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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack

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Average Rating:3.6 / 5
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Nick D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/06/2018 01:25:31

If I could give this latest rules revision zero stars I would. It very obviously has come directly from somebody with little to no experience with 5e play or organized play generally as many of the rules make absolutely no sense.

Let me begin with the changes, good and bad. Much of the intent was good, but not all. Removing the shitty feeling of not getting a magic item your party found because someone else had fewer items than you was a good thing. But in their effort to make it more something they woldly overcomplicated the rule set, now forcing you to keep track of four separate tiers of a made up meta currency with no in game relevance. Why are there tiered treasure points? It's entirely unnecessary and makes keeping track of ones character much more complicated and is extremely unintuitive and complicated to new players.

Further, they seemed to balance the treasure point lists and costs completely randomly with no regard for player fun. With the goal of trying to capture and cater to more and more new and casual players (a good thing), they have instead made it so that it takes you 8 weeks of palying at your weekly 2-hr game shop before you can even afford a single +1 weapon. That certainly would have turned me away had I joined one year later than I did under these new rules.

The last change relates to gold. I understand and agree there was substantial imbalance between gold gained in hardcovers and AL modules. However, the ham-fiated and clunky way in which this problem was solved is both extremely unintuitive and unfun, again especially for new players. You play for three hours and complete 3 missions in DDAL 02-01, congrats! You get no gold despite the promises along the way from the various douchey NPCs you were hired by.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Logan B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/05/2018 20:16:09

These new rules for Season 8 have not improved the game. In general it has taken unique elements, items and character decisions away from the player. Each book a character goes through no longer leaves any lasting effects on them, with each major item now considered problematic and any major character choices such as dark gifts disappearing after completion of the hardcover. Every character has now had there adventuring experience stripped down to a point where they come out of each adventure almost looking exactly the same.

D&D is supposed to provide a sandbox style freeing experience for players, these new rules restrict to the point that the fun of the game starts to be taken away. Gold and mundane items are no longer obtainable through adventuring, lowering a character's reason to finish them or to explore areas in search of interesting things. Preexisting characters have had core parts of them stolen away without any compensation. Already in the three different versions of these rules we've seen more and more walls and restrictions pop up, narrowing the options an adventurer can take. How many more "Problematic items" will be added to the list? When one gets taken away, how long before the next best item is deemed to powerful and removed as well? The gold is also a major problem; not only does gaining gold when leveling up not make any sense, leaving behind gold offered to you or lying right in front of you doesn't either. Why not just add more ways to spend gold in the game rather then putting everyone on a budget? Its absence is now cutting into a character's ability to play the game.

These rules weren't properly playtested by fans, and the backlash against these rules is reflecting that. The people behind this seem to be trying to create some weird rules sytem similar to some sort of video game, with abstract point systems and currency and what not, but that doesn't work with D&D. What you interact with and obtain in your adventure should be your spoils and treasure, not hypothetical points. It ruins both the immersion and the fun at the same time. Their was talk that these new rules were supposed to make paperwork easier, but there's still just as much, just in different areas. With the amount of negative feed back this rules system has received surely someone must have realized this change was a step in the wrong direction. Splinter groups are now forming where none existed before. The harmony of the community has been broken.

If this was an attempt to bring in new players, it was not well thought out. One of the main draws to Adventurers League is sharing D&D with a community, however it is now slowly being torn apart. Current players don't like the new rules, and reports are saying new players find them complicated and dull. Not receiving gold or magic items at the end of their first couple of adventures is a let down. If someone asks about playing in the current form of Adventurer's League, many players are no longer going to recommend it.

This direction for the rules was not the correct one. Sometimes when you're a leader its better to know when to turn back rather then get the whole group lost.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Wei H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/05/2018 19:48:29

This season was poorly thought out. I can understand the time crunch but if this was the case, it should have been pushed back when everything was thought through and had sufficient feedback.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by sartas m. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/05/2018 13:59:39

Admittedly, I could be wrong and you may think the latest changes for season 8 are fantastic. If you absolutely love extra paperwork, poor editing, a lack of cohesive vision, and participation trophies for all this product may be for you.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Justin S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/05/2018 13:34:37

Tonight my party is accosted by the Hags of Old Bonegrinder one last time as they fight their way into the gates of Castle Ravenloft. Morgantha's sisters, now Christopher Lindsay and Lysa Chen, have been further corrupted by the Greater Devil Asmodeus in the time that Lady Wachter has been in power. The hags have thoroughly melted the brains of the masses into submission via the dream pastries. In a desperate bid Blinsky pleads with the Hags for them to return poor little Gertruda to him and says he would trade all the treasure in the world for her. DEAL MADE!!! All the treasure my players have ever gained instantly turns to dust!!!! BWAHAHAHA!!!! (Such an awesome decision!!!) In place of all the loot they have worked so hard and risked their lives for are a handful of stupid little bottle caps with the letters AL (Asmodeus Legion) in the center of Asmodeus' symbol. On the other side of the cap is written "Treasure Checkpoint". That's when the Shadowfell Despair finally removes the last traces of hope, determination, and ambition from the lost heroes!!!

