Yeah, I dunno why Gungadi would cancel an unrelated subscription unless they only play D&D via AL and will otherwise stop playing it altogether. I guess.
Every magic item you encounter in an adventure is unlocked for you to purchase either immediately (if you have enough points) or at a later time.
Does this mean that every adventure will now have a public list of all available magic items for reference at a later date? As I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one to forget what was available from every adventure my character goes on.
How will we get certificates if we purchase a magic item not at the time of the adventure? Or is nothing "unique" going to be available and certs are going away?
I think you'll need to put on your log sheet what you found. The module might have Scimitar of speed behind the bar but if the party never enters in the bar.
Apart from the stingy amount of gold, the changes aren't bad, just different.
Well it also means that if a rogue uses sleight of hand to steal something, they get nothing since you cannot collect treasure except by treasure points and leveling. Most thieves skills go way down in value due to lack of incentive to use them. I'm a thief who is not allowed to steal, except from a treasure chest which can be opened by a hammer and reveal the lack of gold and maybe unlock some magic item.
Basically any skill which I could use to get money no longer gets money since we can only get money via leveling. Skill use is irrelevant to gaining treasure, it is only good for me leveling which gets a pitiful amount of treasure.
Gold is horrible, but you did mention that was bad.
I can use Herbalism kit + 25 gold (cost of creating a potion is half base cost) but I lose kit in process, so I make a potion of healing for 50G and save nothing in the cost.
I can scribe spells on a scroll after paying component cost and scribe costs, but I cannot afford it due to costs and lack of getting gold.
As a wizard buying components is really hard, and scribing spells is hard as well. To cast identify, I need to be 3rd level just to afford the component, and that assumes I did not scribe any spells. I cannot cast Secret Chest till 17 due to cost, but its a 4th level spell.
Clerics cannot afford to buy revivify components due to cost of 300 each cast, sure they would be able to afford one casting by 5th level, so lets hope nobody dies until then.
No more faction rez for new players. No more money to afford such costs. If I use my treasure points I am not allowed to use any tier 1 treasure points to purchase the level 5 spell needed to raise me, so I cannot even try to rez myself until 5th level, so all players who die before 5th must reroll, OR I could use all my future tier 2 points to pay for it and screw myself out of future treasure. If only revivify did not cost so much.
The gold jump from all tiers except 4 is about double previous tier. Tier 4 is 10 times previous levels, seems odd to have such a jump. I was killing dragons at 7th (tier 2), but apparently they don't hoard treasure any more.
Note to fix ALL of the above. Keep the item checkpoints, but let gold found be gold found. I now have a reason to be baited by gold for a trap. I now have a way to pay for everything. I now have reason to go after the treasure, because now it actually exists.
I totally get the item points to buy magic items, but the gold is rather breaking. Class wise and motivation.
Well it also means that if a rogue uses sleight of hand to steal something, they get nothing since you cannot collect treasure except by treasure points and leveling. Most thieves skills go way down in value due to lack of incentive to use them. I'm a thief who is not allowed to steal, except from a treasure chest which can be opened by a hammer and reveal the lack of gold and maybe unlock some magic item.
Basically any skill which I could use to get money no longer gets money since we can only get money via leveling. Skill use is irrelevant to gaining treasure, it is only good for me leveling which gets a pitiful amount of treasure..
It was my understanding that you never could pick pockets to get gold in AL. Certainly you can't steal from your fellow party members (no undermining rule) and DMs aren't permitted to give out more gold than an adventure lists. Given those restrictions, I'm not sure how you could pick pockets for gain.
I tend to agree with darkwonders that, outside of gold, the changes are different not bad. I think the changes to gold are unnecessarily punitive (and I think most players agree with me), but I'm vaguely interested in playing in a world where gold is valuable again. That's about as far to the bright side as I can look.
I've started a thread next door to brainstorm ways to make gold for those characters that really need it.
Well it also means that if a rogue uses sleight of hand to steal something, they get nothing since you cannot collect treasure except by treasure points and leveling. Most thieves skills go way down in value due to lack of incentive to use them. I'm a thief who is not allowed to steal, except from a treasure chest which can be opened by a hammer and reveal the lack of gold and maybe unlock some magic item.
