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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack |
This product is no longer available from DriveThruRPG.com |
Average Rating:3.6 / 5 |
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Aside far too many pdfs to keep track of, the recent rule changes to season 8 are just bad.
The changes from an XP system to an ACP System are not bad. There are some minor issues, but a lot of them existed with xp anyway. The only thing I would request is an additional slow progression option that lets someone slow their progression even further if they are trying to help a friend catch up in levels. Overall, the XP to ACP change isn't that bad.
TCP is a mixed bag, but the downsides are rather immersion breaking. First off, while it is nice that we are now able to buy the necesssary +1, +2, +3 weapons and the ever useful bag of holding when we need them, it has the unfortunate downside of taking away some of the magic from finding magic items. It is rather immersion breaking for an item to just disappear and requires the players to go to Adventurer's Mart to buy them. There isn't a grand story about finding a much sought after item, now it is just going to adventurer's mart and buying the item. However, on the plus side, it does prevent the whole magic item sniping issue. It's really a mixed bag.
My personal suggestion would be to use the previous rules on magic items in conjunction with the new rules. Essentially, people who would find magic items as before and they would use magic item count (if needed) to determine who gets it. The person who wins the item gets to keep the item, however, rather than giving the other party members nothing, they get to add the item to their unlock list and gain a portion of the TCP needed to buy the item or another magic item of their choosing that they have unlocked and the appropriate TCP for. Sure this means more magic items will be in circulation, but it would definitely be more fun than what we have right now.
On another note, taking away Storm King's Thunder's random magic items and not offering a suitable replacement is unexcusable. It effectively neuters the adventure in rewards. The adventure has one of the best in 5E, in my opinion, but I cannot find a single person who wants to play it now.
The changes to Gold, however, need to be reversed. I cannot find any merit in the new gold rules whatsoever. Not only does it take away the motivation for a lot of characters, as finding riches is a very common motivation for an adventurer, but it greatly limits spellcasters in their material components and further limits wizards in their efforts of scribing spells in their spellbooks. A wizard from a previous season is going to have an enormous advantage over a wizard made in the current season. It also will make people far more selfish, unwilling to pitch in to resurrect a party member's character due to gold being more limited; whereas before, with gold being more plentiful, people are more willing to donate to another player's resurrection. They were not worried about following a super strict budget. I repeat, there is no merit in the new gold rules.
Another downside of the current rules is that players may just skip on things they would otherwise normally do. For example, why risk their lives plundering a treasure hoard that may end up containing nothing because random magic items are no longer a thing and gold can no longer be found? Why risk triggering a trap on a chest if under the new rules it probably contains nothing? The new rules take away the motivation of adventuring.
I am seriously hoping that season 9 will involve sweeping changes to rectify the short comings of the season 8 rules. Like honestly, season 7 and before, the rules weren't broken and you don't need to fix something that isn't broken.
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While views on Season 8's changes are divisive, the content of this pack is nearly essential for a DM running Adventure League games. It is updated consistently when new content comes out, and the content is useful for answering the many questions players and DMs are likely to have. Dungeons and Dragons, even in 5th edition, is a complicated game with a lot of rules, and being able to search a PDF rather than dig through a hardcover book is handy. I do wonder if the FAQ could be merged with the DM and Player guides though, as it seems like having all the information in one document applicable to your role in the game would be helpful. One of my few complaints is that they do not keep old rules documents available here. I had to search externally when I was organizing and rechecking my DM rewards, as some of them were from CoS and SKT. If they added this, I would consider raising this review to 5 stars.
Also, come on guys. Don't rate the DM pack 1 star just because you hate Season 8 or Adventure League. It's a useful set of documents that tries to concisely explain a complicated setup. If you DM AL, this stuff is required reading.
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I started playing D&D a while ago, back in 1980-81, and played regularly until 3rd edition came out. Though I appreciated what WotC was doing, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t start playing again until 2015, when I started seeing some buzz about 5e. Curious, I downloaded the free rules and began reading them. Very much intrigued by these “new” rules, I decided to check out at my FLGS, and before long I was playing in Adventurer’s League at the store. Loved it! I now have so many good friends because of it! 5e feels refined and smart, and seems to capture the best elements of what D&D was back in the 80’s and 90’s.
