Do people actually play Adventure's League? I can't help but feel this niche game style influenced the design of game mechanics in a similar way that PVP play in MMO's railroaded the PVE content in regards to mechanical balance issues. I think magical item attunement comes to mind. It feels like an obvious meta-mechanic put in place to help foster Adventure League play. Is the game design still catering to Adventure League or is this niche aspect of D&D on its way to the dustbin of history? Honest questions here.
[I'm not an AL player, but I also don't have the antipathy toward it that some of your scapegoating seems to imply. I know, 'honest question' but the tone toward AL is pretty contempty.]
AL's a thing insomuch that post Tasha's they revised their source book usage rules from PHB +1 to something else. This isn't the most active area of the forum, but I also sense they're a bit between seasons(?).
From my outside observation it seemed the "drop in and play" sort of mode AL fostered often leaned on things like game cafes and stores, aside from "organized play" AL DMs were often de facto brand ambassadors. During COVID, "drop in table" play disappeared from the venues that used to host it, I'm not sure how well AL play adapted to the various online modes. But people still do it.
Did AL dominate or at least influence game design? That's debatable, but on the magic items I think they were more looking for a mechanic that kept balance considerations for encounter design rather than creating the rules to support AL. I mean if they designed the game around the needs of a minority of game players, they really should have made AL more lucrative to WotC which was never the case. The accessory books, in their design, encouraged cross book play, which also went against the whole PHB +1 principle so I think you got the order of the chicken and egg problem you seem to be sussing backwards.
AL is still a way to play from what I've seen, and it's had to adapt to the growth of the game rather than vice versa.
I know for the Kansas City metro (and the general Midwest) is very active with Adventure League Content. Within the Kansas City Metro there are 5 or so games stores that have near nightly AL events, sometime 3 or more running coherently. Several of these venues also host EPIC events every few months. There are also 5 local gaming conventions where AL games are span from 15 - 40 sessions across 3 - 4 day conventions, which also include an EPIC event. I believe the readiness of AL in the area keeps a bulk of the DMs and groups playing AL legal home games so that their players are welcomed/allowed at the public events. I currently run 5 week AL based mini-Intro-campaigns (leveling up to 4th) at a local gaming tavern that adds 6-7 people to the AL community each time and typically by the end of the sessions the wait list fills up to run another group through.
You know it's funny. I live near WoTC and Paizo, Seattle area. Yet, it is very difficult to find players here in this area. I've had much better luck in other areas, including KC (I lived there for a few years as well). For some reason ground zero is anemic when it comes to table top RPGers.
Do people actually play Adventure's League? I can't help but feel this niche game style influenced the design of game mechanics in a similar way that PVP play in MMO's railroaded the PVE content in regards to mechanical balance issues. I think magical item attunement comes to mind. It feels like an obvious meta-mechanic put in place to help foster Adventure League play. Is the game design still catering to Adventure League or is this niche aspect of D&D on its way to the dustbin of history? Honest questions here.
I been an AL DM since Sept 2016. The attunement item is a good limit to keep the old golf bag of magic item problem regardless of open play or homebrew. I have one pc with 4 magic items only one requires tuning it. So it appears from my xp, attunement not a problem. PVP was thing was back in Sept 1980 when I started. Having official rules which prevent random people showing up and mess with other randoms; is a great thing. It also prevents "I attack jasper's druid because he did not let me copy his math homework last Wednesday.." The current season has opened ALL the books except the campaign books. I have DM for Adventure the books from Tomb forwards. You have to make some changes in the books to shoehorn AL play.
Of course the AL modules created to support the various seasons are shoehorned into Adventure League because they are written for Al.
Numbers. At the local game store our players numbers are down. But I know gaming is going on elsewhere. The facebook page of the local AL group is 326 members. Next year ,once I learn more FB mod abilities ; I will try to see how many of those 326 members are within driving distance of the regular play site. Note Driving distance is up to the individual as I had some drive 92+ miles to my games. Thankfully he found a group closer to his house.
Pre-pandemic, my local game store was running at least four sessions of AL a week that were all well attended. They have been working at restarting it and currently are running one session a week until more folks are comfortable playing in person. On line, I know several servers operated by organizations in my general geographical area running several AL sessions a week. I also know of several other groups that also run online AL.