Basically any skill which I could use to get money no longer gets money since we can only get money via leveling. Skill use is irrelevant to gaining treasure, it is only good for me leveling which gets a pitiful amount of treasure..
It was my understanding that you never could pick pockets to get gold in AL. Certainly you can't steal from your fellow party members (no undermining rule) and DMs aren't permitted to give out more gold than an adventure lists. Given those restrictions, I'm not sure how you could pick pockets for gain.
Then why are there sleight of hand checks to steal a key from a NPC to open a chest. The chest is valid target and one can open it with key or pick locks. But now if I pick that persons pocket to get the key, I get a key to open a chest which has no money. If I pick that lock on said chest, I get no money anymore. Why even bother to try?
Apart from the stingy amount of gold, the changes aren't bad, just different.
Well it also means that if a rogue uses sleight of hand to steal something, they get nothing since you cannot collect treasure except by treasure points and leveling. Most thieves skills go way down in value due to lack of incentive to use them. I'm a thief who is not allowed to steal, except from a treasure chest which can be opened by a hammer and reveal the lack of gold and maybe unlock some magic item.
Basically any skill which I could use to get money no longer gets money since we can only get money via leveling. Skill use is irrelevant to gaining treasure, it is only good for me leveling which gets a pitiful amount of treasure.
Along the same lines, what would be the point of any gambling scenario? If I bet all my gold and lose, I'm out money. But if I bet all my gold and WIN, I get nothing. Games of chance have no pay off so why bother; roll 1d6--odd you win, even you lose, now move along.
Well it also means that if a rogue uses sleight of hand to steal something, they get nothing since you cannot collect treasure except by treasure points and leveling. Most thieves skills go way down in value due to lack of incentive to use them. I'm a thief who is not allowed to steal, except from a treasure chest which can be opened by a hammer and reveal the lack of gold and maybe unlock some magic item.
Basically any skill which I could use to get money no longer gets money since we can only get money via leveling. Skill use is irrelevant to gaining treasure, it is only good for me leveling which gets a pitiful amount of treasure..
It was my understanding that you never could pick pockets to get gold in AL. Certainly you can't steal from your fellow party members (no undermining rule) and DMs aren't permitted to give out more gold than an adventure lists. Given those restrictions, I'm not sure how you could pick pockets for gain.
Then why are there sleight of hand checks to steal a key from a NPC to open a chest. The chest is valid target and one can open it with key or pick locks. But now if I pick that persons pocket to get the key, I get a key to open a chest which has no money. If I pick that lock on said chest, I get no money anymore. Why even bother to try?
I see now what you were referring to and I think you have a valid point that there are "greed challenges" that can be entirely avoided without any loss of reward.
Apart from the stingy amount of gold, the changes aren't bad, just different.
As a wizard buying components is really hard, and scribing spells is hard as well. To cast identify, I need to be 3rd level just to afford the component, and that assumes I did not scribe any spells. I cannot cast Tiny Hut till 17 due to cost, but its a 3rd level spell.
You have a lot of valid points, but what about Tiny Hut is expensive? There's no cost mentioned in it...
No more faction rez for new players. No more money to afford such costs. If I use my treasure points I am not allowed to use any tier 1 treasure points to purchase the level 5 spell needed to raise me, so I cannot even try to rez myself until 5th level, so all players who die before 5th must reroll, OR I could use all my future tier 2 points to pay for it and screw myself out of future treasure. If only revivify did not cost so much.
This is actually incorrect. For the purpose of resurrection, you can buy spell scrolls to do so ignoring any tier restrictions. And if you don't have enough treasure checkpoints, you can actually go into treasure checkpoint debt. Until your treasure checkpoint balance is positive again, you can't spend treasure checkpoints for anything else.
Note to fix ALL of the above. Keep the item checkpoints, but let gold found be gold found. I now have a reason to be baited by gold for a trap. I now have a way to pay for everything. I now have reason to go after the treasure, because now it actually exists.
I totally get the item points to buy magic items, but the gold is rather breaking. Class wise and motivation.
Apart from the stingy amount of gold, the changes aren't bad, just different.
As a wizard buying components is really hard, and scribing spells is hard as well. To cast identify, I need to be 3rd level just to afford the component, and that assumes I did not scribe any spells. I cannot cast Tiny Hut till 17 due to cost, but its a 3rd level spell.
