According to tweets from Chris Lindsay, the shared play rules are coming to AL. This seems like major news (in terms of organized D&D play), but I feel like nobody is taking about it. I just wanted to hear from the community what other's thoughts about it are and to have a space to discuss these impending changes.
Personally, I'm change averse. I know the current system has problems, but better the devil you know. In particular I have three concerns: the extra time that will have to be spent at level 1 and 2, the small amount of gold earned, and homogenization of magic items (I really don't want to see every character with a pair of winged boots).
Having put that out there, I will admit that I'm not super experienced with AL especially at the higher tiers. What do you guys think? Are there problems that this could fix that I don't even know about? Is anyone really excited for the change? If so, why?
Having skimmed through appendix A, I'm sort of confused about what you think is going to change? All that section talks about is how to model you home or school club campaign after AL play and gives you some guidence about how to do that.
So if they are making AL play conform to that section......nothing changes? This doesn't seem like big news on any level.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
My understanding of the tweets was that the variant rules in XGtE appendix A would be implemented in AL. Maybe that is incorrect, but for sure those rules are very different from current AL rules.
Under the XGtE system there are no experience points just checkpoints. If I'm reading correctly, there is also no treasure and possibly no magic items outside of those purchased with treasure points. Just to emphasize, AL currently has no checkpoints or treasure points.
It's possible that the net effect of these changes on gameplay and character advancement will be small, but to say that nothing changes is wrong.
All the AL admins have said about it (when asked about Lindsay's tweet) is that they have no announcements they can share right now but that they don't change rulesets during a season. He's the product manager responsible for AL, so this is definitely a thing that will happen, but probably with Season 8 that should start around September-ish.
My understanding of the tweets was that the variant rules in XGtE appendix A would be implemented in AL. Maybe that is incorrect, but for sure those rules are very different from current AL rules.
Under the XGtE system there are no experience points just checkpoints. If I'm reading correctly, there is also no treasure and possibly no magic items outside of those purchased with treasure points. Just to emphasize, AL currently has no checkpoints or treasure points.
It's possible that the net effect of these changes on gameplay and character advancement will be small, but to say that nothing changes is wrong.
Reading the rewards section in XGE, it looks like pretty much exactly how experience is dolled out at the end. If you have seen the exp breakdown of an AL adventure before you would recognize it pretty quickly as a "check-point" style of xp advancement." Here's an example from DDAL04-02 "The Beast":
Experience Total up all combat experience earned for defeated foes, and divide by the number of characters present in the combat. For non-combat experience, the rewards are listed per character. Give all characters in the party non-combat experience awards unless otherwise noted.
Combat Awards Name of Foe XP per Foe Blood Hawk 25 Twig Blight 25 Vine Blight 100 Needle Blight 50 Bandit 25 Bandit Captain 450 Scout 100 Zombie 50 Elk 50 Swarm of Centipedes 100 Death Dog 200 Dire Wolf 200 Alina (Werewolf) 700
Non-Combat Awards Task or Accomplishment XP per Character Taking the elves to go to Orașnou 25
The minimum total award for each character participating in this adventure is 225 experience points. The maximum total award for each character participating in this adventure is 300 experience points.
You'll notice that the total xp for the monsters killed doesn't really matter too much since they are capped at a minimum of 225xp and a max of 300xp no matter how many monsters were killed. There is also a bonus award if they fulfilled the check-point of taking the elves to Orasnou.
The Treasure Point system is somewhat of a new idea for AL play though, and I think it will go a long way towards helping characters differentiate themselves a bit better. Magic items in AL games are generally pretty bad and you end up with tons of characters all using the same crappy items because that's all that is available.
You'll notice that the total xp for the monsters killed doesn't really matter too much since they are capped at a minimum of 225xp and a max of 300xp no matter how many monsters were killed. There is also a bonus award if they fulfilled the check-point of taking the elves to Orasnou.
The Treasure Point system is somewhat of a new idea for AL play though, and I think it will go a long way towards helping characters differentiate themselves a bit better. Magic items in AL games are generally pretty bad and you end up with tons of characters all using the same crappy items because that's all that is available.
It's not really a checkpoint system. Under the XGtE checkpoint system, this would be an identical experience award whether you're 1st or 4th level (you would still get 2 checkpoints or 1/2 level). Under the current experience point system, the maximum award for this adventure is enough to elevate a 1st level character to 2nd, but it's only a fraction of a level for the 4th level character.
Will the impact of these changes be positive, negative, or negligible? I don't know. In general, I don't like playing 1st level characters—they are too fragile. I enjoy levels 2-4, but going through 4th level can start to feel really slow after a couple thousand experience points. The checkpoint system fixes one problem, but makes another worse and I'm not sure that the trade-off is worthwhile. Still I might play under that system and really find that I think it's better, but again I don't know.