So, yes, AL is still out there and still doing reasonably well though I think numbers are likely down a bit due to the pandemic. AL flourishes best when there are no obstacles to meeting.
Your post seemed to ask "What is the point of AL?".
IF you have ever had an in person session cancelled because one or two of the people couldn't make it - you know the fundamental advantage of AL. AL runs no matter what. If you want to play D&D on your schedule because you are busy, have work, a family, kids and don't want to feel guilty when real life intrudes and forces you to bail ... OR you want to play whether or not everyone shows ... then AL works.
IF you are the kind of person who likes playing RAW, knowing what the rules will be when you play, then AL works. (Some DMs have a huge number of house rules and introduce more on the fly or railroad the party because they want everyone to follow the plot. Admittedly AL is primarily modules unless a DM is running a hardcover so the individual modules are typically not a sandbox so choices are limited - but you go into the game knowing that).
Anyway, AL typically offers consistent and reliable gameplay. It may not be as good as what a good DM offers in a homebrew campaign but it is typically better than that offered up by a bad DM ... and it is reliable. Too many campaigns sputter along at 1 session a month as things get cancelled and rescheduled to fit with everyones commitments until it reaches a point where the campaign dies off simply because no one is getting to play.
Finally, game design elements like attunement have nothing at all to do with AL. If you think a "niche" game style had any influence at all on the design of 5e ... I'd have to laugh. WotC pays as little attention to AL as possible from what I can tell. Attunement and other features were added to 5e to make the game more balanced and fun for folks to play ... limiting the Monty Haul aspect a bit. Keep in mind that a DM is welcome to ignore ANY rule they like in their game. As a result, attunement becomes a suggested mechanism to DMs to help keep their game balanced.
If you want the AL rules they are more limited that attunement. Tier 1 characters can bring 1 permanent magic item on an adventure, Tier 2 is 3 items, Tier 3 is 6 and Tier 4 is 10. There is a separate limit on consumable magic items. These limits are to help keep characters a bit more balanced for AL play. These are in addition to attunement limits.
Anyway, I've played and DMed AL games for several years now (both modules and a couple of hard covers) and in general it works out pretty well but as with any D&D, your experience will depend on the DM and the other players.
P.S. "dustbin of history" and "honest questions"? LOL hardly .. the two do not go together in this context since it sounds like you already have YOUR answers to your "honest questions".
Pre-pandemic, my local game store was running at least four sessions of AL a week that were all well attended. They have been working at restarting it and currently are running one session a week until more folks are comfortable playing in person. On line, I know several servers operated by organizations in my general geographical area running several AL sessions a week. I also know of several other groups that also run online AL.
So, yes, AL is still out there and still doing reasonably well though I think numbers are likely down a bit due to the pandemic. AL flourishes best when there are no obstacles to meeting.
Your post seemed to ask "What is the point of AL?".
IF you have ever had an in person session cancelled because one or two of the people couldn't make it - you know the fundamental advantage of AL. AL runs no matter what. If you want to play D&D on your schedule because you are busy, have work, a family, kids and don't want to feel guilty when real life intrudes and forces you to bail ... OR you want to play whether or not everyone shows ... then AL works.
IF you are the kind of person who likes playing RAW, knowing what the rules will be when you play, then AL works. (Some DMs have a huge number of house rules and introduce more on the fly or railroad the party because they want everyone to follow the plot. Admittedly AL is primarily modules unless a DM is running a hardcover so the individual modules are typically not a sandbox so choices are limited - but you go into the game knowing that).
Anyway, AL typically offers consistent and reliable gameplay. It may not be as good as what a good DM offers in a homebrew campaign but it is typically better than that offered up by a bad DM ... and it is reliable. Too many campaigns sputter along at 1 session a month as things get cancelled and rescheduled to fit with everyones commitments until it reaches a point where the campaign dies off simply because no one is getting to play.
Finally, game design elements like attunement have nothing at all to do with AL. If you think a "niche" game style had any influence at all on the design of 5e ... I'd have to laugh. WotC pays as little attention to AL as possible from what I can tell. Attunement and other features were added to 5e to make the game more balanced and fun for folks to play ... limiting the Monty Haul aspect a bit. Keep in mind that a DM is welcome to ignore ANY rule they like in their game. As a result, attunement becomes a suggested mechanism to DMs to help keep their game balanced.