As a DM who has spent 1 1/2 years running my adventuring crew through the Curse of Strahd Hardcover I am deeply disappointed with the changes wrought this season. The reasons why are accuratly detailed in the myriad of disapproving comments found on every form of social media since the announcement for the rules change was made. I was also running a weekly session through one shots purchased from the DMs guild. Sadly I will no longer be running any AL adventures after I wrap up my Curse of Strahd campaign (They take place at a game store).



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Trevor D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/05/2018 08:29:34

Change management is a thing, and I'm thinking the admins should have looked into it before this sweeping season VIII overhaul.

It's hard to tell how this whole season will play out, but the store I DM at has lost lots of DMs with this change. I'm sticking it out because of they players at my table. They want to convert, so we're doing that tonight and going to try the new rules. I just have to try to "fake it until I make it", I guess. <sigh>



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by thank y. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/05/2018 03:05:27

I believe the new Season 8 rule changes further damage the DnD playing experience in a FUNDAMENTAL way.

I've long said that AL is not the best way to play DnD. A home game solves all the problems I'm about to lay out. But it scratches the itch, and I've been able to meet new people. I've had a lot of laughs. So I play it.

Setting aside the unprofessional nature of the release, I think what we got was a rube goldberg style mess the admins stumbled backwards into that creates more problems than it solves.

This bloated titanic rules encyclopedia was created to solve two things. 1) A small percentage of players had acquired powerful items that "break" the game. 2) High level players have "too much" gold.

Easy fixes: 1) Remove problematic items. 2) Limit max gold per module based on hours to complete. This would create the same (extreme) scarcity of resources the new treasure point system is meant to.

By removing immediate rewards, they have changed the decision making process in every adventure, and I have a much more difficult time connecting with my character because of the hand-waving and eye rolling I'm forced to do. The adventures are all written with the basic psychological risk vs reward mechanism as the UNDERLYING principle. It guides nearly every choice you make. Now our characters are nothing more than empty-shell, selfless hero, altruistic avatars that just go through the adventure like they're supposed to. My most recent DM actually had to say "I would appreciate it if you all would roleplay your characters to think that there's actually a reward here." How meta. There's no more character immersion or gratification, just hack and slash dungeon crawls.

So if they wanted to take a play style that already suffered from a lack of role playing, and completely crush it into nothing more than a fight mechanics grind (like 4e), then they shouldn't have limited our resources so severely. Because now dying, healing potions, gear, and casting certain spells are all extremely expensive. There is no incentive to take any path that leads to unneccessary fights, and every reason to avoid them. Getting hurt is now a very dangerous thing that can set you back many precious treasure points which you only get so many of throughout your 20 levels.

They have encouraged power gaming whether they realize it or not. So now that my character no longer feels like a hero, and instead feels like a scared little bitch just desperately trying not to fuck up and die, I have to worry more about my build. And since I can control what items I buy with my precious few treasure points, I'm forced to make all of my advancement and gear choices early on so I don't waste them on the "wrong" things. I have to map out my character all 20 levels in advance. No more showing up and just seeing what happens today. I've been encouraged to sift through the modules and only play the ones that reward me with the items my build needs. This sucks. It's totally counter to the adventuring spirit. Since dying is such a major setback that limits your future gear and build potential, I'm just waiting for the day I get yelled at by other high level players because I didn't bring the "right" build to the team and put them at risk.

None of these fixes improve the experience you want new players to have. I feel bad for players who show up with a backstory they worked really hard on and want to work into the game.

You should realize you might be doing something counter to the spirit of the game when you have to retcon nearly every adventure module of every season with "guidance" in a content catalogue.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Melvin C. H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/05/2018 01:43:25

Pretty good ideas as a whole but seems like the whole thing is done pretty hastily thus ending up pretty messy in general.

ACP is fine on its own. Conversion's a drag but its something i think that should be expected.

While I do like the idea of TCP. i feel like it should be supplemental to the rewards that we will find in the middle of the adventure. The rewards in White Plume Mountain should be a pretty good standard to base on (you get acp and tcp for the hours you traverse the place, aswell as bonus items and TCP if you do the objectives). Please do look into this.

