Tell me about AL Adventures

[Reynard]

I have no interest in running official Adventurers League events, but I was curious how the adventures stack up as modules for regular play. Can they be used easily as one shots in an ongoing campaign? Are they tied to the big hardcover adventures? Are they fun? Would an AL season make a good home campaign?

Thanks!

 

[darjr]

They can be all over. Especially when you consider CCC's. But there are some very great good ones in the mix. Many are tied to the season, story, or some trilogy of adventures. However many have great pieces and parts that can be used as is in their place in the forgotten realms or nabbed for your own purposes.

Season 7, and so far what I've seen of 8, look to be the best fit for their seasons hardback. Season 5 is good and has some great adventures in it.

There are so many now that a good easily searchable catalog would be extremely useful.

 

[aco175]

I have several and ran a few at a Convention earlier in the year. Some are rather good, but they tend to railroad since they are aimed for a set amount of time at the game store or at a Con. You can string several together to make a campaign, but I would take some from DMsGuild instead to do this.

 

[Reynard]

I just started an Eberron campaign and since they have said there will be an Eberron AL season I was kind of curious whether the adventures would work as fill in. Also, I picked up Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and will be running that (for a different group) come January and since there is a big "DIY" section I thought maybe the newest AL season would have some appropriate adventures.

 

[darjr]

The AL Content catalog, part of the AL Players kit, has a listing of AL mods and their titles and a bit about them. Also links to the DMSGuild for some of them.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/208178/DD-Adventurers-League-Player--DM-Pack

 

[jasper]

Yes they are loosely tired to the hardcovers. But it appears to be very little crossover. For one shots I would pick up the Season 0x-01 modules which are generally 5 1 hour adventures. You can generally drop these any where.

 

[Burnside]

I ran a few of the Season 5 AL adventures for my home group, without actually worrying about AL rules. I reviewed our sessions here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?587283-AL-Season-5-without-AL

Overall I'd say the majority of the AL adventures I've run or read were really fun, but there are absolutely a few duds and a few that almost feel unfinished/incomplete.

On the whole I think that as a body of work the AL adventures are strong and if anything kind of underrated. I have NOT played or read any of the Season 4 ones (which are set in Raveloft) but FWIW that season of adventures has a reputation as being a real mess.

 

[GlassJaw]

On the whole I think that as a body of work the AL adventures are strong and if anything kind of underrated. I have NOT played or read any of the Season 4 ones (which are set in Raveloft) but FWIW that season of adventures has a reputation as being a real mess.

Interesting about the Season 4 Raveloft adventures. I haven't played or run anything from AL. However, I did take a look at the CoS AL adventures while I was doing some prep for an upcoming CoS campaign that I will be running. Basically I was looking for things that could supplement what's in the hardcover.

I liked that the CoS AL adventures provided another town to the north and the hag NPC, Jenny Greenteeth, is very cool. She would provide the characters some extra resources and healing but not without a cost. Also a great springboard for some scavenger hunt sidequests.

From what I could tell, the plot linking all the adventures together was fairly interesting; I liked that they were connected. I also liked that there was a combination of combat and non-combat encounters and a good amount of recurring NPCs that had their own agendas.

My biggest complaint is that combat was very repetitive. It definitely felt like the combat in many of the modules was filler. It's AL so there needs to some combat in every module but it was like the author wasn't sure what to do at times so a bunch of zombies and ghouls jump out of some bushes and attack. I'm exaggerating of course but not by much.

So as far as AL goes, I have no idea. I have no intention of playing of running anything in AL. But from what I've seen, AL stuff is definitely worth looking at and salvaging for your own campaign.

 

[darjr]

I ran a few of the Season 5 AL adventures for my home group, without actually worrying about AL rules. I reviewed our sessions here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?587283-AL-Season-5-without-AL

Overall I'd say the majority of the AL adventures I've run or read were really fun, but there are absolutely a few duds and a few that almost feel unfinished/incomplete.

On the whole I think that as a body of work the AL adventures are strong and if anything kind of underrated. I have NOT played or read any of the Season 4 ones (which are set in Raveloft) but FWIW that season of adventures has a reputation as being a real mess.

I have my issues with season 4, and it isn't what you might think.

However there are some of the VERY best AL adventures in season 4. Also, imho, some of the very worst.

 

[darjr]

If you go with the season 4 mods make sure you get the AL Rules addendum. It has options for if/when characters die. And Jenny Greenteeth as one of those options is so very very good.