If you want the AL rules they are more limited that attunement. Tier 1 characters can bring 1 permanent magic item on an adventure, Tier 2 is 3 items, Tier 3 is 6 and Tier 4 is 10. There is a separate limit on consumable magic items. These limits are to help keep characters a bit more balanced for AL play. These are in addition to attunement limits.
Anyway, I've played and DMed AL games for several years now (both modules and a couple of hard covers) and in general it works out pretty well but as with any D&D, your experience will depend on the DM and the other players.
P.S. "dustbin of history" and "honest questions"? LOL hardly .. the two do not go together in this context since it sounds like you already have YOUR answers to your "honest questions".
What point is attunement when the DM has complete control of how many and what items are being awarded? Unless, you need a mechanic to maintain balance when moving a character from one DM to another (AL). Attunement wasn't in past D&D editions. So why now? When 5E launched they pushed AL pretty hard as part of their marketing. I feel that they thought it was going to be a large venue and draw. Seems like common sense that they put in hard mechanics to help facilitate that.
P.S. I guess you got triggered by a common metaphor. I was simply asking if AL was fading away while implying that if it was then attunement really doesn't serve a purpose anymore.
I'd say it's pretty much a thing, maybe more than it ever was since 5e launched, even though it doesn't seem as much on Wizard's marketing spotlight anymore.
You could check that by some of the dedicated Discords around. DWB, probably the largerst, has 15k+ users with 2.5k online right now, and 4 regular yearly events that bring 100+ online for Epic adventures each. Wizards itself is frequently promoting lots of online games via their Virtual D&D Weekends at their Yawning Portal site, most of them are paid and usually almost all full when I check them. Warhorn usually has around 50~100 planned open games in the AL category from the various Discords around.
I'm not very familiar with in-person AL since I've only ever played it online, but from taking promotional pictures at conventions like D&D Open and others, it's pretty sizeable. It was probably hit by the pandemic as mentioned above, and might be recovering numbers right now.
As some players I've had in this forum reacted after I DMed an AL adventure of mine for them, "It's just D&D." It's really just a set of standardizations on the rules to make your character portable to other tables. I really don't believe AL influenced rules of D&D outside of it in any way.
Pre-pandemic, my local game store was running at least four sessions of AL a week that were all well attended. They have been working at restarting it and currently are running one session a week until more folks are comfortable playing in person. On line, I know several servers operated by organizations in my general geographical area running several AL sessions a week. I also know of several other groups that also run online AL.
So, yes, AL is still out there and still doing reasonably well though I think numbers are likely down a bit due to the pandemic. AL flourishes best when there are no obstacles to meeting.
Your post seemed to ask "What is the point of AL?".
IF you have ever had an in person session cancelled because one or two of the people couldn't make it - you know the fundamental advantage of AL. AL runs no matter what. If you want to play D&D on your schedule because you are busy, have work, a family, kids and don't want to feel guilty when real life intrudes and forces you to bail ... OR you want to play whether or not everyone shows ... then AL works.
IF you are the kind of person who likes playing RAW, knowing what the rules will be when you play, then AL works. (Some DMs have a huge number of house rules and introduce more on the fly or railroad the party because they want everyone to follow the plot. Admittedly AL is primarily modules unless a DM is running a hardcover so the individual modules are typically not a sandbox so choices are limited - but you go into the game knowing that).
Anyway, AL typically offers consistent and reliable gameplay. It may not be as good as what a good DM offers in a homebrew campaign but it is typically better than that offered up by a bad DM ... and it is reliable. Too many campaigns sputter along at 1 session a month as things get cancelled and rescheduled to fit with everyones commitments until it reaches a point where the campaign dies off simply because no one is getting to play.
Finally, game design elements like attunement have nothing at all to do with AL. If you think a "niche" game style had any influence at all on the design of 5e ... I'd have to laugh. WotC pays as little attention to AL as possible from what I can tell. Attunement and other features were added to 5e to make the game more balanced and fun for folks to play ... limiting the Monty Haul aspect a bit. Keep in mind that a DM is welcome to ignore ANY rule they like in their game. As a result, attunement becomes a suggested mechanism to DMs to help keep their game balanced.