You have a lot of valid points, but what about Tiny Hut is expensive? There's no cost mentioned in it...
Sorry, meant Secret Chest (4th level) Spell component cost. 5000gp for the chest and 50gp for mini chest.
No more faction rez for new players. No more money to afford such costs. If I use my treasure points I am not allowed to use any tier 1 treasure points to purchase the level 5 spell needed to raise me, so I cannot even try to rez myself until 5th level, so all players who die before 5th must reroll, OR I could use all my future tier 2 points to pay for it and screw myself out of future treasure. If only revivify did not cost so much.
This is actually incorrect. For the purpose of resurrection, you can buy spell scrolls to do so ignoring any tier restrictions. And if you don't have enough treasure points, you can actually go into treasure checkpoint debt. Until your treasure checkpoint balance is positive again, you can't spend treasure checkpoints for anything else.
Note to fix ALL of the above. Keep the item checkpoints, but let gold found be gold found. I now have a reason to be baited by gold for a trap. I now have a way to pay for everything. I now have reason to go after the treasure, because now it actually exists.
I totally get the item points to buy magic items, but the gold is rather breaking. Class wise and motivation.
Agreed.
Sorry, I misread the part that you can mix tier treasure to but the rez scroll, but it still means I am spending a lot of treasure points for a rez
No more faction rez for new players. No more money to afford such costs. If I use my treasure points I am not allowed to use any tier 1 treasure points to purchase the level 5 spell needed to raise me, so I cannot even try to rez myself until 5th level, so all players who die before 5th must reroll, OR I could use all my future tier 2 points to pay for it and screw myself out of future treasure. If only revivify did not cost so much.
This is actually incorrect. For the purpose of resurrection, you can buy spell scrolls to do so ignoring any tier restrictions. And if you don't have enough treasure checkpoints, you can actually go into treasure checkpoint debt. Until your treasure checkpoint balance is positive again, you can't spend treasure checkpoints for anything else.
You mention treasure checkpoint debt but I don't see that anywhere in the guides.
If that is the case, what stops me at level 1 "buying" a +1 weapon? That's 8 points of debt that I'm sure to earn eventually. Probably by the time I'm ready to buy a Tier 2 magic item on credit.
No more faction rez for new players. No more money to afford such costs. If I use my treasure points I am not allowed to use any tier 1 treasure points to purchase the level 5 spell needed to raise me, so I cannot even try to rez myself until 5th level, so all players who die before 5th must reroll, OR I could use all my future tier 2 points to pay for it and screw myself out of future treasure. If only revivify did not cost so much.
This is actually incorrect. For the purpose of resurrection, you can buy spell scrolls to do so ignoring any tier restrictions. And if you don't have enough treasure checkpoints, you can actually go into treasure checkpoint debt. Until your treasure checkpoint balance is positive again, you can't spend treasure checkpoints for anything else.
You mention treasure checkpoint debt but I don't see that anywhere in the guides.
If that is the case, what stops me at level 1 "buying" a +1 weapon? That's 8 points of debt that I'm sure to earn eventually. Probably by the time I'm ready to buy a Tier 2 magic item on credit.
I've only seen treasure point debt referred to in the context of purchasing spell casting services or spell scrolls to make your character playable again but not in a general context. I don't know whether they would allow expenditure of TP in advance to buy items. On the other hand, if you don't generally allow treasure point debt then a character will be level 5 by the time they have the 8 treasure points needed for most uncommon items.
e.g. True resurrection costs 12 TP. A scroll of raise dead or greater restoration would be 4 TP.
You cannot use TP debt to buy items. It is reserved only for resurrection services (at the cost of the spell scroll). It is mentioned in the ALDMG 8.0 on page 3 in the right column.
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This new system isn’t going to prevent treasure hunters. In fact, the first thing the system does is reward previous treasure hunters — especially ones who received items which are now banned from play. If you are a treasure hunter with a banned item, you can trade it in for 12 Treasure Points. How is that fair, especially for players who have no (or the least amount of) magical items, or for players who leveraged their faction, their gold, their skills, or other qualities to be overall-good characters by comparison?
A million reasons why this new system is broken have been pointed out. Treasure hunters will game the system — in fact, now there’s a map of how they go about doing that exactly: They put in hours for Treasure Points and Levels. Then they select all of the combinatorial they want, in the order they want, and to the degree that they want. It actually sounds boring, flat, ugly, and highly-uninteresting.
