Hopefully you already found a game. I play in Rockville (Game Wizards). I believe there is also a place in Silver spring that runs AL. However you should be able to find stuff a lot closer to you on warhorn.
I already have a home game that I play, but it's hard to get people together weekly because one of our players travels a lot. So, I was looking at potentially picking up some ADL actionto supplement.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
For me, AL replaces casual pickup games I used to have in college. I'm busy with work and family, so for me it's an opportunity to have some fun. It has its quirks, and there are some weak DMs out there, but for the thing it is... it's pretty great, IMO.
I have a job that requires me to travel a lot. I have AL characters that have been played in CA, AZ, CO, VA, GA, PA, MD, NC and Qatar. Adventurers League is Portable. This is it's strength. You can play as you can, and even missing a week should not disrupt the entire group.
While each individual table experience may vary, it is still D&D. In literally hundreds of sessions I have found the ratio of Great-to-Bad experiences has been favorable. Many sessions played with laughs and new friends and only one example of truly *bad* gaming. Most sessions are 6/7 of 10, and frankly that is good enough.
In regards to expectations, I don't know any Matt Mercers (a very high bar, indeed), so, I don't expect phenomenal voice acting, professional caliber game prep, or story lines developed specifically for my character. But I do get to find a LGS and get my game on, and I am very happy with what AL is, and what is has to offer.
A lot of grief is still in the air irt the Season 8 changes. While I don't particularly like what the AL administrators did (knee jerk fixes for problems that just created different problems) the tables I have been at are still D&D, and I still enjoy spending time with all my favorite nerds :)
GNOME
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"Untrained and undisciplined troops take heavy casualties; trained and disciplined troops inflict them."
AL has been worth it to me. I have been playing D&D since 1978 but I stopped around 2000. In just the past month I have dropped in on a number of AL games. The first one was a disappointment but still enjoyable, my expectations were higher. Later I discovered the DM was new to the game which explained my issues. But soon afterword I managed to get into a number of AL games that were wonderful. The AL scene in the greater Seattle region appears to pretty good. Out of the 4 DMs that I have seen running AL I would happily play with 3 of them any time. The organization here is pretty good so I am able to get on good DMs tables regularly.
It's because of a local AL that ive been able to play DnD again after 20 years.
I dont have 6-10 hour chunks of time free, i dont want to commit to a fortnightly campaign for 18 months, and i cant find a local group that need a player anyway.. now i play every week for four hours with different people using an advancement system i can self manage.. i love it!!!!!
I’m new to AL but a long time player of other organized play such as pathfinder soceity. People complaining about season 8 rules frankly don’t understand organized play. Prior to season 8, I didn’t play AL because the rules were horrible! You could sit at a random table at a con, finally find an item that was great for your character, but another random guy got it. Now you’re sol. That’s horrible design for organized play where you are meant to play with random people: There was also a ton of DM abuse / rampant cheating / purposefully bringing low lvl characters to tables with higher tier so they would get first pick of the loot. Season 8 offers plenty of character variety you just now have the freedom to gain the items you want (mostly you still have to “unlock” non evergreen items). Also, the point leveling/treasure system means an emphasis on ROLEplaying over murder hobos. This is how other successful organized play’s operate and I was surprised it took AL so long to catch on. The only issue is wizards / heavy armor users run into gold problems.
As for DM / players im surprised how many long time AL players/DMs don’t understand or disregard some of the rules. That said I eventually found a stellar DM and enjoy the option to do a hardcover campaign since that feels More like a home game.
IMHO AL is OK. It’s not good but it’s not bad. I go to a place with decent DMs and the tables are spread pretty far. I have played AL since the start of summer last year and in total gained about 20 levels in total with all of my characters and it can be pretty fun. There is some RP and quite a lot of combat and puzzle solving. I like AL sometimes but I would only do it if you can’t find a campaign. Started a joke campaign with friends about 6 weeks ago and I love it way more than AL. Try to find a campaign, but if you can’t, AL isn’t too bad.
edit: One more negative to AL is that I have a level 4 Bard and out of my year of playing that is the only Bare I’ve seen. AL is filled with Rogues, some monks, fighters, wizards, and occasionally your Cleric or paladin. I’ve seen a couple druids, a couple Rangers, and a warlock, but no bards, barbarians, usually no warlocks, and yeah.
