Five Take-Aways: An Unexpected D&D 5E Adventurers League End of July Session

Tuesday night. The final Tuesday night of July. So Shadowrun Missions at my FLGCS Organized Game night, correct? Unfortunately, the misfortune plaguing Shadowrun during 2018 strikes again. Hopefully, next month we play once more... Emphasis on 'we' as I've missed several modules over the last year and a half.


Fortunately, the open RPG game night the final Tuesday of the month long since morphed into a replay day for D&D 5E Adventurers League Modules. Since we advance warning Shadowrun may very well be cancelled, I brought my D&D PCs. Meaning I got to play D&D for the first time in months. March 6th to be precise. Hadn't played Dungeons & Dragons in roughly five months! Feels good. Also means...


Here's another installment of my Five Take-Aways for D&D 5E AL! My third such during the year 2018. Wow, I have only played Dungeons & Dragons three times all year! Yep, no home games when not playing Adventurers League.


Five Take-Aways D&D 5E AL July 31st, 2018


1) Looking forward to Season 8 doing away with tracking experience points - The table I played at was Tier 2 (levels 5 - 10) with a potential of six players. One player hoping to advance a PC to Tier 3 dropped out and joined the Tier 1 table because with six PCs not enough XP would be awarded. A player hoping to advance to another TIER delayed PC advancement because a table of 6 deprives too much XP. Xanather's Guide to Everything introduces an experience point-less system of character advancement, old-timers would recognize it resembles the story award concept, and beginning Season 8 AL adopts a variant. A subject for another time; but tonight serves as another example why changes need to be made especially as regards mustering tables for AL events. The participants at my FLGCS aren't too picky; but still...


2) A party comprised mostly of a single class can be quite fun in an AL mod - Before the evening started, a regular remarked how fun having a table comprised of a single class could be. Coincidentally, my table comprised of four barbarians (granted none were alike but all shared the same class) and a sorcerer/warlock is fairly darn close to a table of all barbarians! Fortunately, the module didn't punish us for being mostly barbarians. A group of raging PCs was quite fun to play indeed. Furthermore, everyone got a chance to shine.


3) Appreciate sorcerers Twin Spell much more: Whether it was on Haste or Dragon Breath, the sorcerer player used Twin Spell metamagic to effective use. Other players have twinned spells quite a bit before. Just sunk into the ole noggin the tactic/ability is all.


4) Despite practically four or five months not playing D&D 5E, I didn't lose a step - Rather surprised I didn't forget much of what I knew about playing the latest iteration of D&D 5E nor how to play my Tier 2 PC after months not playing D&D. Yes, I've been a gamer for decades. Not what I am referring to. Sometimes you miss a step or two when you don't play a game for awhile. Didn't. Really speaks to the accessibility of the fifth edition rules. Once you grasp the fundamentals of the game and your PC you're golden. Sure, I had a hiccup with some rules. Not because I forgot but because I really haven't spent much time reading and mastering the rules. Kind of a throwback to when I started in the hobby when I didn't own a Player's Handbook. Does explain why I enjoy 5E so much...


5) The DM gradually revealing the "dungeon" was nice touch - The environment our PCs were exploring was such our characters would have no clue the nature of each location or how they relate to each. A dungeon exploration module in a nutshell. Just not framed that way. Rather than describing the dungeon or drawing the dungeon as we went along, the DM covered the map and gradually revealed portions as we explored. Don't see the approach often so it merits mentioning.


That's all.


Happy Gaming!


Next time.