If you want the AL rules they are more limited that attunement. Tier 1 characters can bring 1 permanent magic item on an adventure, Tier 2 is 3 items, Tier 3 is 6 and Tier 4 is 10. There is a separate limit on consumable magic items. These limits are to help keep characters a bit more balanced for AL play. These are in addition to attunement limits.
Anyway, I've played and DMed AL games for several years now (both modules and a couple of hard covers) and in general it works out pretty well but as with any D&D, your experience will depend on the DM and the other players.
P.S. "dustbin of history" and "honest questions"? LOL hardly .. the two do not go together in this context since it sounds like you already have YOUR answers to your "honest questions".
What point is attunement when the DM has complete control of how many and what items are being awarded? Unless, you need a mechanic to maintain balance when moving a character from one DM to another (AL). Attunement wasn't in past D&D editions. So why now? When 5E launched they pushed AL pretty hard as part of their marketing. I feel that they thought it was going to be a large venue and draw. Seems like common sense that they put in hard mechanics to help facilitate that.
P.S. I guess you got triggered by a common metaphor. I was simply asking if AL was fading away while inferring that if it was then attunement really doesn't serve a purpose anymore.
I guess I don't share your opinion on attunement. I've played since the boxed set and AD&D days and, to be honest, I really like the attunement mechanic as a general part of the game. It honestly has never occurred to me that AL might ever have been a factor in the introduction of that rule and given than AL has always been a small proportion of the D&D community I really don't think they would design game mechanics around it.
I find that having attunement can help the DM overcome some common group problems ..
- loot hogs - players who want all the magic items and are don't mind a little bullying. With attunement, the DM can just say that the rules limit you to 3 attuned items rather than having to confront the player involved (though they likely have other issues)
- accidents like letting the party have too much magic (DMs have done this from time to time in games I have been in and attunment limits can mitigate the issue - especially common with new DMs)
- the uber tank - the party collects the magic items and explicitly gives them to one character to boost their power level - this can make it more challenging for the DM to balance encounters ... eg deal with the uber tank or their much squishier supporters?
- 5e appears designed around a much lower magic world - the lack of magic item shops and the comments on how rare and valuable magic items are so that they are almost priceless - having an attunement limit of 3 items enhances this aspect/feel of 5e in that characters are limited in the number of magic items they can equip by default. It also helps a bit with higher levels of play since one of the characteristics of earlier editions was the dominance of characters with a Christmas tree of magic items by the time they hit tier 3 and tier 4 ... many of which might surpass the abilities of the class in sheer power. Imposing limits of magic items combined with the concept of bounded accuracy also introduced in 5e helps make higher levels a bit more playable.
Finally, since a DM is free to ignore attunement limits if that is what they want to do - I interpret attunement as a suggestion on how to play to keep characters more playable and balanced into the higher levels and has absolutely nothing to do with AL (as I said, AL has even more restrictive magic item limits that are imposed on top of attunement).
Anyway, if you can cite a reference for your claim that AL had anything to do with the design of attunement in 5e, I'd be happy to listen, but in my opinion, attunement has enough advantages in play (and can be ignored if a DM wishes to do so) such that I don't think AL had anything to do with that design decision.
AL is huge in the dallas-ft worth area. Most stores/venues use AL rules. Once a table clicks and becomes a regular group, the rules tend to go a bit to the way-side, but its a good starting point to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Thank you for everyone who has let me know that AL is still alive and kicking (hopefully that metaphor won't upset anyone). I just hadn't really seen much on it as of late and with so much being virtual these days, I figured it had taken a huge hit.
As one of the playtesters for DnDNEXT which playtested the rules for 5e before final publication, I can say definitively that AL (since it did not exist then) had no role in item attunement or any other rule. That rule was a way to limit the casual player who showed up with every item in the book regardless of their level. In the old days (70s/80s), I as the DM, had to go through every character's item to determine whether I would allow it or not. People would just show up with the craziest stuff.