IMHO AL is OK. It’s not good but it’s not bad. I go to a place with decent DMs and the tables are spread pretty far. I have played AL since the start of summer last year and in total gained about 20 levels in total with all of my characters and it can be pretty fun. There is some RP and quite a lot of combat and puzzle solving. I like AL sometimes but I would only do it if you can’t find a campaign. Started a joke campaign with friends about 6 weeks ago and I love it way more than AL. Try to find a campaign, but if you can’t, AL isn’t too bad.
edit: One more negative to AL is that I have a level 4 Bard and out of my year of playing that is the only Bare I’ve seen. AL is filled with Rogues, some monks, fighters, wizards, and occasionally your Cleric or paladin. I’ve seen a couple druids, a couple Rangers, and a warlock, but no bards, barbarians, usually no warlocks, and yeah.
Quick comment. The mix of characters played varies a lot. At the local shop where I play you can find folks playing every class. It sometimes seems to go in cycles a bit where one or another are a bit more popular from time to time. Also, since AL tables tend towards random with sometimes different players possibly playing different characters in different tiers you can get a wide mix of party composition so it can be useful to have a character that can do a bit of several things rather than being hyper-specialized (though hyper-specialized can work really well in the right circumstances).
Some examples. I played in a tier 2 game where I was one of four bards at the table. We role played we were a band and had some fun with it. However, the number of vicious mockerys being cast wasn't that effective at taking down opponents ... though I have never heard opponents so often insulted :). In another tier 3 game I played, we had two barbarians (characters were brothers) both with GWM and a mix of fighter and barbarian levels. They were outstanding at melee combat. They couldn't do much against the dragon flying around since their ranged damage wasn't good. Luckily we had a character with wall of force who could lock the dragon down while we dealt with the rest. I've also been in games with as many as three warlocks or warlock multi-class combinations (sorcerer/warlock, rogue/warlock, pure warlock). Rangers or ranger/rogues can be quite good. I think I have probably seen clerics the least but I think that may be due to the preconceived idea that the cleric fills a healing role which can be true but they do a lot more.
In any case, AL tends to be a situation of play what you want to play and leave it to the DM to adjudicate. The randomness is probably one of the reasons why every character can start a season 8 module with a free temporary healing potion that only lasts the session. This helps in situations where the party might be light on healing.
AL parties are heavily influenced by local meta. Some communities have a culture weighted towards RP heavy, others are weighted towards 'powergaming' (I don't like using that phrase because of the pejorative nature of it...but it fits best for what I mean).
I am involved with an active AL group and we have 2 Barbs, 3 Bards, 3 Clerics, 2 Druids, 4 Fighters, 2 Monks, 3 Paladins, 1 Ranger, 3 Rogues, 1 Sorc, 2 Warlocks, and No Wizards. Every group is different :)
Another reason you don't see what may be understood as 'balanced parties' is the random nature of the tables: you don't know if someone else is going to have something you think is required for success so you bring a character that is well suited to a role you prefer. If many folks prefer that role, you see a lot of repetition while other roles are left in the dust. (One consistent thing I see is that many folks like to play damage dealers... Paladins and Rogues...)
FWIW, one of my favorite characters to play is a Warlock(Celestial/Tome)/Bard(Lore) that acts as the party's sage and general support :)
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"Untrained and undisciplined troops take heavy casualties; trained and disciplined troops inflict them."
I really love the AL community and being able to play sessions that don't require a huge commitment. When 5E started, I helped rekindle the RPG community at our LFGS and the people I met have helped improve my life. We crafted amazing stories together, even if they only stayed for one night. I had to take a break to finish my college degree, and it was amazing to be able to hand off the reigns to others who's passion for the game grew with AL games. I came back finally recently and they had increased the number of tables being played on and inspired new DMs to help run games!