There are some simple solutions to this new system, and they resemble the current solutions. You lie to your game store. They lie to Wizards. Everyone is happy. If some players come along to your store and they say that you’re not following the AL rules, follow the rules just for them that day. Play along temporarily. If Wizards sends in store spies — good for them. I hope they do that. That way they’ll look that much more controlling and annoying than they already do.
If you get one, or even dozens, of players who want to treasure hunt and go crazy with whatever optimization that they fancy — let them. Different people have different goals — they expect different outcomes. That’s normal in gaming. Some are competitive. Some want collaboration. Some want a story. Some don’t want a story. Some want to cover every inch of their body in magical items and have a Bag of Holding full of magical items that they can dangle in front of other players who have none. Just let them. Work it into the game; work it into the story. Give people what they want.
For just — what I think to be obvious — reasons, Wizards don’t understand that AL is meant to be Open Play D&D. It’s meant to bring new players in to the fold while allowing veteran players a place to meet and play, weekly, or sometimes day-by day. With some of these hardcovers this makes a lot of sense. Then there’s the AL content — add-ons or adjuncts to the hardcovers. I honestly thought the whole point of AL for Wizards (and therefore stores and distributors — aka their middlemen) was to develop free content (now cheap DMSGuild) for players to explore alongside (because they play the hardcover at a home game) the main content (in order to sell it, sure, but the point was quid pro quo) — while socializing the game.
How are these new Season 8 rules socializing the game? What do these new rules have to do with the AL content? Instead, it all just feels like punishment for misdeeds that I’m not even aware of. Here’s a hint in life: Don’t present sticks in situations where carrots are fictional. In other words, concentrate on the good that is happening (content, sociocultural aspects, heck — even revenue for Wizards and their associated businesses) and ignore the bad. We can just ignore itinerant players who go for the magical item, gold, or XP grab. Forget them — we’re having a good time, right? Right?
Right? Anyone see any of this logic? Anyone else see that D&D was meant to be played with rewards that are not-automatic? This game is not a video game. AL is not a structured hierarchy controlled by the Grand Dungeon Master, King of all of the Realms. How can a DM sit down and describe a room (one commenter in this thread said “a bar with a magical item hidden behind the bar” or something to that effect) but then just say, “Ok, the adventure today is over. Please spend your Treasure Points on the magical items found in Rooms A21 and B17. Everybody can take one of A21 and one of B17.”. What is this about? How is this good gaming? Why not just focus on the Hardcover and AL content and the socialization? Why all of these hardcoded rules that make up an ecosystem of calculation, manipulation, and whole unfairness — especially unfairness to DMs? I’ve never even heard of unfairness to DMs until now.
In any case — Summary: Lie, lie, lie, and lie more. Give your local store props and run your tables however you desire. If you get in trouble for not following the DM rules, game THAT system. Do what you can to keep your players happy, too — even if if means some run around with more than their share from a mistake YOU made (and that you alone are empowered to fix or make right in some manner), not a mistake Wizards made with their fancy Season 8 Leveling System, Gold-Leveling System, and Treasure Point System.
Like most of the other comments, I'm 40/60 with regards to the new system.
I can accept the new leveling system. It trades the normal XP leveling for something closer to milestone. Since AL does not need to be in a continuous line, or with the same DM, it would be very hard to know when a character has reached a "milestone". Instead, it just gauges by hours worked. Generally works out okay, but since everything is built around 4's, it means the games really need to be played in 4 hour chunks, otherwise it doesn't work out. For instance, one group I'm in can only schedule 3 hours at a time. So now we need to track half and third checkpoints.
This is even worse for treasure as you gain one per two hours (at least for the first and second tier). So for one 3 hour session I have 3 checkpoints and 1.5 treasure. Two sessions mean 6 checkpoints (so a level and a half) and 3 treasure (still can't quite even buy armor).
Treasure itself becomes worthless.
Gambling? You can only lose money, never win.
Ammunition? Hope you can make your starter 20 arrows last until you can level up to get more gp.
Rations? You got 10 to start but can't buy any more until your next level. Hope you are in good with someone that can cast goodberries.