As one of the playtesters for DnDNEXT which playtested the rules for 5e before final publication, I can say definitively that AL (since it did not exist then) had no role in item attunement or any other rule. That rule was a way to limit the casual player who showed up with every item in the book regardless of their level. In the old days (70s/80s), I as the DM, had to go through every character's item to determine whether I would allow it or not. People would just show up with the craziest stuff.
But isn't AL just a formalized version of drop in? 99.5% of every role playing game I've ever played over the course of 35 years has been standard group play at someone's house with a regular group (although sometimes players would come and go). I know AD&D used tournament rules and scoring with pre gens and then you had conventions as well. I never had any desire to do drop in games since continuity and growth in an ongoing campaign was a big part of the game for me as well as the story and plot lines. I guess I never fell into the drop in/ AL demographic
As one of the playtesters for DnDNEXT which playtested the rules for 5e before final publication, I can say definitively that AL (since it did not exist then) had no role in item attunement or any other rule. That rule was a way to limit the casual player who showed up with every item in the book regardless of their level. In the old days (70s/80s), I as the DM, had to go through every character's item to determine whether I would allow it or not. People would just show up with the craziest stuff.
But isn't AL just a formalized version of drop in? 99.5% of every role playing game I've ever played over the course of 35 years has been standard group play at someone's house with a regular group (although sometimes players would come and go). I know AD&D used tournament rules and scoring with pre gens and then you had conventions as well. I never had any desire to do drop in games since continuity and growth in an ongoing campaign was a big part of the game for me as well as the story and plot lines. I guess I never fell into the drop in/ AL demographic
Yes, the point of AL is to standardize casual play. While you are very fortunate to have always played with a regular group, the majority of players move around, go off to college or just have too busy schedules to commit and play in their local store, online or at a convention. The AL rules make it so everyone showing up should be roughly equal in power.
Attunement is not written for AL. None of the rulebooks have AL in mind, since the majority of players have always been outside of Organized Play. WOTC does not even use AL to test Unearthed Arcana before published, AL exists for people to be able to play the game for all the various reasons people don’t have a non-AL game. Warhorn has a lot of games and online AL bloomed during COVID.
AL is huge in the dallas-ft worth area. Most stores/venues use AL rules. Once a table clicks and becomes a regular group, the rules tend to go a bit to the way-side, but its a good starting point to make sure everyone is on the same page.
I'd love to know where! I live in North Richland Hills and I've searched (on the AL site) for games within 100 miles of me. All I get is MtG games. Nada on D&D AL.
I'd love to know where! I live in North Richland Hills and I've searched (on the AL site) for games within 100 miles of me. All I get is MtG games. Nada on D&D AL.
The Multiverse in Hurst does small sessions on Sundays (its a small store).
Martin House Brewing Company is always looking for players on Mondays (FW though).
Garcia's Latin Cuisine (in NRH) had every-other-week Tuesday sessions but are on pause since they're now closed on Tuesdays (may move to Wed. later this spring when covid calms down).
Generation X in Bedford used to have a large Tuesday night event until COVID - they still have an 'all-day' Sat. session, but since they don't declare a time it doesn't usually pan out - when someone just drops in to find a game, no one is playing. Groups do form every now and then through FB though.
I was told the Lion's Club in either NRH or Hurst (or some venue with the word "lion" in it) has regular sessions - haven't looked into it though.
Also rather far away, RPG Dungeons Gaming Center, in Carolton has a big venue on Fri, Sat, and Sun's- extra fancy digital tables too (crazy expensive though - imo).
follow the "Forth Worth Area Dungeons and Dragons" group on Facebook
I'd love to know where! I live in North Richland Hills and I've searched (on the AL site) for games within 100 miles of me. All I get is MtG games. Nada on D&D AL.
The Multiverse in Hurst does small sessions on Sundays (its a small store).
Martin House Brewing Company is always looking for players on Mondays (FW though).
Garcia's Latin Cuisine (in NRH) had every-other-week Tuesday sessions but are on pause since they're now closed on Tuesdays (may move to Wed. later this spring when covid calms down).
Generation X in Bedford used to have a large Tuesday night event until COVID - they still have an 'all-day' Sat. session, but since they don't declare a time it doesn't usually pan out - when someone just drops in to find a game, no one is playing. Groups do form every now and then through FB though.