That said, if Adventurer’s League Season 8 rules had been in effect at the time, I would have scoffed at them once I understood them and not even tried to sit down at an AL table. Specifically, the rules regarding gold and treasure from adventures. Wow. It seems that now our AL characters aren’t adventurers anymore; they are salaried employees of AL (a subsidiary of WotC, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc.), receiving advancement-based pay. It’s “Papers and Paychecks” 2nd edition. (You old-timers will get that joke from the 1e DMG.)
I’ve spent a lot of money on D&D since 2015. Books (including the upcoming Hydro74 editions of the core books) minis, accessories... I paid hundreds to get my 5e rulebooks professionally bound in leather. I pre-ordered the Beadle and Grimm’s Platinum Edition of W:DH. I’ve got the collectors version of Art and Arcana. I love this game. And while I still play “homebrew,” I can’t bring myself to DM AL at my FLGS under these silly rules. I will not buy the mods on DM's Guild and therefore (despite my deep pockets) will not be supporting the work of some great folx who give so much to AL.
I know that certain rules must be maintained and some changes had to be made to ensure a level playing field for all participants around the world. The AL gold economy and magic item acquisition was clearly in need of change - and while the intent is great, the mechanisms put in place are far beyond clunky. They actually damage the gameplay, which damages the AL brand, and by extension, the D&D brand.
I heard a story recently on NPR wherein they reference “finding treasure,” which got me thinking about how that is such a classic human experience (whether wished for or actually achieved); one that exists outside D&D - it’s literally existed in human cultures for millennia. And Season 8 AL rules really eliminate that fun, excitement and wonder.
I hate to think of someone here in Dallas, Texas, watching the many streaming games, then trying to sit down and try D&D at an AL table and learning how silly some of these rules are, how they fall short of common sense expectations and ruin immersion. I then think of them NOT returning to play because the gameplay is not what they expected. They would miss out on many potential friendships and hours of fun, all because with AL, they would be seeing a stunted and nonsensically restrictive version of this otherwise wonderful game. (And when I tried to explain these new rules to a table of 8-year-old players, they were utterly bewildered - not because they didn’t understand the rules - but because they didn’t get such rules. I’d never seen such exasperated expressions on such young faces. But I digress.)
:::deep breath:::
I truly hope that the powers-that-be consider making changes when AL hits Season 9.
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Likely the end of Adventure League. A very radical departure from the game we knew as D&D 5e. Advancement based on cookie cutter module length and cookie cutter "side quests" leave gameplay with bland, participation award feel to it. Treasure points to buy whatever you want at Magic Item Amazon with the only point of finding an item to add it to the "patterns" you can purchase is catering to the lowest grade of loot whore children. It removes any real use of factions, taking story and sidequest away and most important removing the free one shot faction rez low leve players get. Now you go into treasure point debt and have to pay it off. Just what I want to get out of my fantasy roleplaying game is real world problems. Gold is only given out at level ups, cause that makes a lot of sense. You can afford magical armor before plate and ignore any treasure hoards you see in game because they don't matter. Side quests without advancement or treasure points don't matter, so let the orphans burn. Despite what the dev team claims, they listened to nobody and are too prideful or neutered to admit they were wrong. Give this season a try, but don't be prepared to play Dungeons and Dragons, this is D&D Adventure League after all
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Enthusiasm for AL at my local game store is waning fast. The new rules changes leave players with the sense that nothing that happens in an adventure matters, short of failure or death. You can't keep anything you find. You accrue the same benefits no matter how you play the module. Some of us who have been playing AL for years are thinking seriously of quitting. New players who come through (and they are many) are alienated when told they don't get to keep anything they gain during the adventure. The new AL system is a regression to one of the worst aspects of the design philosophy of 4th Edition, in which play experience is standardized to the point of boredom. And it is being received by the community much the same way.
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Love D&D. Love 5e. Hate this.
