Please remove Demiplane of Dread Story Award next season

[Caliban]

Keep it. Just because people want to be able to pop in and claim the Harmonious Ring of Spell Storing is no reason to make it easy for them.

--
Pauper

I guess you're right. Absolutely the only reason anyone would willingly play a Barovia mod is for that one specific magic item. None of the other adventures are ever played.

Your claims about the petty desires of your fellow AL gamers are undeniable. We are all terrible people and shouldn't have nice things.

 

[Pauper]

Your claims about the petty desires of your fellow AL gamers are undeniable. We are all terrible people and shouldn't have nice things.

Hit a bit too close to home?

Man, do I feel like Martin Luther right now. Nailed it!

The question is not 'why should Barovia modules be treated differently from other AL modules'; we already know why Season 4 has a different mechanic, because it reinforces the 'trapped in Ravenloft' feel that's part of the point of that season, dramatically. (Heck, I would have liked to see even more mechanics to reinforce that, such as not automatically receiving an extended rest at the end of each adventure, but sadly that wasn't my decision.)

The question is 'why should the mechanic be removed from Season 4 modules to make them operate like other AL modules'? Having reviewed the entirety of Season 4 on this very board (some of which survived the Great Board Crash of summer 2016), I can tell you it's not because the season is chock-full of adventure gems that people are just falling all over themselves to play through if only they didn't have to spend a ridiculous number of downtime days to return to Faerun from playing those transcendental modules -- it's because it's not worth spending a ridiculous number of downtime days to go get just one magic item from them.

Or, in other words, it's the same reason why people ask for the 'PH+1' rule to be removed, or any other structural barrier against optimization to be taken away. If that's not your individual motivation, then why get offended by pointing out what other players are certainly thinking?

--
Pauper

 

[Caliban]

Hit a bit too close to home?

Man, do I feel like Martin Luther right now. Nailed it!

The question is not 'why should Barovia modules be treated differently from other AL modules'; we already know why Season 4 has a different mechanic, because it reinforces the 'trapped in Ravenloft' feel that's part of the point of that season, dramatically. (Heck, I would have liked to see even more mechanics to reinforce that, such as not automatically receiving an extended rest at the end of each adventure, but sadly that wasn't my decision.)

The question is 'why should the mechanic be removed from Season 4 modules to make them operate like other AL modules'? Having reviewed the entirety of Season 4 on this very board (some of which survived the Great Board Crash of summer 2016), I can tell you it's not because the season is chock-full of adventure gems that people are just falling all over themselves to play through if only they didn't have to spend a ridiculous number of downtime days to return to Faerun from playing those transcendental modules -- it's because it's not worth spending a ridiculous number of downtime days to go get just one magic item from them.

Or, in other words, it's the same reason why people ask for the 'PH+1' rule to be removed, or any other structural barrier against optimization to be taken away. If that's not your individual motivation, then why get offended by pointing out what other players are certainly thinking?

--
Pauper

Such hostility towards someone who only agreed with you. For shame.

I can only applaud your vigilance as the voice of moral authority.

One can only imagine what a terrible state the game would be in without you tirelessly telling everyone else how they are playing the game wrong. You deserve an award of some sort.

 

[skerritthegreen]

The Admins have no plans to revisit that story award at this time.

Greg Marks
Associate Resource Manager
D&D Adventurers League

 

[Caliban]

The Admins have no plans to revisit that story award at this time.

Greg Marks
Associate Resource Manager
D&D Adventurers League

I can only applaud the steps the administration has taken to protect the gaming populace from the Demiplane of Dread-ful modules.

 

[Eltab]

Just because people want to be able to pop in and claim the Harmonious Ring of Spell Storing is no reason to make it easy for them.

Your subsequent claim to be Martin Luther is an Epic fail: what oppressive leadership are you rebuking?

I primarily play AL at conventions. Should I ever get the opportunity to play a Ravenloft module at one convention, I want to be sure I CAN legally play my character at the next convention.
Which means AL needs some sort of Exit mechanism that does not ruinously bankrupt the character who uses it. (But that mechanism need not be easy or inexpensive.)

 

[Warmaster Horus]

...