For all the reasons previously stated, I wholeheartedly agree that AL is totally worth it. And I'm also very excited to see how DnDBeyond is going to support AL character sheets (and hopefully log sheets too).
I don't have many issues with the Season 8 rules so far, it's just a different way of thinking. I do like how the lower levels can last a little longer, and how the higher levels don't seem as daunting to obtain with the 'per hours played'.
The biggest issue we're facing at our shop is that our game room isn't enough. We have four tables now, one of which had to go out to the front main area where the Magic card players are. So if there's a magic event going on, they're SOL for a table and it's already pretty loud in the back area. We're potentially having to see if people are willing to play on a different night when the back area isn't so full. I feel AL would be more important to the shop if it was able to provide more income for them, but magic and other TCG's have always been their bread & butter. I try to advertise at the beginning of our sessions to buy from the shop, but RPG players just don't buy as much.
Up to recently I had a pretty good at-home weekly session in which I was the DM. Then I moved to a place where I basically don't know anybody, so I decided to give AL a shot. It wasn't horrible, but the DM did a really bad job (in my opinion), to the point where I didn't feel like coming back. He seemed to get irritated when our group couldn't figure out the puzzles in the dungeon, and would even throw in sarcastic quips when we made mistakes. He did some voices for different NPCs, but other than that, was pretty boring. No interesting descriptions of locations, no exciting narration of combat, no pacing or tension, all very stale.
I'm in a big city now, where AL is held at a game shop with a pretty big area for games. There were five or six tables, each with seven or eight players and a DM. It was so loud that I had trouble hearing the DM and other players. They have character sheets for anyone who wants to show up for the first time (my table had three new people including me, and four regulars). However, even the regulars didn't seem to know each other, leading me to the conclusion that there is a pretty large group of players who attend.
Disregarding the bad DM experience, my main concerns are just how AL works in general. For example, the way that you level up and earn loot doesn't appeal to me very much. And the main thing I'm not sure about is the actual role-playing element. The way AL is set up seems like it would make it difficult to develop a character long-term, with connections to other characters, a compelling "story", etc.
I could probably deal with an occasional bad DM, loud environment, and rotating player group. But if it's essentially a weekly dungeon crawl where you basically try to save up to unlock and buy loot, that seems kind of lame to me.
Any long-time AL players have any insight to share on this? Am I expecting too much? Or do I just misunderstand how it works?
I read this and felt to really respond to this...
First off, AL will NEVER give you what you may be looking for in a home game...
There are reasons for this:
1. You are 1 of literally 1,000s of players that play AL
2. You will never have the kind of relationship with a DM that you would have in a home game because every session you play in AL will possibly be a new DM
3. You are playing DnD in basically 2 or 4 hour chunks of time per session then you are off to your next scheduled game which may or may not be related to the session you just played.
I can keep going but I am hoping you get the idea, you will not get any story continuity in AL in relation with your character that you are playing..... However, you could do this...
A. Continue to go to your local game store and become a regular there
B. Develop a reputation that your are a good player and cool person to be around - very important because if you are horrible, no one will want to play with you
C. Get to know the other players and find out which players have similar outlooks to the game as you do (i.e. heavy roleplay, mechanics driven, domination, etc.)
D. Start developing your own story canon among yourselves.... each play session that your group plays because another opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the characters. Each event become stories within stories... the combats that come down to the last die roll, the times when the group need an absolute natural 20 and got it, the times when a teammate died, all that and more further enrichens the roleplay and your story. Basically this is where you will get your story immersion fix.
True Secret, your group might be playing an adventure that dictates you have to do A, B and C but you don't have to do A, B, and C....if your group is having genuine fun doing something that is in alignment to group canon and your off script a bit, I guarantee your DM will roll with it and gently steer you back to where the group needs to be at the end of the session 95 times out of 100. Most DMs will not want to kill the buzz because seeing you guys having fun, they will want to have fun too because that is what the game is all about.