Pickpocket? Sorry no one carries any items on them whatsoever.
Book collector? Sorry, that 1,000 year old tome is only good for a history check.
Enemy spellbook? Turns to dust upon their demise.
Scroll? Enemies can pick them up and use against the players, but when a player picks them up, poof, turns to dust.
That silvered holy symbol you found? Turn it over, it might be worth money. You'll need to find something else to fight the undead and the werewolves.
Fought your way through to the dragon horde? It's nothing but barrel full of IOU's and coupons you can redeem later for a bag of holding. But only AFTER you make it back to town and end the adventure.
I just don't see a way this can be made into something FUN for players. It's more of an MMO grind.
"Treasure checkpoints can be spent or saved for later; they don’t need to be declared as they’re awarded, but they may only be spent on those items available to the tier equal to that of the adventure in which they're earned (or the tier associated with the group's APL in the case of hardcover adventures). For example, checkpoints earned in a tier 4 adventures can be spent only on items available to tier 4 characters."
Badly written as this suggests I can only do tier 4 purchases with tier 4 points, but elsewhere it says tier 4 or below.
Under current written season 8 rules, I will no longer DM adventure league starting season 8. This is terrible. Note I am not saying I won't play or DM. Just have to do Homebrew.
So question on Check points and treasure check points.
Say I am tier 1 or 2 playing a hardback adventure, but my adventure nights are 3 hour sessions. Does this mean I will only gain 1 treasure point every night because we play an odd number of hours rather than an even?
Wouldn't it make more sense to get .5 every hour so that if our sessions are odd hours we don't get ripped off for the rigidity of every 2 hours?
Its already bad enough I cannot read the narrative that they are being paid 200gp each for the adventure which they cannot keep, but now I get to tell them, sorry we play 3 hours as such it means you only get 66% of your normal treasure points.
You realize this is only for those playing in adventure league and that DDB has nothing to do with these changes?
Yeah, I dunno why Gungadi would cancel an unrelated subscription unless they only play D&D via AL and will otherwise stop playing it altogether. I guess.
I think you'll need to put on your log sheet what you found. The module might have Scimitar of speed behind the bar but if the party never enters in the bar.
Well it also means that if a rogue uses sleight of hand to steal something, they get nothing since you cannot collect treasure except by treasure points and leveling. Most thieves skills go way down in value due to lack of incentive to use them. I'm a thief who is not allowed to steal, except from a treasure chest which can be opened by a hammer and reveal the lack of gold and maybe unlock some magic item.
Basically any skill which I could use to get money no longer gets money since we can only get money via leveling. Skill use is irrelevant to gaining treasure, it is only good for me leveling which gets a pitiful amount of treasure.
Gold is horrible, but you did mention that was bad.
I can use Herbalism kit + 25 gold (cost of creating a potion is half base cost) but I lose kit in process, so I make a potion of healing for 50G and save nothing in the cost.
I can scribe spells on a scroll after paying component cost and scribe costs, but I cannot afford it due to costs and lack of getting gold.
As a wizard buying components is really hard, and scribing spells is hard as well. To cast identify, I need to be 3rd level just to afford the component, and that assumes I did not scribe any spells. I cannot cast Secret Chest till 17 due to cost, but its a 4th level spell.
Clerics cannot afford to buy revivify components due to cost of 300 each cast, sure they would be able to afford one casting by 5th level, so lets hope nobody dies until then.
No more faction rez for new players. No more money to afford such costs. If I use my treasure points I am not allowed to use any tier 1 treasure points to purchase the level 5 spell needed to raise me, so I cannot even try to rez myself until 5th level, so all players who die before 5th must reroll, OR I could use all my future tier 2 points to pay for it and screw myself out of future treasure. If only revivify did not cost so much.
The gold jump from all tiers except 4 is about double previous tier. Tier 4 is 10 times previous levels, seems odd to have such a jump. I was killing dragons at 7th (tier 2), but apparently they don't hoard treasure any more.
Note to fix ALL of the above. Keep the item checkpoints, but let gold found be gold found. I now have a reason to be baited by gold for a trap. I now have a way to pay for everything. I now have reason to go after the treasure, because now it actually exists.
I totally get the item points to buy magic items, but the gold is rather breaking. Class wise and motivation.