I was told the Lion's Club in either NRH or Hurst (or some venue with the word "lion" in it) has regular sessions - haven't looked into it though.
Also rather far away, RPG Dungeons Gaming Center, in Carolton has a big venue on Fri, Sat, and Sun's- extra fancy digital tables too (crazy expensive though - imo).
follow the "Forth Worth Area Dungeons and Dragons" group on Facebook
Great!!! Thanks for that list.... none of them list in the search for games on the AL site, so I'll look into each of them. They're all in my area 'cept Carrolton, but that's not too far away.
Do people actually play Adventure's League? I can't help but feel this niche game style influenced the design of game mechanics in a similar way that PVP play in MMO's railroaded the PVE content in regards to mechanical balance issues. I think magical item attunement comes to mind. It feels like an obvious meta-mechanic put in place to help foster Adventure League play. Is the game design still catering to Adventure League or is this niche aspect of D&D on its way to the dustbin of history? Honest questions here.
[I'm not an AL player, but I also don't have the antipathy toward it that some of your scapegoating seems to imply. I know, 'honest question' but the tone toward AL is pretty contempty.]
AL's a thing insomuch that post Tasha's they revised their source book usage rules from PHB +1 to something else. This isn't the most active area of the forum, but I also sense they're a bit between seasons(?).
From my outside observation it seemed the "drop in and play" sort of mode AL fostered often leaned on things like game cafes and stores, aside from "organized play" AL DMs were often de facto brand ambassadors. During COVID, "drop in table" play disappeared from the venues that used to host it, I'm not sure how well AL play adapted to the various online modes. But people still do it.
Did AL dominate or at least influence game design? That's debatable, but on the magic items I think they were more looking for a mechanic that kept balance considerations for encounter design rather than creating the rules to support AL. I mean if they designed the game around the needs of a minority of game players, they really should have made AL more lucrative to WotC which was never the case. The accessory books, in their design, encouraged cross book play, which also went against the whole PHB +1 principle so I think you got the order of the chicken and egg problem you seem to be sussing backwards.
AL is still a way to play from what I've seen, and it's had to adapt to the growth of the game rather than vice versa.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I know for the Kansas City metro (and the general Midwest) is very active with Adventure League Content. Within the Kansas City Metro there are 5 or so games stores that have near nightly AL events, sometime 3 or more running coherently. Several of these venues also host EPIC events every few months. There are also 5 local gaming conventions where AL games are span from 15 - 40 sessions across 3 - 4 day conventions, which also include an EPIC event. I believe the readiness of AL in the area keeps a bulk of the DMs and groups playing AL legal home games so that their players are welcomed/allowed at the public events. I currently run 5 week AL based mini-Intro-campaigns (leveling up to 4th) at a local gaming tavern that adds 6-7 people to the AL community each time and typically by the end of the sessions the wait list fills up to run another group through.
You know it's funny. I live near WoTC and Paizo, Seattle area. Yet, it is very difficult to find players here in this area. I've had much better luck in other areas, including KC (I lived there for a few years as well). For some reason ground zero is anemic when it comes to table top RPGers.
I been an AL DM since Sept 2016. The attunement item is a good limit to keep the old golf bag of magic item problem regardless of open play or homebrew. I have one pc with 4 magic items only one requires tuning it. So it appears from my xp, attunement not a problem. PVP was thing was back in Sept 1980 when I started. Having official rules which prevent random people showing up and mess with other randoms; is a great thing. It also prevents "I attack jasper's druid because he did not let me copy his math homework last Wednesday.." The current season has opened ALL the books except the campaign books. I have DM for Adventure the books from Tomb forwards. You have to make some changes in the books to shoehorn AL play.
Of course the AL modules created to support the various seasons are shoehorned into Adventure League because they are written for Al.
Numbers. At the local game store our players numbers are down. But I know gaming is going on elsewhere. The facebook page of the local AL group is 326 members. Next year ,once I learn more FB mod abilities ; I will try to see how many of those 326 members are within driving distance of the regular play site. Note Driving distance is up to the individual as I had some drive 92+ miles to my games. Thankfully he found a group closer to his house.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Pre-pandemic, my local game store was running at least four sessions of AL a week that were all well attended. They have been working at restarting it and currently are running one session a week until more folks are comfortable playing in person. On line, I know several servers operated by organizations in my general geographical area running several AL sessions a week. I also know of several other groups that also run online AL.
