Five Take-Aways from the new Season 9 Adventurers League (D&D 5E) Rules

Decided not to participate in Adventurers League (D&D 5E Organized Play) tonight; however I did do something Adventurers League (AL)-related. The season 9 Adventurer League organized play documents debuted today. While I won't share the link here (either visit the AL homepage or download the documents from DMs Guild), my Five Take-Aways is a fitting format to discuss some of the rules changes.

So long Seasonality, welcome starting seasonal unlocks

Well, Seasonality didn't last long beyond its announcement. For those unaware, Seasonality would effectively encourage creating new PCs each season all while boosting the seasonal flavor of each season's PCs. Only PCs created for a given season could unlock that season's magic items and receive story awards from that season. At my FLGCS's Tuesday Game Night, Seasonality would not have as much impact than at a convention. Once a Season's modules are ran, they're not repeated often. Many gamers, myself included, have created new PCs to accommodate the varying character constraints prior seasons imposed. The biggest hiccup would only occur during the off chance a repeat mod is ran while a player is playing a Legacy character. Convention Created Content modules are ran more often so it wouldn't have been too much of a problem. CCCs would be featured more often.

However, conventions are the life-blood of AL. There was backlash. Plenty of backlash.

As a consequence, Seasonality is no more. In its place, is extra character creation options available to PCs who begin DURING and FOR that season, e.g. Season 9.

Considering the season-specific character options were what I really liked about Seasonality, it is a good change. I will still forge ahead with creating either an Aasimar or Tiefling PC although it'll likely be Aasimar as purchased Volo's Guide to Monsters recently. Although the rules were vague as to whether Volo's still counts as a PC's "+1".

Heck, a couple season-specific options are cool enough that I would be willing to start my "Elf PC" during Season 9 too!

You get a level, you get a level, and you, and you, and you!

Experience Points required bookkeeping. Plus, not all modules were calculated equally XP-wise regarding challenges. Advancement Checkpoints were much simpler. However, Advancement Checkpoints punished some groups more than others. Modules created without Advancement Checkpoints in mind ran into the "one does not simply finish a two hour module in two hours" problem. A two-hour module that ran a couple hours longer only gave two checkpoints. Four hour modules didn't have bonus objectives so they could effectively award more Advancement Checkpoints than a module designed with them as groups could miss the bonus objectives.

The solution: PCs acquire a new level upon the completion of a module.

We're talking complete ten modules to go from first level to tenth level.

Incredibly rapid character advancement!

Now, character advancement can be slower while playing a hardcover module (for the higher Tiers). We don't know if all Season 9 modules will be four hours long nor how many. A player can choose to not advance the PC in level. I don't forsee too many new players abstaining from proceeding to the next Tier. Which may cause problems on Tuesday Game Night cause if you miss a week or two, AL loses the attendance flexibility it allows.

Acquiring Gold is more immersive but requires an extra level of bookkeeping.

Longtime AL players have learned to not record the gold a PC receives until the end of the module, based on what the module states. Season 9 will be more fluid with not only how gold can be acquired, but the DM can award it to a PC immediately. DMs are given leeway to creative in how the gold award is administered. The only caveat is there is maximum amount of gold a PC can receive per hour played and per level. Suppose the hour cap exists to prevent behavior such as looting and avoiding the rest of the module.

I like a more immersive method of dispensing gold as it's more new player friendly. Keeping track of the maximum amount awarded during the module may be tricky especially if the PC is spending gold. 

Guess, PCs who don't advance at module's completion are adventuring for free during subsequent modules until choosing advancement...

No longer need to track Renown!

For the longest time, Renown really didn't serve much of a purpose beyond tracking how many modules a PC completed as well as any faction tasks completed. Then, it became tricky because Advancement Checkpoints impacted the amount of Renown received. Season 9 does away with all that. Much as with lifestyle during Season 8, a PC's Tier will determine which Renown category a PCs falls within. Any Renown award is based upon Renown category and thus Tier.

Approve 100%. Most pointless thing to track on a Logsheet ever.

Trading Magical Items for Costly Spell-casting Services

Despite Faerun being the setting for AL, the campaign has always been a low magic item campaign. Magic Items are very incredibly special. Either only one PC received a magical item or several modules were spent accumulating resources to acquire one. Therefore, it makes sense that dweomered (magical) items could be used as currency for spell-casting services a PC couldn't otherwise afford. Since magic items are finite reward, trading them in such a manner not only reinforces how valuable but enables PCs to acquire services they couldn't otherwise afford such as a True Resurrection.

Another welcome change.

Happy Gaming!

Next time.