Another great aspect of AL is the opportunity to play a high level character.... dont know the numerous times I hear "Our home group was great but so and so moved away and it broke down right when we got to level X" X is usually a level lower than 10. You actually get to play and have in possession very awesome items... Items people say that are overpowered because more than likely never got a chance to play with those items themselves. People are normally afraid of what they have not experienced.
Lastly, AL does have its issues, all public gaming organizations do that I will not get into here but I do believe AL can deliver on what I think you are looking in a game. It takes more work to get to that sweet spot but once you are there a lot of fun is to be had.
My 2 cents from an experience AL player.... been playing AL from the beginning
Up to recently I had a pretty good at-home weekly session in which I was the DM. Then I moved to a place where I basically don't know anybody, so I decided to give AL a shot. It wasn't horrible, but the DM did a really bad job (in my opinion), to the point where I didn't feel like coming back. He seemed to get irritated when our group couldn't figure out the puzzles in the dungeon, and would even throw in sarcastic quips when we made mistakes. He did some voices for different NPCs, but other than that, was pretty boring. No interesting descriptions of locations, no exciting narration of combat, no pacing or tension, all very stale.
I'm in a big city now, where AL is held at a game shop with a pretty big area for games. There were five or six tables, each with seven or eight players and a DM. It was so loud that I had trouble hearing the DM and other players. They have character sheets for anyone who wants to show up for the first time (my table had three new people including me, and four regulars). However, even the regulars didn't seem to know each other, leading me to the conclusion that there is a pretty large group of players who attend.
Disregarding the bad DM experience, my main concerns are just how AL works in general. For example, the way that you level up and earn loot doesn't appeal to me very much. And the main thing I'm not sure about is the actual role-playing element. The way AL is set up seems like it would make it difficult to develop a character long-term, with connections to other characters, a compelling "story", etc.
I could probably deal with an occasional bad DM, loud environment, and rotating player group. But if it's essentially a weekly dungeon crawl where you basically try to save up to unlock and buy loot, that seems kind of lame to me.
Any long-time AL players have any insight to share on this? Am I expecting too much? Or do I just misunderstand how it works?
I read this and felt to really respond to this...
First off, AL will NEVER give you what you may be looking for in a home game...
There are reasons for this:
1. You are 1 of literally 1,000s of players that play AL
2. You will never have the kind of relationship with a DM that you would have in a home game because every session you play in AL will possibly be a new DM
3. You are playing DnD in basically 2 or 4 hour chunks of time per session then you are off to your next scheduled game which may or may not be related to the session you just played.
I can keep going but I am hoping you get the idea, you will not get any story continuity in AL in relation with your character that you are playing..... However, you could do this...
A. Continue to go to your local game store and become a regular there
B. Develop a reputation that your are a good player and cool person to be around - very important because if you are horrible, no one will want to play with you
C. Get to know the other players and find out which players have similar outlooks to the game as you do (i.e. heavy roleplay, mechanics driven, domination, etc.)
D. Start developing your own story canon among yourselves.... each play session that your group plays because another opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the characters. Each event become stories within stories... the combats that come down to the last die roll, the times when the group need an absolute natural 20 and got it, the times when a teammate died, all that and more further enrichens the roleplay and your story. Basically this is where you will get your story immersion fix.
True Secret, your group might be playing an adventure that dictates you have to do A, B and C but you don't have to do A, B, and C....if your group is having genuine fun doing something that is in alignment to group canon and your off script a bit, I guarantee your DM will roll with it and gently steer you back to where the group needs to be at the end of the session 95 times out of 100. Most DMs will not want to kill the buzz because seeing you guys having fun, they will want to have fun too because that is what the game is all about.
Another great aspect of AL is the opportunity to play a high level character.... dont know the numerous times I hear "Our home group was great but so and so moved away and it broke down right when we got to level X" X is usually a level lower than 10. You actually get to play and have in possession very awesome items... Items people say that are overpowered because more than likely never got a chance to play with those items themselves. People are normally afraid of what they have not experienced.
Lastly, AL does have its issues, all public gaming organizations do that I will not get into here but I do believe AL can deliver on what I think you are looking in a game. It takes more work to get to that sweet spot but once you are there a lot of fun is to be had.