As is right now the FAQ and ruleset is definately not complete and it needs a run over to smoothen out stopgap rules. Hopefully things straightened out before v8.5.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Donald H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/04/2018 21:46:43

I won't be supporting season 8, I'm still astonished at how disconnected the AL team is with the community. I would give this a hard pass.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Alexis G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/04/2018 21:39:11

NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Evan G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/04/2018 15:51:52

Lets start with the good: ACP is a nice idea. While I think the requirements should increase as tiers increase more than it does, it still provides an equal field for everyone. DMs who are stingy with EXP cannot be anymore, while others can't flood their players with it so they can run higher level adventures. Everyone progresses at the same pace (or half pace, which is nice for someone trying to stay in-tier with their party). More testing and fiddling may be beneficial, but ACP is overall my favorite change.

I actually like how the evergreen and seasonal magic items are handled as well. Being able to buy magic items beyond consumables is pretty nice. I am actually looking forward to getting my Warlock a Rod of the Pact Bearer. On the other hand, unlocking magic items is confusing. Everyone in the party unlocks it at the same time, which could lead to a party of 7 characters all with their own alchemy jug. But then those items are un-unlocked, and you would have to play the same module/hardcover/whatever to get another one. This is confusing and obtuse, and pretty new-player unfriendly. Especially because it almost forces each player to get their own copy of the Dungeon Master's Guide to know all their options and what they do.

Now we get to the bad: Gold is removed... kinda. You can get 50 gold for each 1 treasure point you trade in, which is nice at lower levels, but at higher levels this transfer is unusable. You also get Gold each time you level up, which is also nice, but the amounts given at each tier are pretty small amounts all things considered. There is the problem of heavy armor users being unable to get plate mail unless they play for 30-60 hours and save up every treasure point they get, which is made worse by the fact that the Plate-clad Knight is the most iconic image in fantasy, rivalling the fire-breathing dragon and the magic-casting wizard.

This is made even worse by the fact that this season happens to be half-dedicated to a book all about a massive gold heist. Why should a selfish character adventure if they get no gold at the end of the day? How are Wizards and ritual casters supposed to get the funds to add spells to their books? How are spells with expensive components, like the basic spell Identify, supposed to be bought with such strict gold rules? Gold is an essential part of DnD, and removing it forces everyone to be an adventurer for the sake of fun/the good of everyone, which kinda hamstrings the "focus" on story these changes are supposed to engender.

TP is also bad, but mostly because of the issues with gold. TP oddly tries to make DnD more like a video game, which goes exactly against one of the greatest advantages the game has. Also, the conversion rate for TP -> gold is not enough, especially at tiers 3 and 4. The conversion rate does not increase with levels, unlike everything else, and so the level 1 folk hero with a sword trading 1 treasure point gets the same gold as the level 20 Archdruid who has killed Beholders and Ancient dragons.

TL;DR: ACP and the Evergreen Magic items were good, worthwhile changes, but changes to gold, unlocking magic items, and the current implementation of TP all need reworking. TP can be saved if it is only used for Magic items, but Gold needs to be present in the game, as the game was made around how gold is distributed.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Mark D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/04/2018 14:16:38

Hi there, I am writing this review as a AL player re-introduced to D&D during seaon 7. Gold is an issue, treasure points are an issue, Experience checkpoints can create hazards.

Season 8 BREAKS MAGIC. Spell scrolls are unattainable, spell scribing is impractical and spell copying is too expensive for characters under 2nd tier. Practically, wizards can add 1 Spell to their known/usable spell list per level, which makes the class underpowered and impractical until you hit tier 2 (yes, wizards are weak in tier 1, but this practically makes them unplayable), not to mention, if you are in a spell component tracking system, your PC cannot afford to cast spells. (No Gold=No Spell components=Dead Wizards/sorcerers/clerics/druids)

Season 8 BREAKS RP: Whats the point of exploring/adventuring if there are no rewards? Why wouldn't my PC have actually just become a blacksmith? What if I want to build a keep? They have effectively turned our PC from "living on the edge for profit" to "well I guess I have to put my 40hours in this week adventuring, hope I don't run into a dragon!" Nobody started playing D&D to role play an inept guard who makes a salary, I want to kill that dragon BECAUSE he has a golden hoard and magic items. One could argue that in the new XP-CP I could be a blacksmith, stay in a smithy while my team adventures and earn the same amount of XP-CP while having absolutely no encounters. My PC was creating horse-shoes to ease my parties journey home, this could be considered assisting in advancing the plot line, thus XP-worthy.

Season 8 BREAKS RP (Part 2): "No point exploring, let us just railroad straight to the boss fight." Now every random encounter becomes a chore rather than an exciting diversion, no bonus XP, Gold or loot from these (NOW) time sucking encounters. I.E: You are beset by bandits, what do you do? Run! there is no point in fighting unless it is a scripted battle. Do You explore any rooms? NO, because there is no incentive to stray from the main plot. God forbid you use a spell, you wont be able to afford the components to cast them during boss battle.

