I have been playing an AL campaign for awhile now with some coworkers, and we recently reached level 11. When Waterdeep Heist came out, we decided to roll new characters to experience the mod together. During that process, we picked up a new player to add to our group.
The discussion came up today about when this mod is over, if we switch back to our "main" campaign with our level 11 characters how would we include our new player? If he makes a new character would he just start at level 11 to be at the same level as the rest of us? Are there any guidelines to doing something like that we should follow, or just say screw it and do whatever makes us happy?
More that second one. AL guidelines are more useful for people who are either playing in a public setting like a game store or at a convention, and are meant to keep everyone pretty much within the same level of functionality for ease of play. Among a friend group, there is no reason you can't just have your new player make a level 11 character and join the game.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
If you are running AL, you need to level organically. Having said that, the Sn8 [Tier 2] Mods are pretty fun! Vampire hunts and then Murder Mystery!
If you choose to just have the new player(s) make an 11th level PC, the game is no longer AL legal. While this is perfectly fine, the characters in the game are no longer legitimately allowed to do other AL games. :)
If you are enjoying the game you could just continue into the tier 2 levels from Dungeon of the Mad Mage until your new player reaches tier 3.
Alternatively, the newer player could start playing their tier 2 at a local gamestore or in another online game until they reach tier 3 at which point they could join with your other characters.
Unfortunately, if you want the game to remain AL legal, you can't just let him create a level 11 character and start in tier 3. It then isn't AL, it is the same as any homebrew game. On the other hand, if you aren't planning on playing the characters anywhere else or trading magic items then it may not be important if the characters remain AL legal.
Can you play a prerolled surrogate character that they dont get to keep?
Unfortunately not in an AL legal game as far as I know. All the players have to be playing properly leveled AL legal characters. DMPCs aren't permitted and although the DM is allowed a lot of leeway when running a module, creating an NPC and handing it to someone at the table to run during the adventure would tend to be outside the scope of what one might reasonably expect (in my opionion).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I have been playing an AL campaign for awhile now with some coworkers, and we recently reached level 11. When Waterdeep Heist came out, we decided to roll new characters to experience the mod together. During that process, we picked up a new player to add to our group.
The discussion came up today about when this mod is over, if we switch back to our "main" campaign with our level 11 characters how would we include our new player? If he makes a new character would he just start at level 11 to be at the same level as the rest of us? Are there any guidelines to doing something like that we should follow, or just say screw it and do whatever makes us happy?
More that second one. AL guidelines are more useful for people who are either playing in a public setting like a game store or at a convention, and are meant to keep everyone pretty much within the same level of functionality for ease of play. Among a friend group, there is no reason you can't just have your new player make a level 11 character and join the game.
If you are running AL, you need to level organically. Having said that, the Sn8 [Tier 2] Mods are pretty fun! Vampire hunts and then Murder Mystery!
If you choose to just have the new player(s) make an 11th level PC, the game is no longer AL legal. While this is perfectly fine, the characters in the game are no longer legitimately allowed to do other AL games. :)
"Untrained and undisciplined troops take heavy casualties; trained and disciplined troops inflict them."
- BG Jack Rogers, USA
If you are enjoying the game you could just continue into the tier 2 levels from Dungeon of the Mad Mage until your new player reaches tier 3.
Alternatively, the newer player could start playing their tier 2 at a local gamestore or in another online game until they reach tier 3 at which point they could join with your other characters.
Unfortunately, if you want the game to remain AL legal, you can't just let him create a level 11 character and start in tier 3. It then isn't AL, it is the same as any homebrew game. On the other hand, if you aren't planning on playing the characters anywhere else or trading magic items then it may not be important if the characters remain AL legal.
Can you play a prerolled surrogate character that they dont get to keep?
Unfortunately not in an AL legal game as far as I know. All the players have to be playing properly leveled AL legal characters. DMPCs aren't permitted and although the DM is allowed a lot of leeway when running a module, creating an NPC and handing it to someone at the table to run during the adventure would tend to be outside the scope of what one might reasonably expect (in my opionion).