What sort of person thinks that removing treasure and gold from a D&D game makes it 'fun'? It's bland, boring, not fun to DM. Ended up taking our AL games to our own homebrew local organized play.
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Thanks to these new rules I have quit playing, and DM'ing adventurers league games. The lack of gold, and the magical amazon marketplace changes alone were awful, and immersion breaking. What finally did me in was the massive uptick in powergaming, and preplanned level and item outlays. The new rules outright kill organic gameplay as nobody will ever get an unexpected item that changes how their character approaches things. The new limitations on treasure points force players into the optimal choice mindset being that they will only have a very small number of opportunities to acquire a magic item of any type. Throw in the fact that most people cannot get a +1 anything until tier 2 when the starter set adventure has no less than 3 of them in a 1-4 module and it feels like a crappy MMO. Bonus: the halloween special event was filled with item rewards directly copied from World of Warcraft. Icing on the cake is the constant lackluster output by the mods themselves. With the first module of the season being pulled for days after being up for an hour, and the complete removal of all flavor text from subsequent modules it really shows how ill equipped the current people in charge are at running this fiasco. If I could give this packet, and this season a negative star review I would.
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WORSE IDEA EVER,
the system is completely broken for hardcover now, was playing the new dragon haist hardcover, 4 week in we already at lv5 and we haven't EVEN PLAY 25% OF THE BOOK, how was that a good idea, and dont tell me to use the "slow progesssion" thing, with our currect speed, same shit will happen when we at 50% of the book if using slow progession, so whoes idea is this in the 1st place, it just PLAIN STUPID.
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Gold and mundane items really need to be put back in. It's so silly whenever we find an item or loot a coin purse, only to be told that we can't keep any of it. It's extremely immersion-breaking, confusing to new players, and just not fun overall. Keep the advancement points, but reward them based on time spent for modules as well! Use treasure points for magical items only, but remove the different treasure point tiers, it just adds confusion and the items are restricted by play tier anyway. Just separate treasure points from gold and mundane items and this ruleset would be instantly more enjoyable and actually make sense, in my opinion.
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The Season 8 rules go a long way toward fixing the bad things that happen in AL. The Treasure Point system creates lets you just buy the items your character needs instead of hoping to "win" something good at a table. The Advancement Point system simplifies leveling and shortens the capstone level in each tier, making it faster and more fun to play the last level in each tier instead of needing the "Catching Up" activity.
The Banned Item List is a long time coming and far too short. There are lots of items don't have a place in most home campaigns and certainly have no place in AL because of their disruptive nature (Seriously, why was Deck of Many Things ever legal in AL?).
My main complaints are simple to fix:
1) Publish the Magic Item Tables from the DMG in the ALPG so that players do not have to purchase them. Players have no need for the DMG, other than to look up the tables now, so requiring them to own one just for the tables is pretty rotten.
2) Update the DMsGuild download tool to handle more than 10 files OR split it back into Player's Pack and Dungeon Master's Pack. Right now, when a single document is updated, I have to individually check each title or download twice (first 10 files, then remaining files) to make sure I have all the updated files.
3) Include a cover sheet like several being published separately on DMsGuild. This idea is sensible, obvious (why didn't the admins just make one to start) and REALLY convenient. If there was an Official Cover Sheet in this pack it could be updated with seasons and rule changes. There are ALREADY out of date cover sheets made using the Season 8 Preview Rules which have bad information because they were not updated for the Season 8 Final Rules.
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This change really messes up the plan I had to introduce my kids and neighbor kids to AL. I don't think they would understand that they can't have the stuff they find, including armor, and definitely the gold. Maybe they would understand what's going on and they would all go back to playing the MMO I spent so much time and effort removing them from. That's really what these changes feel like.
I know there are Min/Max players out there and they were manipulating the rules to get the most powerful items, most gold, and generally being total tools about manipulating the system. I'm not saying that's going to be an easy problem to fix, but not allowing someone to have the items from the adventure they were just in doesn't work for my group of young kids.