I primarily play AL at conventions. Should I ever get the opportunity to play a Ravenloft module at one convention, I want to be sure I CAN legally play my character at the next convention.
Which means AL needs some sort of Exit mechanism that does not ruinously bankrupt the character who uses it. (But that mechanism need not be easy or inexpensive.)

That's a Con Organizer issue as well as a player one. Con Organizers need to recognize that running Ravenloft modules incurs a penalty to those who play and they would either have to be (very) upfront to players about this issue during game registration or not run Ravenloft modules at all. And of course the player would need to balance the issue of whether they wanted to send their PC to Barovia and/or had the game resources/opportunities to extricate them if they did. It's complex because S.4 was complex.

 

[AriochQ]

running Ravenloft modules incurs a penalty to those who play

Clearly we view the above statement differently. I look first toward the "Rule of Fun". D&D should be fun, enjoyable, and challenging. Placing arbitrary barriers in the way of play for no clear reason violates that rule (and is probably a bad business decision as it impacts the module author income). But, your stick, your ball...

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Clearly we view the above statement differently. I look first toward the "Rule of Fun". D&D should be fun, enjoyable, and challenging. Placing arbitrary barriers in the way of play for no clear reason violates that rule (and is probably a bad business decision as it impacts the module author income). But, your stick, your ball...

Not my idea in the first place. I was never a fan of being stuck in the Mists of Barovia as it violates the cardinal PC portability covenant in my eyes. That said, it happened anyway because AL is not a static environment, new things are brought out and applied to seasons all the time now. Some good things are learned and bad things found. I can live with that as I think the end result, creating fun new challenges, is the goal.

 

[Pauper]

Your subsequent claim to be Martin Luther is an Epic fail: what oppressive leadership are you rebuking?

I was just going for the 'nailed it' pun. Sometimes a joke is just a joke.

I primarily play AL at conventions. Should I ever get the opportunity to play a Ravenloft module at one convention, I want to be sure I CAN legally play my character at the next convention.
Which means AL needs some sort of Exit mechanism that does not ruinously bankrupt the character who uses it. (But that mechanism need not be easy or inexpensive.)

There is an exit mechanism, though I don't blame you for not being able to find it -- the current AL FAQ refers to a "Death in Barovia" sidebar on page 8 of the ALDMG, but in the current ALDMG (v7.0), page 8 is wholly taken up by the AL Code of Conduct. The FAQ is apparently referring back to the Season 4 ALDMG (and the sidebar is entitled "Death in Ravenloft", not "Death in Barovia"), and doesn't have the exit downtime activity. As far as I can tell, the only place the downtime activity to exit Barovia is noted is on the D&D AL Organizers site -- the base cost is 20 downtime days, modified by other story awards. Note that this can be significantly less costly than the cost associated with returning from Barovia if you attempt and fail to complete DDAL 04-14, The Darklord.

But Horus is right; if a Con organizer wants to run Season Four mods at a convention, that organizer should take steps to keep the Ravenloft mods from disrupting other convention activities. The obvious solution would be to have an entire track of Ravenloft mods for players to participate in so they don't feel penalized by being unable to play in non-Ravenloft mods. Note as well that there is precedent for con organizers waiving the penalty of the Demiplane of Dread story award for special events -- the D&D Open at Origins 2016 waived the story award for those playing in the tournament. (I'd link to the forum thread that noted the waiver, but that thread was lost in the Great Board Crash of summer 2016. I'm sure an admin can confirm the waiver, though.)

And honestly, guys, I don't really care about moral superiority -- I'm going for logical superiority, and that no one criticizing me with 'oh, your high horse really is high' comments has bothered to engage in the argument tells me that the argument is pretty sound. Thanks for the backhanded compliment!

--
Pauper

(Edit: And I don't want to denigrate character portability, because it's a nice feature of the AL. But the admins have taken surveys on this point, and I'd be shocked if character portability ranked very highly among most players' 'what I like about AL' responses compared to things like 'I can find a game near where I live' and 'I get to play D&D with my friends'. Let's not elevate character portability to The Reason The Adventurers League Exists when it's clearly not.)