New ALPG (and ALDMG) have dropped!

[Z. H. Darkstar]

Have they released what the 'special' reward for store ran events is?

Supposedly it's special certs for items in Death House. Unfortunately, my store hasn't received them yet, even though I registered for the LE as soon as the window opened. Hopefully they arrive before I start running it next month.

 

[RCanine]

- Allowed Rules for Curse of Strahd are the PH/Basic Rules (the SRD is not mentioned but is included by implication as it has replaced the Basic Rules)

lolwut

I think you've misunderstood the SRD. It's a designer reference, not a player one, and it's filled with gaps and holes (e.g. references to abilities and spells that are not in the SRD), and there are things in the Basic Rules that aren't in the SRD. I'm not sure in what sense you believe the SRD has replaced the basic rules, but it hasn't.

 

[Ainulindalion]

The evidence on the Facebook group strongly implies that you need to contact your LC, SLC, or RC to get your store's copies of the special certs, not WotC.

 

[RCanine]

You can begin play with one trinket of your choice from the table in chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook or the Basic Rules, or you can roll randomly to determine your trinket.

Is it intended that player's are limited to the PHB and Basic Rules for trinkets, and that the Elemental Evil Trinkets and Curse of Strahd trinkets are verbotten? Not like trinkets ever have much bearing on the game, but still.

 

[Anthraxus]

Supposedly it's special certs for items in Death House. Unfortunately, my store hasn't received them yet, even though I registered for the LE as soon as the window opened. Hopefully they arrive before I start running it next month.

Darkstar, have your store contact their nearest Local Coordinator (LC) for the certs, or at least an LC for their region. They should be able to help.

 

[kalani]

Since I suspect these questions to be common, I have created a new thread with instructions (for stores) for getting certs for the Death House Launch event. I figured that if someone from the store isn't a member of this forum, there is a good chance that at least one of their players might be and could pass the information along to them.

tl;dr version - The LCs are contacting stores directly and emailing the certs to the store manager/owner at an official email address. In addition, unlike the Dragon+ version (and the version printed in CoS), two of the mundane items in the Death House adventure have been upgraded to magic items for in-store launch events only (these also come with certs).

 

[RCanine]

I have several questions about the DMs Guide:

How do Resurrection Madness and Vampirism interact? If a PC is turned into a Vampire during a session, and they somehow stay one for more than 24 hours, before taking the ... uh ... non-wish method of resurrecting, what happens?

How do you run for players that killed Jeny Greenteeth in 1-8? Hand-wave it?

How do the Help From Who!? and Faction Charity rules interact?

 

[kalani]

Good questions all. I will try and answer them based on what I know

1. Unknown. My gut reaction is that since you are undead, you aren't dead so your time spent as a vampire wouldn't count for the purpose of resurrection madness.

2. Expect table variation. I think the easiest approach (and one very in keeping with Ravenloft), is to have her alive and well despite her apparent death. Perhaps the Mists raised her as well, or perhaps there are other sinister forces at work. I would play it up completely and have her very unhappy to see her murderers. Rather than rolling randomly on the table, as a DM I would instead choose the most sinister and twisted options (such as flayed skin) in order to "punish" the PCs.

Failing that, it could be another hag either masquarading as Jenny Greenteeth, or perhaps going by another name but serving the same roll (perhaps her sister?)

3. The factions really aren't present in Barovia outside of those few members who were present in the Quivering Forest when it was sucked into Barovia (Orasnou is situated in the north-eastern corner of the Barovian map, with the Quivering Forest north of Orasnou off the map).

The lack of a true faction presence means that Faction charity is not available in Barovia. Instead, characters wishing to be raised need to either seek out Jenny Greenteeth, be revived by a fellow PC, or be raised by the Dark Powers. Other options may be available in some adventures although they too would likely have terms and conditions attached to them. Nothing in Ravenloft is free. Everything comes at a price - and gold is rarely the only cost

Faction Charity still exists for those characters who are not trapped within Barovia however.

 

[RCanine]

The lack of a true faction presence means that Faction charity is not available in Barovia.

Characters trapped in Barovia as part of the Curse of Strahd storyline season have additional options for being brought back from the dead.

(emphasis mine)

Looks like this should be different rather than additional.

 

[kalani]

Good catch. I will mention that to the admins and see what was intended. Based on discussions over the past several weeks however, I am fairly certain that different was the intent (that or the additional options was in reference to the preceding paragraphs regarding our friendly Hag Jenny).

Either way, the intention is that the factions are barely present, with the PCs being the most active members of the entire faction outside of a few scattered representatives - and that the factions are unable to assist the party in any meaningful way (lest of all faction charity).

I should also add that the rewards for players this season seem to be different as well, with players participating in CoS earning 5 DT for every 2 hours of play much like DMs (this of course assumes I did not misinterpret what Robert said on FB which is possible); however while they gain far more DT, they do not appear to earn renown in CoS (still waiting on confirmation of the latter).

This only applies to CoS, with players earning DT and renown normally for non-CoS adventures as well as the season 4 AL modules.