My 2 cents from an experience AL player.... been playing AL from the beginning
I just wanted to add that it is quite possible to get very close to the feeling of a home game in AL under the right circumstances.
1) You play at a local game store and there are regular folks that you can get to know and play with.
2) A DM is willing to run one of the hardcover adventures in consecutive sessions (weekly/biweekly - it doesn't really matter)
3) Most of the same folks sign up each week bringing the same character.
The feel of this type of AL experience is very similar to playing a home game since the hardcovers have a lot of leeway in running them. I've run through Tomb of Annihilation, Dragon Heist and recently started Dungeon of the Mad Mage this way and it can be a lot of fun. In the ToA campaign (which took over a year and a half) we had a house rule that you couldn't bring in magic items that you had traded or purchased outside of the module (like season unlocks) so that we could keep the campaign reasonably balanced. It was voluntary and all the players went along with it but otherwise the entire campaign was played using AL characters and rules.
I had a bad experience with a AL DM when I was fighting cancer. I am diabetic and my doctor put me on a constant glucose monitor and it would alarm if I needed to take action. During an AL game it alarmed and the DM got mad. I left and have never been back. Since that time I have only played in non organized play.
Trying to get back into the game after a 25-year lapse. Seeing the big cultural shifts in the scene has been very exciting, and AL has seemed like a good way to restart.
I saw a comment that the Seattle AL scene was pretty good -- but where and when? MOX Bellevue seems WH and MTG focussed and has no parking, Uncle's seems to do its own thing, haven't been to MOX Seattle (I'm in Issaquah.. getting into Seattle is a shlep, especially at those mid-week-start-at-evening-commute-hell times).
Re voice acting/Mercer-ing: He's a professional voice actor -- pretty much all of CR is -- and it's what they're hired to do. The vast majority of us aren't, however, and *cough* probably shouldn't be, and we should instead focus on being engaged and helping others tell a good story in our own style rather than the style YouTubers seem to want.
IMO of course. The best games I had back in the day (1991-1993, Shadowrun, ADD2, Rifts) had no acting, but a lot of collaboration. It was fun, which is what a game should be. Even though I chronically rolled 1s, it was fun: I kept a spare gnome to absorb those fails.
I had a bad experience with a AL DM when I was fighting cancer. I am diabetic and my doctor put me on a constant glucose monitor and it would alarm if I needed to take action. During an AL game it alarmed and the DM got mad. I left and have never been back. Since that time I have only played in non organized play.
Wow... just wow. I'm truly sorry that you had that experience. I can assure you that a DM reacting that way is because they are a terrible human being, not because of anything you did. If you had the interest in playing an AL game, I hope you'll give it another chance sometime. People > play. Always.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Just to revisit this topic since I started the thread, I never did go back to AL. I eventually used Meetup.com to connect with a local group that was looking for players. I have been with that group for months now, and couldn't be happier.
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Hopefully you already found a game. I play in Rockville (Game Wizards). I believe there is also a place in Silver spring that runs AL. However you should be able to find stuff a lot closer to you on warhorn.
I already have a home game that I play, but it's hard to get people together weekly because one of our players travels a lot. So, I was looking at potentially picking up some ADL actionto supplement.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
For me, AL replaces casual pickup games I used to have in college. I'm busy with work and family, so for me it's an opportunity to have some fun. It has its quirks, and there are some weak DMs out there, but for the thing it is... it's pretty great, IMO.
AL is D&D on the Go.
I have a job that requires me to travel a lot. I have AL characters that have been played in CA, AZ, CO, VA, GA, PA, MD, NC and Qatar. Adventurers League is Portable. This is it's strength. You can play as you can, and even missing a week should not disrupt the entire group.
While each individual table experience may vary, it is still D&D. In literally hundreds of sessions I have found the ratio of Great-to-Bad experiences has been favorable. Many sessions played with laughs and new friends and only one example of truly *bad* gaming. Most sessions are 6/7 of 10, and frankly that is good enough.