It was my understanding that you never could pick pockets to get gold in AL. Certainly you can't steal from your fellow party members (no undermining rule) and DMs aren't permitted to give out more gold than an adventure lists. Given those restrictions, I'm not sure how you could pick pockets for gain.
I tend to agree with darkwonders that, outside of gold, the changes are different not bad. I think the changes to gold are unnecessarily punitive (and I think most players agree with me), but I'm vaguely interested in playing in a world where gold is valuable again. That's about as far to the bright side as I can look.
I've started a thread next door to brainstorm ways to make gold for those characters that really need it.
Then why are there sleight of hand checks to steal a key from a NPC to open a chest. The chest is valid target and one can open it with key or pick locks. But now if I pick that persons pocket to get the key, I get a key to open a chest which has no money. If I pick that lock on said chest, I get no money anymore. Why even bother to try?
Along the same lines, what would be the point of any gambling scenario? If I bet all my gold and lose, I'm out money. But if I bet all my gold and WIN, I get nothing. Games of chance have no pay off so why bother; roll 1d6--odd you win, even you lose, now move along.
I see now what you were referring to and I think you have a valid point that there are "greed challenges" that can be entirely avoided without any loss of reward.
You have a lot of valid points, but what about Tiny Hut is expensive? There's no cost mentioned in it...
This is actually incorrect. For the purpose of resurrection, you can buy spell scrolls to do so ignoring any tier restrictions. And if you don't have enough treasure checkpoints, you can actually go into treasure checkpoint debt. Until your treasure checkpoint balance is positive again, you can't spend treasure checkpoints for anything else.
Agreed.
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Sorry, meant Secret Chest (4th level) Spell component cost. 5000gp for the chest and 50gp for mini chest.
Sorry, I misread the part that you can mix tier treasure to but the rez scroll, but it still means I am spending a lot of treasure points for a rez
You mention treasure checkpoint debt but I don't see that anywhere in the guides.
If that is the case, what stops me at level 1 "buying" a +1 weapon? That's 8 points of debt that I'm sure to earn eventually. Probably by the time I'm ready to buy a Tier 2 magic item on credit.
I've only seen treasure point debt referred to in the context of purchasing spell casting services or spell scrolls to make your character playable again but not in a general context. I don't know whether they would allow expenditure of TP in advance to buy items. On the other hand, if you don't generally allow treasure point debt then a character will be level 5 by the time they have the 8 treasure points needed for most uncommon items.
e.g. True resurrection costs 12 TP. A scroll of raise dead or greater restoration would be 4 TP.
You cannot use TP debt to buy items. It is reserved only for resurrection services (at the cost of the spell scroll). It is mentioned in the ALDMG 8.0 on page 3 in the right column.
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This new system isn’t going to prevent treasure hunters. In fact, the first thing the system does is reward previous treasure hunters — especially ones who received items which are now banned from play. If you are a treasure hunter with a banned item, you can trade it in for 12 Treasure Points. How is that fair, especially for players who have no (or the least amount of) magical items, or for players who leveraged their faction, their gold, their skills, or other qualities to be overall-good characters by comparison?
A million reasons why this new system is broken have been pointed out. Treasure hunters will game the system — in fact, now there’s a map of how they go about doing that exactly: They put in hours for Treasure Points and Levels. Then they select all of the combinatorial they want, in the order they want, and to the degree that they want. It actually sounds boring, flat, ugly, and highly-uninteresting.
There are some simple solutions to this new system, and they resemble the current solutions. You lie to your game store. They lie to Wizards. Everyone is happy. If some players come along to your store and they say that you’re not following the AL rules, follow the rules just for them that day. Play along temporarily. If Wizards sends in store spies — good for them. I hope they do that. That way they’ll look that much more controlling and annoying than they already do.
If you get one, or even dozens, of players who want to treasure hunt and go crazy with whatever optimization that they fancy — let them. Different people have different goals — they expect different outcomes. That’s normal in gaming. Some are competitive. Some want collaboration. Some want a story. Some don’t want a story. Some want to cover every inch of their body in magical items and have a Bag of Holding full of magical items that they can dangle in front of other players who have none. Just let them. Work it into the game; work it into the story. Give people what they want.