So, yes, AL is still out there and still doing reasonably well though I think numbers are likely down a bit due to the pandemic. AL flourishes best when there are no obstacles to meeting.
Your post seemed to ask "What is the point of AL?".
IF you have ever had an in person session cancelled because one or two of the people couldn't make it - you know the fundamental advantage of AL. AL runs no matter what. If you want to play D&D on your schedule because you are busy, have work, a family, kids and don't want to feel guilty when real life intrudes and forces you to bail ... OR you want to play whether or not everyone shows ... then AL works.
IF you are the kind of person who likes playing RAW, knowing what the rules will be when you play, then AL works. (Some DMs have a huge number of house rules and introduce more on the fly or railroad the party because they want everyone to follow the plot. Admittedly AL is primarily modules unless a DM is running a hardcover so the individual modules are typically not a sandbox so choices are limited - but you go into the game knowing that).
Anyway, AL typically offers consistent and reliable gameplay. It may not be as good as what a good DM offers in a homebrew campaign but it is typically better than that offered up by a bad DM ... and it is reliable. Too many campaigns sputter along at 1 session a month as things get cancelled and rescheduled to fit with everyones commitments until it reaches a point where the campaign dies off simply because no one is getting to play.
Finally, game design elements like attunement have nothing at all to do with AL. If you think a "niche" game style had any influence at all on the design of 5e ... I'd have to laugh. WotC pays as little attention to AL as possible from what I can tell. Attunement and other features were added to 5e to make the game more balanced and fun for folks to play ... limiting the Monty Haul aspect a bit. Keep in mind that a DM is welcome to ignore ANY rule they like in their game. As a result, attunement becomes a suggested mechanism to DMs to help keep their game balanced.
If you want the AL rules they are more limited that attunement. Tier 1 characters can bring 1 permanent magic item on an adventure, Tier 2 is 3 items, Tier 3 is 6 and Tier 4 is 10. There is a separate limit on consumable magic items. These limits are to help keep characters a bit more balanced for AL play. These are in addition to attunement limits.
Anyway, I've played and DMed AL games for several years now (both modules and a couple of hard covers) and in general it works out pretty well but as with any D&D, your experience will depend on the DM and the other players.
P.S. "dustbin of history" and "honest questions"? LOL hardly .. the two do not go together in this context since it sounds like you already have YOUR answers to your "honest questions".
What point is attunement when the DM has complete control of how many and what items are being awarded? Unless, you need a mechanic to maintain balance when moving a character from one DM to another (AL). Attunement wasn't in past D&D editions. So why now? When 5E launched they pushed AL pretty hard as part of their marketing. I feel that they thought it was going to be a large venue and draw. Seems like common sense that they put in hard mechanics to help facilitate that.
P.S. I guess you got triggered by a common metaphor. I was simply asking if AL was fading away while implying that if it was then attunement really doesn't serve a purpose anymore.
I'd say it's pretty much a thing, maybe more than it ever was since 5e launched, even though it doesn't seem as much on Wizard's marketing spotlight anymore.
You could check that by some of the dedicated Discords around. DWB, probably the largerst, has 15k+ users with 2.5k online right now, and 4 regular yearly events that bring 100+ online for Epic adventures each. Wizards itself is frequently promoting lots of online games via their Virtual D&D Weekends at their Yawning Portal site, most of them are paid and usually almost all full when I check them. Warhorn usually has around 50~100 planned open games in the AL category from the various Discords around.
I'm not very familiar with in-person AL since I've only ever played it online, but from taking promotional pictures at conventions like D&D Open and others, it's pretty sizeable. It was probably hit by the pandemic as mentioned above, and might be recovering numbers right now.
As some players I've had in this forum reacted after I DMed an AL adventure of mine for them, "It's just D&D." It's really just a set of standardizations on the rules to make your character portable to other tables. I really don't believe AL influenced rules of D&D outside of it in any way.