In regards to expectations, I don't know any Matt Mercers (a very high bar, indeed), so, I don't expect phenomenal voice acting, professional caliber game prep, or story lines developed specifically for my character. But I do get to find a LGS and get my game on, and I am very happy with what AL is, and what is has to offer.
A lot of grief is still in the air irt the Season 8 changes. While I don't particularly like what the AL administrators did (knee jerk fixes for problems that just created different problems) the tables I have been at are still D&D, and I still enjoy spending time with all my favorite nerds :)
GNOME
"Untrained and undisciplined troops take heavy casualties; trained and disciplined troops inflict them."
- BG Jack Rogers, USA
AL has been worth it to me. I have been playing D&D since 1978 but I stopped around 2000. In just the past month I have dropped in on a number of AL games. The first one was a disappointment but still enjoyable, my expectations were higher. Later I discovered the DM was new to the game which explained my issues. But soon afterword I managed to get into a number of AL games that were wonderful. The AL scene in the greater Seattle region appears to pretty good. Out of the 4 DMs that I have seen running AL I would happily play with 3 of them any time. The organization here is pretty good so I am able to get on good DMs tables regularly.
It's because of a local AL that ive been able to play DnD again after 20 years.
I dont have 6-10 hour chunks of time free, i dont want to commit to a fortnightly campaign for 18 months, and i cant find a local group that need a player anyway.. now i play every week for four hours with different people using an advancement system i can self manage.. i love it!!!!!
I’m new to AL but a long time player of other organized play such as pathfinder soceity. People complaining about season 8 rules frankly don’t understand organized play. Prior to season 8, I didn’t play AL because the rules were horrible! You could sit at a random table at a con, finally find an item that was great for your character, but another random guy got it. Now you’re sol. That’s horrible design for organized play where you are meant to play with random people: There was also a ton of DM abuse / rampant cheating / purposefully bringing low lvl characters to tables with higher tier so they would get first pick of the loot. Season 8 offers plenty of character variety you just now have the freedom to gain the items you want (mostly you still have to “unlock” non evergreen items). Also, the point leveling/treasure system means an emphasis on ROLEplaying over murder hobos. This is how other successful organized play’s operate and I was surprised it took AL so long to catch on. The only issue is wizards / heavy armor users run into gold problems.
As for DM / players im surprised how many long time AL players/DMs don’t understand or disregard some of the rules. That said I eventually found a stellar DM and enjoy the option to do a hardcover campaign since that feels More like a home game.
No one can stop the Murder Hobos. :D
Except that now they are usually ROLE-PLAYING Murder Hobos rather than META-GAMING Murder Hobos :)
IMHO AL is OK. It’s not good but it’s not bad. I go to a place with decent DMs and the tables are spread pretty far. I have played AL since the start of summer last year and in total gained about 20 levels in total with all of my characters and it can be pretty fun. There is some RP and quite a lot of combat and puzzle solving. I like AL sometimes but I would only do it if you can’t find a campaign. Started a joke campaign with friends about 6 weeks ago and I love it way more than AL. Try to find a campaign, but if you can’t, AL isn’t too bad.
edit: One more negative to AL is that I have a level 4 Bard and out of my year of playing that is the only Bare I’ve seen. AL is filled with Rogues, some monks, fighters, wizards, and occasionally your Cleric or paladin. I’ve seen a couple druids, a couple Rangers, and a warlock, but no bards, barbarians, usually no warlocks, and yeah.
Quick comment. The mix of characters played varies a lot. At the local shop where I play you can find folks playing every class. It sometimes seems to go in cycles a bit where one or another are a bit more popular from time to time. Also, since AL tables tend towards random with sometimes different players possibly playing different characters in different tiers you can get a wide mix of party composition so it can be useful to have a character that can do a bit of several things rather than being hyper-specialized (though hyper-specialized can work really well in the right circumstances).