I have a group of adults that are planning to play Dragon Heist as AL legal in a home group. We haven't had a get together yet since the rules have been getting discussed. Maybe this works with adults because we won't be as incentivised to murder hobo. I think I even like the advancement simplicity, but what game is this without XP? Making XP awards for story completion had to be a better solution. I see what someone else meant by saying that two different groups could finish the same hard cover book with the same focus to mission and have half of the advancement of the other group because they're better/faster at combat. Should it work that way?
I'll give this a go in my adult home group if they all want to. However, it's likely that my kids group will not be doing AL. Too much hassle and too little return. I haven't really cared about gold since I started AL. I never have a magic item I care to use show up. So take those away and it's no big change for me. Maybe this will make a little thematic sense to adults in a setting like Waterdeep. You've basically broken all of the previous hardcovers and AL content though.
I really want AL to succeed. I love the idea of it. This feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater though.
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Speaking as a DM, the new changes to AL have transformed my game in the best possible ways. Before there was always at least one player grumbling if a fight didn't break out, or just flat out attacking anything that didn't look like a quest related NPC. Since we started playing under the new rules wonderful roleplaying things have happened. We went a 3 hour session with only a single nearly unavoidable combat. And then everyone walked away happy, no one grumbled about a lack of XP and everyone understood the way treasure checkpoints worked.
Virtually all of the players, many seasoned AL players immediately adopted the new style and people who were often murder hobos immediately began interacting with the game world in a new way. The incentive to attack everything was gone, so they seemed free to think more about how their character would react, and less about how to maximize their XP. There were some mild grumblings about gold and mundane loot, but on the whole everyone looked at what their characters actually needed equipment wise and realized it only meant waiting a little while to buy full plate, (or potentially finding it and using it until the end of the session). Now even found potions feel a little more precious.
Thank you to all the people involved in the updates the AL rules.
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The new rules look like they were made by someone who had never or hardly ever played AL before, at least as a player.
1) Gold reduction is assinine. Rewards cut by 80% with the benefit "You don't have to pay downtime costs any more!" as if that was ever a large expenditure on any characters. Not receiving gold if you don't go up a level? Ridicolous, looks like a total moron came up the the amounts randomly.
2) Treasure. They use the assinine gold rules from Xanathar, and then go ahead and used a modified version of treasure points instead of what's in the book. Why? Like they think the players are too stupid to keep track of half treasure points. It took me hours to figure out the rules as well, the DM guide doesn't list the tables as A-I, you have to do your alphabet every time to figure out what table is what.
3) Treasure. Last game I played under the old rules I got a Decandter of Endless Water. The new rules no one will ever take such an item, characters will now buy the same items and be cookie-cutter.
4) Treasure. Now no one will have a magic item at Tier 1, but 'coincidentally' at Tier 5 they all get on at the same time.
5) Tier 2 PCs with no magic items currently really get screwed. Maybe they were waiting for an item that would help their character. My son's PCs typically have low magic items, my PCs have alot of uncommons that no on at the table wanted. So it kind of helps me (I've been trading with Fei-Chen) but screws my son's. No treasure points at 5th level it will be until late level 7 before he can get on know with the new system.
6) Experience Points. There wasn't a problem with the old system that couldn't be solved by saying defeating an encounter by combat, steath, or diplomacy counted in terms of gaining xp. The quick level up to 2nd and then a little slower to 3rd, and then slowing down after that was an appropriate pace, now character level up at the speed of the Flash. You play 4 Tier 1 mods and 'BANG!' you are at 5th level. Ridiculous.
7) Factions. I still don't get how it works. And it's just plain stupid. It really messes with the older mods. Its like the writers just got too lazy to put the hooks in modules for each faction so they pleaded to just get rid of them.
Overall) Frankly this is just an embarrasment and people are dropping out of AL in droves. Some people at Wizards should have their posts re-assigned. Hopefully they will realize how dumb these changes are and act appropriately.
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Perfect timing! I didn't want to DM DragonHeist under AL rules anyway, and this document did the work of convicing the table for me.
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The new rules are simply awful, with the worst offender being the gold system... wow
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