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Message: <blockquote data-quote="koga305" data-source="post: 6715103" data-attributes="member: 6747640">The Angry GM,  a sort of RPG pundit, just published <a href="http://www.madadventurers.com/angry-rants-wizard-of-the-coast-and-dd-encounters/" target="_blank">an article</a> where he talks about D&D Encounters. Some fair warning before you read it: Angry's style is unique (his "Angry Rants" are especially, well, rant-y, with a lot of @$&%ing) and it's not for everyone. That said, he makes some great points. His article doesn't address the rest of the AL at all, but it does cover Encounters, which is (in theory) the "entry level" version of the program:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Publishing the big hardback adventures as Encounters is a pretty bad move for new players. Out of the Abyss is an especially egregious example, as it features all sorts of odd elements (underdark races, madness, etc.), and begins with an extended escape sequence - not at all the "traditional D&D experience."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As a DM, making those adventures work is fairly difficult already, but the difficulty is compounded by the drop-in/drop-out nature of the format. Building relationships with NPCs or an area is hard to do when your group keeps changing.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Much of the material from the published adventures makes very little sense in the context of Encounters. Random encounter tables don't work well for low-level players, and "designing your own session" doesn't mesh well with drop-in/drop-out play. Adventures with choices have to have those choices restricted, because the whole adventure can't be included in just 3-4 chapters.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Why are things this way? Angry's not sure, but his conclusion is that WotC is cutting costs. Repackaging whatever they already have written is the cheapest way to do things.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As a final note, ending on a cliffhanger then saying, "if you like this, you should buy the full adventure!" feels like a scam.</li> </ul>The above points are Angry's, not mine. That said, I agree with a lot of what he has said.Personally, I am the president of a college gaming club that is running Adventurers League, but when deciding how to structure our program, we skipped right past the Encounters adventures* and went straight to Expeditions, which seem much better designed for the format. They're really long, though, and it's hard to get new players to commit to a 4-hour session. If WotC put more effort into making solid Encounters adventures (whether by better editing the prepackaged published adventures or writing something specifically for Encounters), it'd be a boon for our program and help us better serve new players.Very curious to hear the AL community's thoughts!*I am aware that we couldn't run them as Encounters because we don't host our games in a store, but in theory we could run an identical game on a different day of the week.</blockquote>

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