Some examples. I played in a tier 2 game where I was one of four bards at the table. We role played we were a band and had some fun with it. However, the number of vicious mockerys being cast wasn't that effective at taking down opponents ... though I have never heard opponents so often insulted :). In another tier 3 game I played, we had two barbarians (characters were brothers) both with GWM and a mix of fighter and barbarian levels. They were outstanding at melee combat. They couldn't do much against the dragon flying around since their ranged damage wasn't good. Luckily we had a character with wall of force who could lock the dragon down while we dealt with the rest. I've also been in games with as many as three warlocks or warlock multi-class combinations (sorcerer/warlock, rogue/warlock, pure warlock). Rangers or ranger/rogues can be quite good. I think I have probably seen clerics the least but I think that may be due to the preconceived idea that the cleric fills a healing role which can be true but they do a lot more.
In any case, AL tends to be a situation of play what you want to play and leave it to the DM to adjudicate. The randomness is probably one of the reasons why every character can start a season 8 module with a free temporary healing potion that only lasts the session. This helps in situations where the party might be light on healing.
Daft,
AL parties are heavily influenced by local meta. Some communities have a culture weighted towards RP heavy, others are weighted towards 'powergaming' (I don't like using that phrase because of the pejorative nature of it...but it fits best for what I mean).
I am involved with an active AL group and we have 2 Barbs, 3 Bards, 3 Clerics, 2 Druids, 4 Fighters, 2 Monks, 3 Paladins, 1 Ranger, 3 Rogues, 1 Sorc, 2 Warlocks, and No Wizards. Every group is different :)
Another reason you don't see what may be understood as 'balanced parties' is the random nature of the tables: you don't know if someone else is going to have something you think is required for success so you bring a character that is well suited to a role you prefer. If many folks prefer that role, you see a lot of repetition while other roles are left in the dust. (One consistent thing I see is that many folks like to play damage dealers... Paladins and Rogues...)
FWIW, one of my favorite characters to play is a Warlock(Celestial/Tome)/Bard(Lore) that acts as the party's sage and general support :)
"Untrained and undisciplined troops take heavy casualties; trained and disciplined troops inflict them."
- BG Jack Rogers, USA
It will be very interesting to see stats for AL characters when they turn on the AL legal feature here on DDB.
I really love the AL community and being able to play sessions that don't require a huge commitment. When 5E started, I helped rekindle the RPG community at our LFGS and the people I met have helped improve my life. We crafted amazing stories together, even if they only stayed for one night. I had to take a break to finish my college degree, and it was amazing to be able to hand off the reigns to others who's passion for the game grew with AL games. I came back finally recently and they had increased the number of tables being played on and inspired new DMs to help run games!
For all the reasons previously stated, I wholeheartedly agree that AL is totally worth it. And I'm also very excited to see how DnDBeyond is going to support AL character sheets (and hopefully log sheets too).
I don't have many issues with the Season 8 rules so far, it's just a different way of thinking. I do like how the lower levels can last a little longer, and how the higher levels don't seem as daunting to obtain with the 'per hours played'.
The biggest issue we're facing at our shop is that our game room isn't enough. We have four tables now, one of which had to go out to the front main area where the Magic card players are. So if there's a magic event going on, they're SOL for a table and it's already pretty loud in the back area. We're potentially having to see if people are willing to play on a different night when the back area isn't so full. I feel AL would be more important to the shop if it was able to provide more income for them, but magic and other TCG's have always been their bread & butter. I try to advertise at the beginning of our sessions to buy from the shop, but RPG players just don't buy as much.
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
I read this and felt to really respond to this...
First off, AL will NEVER give you what you may be looking for in a home game...
There are reasons for this:
1. You are 1 of literally 1,000s of players that play AL
2. You will never have the kind of relationship with a DM that you would have in a home game because every session you play in AL will possibly be a new DM
3. You are playing DnD in basically 2 or 4 hour chunks of time per session then you are off to your next scheduled game which may or may not be related to the session you just played.
I can keep going but I am hoping you get the idea, you will not get any story continuity in AL in relation with your character that you are playing..... However, you could do this...
