Philosophical approaches of PFS and Adventurer's League

[Ari Kanen]

I wrote this article after a bunch of discussion with my gamer buddies (many who play PFS) about how the AL model may seem unsatisfying and might actually be amazing...

http://dndonlinecollective.blogspot.com/2014/08/in-defense-of-adventurers-league.html

For folks that are familiar with organized play, what do you think?

And I apologize for spelling and grammer. I just needed to get it out of my system quickly.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I like Adventurer's League but my only gripe is that it doesn't allow D&D Expeditions for private play (home/online), only in-stores and convention play.

This makes it harder to run online pick-up games on an evening (4-5 hours) like LFR or PFS and rely on bigger published adventures only that the DM has to run only part of, which IMO doesn't give the same satisfying experience than a self-contained 4-hours adventures give.

I hope Dungeon magazines will publish short adventures legal for AL private play if D&D Expeditions doesn't change its model.

 

[aarduini]

I like Adventurer's League but my only gripe is that it doesn't allow D&D Expeditions for private play (home/online), only in-stores and convention play.

This makes it harder to run online pick-up games on an evening (4-5 hours) like LFR or PFS and rely on bigger published adventures only that the DM has to run only part of, which IMO doesn't give the same satisfying experience than a self-contained 4-hours adventures give.

I hope Dungeon magazines will publish short adventures legal for AL private play if D&D Expeditions doesn't change its model.

I totally agree with this.

Plaguescarred, they moved my online game request and no one has responded to it. I want to run the starter set. I'd like you to be in it. Any suggestions? Also, when are you available to play.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I totally agree with this.

Plaguescarred, they moved my online game request and no one has responded to it. I want to run the starter set. I'd like you to be in it. Any suggestions? Also, when are you available to play.

My alloted playtime is thursday 20:00 - 23:00 PM ET depending on future plans coming, i might not be available but shoot a date when you can and i will join if i can!

 

[jodyjohnson]

I think the main difference is the focus on "in-person public play. This means that in order to maximize the selection of adventures available to you, play in a space open to the public."

They repeat this theme over and over.


This says three things to me:
1. They want players who come to the site and click the "Find a store/game" button to find a game.

2. They want to support stores and conventions and not just crank out content.

3. The program has a specific goal they are targetting, and online play is not a part of that target.


--Redacted--

 

[Umbran]

I expect PFS players to continue to play PFS and instead of constantly harping on all the ways they disliked 4e, they will switch to constantly referring to how much they wish they could play 5e like they play PFS. But WotC dissed them, so screw em.

This commentary was not necessary to the main point of the post. If your goal was to maintain animosity between groups, you may have succeeded.

Unfortunately, that goal runs rather contrary to the board's general goal. So next time, please refrain with taking postshots at fans.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I’ve been enjoying both Pathfinder Society and Adventurer’s League play. So far, AL seems to have more consistent quality than PFS, but I’ve done more AL than PFS so that data is probably not reliable.

What I do not like, to the point that I’ve forsworn playing it ever again, is the Shadowrun Missions organized play. The lack of strong tiered organization makes it like you’re playing a 1st level character with a bunch of 20th level characters.

 

[ZhentarimPR]

You can easily find pickup games online at alonlinetools[dot]net (can't post links yet) which is the main D&DAL online site. You can also find groups in The Moonsea Pub Facebook group, which is also a place where online D&DAL players hang out and organize games.

As for not allowing private play, that's not strictly true. It's up to your connection with your store - if they want to give you the season password, you can download and play games at home or where-ever you want to. AL also has a casual play or similarly-worded statement that allows your playing of published material (HotDQ, OotA, PotA, etc) to count toward AL, you just have to log it on your log sheets.

Hope this helps!

 

[Nikmal]

You can easily find pickup games online at alonlinetools[dot]net (can't post links yet) which is the main D&DAL online site. You can also find groups in The Moonsea Pub Facebook group, which is also a place where online D&DAL players hang out and organize games.

As for not allowing private play, that's not strictly true. It's up to your connection with your store - if they want to give you the season password, you can download and play games at home or where-ever you want to. AL also has a casual play or similarly-worded statement that allows your playing of published material (HotDQ, OotA, PotA, etc) to count toward AL, you just have to log it on your log sheets.

Hope this helps!

Strictly speaking. You can play the published adventures at home. NOT the PDF's that you can download from the password protected site. Specifically, Expeditions are not allowed for home play "unless" you stream it live on the internet some how. (FG, Roll20, Google Hangouts or another means of video where others can observe you playing it live. (it can be recorded at set up on the internet as well... but the initial session has to be on live on the internet if it is "not" in a public place).

 

[Tyranthraxus]

THere are actually a LOT of Expeditions being run via Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 (Im constantly getting emails saying they are on).