chapter, just make everyone level 2".

The problem is that Lost Mines is officially allowed in AL but doesn't fit in well with the AL rules and there are no clarifications anywhere.

Either way, running Mines for the 2 months we don't have adventures this time will work fine. But likely won't work the second time there is a 2 month gap since everyone won't want to play it a second time. Hopefully there will be another solution before then.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

I understand where you are coming from Oakheart. Im predominantly an Expeditions GM. I have no gm'd encounters yet.

When Expeditions was originally announced and the dates listed on their website I noted the gaps and the frequency of releases and decided there and then to run every 2 weeks. I could run every week but then realised Id be doubling up and I might not enjoy that too much. Do I run the risk of people turning up the week Im not there? I do. But I plan a loong way ahead. I create a short one page roster of my upcoming weeks which I hand out at Wednesdays encounters night and have some in the store to promote the games. I make it clear the days and times.

What Ive found is that people now schedule their time for these games and know that every 2 weeks there will be something on at the same time in the same place. So I have got people now who say that they wont miss the next one and that they are looking forward to it. (Which is kinda cool). Im planning on taking a break during January and then start off February with the first of the 5-10's. THen I will rerun a couple of the earlier ones players have missed and then go back to the bi weekly schedule.

I know that its hard to resist the demands of players to keep running new stuff, but hold back a bit. Rerun some older stuff so you can expand the player pool.

 

[keterys]

Mines of Phandelver is a good adventure. And actually a ridiculous loot fest compared to Expeditions. So I don't think it will be unpopular when you run it.

The trickiest bit is going to be stopping and starting at good points. Some people might have good advice for that, I'm not sure.

 

[Alphastream]

I really like the quality of the experience with Mines of Phandelver. It's an excellent adventure for both players and DM. You can run it focusing on certain areas, and a new player that jumps in will soon grasp what is taking place in that area. With the emphasis early on prisoners, it is easy to introduce new players as a prisoner the party has found, or near town as a new person who arrived in town and is being asked to aid the party by one of their NPC contacts.

As for level, yeah, this would be for you to start with level 1 PCs. The information isn't there because it doesn't have to be - you run it as written except where noted otherwise. Do see the links I provided a few posts ago. I think it is pretty clear. Because you run it in sections and the rewards come in sections, you can decide whether the players are okay with padding out the experience - mine have been in no hurry. There is a lot in the adventure and you can flesh out the "random encounters" they suggest to be less random and more of set pieces if you like (and, again, if the party aren't loot/XP hogs or wanting to rush through it).