A. Continue to go to your local game store and become a regular there
B. Develop a reputation that your are a good player and cool person to be around - very important because if you are horrible, no one will want to play with you
C. Get to know the other players and find out which players have similar outlooks to the game as you do (i.e. heavy roleplay, mechanics driven, domination, etc.)
D. Start developing your own story canon among yourselves.... each play session that your group plays because another opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the characters. Each event become stories within stories... the combats that come down to the last die roll, the times when the group need an absolute natural 20 and got it, the times when a teammate died, all that and more further enrichens the roleplay and your story. Basically this is where you will get your story immersion fix.
True Secret, your group might be playing an adventure that dictates you have to do A, B and C but you don't have to do A, B, and C....if your group is having genuine fun doing something that is in alignment to group canon and your off script a bit, I guarantee your DM will roll with it and gently steer you back to where the group needs to be at the end of the session 95 times out of 100. Most DMs will not want to kill the buzz because seeing you guys having fun, they will want to have fun too because that is what the game is all about.
Another great aspect of AL is the opportunity to play a high level character.... dont know the numerous times I hear "Our home group was great but so and so moved away and it broke down right when we got to level X" X is usually a level lower than 10. You actually get to play and have in possession very awesome items... Items people say that are overpowered because more than likely never got a chance to play with those items themselves. People are normally afraid of what they have not experienced.
Lastly, AL does have its issues, all public gaming organizations do that I will not get into here but I do believe AL can deliver on what I think you are looking in a game. It takes more work to get to that sweet spot but once you are there a lot of fun is to be had.
My 2 cents from an experience AL player.... been playing AL from the beginning
I just wanted to add that it is quite possible to get very close to the feeling of a home game in AL under the right circumstances.
1) You play at a local game store and there are regular folks that you can get to know and play with.
2) A DM is willing to run one of the hardcover adventures in consecutive sessions (weekly/biweekly - it doesn't really matter)
3) Most of the same folks sign up each week bringing the same character.
The feel of this type of AL experience is very similar to playing a home game since the hardcovers have a lot of leeway in running them. I've run through Tomb of Annihilation, Dragon Heist and recently started Dungeon of the Mad Mage this way and it can be a lot of fun. In the ToA campaign (which took over a year and a half) we had a house rule that you couldn't bring in magic items that you had traded or purchased outside of the module (like season unlocks) so that we could keep the campaign reasonably balanced. It was voluntary and all the players went along with it but otherwise the entire campaign was played using AL characters and rules.
I had a bad experience with a AL DM when I was fighting cancer. I am diabetic and my doctor put me on a constant glucose monitor and it would alarm if I needed to take action. During an AL game it alarmed and the DM got mad. I left and have never been back. Since that time I have only played in non organized play.
Trying to get back into the game after a 25-year lapse. Seeing the big cultural shifts in the scene has been very exciting, and AL has seemed like a good way to restart.
I saw a comment that the Seattle AL scene was pretty good -- but where and when? MOX Bellevue seems WH and MTG focussed and has no parking, Uncle's seems to do its own thing, haven't been to MOX Seattle (I'm in Issaquah.. getting into Seattle is a shlep, especially at those mid-week-start-at-evening-commute-hell times).
Re voice acting/Mercer-ing: He's a professional voice actor -- pretty much all of CR is -- and it's what they're hired to do. The vast majority of us aren't, however, and *cough* probably shouldn't be, and we should instead focus on being engaged and helping others tell a good story in our own style rather than the style YouTubers seem to want.
IMO of course. The best games I had back in the day (1991-1993, Shadowrun, ADD2, Rifts) had no acting, but a lot of collaboration. It was fun, which is what a game should be. Even though I chronically rolled 1s, it was fun: I kept a spare gnome to absorb those fails.
Wow... just wow. I'm truly sorry that you had that experience. I can assure you that a DM reacting that way is because they are a terrible human being, not because of anything you did. If you had the interest in playing an AL game, I hope you'll give it another chance sometime. People > play. Always.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Just to revisit this topic since I started the thread, I never did go back to AL. I eventually used Meetup.com to connect with a local group that was looking for players. I have been with that group for months now, and couldn't be happier.