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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kalani" data-source="post: 6715255" data-attributes="member: 88085">There are several misconceptions here:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The encounters seasons do not end on a cliffhanger. There are two seasons each year, a long and a short season. During that season, are three branches of inter-related adventures - one (or more) hardcover adventures set in the Sword Coast; a group of episodic adventures set in/around a single major city along the Moonsea (Expeditions); and the seasons Epic.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The DDEN adventures (commonly called the "Encounters PDF") are EXCERPTS from the current season's hardcover adventure. At the end of each PDF, is a message saying that if the party wishes to continue the adventure they can purchase the full adventure and continue running it (either at home, or on Wednesdays as their "Encounters"). The confusion comes from the fact that these EXCERPTS do end on a cliffhanger, with the promise that the players can continue the adventure by purchasing the hardcover.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The DDEN adventures are intended to be the gateway program to the entire Adventurers League. The DDEN adventures can only be run during Wednesday night Encounters. However, anything run on Wednesday is considered "Encounters". For want of better words, "Encounters night" simply means D&D Night for Everyone. You can run an Expedition on Wednesday nights - and it would still be called "Encounters". You can run a hardcover adventure on Wednesday night - and it will still be called Encounters (even if you have gone further in the story than the DDEN excerpt covers).</li> </ul>At my table, we never play the DDEN excerpts for several reasons.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Someone always buys the hardcover, so we run it straight from the book.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Excerpts are more linear, and do not offer all locations in the hardcover. DDEN3 for example only details two major locations. Upon escaping from the drow, the party is guided toward the closest settlement (some 8 days away from their former location). In the full adventure however, all locations are available to the party, and they could potentially spend over a month wandering the underdark getting to their intended destination.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The DDEN adventures have Experience Caps. This is unqiue to the Encounters PDF adventures. The hardcover adventures lack XP caps, allowing players to earn as much XP as is available. In Hoard of the Dragon Queen for example, players could easily earn upwards of 900XP in Episode 1, yet DDEN1 capped them at 300 for the entire Episode. Players who run the adventure from the hardcover lack such an XP cap, and could potentially end Episode 1 at 3rd level.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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