Bastions are available for player use. All characters starting at level 5 may begin to build a Bastion and begin with one Cramped and one Roomy facility. You must have a visual representation of their Bastion’s space–a Bastion map showing the use of floor space. This can be as simple or detailed as you desire but must clearly show where basic and special facilities are located, as well as an easily referenceable scale. A Bastion’s facility costs to build or enlarge a space in GP must be paid. You have 20 times your character level in days to add basic facilities or enlarge them when you first decide to build a Bastion (at or after level 5). Special facilities are gained at the character levels specified in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide and are chosen by you at the time your character reaches the required level.
You may rebuild one Bastion facility (replacing an existing facility with a new one) at the end of a session during the Bastion turn, provided you adhere to all requirements on special facilities and pay any increased GP and time costs. If the rebuilt facility requires more time than currently available, you must wait until the time cost is paid before using the facility. Facilities with orders that have yet to be fully resolved may not be rebuilt.
At the end of each session, you are given a Bastion turn for your character participating in the adventure. Bastion turns must be resolved by the end of the session, with the DM adjudicating any rolls made from a Bastion order. For Adventurers League play, a specific character may not issue the same Bastion order two turns in a row.
Time Between Bastion Turns
Each time you take a Bastion turn, 10 days is assumed to have passed since the last Bastion turn. You can use this time to calculate how long it takes for certain orders to resolve, and to determine how long it’s been since you initiated adding or enlarging a basic facility.
I'm not saying your view is invalid, but I don't quite understand it. It's possible the failing is completely on my end and I'm missing something in the Bastion rules that you have seen, so if you could please explain it to me it would be appreciated.
It doesn't seem to me like the AL requirements are particularly burdensome. You adjudicate a roll or two if they performed the Maintain order, which is no different from the dozens of other rolls that are made when you DM the adventure. A few of the special facilities might have their own rolls (e.g. The Observatory's Empower: Eldritch Discovery order). You aren't required to track their Bastion or record anything any more than you are required to track or record their character sheet.
There are a handful of options such as Research: Information Gathering for the Pub facility that require slightly more input on the part of the DM, but really not much more than if the player said 'I want to try to establish contact with the local thieves guild to see if they have any information about the current adventure.
Again, this is as I see it. If I'm missing something, please let me know. I'm trying to understand your complaints with the issue.
They are adding to work load at the end of the session. Why should something in the DMG except magic items be available to players? It is an instant reward for surviving to fifth level or getting to fifth level. I think the system is stupid. Think 3 minutes to check paper work and roll. Times how many players.
Well, I think even 3 minutes per player is way higher than it will be, but I appreciate that you don't want to be forced into supporting a system you don't like. Are you running your AL sessions with other DMs in an organized setting? Maybe you could offload those tasks to one of them at the end?
I really don't think Bastions will even be a big deal. Maybe one or two players, at most. Overall it is a concept that they put way too much time and page count into.
So the official rules for Bastions in AL are out now and on the DM side they don't seem overly onerous.
The advice is not that the turns are planned in advance. That seems to be advice and not a rule.
Maintain orders automatically return 'All is Well'.
There are a handful of facilities that require a roll when they are used. Gambling Hall, Meditation Chamber, Teleportation Circle, and Trophy Room have the potential for one or two rolls when they are used. It looks like you are talking about as much dice rolling as when the rogue decides to try and swipe a bottle of wine from the tavern.
Most of the other facilities are either pretty much automatic (the DM is just a witness) or unlikely to impact single evening games (players won't really know what to research). For a connected series of adventures some of those other facilities might come into play, but the DM is pretty much in the same position as if the player said 'I want to check out the bars in town and see if anyone can tell me about X.' So, again, not really any additional work, just something that the DM was probably already handling in a slightly different form.
Ran a Bastion turn as a player for the first time after an AL game yesterday (and I often DM as well).
That character's bastion has a meditation chamber. I had the turn planned out (as well as a map of the bastion with location and scale in case the DM wanted to see it), let the DM know I was going to do a roll (1d6 x 2, rerolling duplicates), and then recorded those results, as well as the other orders that didn't require a roll.
That was it, nothing for the DM to do, except watch two dice rolls in Roll20, which I was then responsible for recording.
While I can see there will be players who have questions about things, aside from answering a question about a facility, there's nothing for the DM to do, but that's no different than any other rules question a player may have for a DM.
The bastion system is designed to be separate from the GM's campaign Too separate for my tastes. Its a waste of 20 pages that could have been used for other parts of the DMG. It really does nothing for giving advice on how to have a stronghold that fits into the GM's world. I get that they didn't want to make players do a bunch of bookkeeping but this really gives no value and does not cover any typical problems that I have seen about players wanting a home base and really seems to create new ones.
Seems you forgot the oldest and most fundamental rule of D&D, we're all here to have fun, if something doesn't work for you, don't use it. Unless you have specific and quantifiable criticism this post is simple whining.
Seems you forgot the oldest and most fundamental rule of D&D, we're all here to have fun, if something doesn't work for you, don't use it. Unless you have specific and quantifiable criticism this post is simple whining.
DMing for Adventurer's League is a slightly different beast. DMs are expected to follow a relatively uniform set of rules. There may be questions about interpreting different rules in the middle of a game, but a DM can't decide they don't want to allow a player to use one of the AL playable races just because they don't like them.
So, most complaints came from people who felt they were being forced to DM the Bastion rules even though they disliked them (AL's current position appears to be that you can have a different DM handle your Bastion turn, so those who were objecting now no longer need to worry about it).
There is no "DMS World" in the Adventure League. You have different official supported Settings thats it.
As other said, the DM has mostly nothing to do with the Bastion. It does gives a huge Boost to Characters however. Weapon Masteries, cheaper Potions, Consumable Magic Items that are otherwise only available in very specific Adventures are now more accessible through the Bastion.
