Running expired AL adventures for a non-FLGS group

[robus]

I have a D&D meet-up group for which I'd like to be able to run the expired AL adventures. HotDQ for example is a year old and no longer being run in stores (AFAIK?) but the content has been locked away (forever?)

What would be the problem with unlocking those APs for people who want to run them for open groups that are not affiliated with the FLGS?

Am I crazy?

Thanks,

Robus.

 

[kalani]

The only adventures which can be run at home are the hardcover adventures and DDEX 3-1. All other adventures require sponsorship by a store, and must be available to the public, either in a public location or streamed live. There are no exceptions to this. The problem with opening these adventures up for home play is that the Expeditions adventures are designed to encourage players to play at a brick-and-mortar store, in order to support said.

These adventures are offered for free under a limited licence. If too many players violate the conditions agreed to by downloading these adventures - you can expect that wizards will stop offering them to the public.

 

[MerricB]

I have a D&D meet-up group for which I'd like to be able to run the expired AL adventures. HotDQ for example is a year old and no longer being run in stores (AFAIK?) but the content has been locked away (forever?)

What would be the problem with unlocking those APs for people who want to run them for open groups that are not affiliated with the FLGS?

Am I crazy?

Thanks,

Robus.

A couple of things:
* First, no adventure has yet expired. (I'm running Hoard in my local store at present).
* Second, you don't need to run Hoard in-store to make it as part of the AL! (The published version, that is - the Encounters pdf is meant for store use only).

So, have fun running Hoard of the Dragon Queen wherever you like. And, as long as you follow the AL rules (no milestones, no additional treasure, keep logsheets) you can use the characters in other AL games.

All the published adventures (Starter Set, Hoard, Rise, Princes & Abyss) are AL-legal for home games.

All the Expeditions adventures (DDEX1-1 through DDEX1-14, DDEX2-1 through DDEX2-16, DDEX3-2 through DDEX3-16) are not AL-legal for home games, except for DDEX3-1 Harried in Hillsfar, which was released specifically by Wizards through Dragon+

Does that make sense?

Cheers!

 

[robus]

Hey Merric, I think so. I really want to be able to offer a periodic open gaming night based on those adventures. I know the encounters had nicely divvied things up into chunks so I was hoping to benefit from that. But it sounds like I would have to do that myself. I want to offer a periodic chunk of adventure in an evening that's open to characters of a particular level.

And I wasn't aware that things like HotDQ were still being actively run, so I appreciate that info.

 

[MerricB]

If you have the published Hoard, there's nothing stopping you from taking the advice in the Encounters document and applying it. (With Hoard, there's no difference between the first three chapters and the Encounters document except for sidebars suggesting how to split them). Running the published version also frees you from having to limit the XP given for those first couple of chapters.

The D&D Expeditions games are legal to run in public places (stores, libraries, etc.), just not in homes (unless you're live-streaming the event, as I understand the current rules).

Cheers!

 

[robus]

I guess for now I'll just periodically offer to run LMoP and if there's enough interest I'll look at offering something longer. I'm getting lots of people joining the meet-up group but there's not a lot of play opportunities. And I'm sorry to say that, for many people, walking into a FLGS to play is a bit intimidating.

 

[MerricB]

I guess for now I'll just periodically offer to run LMoP and if there's enough interest I'll look at offering something longer. I'm getting lots of people joining the meet-up group but there's not a lot of play opportunities. And I'm sorry to say that, for many people, walking into a FLGS to play is a bit intimidating.

Oh, I understand entirely. I'm fortunate to have a thriving community in my FLGS - we get over 20 people every Wednesday and over 30 people every Saturday. But getting it going in the first place took a lot of time - it really was over a year (back in the 4E days) before it really began running regularly.

Once it does start going, however, it can suddenly explode. The release of 5E meant our 15 or so players suddenly went to 30+ players. (Once we had 42...)

Cheers!

 

[Steve_MND]

Once it does start going, however, it can suddenly explode.

Well, That can be a good thing and a bad thing. I know we have a lot more people that'd love to play AL, but a lot of them just don't like playing in the store, both due to space limitations as well as ease of scheduling. It's a nice store, run by nice folks, but it's just a small local comic/game shop, and what limited table space we have shares the same space as the TCG and tabletop players, so it's always a little overcrowded (with all that entails) and extremely noisy.

I was pleased that 3-1 was opened for public play, as that means I had about another half-dozen people that were at least able to try AL out outside of the store (when I moved into my new house a couple of years ago, I had the game room remodeled for tabletop gaming). I hope we'll see more (or all) AL mods being offered up as home-play compatible as time goes on.

 

[kalani]

You can also run AL at libraries, and other public places if you have shore sponsorship. You aren't required to play the Expeditions mods at a store (just at a public place, advertised to the public and not private). You still require store sponsorship as these events must be reported in WER. Alternatively, you can contact customer service and get WER yourself but to qualify you would need to be a gaming club which is open to the public.

 

[Steve_MND]

You can also run AL at libraries, and other public places if you have shore sponsorship.

Yeah, we already know that, but that's not exactly a viable solution to our wanna-be-players either, due to reasons. Thanks, tho. We'll see how things come around next season, I suppose. Fingers crossed that 3-1 was a test run of possible changes down the line.