For just — what I think to be obvious — reasons, Wizards don’t understand that AL is meant to be Open Play D&D. It’s meant to bring new players in to the fold while allowing veteran players a place to meet and play, weekly, or sometimes day-by day. With some of these hardcovers this makes a lot of sense. Then there’s the AL content — add-ons or adjuncts to the hardcovers. I honestly thought the whole point of AL for Wizards (and therefore stores and distributors — aka their middlemen) was to develop free content (now cheap DMSGuild) for players to explore alongside (because they play the hardcover at a home game) the main content (in order to sell it, sure, but the point was quid pro quo) — while socializing the game.
How are these new Season 8 rules socializing the game? What do these new rules have to do with the AL content? Instead, it all just feels like punishment for misdeeds that I’m not even aware of. Here’s a hint in life: Don’t present sticks in situations where carrots are fictional. In other words, concentrate on the good that is happening (content, sociocultural aspects, heck — even revenue for Wizards and their associated businesses) and ignore the bad. We can just ignore itinerant players who go for the magical item, gold, or XP grab. Forget them — we’re having a good time, right? Right?
Right? Anyone see any of this logic? Anyone else see that D&D was meant to be played with rewards that are not-automatic? This game is not a video game. AL is not a structured hierarchy controlled by the Grand Dungeon Master, King of all of the Realms. How can a DM sit down and describe a room (one commenter in this thread said “a bar with a magical item hidden behind the bar” or something to that effect) but then just say, “Ok, the adventure today is over. Please spend your Treasure Points on the magical items found in Rooms A21 and B17. Everybody can take one of A21 and one of B17.”. What is this about? How is this good gaming? Why not just focus on the Hardcover and AL content and the socialization? Why all of these hardcoded rules that make up an ecosystem of calculation, manipulation, and whole unfairness — especially unfairness to DMs? I’ve never even heard of unfairness to DMs until now.
In any case — Summary: Lie, lie, lie, and lie more. Give your local store props and run your tables however you desire. If you get in trouble for not following the DM rules, game THAT system. Do what you can to keep your players happy, too — even if if means some run around with more than their share from a mistake YOU made (and that you alone are empowered to fix or make right in some manner), not a mistake Wizards made with their fancy Season 8 Leveling System, Gold-Leveling System, and Treasure Point System.
Like most of the other comments, I'm 40/60 with regards to the new system.
I can accept the new leveling system. It trades the normal XP leveling for something closer to milestone. Since AL does not need to be in a continuous line, or with the same DM, it would be very hard to know when a character has reached a "milestone". Instead, it just gauges by hours worked. Generally works out okay, but since everything is built around 4's, it means the games really need to be played in 4 hour chunks, otherwise it doesn't work out. For instance, one group I'm in can only schedule 3 hours at a time. So now we need to track half and third checkpoints.
This is even worse for treasure as you gain one per two hours (at least for the first and second tier). So for one 3 hour session I have 3 checkpoints and 1.5 treasure. Two sessions mean 6 checkpoints (so a level and a half) and 3 treasure (still can't quite even buy armor).
Treasure itself becomes worthless.
I just don't see a way this can be made into something FUN for players. It's more of an MMO grind.
"Treasure checkpoints can be spent or saved for later; they don’t need to be declared as they’re awarded, but they may only be spent on those items available to the tier equal to that of the adventure in which they're earned (or the tier associated with the group's APL in the case of hardcover adventures). For example, checkpoints earned in a tier 4 adventures can be spent only on items available to tier 4 characters."
Badly written as this suggests I can only do tier 4 purchases with tier 4 points, but elsewhere it says tier 4 or below.
Under current written season 8 rules, I will no longer DM adventure league starting season 8. This is terrible. Note I am not saying I won't play or DM. Just have to do Homebrew.
So question on Check points and treasure check points.
Say I am tier 1 or 2 playing a hardback adventure, but my adventure nights are 3 hour sessions. Does this mean I will only gain 1 treasure point every night because we play an odd number of hours rather than an even?
Wouldn't it make more sense to get .5 every hour so that if our sessions are odd hours we don't get ripped off for the rigidity of every 2 hours?
Its already bad enough I cannot read the narrative that they are being paid 200gp each for the adventure which they cannot keep, but now I get to tell them, sorry we play 3 hours as such it means you only get 66% of your normal treasure points.
Hopefully I am reading that wrong.