I feel similarly about treasure points. I really hope that you're right and that they help differentiate characters. I'm also concerned that they will just create "optimal" builds and everyone will end up looking the same. I haven't run into the issue of everyone using the same items currently. It occasionally happens that two players at a table will have the same item, but it hasn't happened enough to me that I've thought it was a problem.
I feel similarly about treasure points. I really hope that you're right and that they help differentiate characters. I'm also concerned that they will just create "optimal" builds and everyone will end up looking the same. I haven't run into the issue of everyone using the same items currently. It occasionally happens that two players at a table will have the same item, but it hasn't happened enough to me that I've thought it was a problem.
I expect that they will. Will there be a small fraction of players who try to build "optimally" by planning things out and choosing to spend their treasure points on the most tactically relevant gear? Of course there will. But I'm more than sure that the vast majority of players will just blow their treasure points on whatever items they think are cool or mildly helpful.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
From what I understand, they're still finalizing the system and it should be in place for the next season (which we'll get more news about the HC by summer according to my sources). That being said, I have a feeling that if they end up making a radical change (ala appendix A of XGtE), I would find it extremely surprising if we didn't hear about it before July/August so as to prep DMs and players going forward.
They must have been pretty confident about these rules to publish them in the hardcover. In terms of finalizing, that's pretty final. Between that and the tweets, I think the only things they could still be finalizing are the rules for transitioning to this system and maybe the actual lists of magic items purchasable with treasure points.
They must have been pretty confident about these rules to publish them in the hardcover. In terms of finalizing, that's pretty final. Between that and the tweets, I think the only things they could still be finalizing are the rules for transitioning to this system and maybe the actual lists of magic items purchasable with treasure points.
I mean, it was to my understanding that they put those guidelines in XGtE to provide a general guidelines for all play- not just organized play. In terms of for AL- again that is still being finalized (they have to heavily consider player feedback and ensuring that they don't alienate their AL playerbase with this system).
They must have been pretty confident about these rules to publish them in the hardcover. In terms of finalizing, that's pretty final. Between that and the tweets, I think the only things they could still be finalizing are the rules for transitioning to this system and maybe the actual lists of magic items purchasable with treasure points.
I mean, it was to my understanding that they put those guidelines in XGtE to provide a general guidelines for all play- not just organized play. In terms of for AL- again that is still being finalized (they have to heavily consider player feedback and ensuring that they don't alienate their AL playerbase with this system).
I don't know where you're getting your information so I can't really refute it outside of referencing Xanathar's.
The guidelines are set up to create a shared campaign. "A shared campaign is episodic rather than continuous, with each play session comprising a complete adventure." I highly doubt that they intended to suggest that every game group should operate this way.
It also specifically says, "The Adventurers League for instance, has variant systems for gaining levels and acquiring treasure. These 'house rules,' presented below..." And then presents rules not seen in Adventurers League. What do you think is left to finalize?
According to tweets from Chris Lindsay, the shared play rules are coming to AL. This seems like major news (in terms of organized D&D play), but I feel like nobody is taking about it. I just wanted to hear from the community what other's thoughts about it are and to have a space to discuss these impending changes.
Personally, I'm change averse. I know the current system has problems, but better the devil you know. In particular I have three concerns: the extra time that will have to be spent at level 1 and 2, the small amount of gold earned, and homogenization of magic items (I really don't want to see every character with a pair of winged boots).
Having put that out there, I will admit that I'm not super experienced with AL especially at the higher tiers. What do you guys think? Are there problems that this could fix that I don't even know about? Is anyone really excited for the change? If so, why?
Having skimmed through appendix A, I'm sort of confused about what you think is going to change? All that section talks about is how to model you home or school club campaign after AL play and gives you some guidence about how to do that.
So if they are making AL play conform to that section......nothing changes? This doesn't seem like big news on any level.
My understanding of the tweets was that the variant rules in XGtE appendix A would be implemented in AL. Maybe that is incorrect, but for sure those rules are very different from current AL rules.
Under the XGtE system there are no experience points just checkpoints. If I'm reading correctly, there is also no treasure and possibly no magic items outside of those purchased with treasure points. Just to emphasize, AL currently has no checkpoints or treasure points.
It's possible that the net effect of these changes on gameplay and character advancement will be small, but to say that nothing changes is wrong.
All the AL admins have said about it (when asked about Lindsay's tweet) is that they have no announcements they can share right now but that they don't change rulesets during a season. He's the product manager responsible for AL, so this is definitely a thing that will happen, but probably with Season 8 that should start around September-ish.
From what I understand, they're still finalizing the system and it should be in place for the next season (which we'll get more news about the HC by summer according to my sources). That being said, I have a feeling that if they end up making a radical change (ala appendix A of XGtE), I would find it extremely surprising if we didn't hear about it before July/August so as to prep DMs and players going forward.
They must have been pretty confident about these rules to publish them in the hardcover. In terms of finalizing, that's pretty final. Between that and the tweets, I think the only things they could still be finalizing are the rules for transitioning to this system and maybe the actual lists of magic items purchasable with treasure points.