Bastions
Bastions are available for player use. All characters starting at level 5 may begin to build a Bastion and begin with one Cramped and one Roomy facility. You must have a visual representation of their Bastion’s space–a Bastion map showing the use of floor space. This can be as simple or detailed as you desire but must clearly show where basic and special facilities are located, as well as an easily referenceable scale. A Bastion’s facility costs to build or enlarge a space in GP must be paid. You have 20 times your character level in days to add basic facilities or enlarge them when you first decide to build a Bastion (at or after level 5). Special facilities are gained at the character levels specified in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide and are chosen by you at the time your character reaches the required level.
You may rebuild one Bastion facility (replacing an existing facility with a new one) at the end of a session during the Bastion turn, provided you adhere to all requirements on special facilities and pay any increased GP and time costs. If the rebuilt facility requires more time than currently available, you must wait until the time cost is paid before using the facility. Facilities with orders that have yet to be fully resolved may not be rebuilt.
At the end of each session, you are given a Bastion turn for your character participating in the adventure. Bastion turns must be resolved by the end of the session, with the DM adjudicating any rolls made from a Bastion order. For Adventurers League play, a specific character may not issue the same Bastion order two turns in a row.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
this work and not fun. The DM is not the player's *****. I urge all AL DMS to not do players bastion turn. or charge $10 a turn.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
I'm not saying your view is invalid, but I don't quite understand it. It's possible the failing is completely on my end and I'm missing something in the Bastion rules that you have seen, so if you could please explain it to me it would be appreciated.
It doesn't seem to me like the AL requirements are particularly burdensome. You adjudicate a roll or two if they performed the Maintain order, which is no different from the dozens of other rolls that are made when you DM the adventure. A few of the special facilities might have their own rolls (e.g. The Observatory's Empower: Eldritch Discovery order). You aren't required to track their Bastion or record anything any more than you are required to track or record their character sheet.
There are a handful of options such as Research: Information Gathering for the Pub facility that require slightly more input on the part of the DM, but really not much more than if the player said 'I want to try to establish contact with the local thieves guild to see if they have any information about the current adventure.
Again, this is as I see it. If I'm missing something, please let me know. I'm trying to understand your complaints with the issue.
They are adding to work load at the end of the session. Why should something in the DMG except magic items be available to players? It is an instant reward for surviving to fifth level or getting to fifth level. I think the system is stupid. Think 3 minutes to check paper work and roll. Times how many players.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Well, I think even 3 minutes per player is way higher than it will be, but I appreciate that you don't want to be forced into supporting a system you don't like. Are you running your AL sessions with other DMs in an organized setting? Maybe you could offload those tasks to one of them at the end?
I really don't think Bastions will even be a big deal. Maybe one or two players, at most. Overall it is a concept that they put way too much time and page count into.
So the official rules for Bastions in AL are out now and on the DM side they don't seem overly onerous.
The advice is not that the turns are planned in advance. That seems to be advice and not a rule.
Maintain orders automatically return 'All is Well'.
There are a handful of facilities that require a roll when they are used. Gambling Hall, Meditation Chamber, Teleportation Circle, and Trophy Room have the potential for one or two rolls when they are used. It looks like you are talking about as much dice rolling as when the rogue decides to try and swipe a bottle of wine from the tavern.
Most of the other facilities are either pretty much automatic (the DM is just a witness) or unlikely to impact single evening games (players won't really know what to research). For a connected series of adventures some of those other facilities might come into play, but the DM is pretty much in the same position as if the player said 'I want to check out the bars in town and see if anyone can tell me about X.' So, again, not really any additional work, just something that the DM was probably already handling in a slightly different form.
Ran a Bastion turn as a player for the first time after an AL game yesterday (and I often DM as well).
That character's bastion has a meditation chamber. I had the turn planned out (as well as a map of the bastion with location and scale in case the DM wanted to see it), let the DM know I was going to do a roll (1d6 x 2, rerolling duplicates), and then recorded those results, as well as the other orders that didn't require a roll.
That was it, nothing for the DM to do, except watch two dice rolls in Roll20, which I was then responsible for recording.
While I can see there will be players who have questions about things, aside from answering a question about a facility, there's nothing for the DM to do, but that's no different than any other rules question a player may have for a DM.
The bastion system is designed to be separate from the GM's campaign Too separate for my tastes. Its a waste of 20 pages that could have been used for other parts of the DMG. It really does nothing for giving advice on how to have a stronghold that fits into the GM's world. I get that they didn't want to make players do a bunch of bookkeeping but this really gives no value and does not cover any typical problems that I have seen about players wanting a home base and really seems to create new ones.
Seems you forgot the oldest and most fundamental rule of D&D, we're all here to have fun, if something doesn't work for you, don't use it. Unless you have specific and quantifiable criticism this post is simple whining.
DMing for Adventurer's League is a slightly different beast. DMs are expected to follow a relatively uniform set of rules. There may be questions about interpreting different rules in the middle of a game, but a DM can't decide they don't want to allow a player to use one of the AL playable races just because they don't like them.
So, most complaints came from people who felt they were being forced to DM the Bastion rules even though they disliked them (AL's current position appears to be that you can have a different DM handle your Bastion turn, so those who were objecting now no longer need to worry about it).
There is no "DMS World" in the Adventure League. You have different official supported Settings thats it.
As other said, the DM has mostly nothing to do with the Bastion. It does gives a huge Boost to Characters however. Weapon Masteries, cheaper Potions, Consumable Magic Items that are otherwise only available in very specific Adventures are now more accessible through the Bastion.
Exactly. Like 30 seconds to do. It's really not a big deal.