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I guess I don't share your opinion on attunement. I've played since the boxed set and AD&D days and, to be honest, I really like the attunement mechanic as a general part of the game. It honestly has never occurred to me that AL might ever have been a factor in the introduction of that rule and given than AL has always been a small proportion of the D&D community I really don't think they would design game mechanics around it.
I find that having attunement can help the DM overcome some common group problems ..
- loot hogs - players who want all the magic items and are don't mind a little bullying. With attunement, the DM can just say that the rules limit you to 3 attuned items rather than having to confront the player involved (though they likely have other issues)
- accidents like letting the party have too much magic (DMs have done this from time to time in games I have been in and attunment limits can mitigate the issue - especially common with new DMs)
- the uber tank - the party collects the magic items and explicitly gives them to one character to boost their power level - this can make it more challenging for the DM to balance encounters ... eg deal with the uber tank or their much squishier supporters?
- 5e appears designed around a much lower magic world - the lack of magic item shops and the comments on how rare and valuable magic items are so that they are almost priceless - having an attunement limit of 3 items enhances this aspect/feel of 5e in that characters are limited in the number of magic items they can equip by default. It also helps a bit with higher levels of play since one of the characteristics of earlier editions was the dominance of characters with a Christmas tree of magic items by the time they hit tier 3 and tier 4 ... many of which might surpass the abilities of the class in sheer power. Imposing limits of magic items combined with the concept of bounded accuracy also introduced in 5e helps make higher levels a bit more playable.
Finally, since a DM is free to ignore attunement limits if that is what they want to do - I interpret attunement as a suggestion on how to play to keep characters more playable and balanced into the higher levels and has absolutely nothing to do with AL (as I said, AL has even more restrictive magic item limits that are imposed on top of attunement).
Anyway, if you can cite a reference for your claim that AL had anything to do with the design of attunement in 5e, I'd be happy to listen, but in my opinion, attunement has enough advantages in play (and can be ignored if a DM wishes to do so) such that I don't think AL had anything to do with that design decision.
AL is huge in the dallas-ft worth area. Most stores/venues use AL rules. Once a table clicks and becomes a regular group, the rules tend to go a bit to the way-side, but its a good starting point to make sure everyone is on the same page.
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Thank you for everyone who has let me know that AL is still alive and kicking (hopefully that metaphor won't upset anyone). I just hadn't really seen much on it as of late and with so much being virtual these days, I figured it had taken a huge hit.
As one of the playtesters for DnDNEXT which playtested the rules for 5e before final publication, I can say definitively that AL (since it did not exist then) had no role in item attunement or any other rule. That rule was a way to limit the casual player who showed up with every item in the book regardless of their level. In the old days (70s/80s), I as the DM, had to go through every character's item to determine whether I would allow it or not. People would just show up with the craziest stuff.
But isn't AL just a formalized version of drop in? 99.5% of every role playing game I've ever played over the course of 35 years has been standard group play at someone's house with a regular group (although sometimes players would come and go). I know AD&D used tournament rules and scoring with pre gens and then you had conventions as well. I never had any desire to do drop in games since continuity and growth in an ongoing campaign was a big part of the game for me as well as the story and plot lines. I guess I never fell into the drop in/ AL demographic
Yes, the point of AL is to standardize casual play. While you are very fortunate to have always played with a regular group, the majority of players move around, go off to college or just have too busy schedules to commit and play in their local store, online or at a convention. The AL rules make it so everyone showing up should be roughly equal in power.
Attunement is not written for AL. None of the rulebooks have AL in mind, since the majority of players have always been outside of Organized Play. WOTC does not even use AL to test Unearthed Arcana before published, AL exists for people to be able to play the game for all the various reasons people don’t have a non-AL game. Warhorn has a lot of games and online AL bloomed during COVID.
I'd love to know where! I live in North Richland Hills and I've searched (on the AL site) for games within 100 miles of me. All I get is MtG games. Nada on D&D AL.
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Great!!! Thanks for that list.... none of them list in the search for games on the AL site, so I'll look into each of them. They're all in my area 'cept Carrolton, but that's not too far away.
Here is Columbia, SC our local gaming store has at least 4-6 adventures during the week. Other areas around us have similar groups.
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