Season 8 Creates the accountants dream: Oh don't worry, there is a chart for that, wait. . . maybe there isn't. Column A, row 27: it says here you are poor, but managed to get a +1 sword that your character can not use, but dont worry! It counts against your total amount of magic items that you also must save for that most likely cannot use! Oh and NO YOU CANNOT SELL IT.

Season 8 TCP DOESNT CHANGE ANYTHING: Let's be serious: A standard AL table has between 5-8 players sitting for a session, possibly for a whole campaign. Assuming the party comes across 1 magic item per play session, the table should generate 1 item/table/session; this means that at a max (8 player) table after 8 sessions everyone has something (DM can tweak item selection if someone is left out to be fair). THE TCP SYSTEM: Now you too can have 1 item after 8 sessions (assuming you made DM-noteworthy "progress" in each of your sessions). Arguably, this means even less people will have access to magic items, but we will all get them at this snails pace. Also, now every tom, dick and harry will have a bag of holding. (I DONT THINK THIS IS BROKEN PERSAY, but maybe consider making +1 items "non-magical?" The +1 is just from superior craftmanship? I don't know, I'm still fleshing this one out.)

Season 8 is a move AWAY from Tabletop: I cannot help but feel this is a dumb down for console players who are converting to tabletop games. I left my console behind to come out for D&D because I wanted to move away from linear "open-world" stories and predictable treasure drops, I was looking for the immersive storytelling and the unpredictability of playing with randoms or old friends, I was looking to manifest my character at the table, follow the road MY PC would take and share in the joys and woes that arose from these choices. Now we have created a faceless system, a cold accounting of storytelling, we might as well devise 6 options per encounter and have each character roll to see how they react to a given scenario, since RP is now essentially superfluous.

Suggestions:

Bring Gold Back! It's a simple mechanic and it gives the people playing the game a sense of accomplishment. It is by far the most complained about aspect of the new edition, it alienates the players and leaves the gameplay feeling stale and contrived. Plus as an adventurer, you should be more wealthy than the average bear, even Indiana Jones lived in the lower upper class.

Bring Random item drops or mundane looting back! There is a sense of reward when your PC is nosing about and finds a secret passage leading to a chect with 500GP and a +1 short sword. We are creating a fantasy world, give me a reason to envision it and interact with it. Even if you reduce the resale value all those kobold spears to 5sp/each (maybe 1/4 of PHB prices?), it creates a reason to have "in town interactions" and a means of creating some kind of trade system, while providing PC's a little extra coin to experiment with different solutions to the various D&D problems. (Example: Last dungeon crawl, we were chased by lizard people, this time I'm bringing caltrops and ball bearings to slow them down, I also need a new 10' pole)

FOR EXAMPLE: Which sounds more fun/exciting?

As the final blow strikes the dragon, it bellows out its deafening roar and collapses to the ground, a final fireblast issuing from its mouth as it crashes to the ground. . .Your party looks up at the heaps of gold and scattered artifacts, eyes growing wide from the implications of collecting all of this wealth, the acidic taste in their mouth when they found out that most of the items were cursed, the joy of finding the one item that fits my PC just right. . . .
OR As the final blow strikes the dragon, it bellows out its deafening roar and collapses to the ground, a final fireblast issuing from its mouth as it crashes to the ground. . . Looking around at the empty cave you go home, hoping your employer coughs up the promised 550 gold.

These 2 simple concepts give substance to the D&D world, it enables the Players to justify why their PC's didn't go to scribe college or blacksmithy apprenticeship. Season 8 ISN'T bad, you have just made some choices that have taken the game away from the players, with the 2 simple tweaks suggested here, it gives the D&D world back to the players.

Submitted humbly, but with force.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by William W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/04/2018 13:48:20

I could have lived with Check points and Treasure points for magic items. But getting rid of gold found/earned while adventuring just doesn't feel like D&D to me. I have moved back to homebrew until Adventurer's league puts gold back the way it should be.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Cody L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/04/2018 13:21:04

Experience Points and Gold are two of the things that should be elemental to D&D



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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D&D Adventurers League Player & DM Pack
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Bradley D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/04/2018 12:53:41

Clearly WOTC "knows better" than a majority of the player base and was ready to push these changes down our throats no matter how much feedback was given. Not that ANY of it was listened too. Rules are STILL in flux, and more changes are expected yet we are already supposed to be administering with them.

The entire process feels like you cut off an arm to stop a bad paper cut on your finger, when really a bandaid would have been fine.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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