D&D Encounters: What's Your Backstory?

This is a cool app that randomly generates a hook for your character.for D&D Encounters.  

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GenCon 2014 Presentation - D&D Organized Play

Discover the changes being made to Dungeons & Dragons Organized Play and what it means for your store. A seminar by Chris Tulach

 An interesting watch, even if your not a store owner.

 He does emphasizes the store as a centerpiece for organize play, clearly outlining one of the goals of organized play as being to:

 "Deliver an interconnected experience with the retail store as the focus."

It will be interesting to see how much WoTC will support online organized play.

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Understanding AL Content

Here's a great write up by Merric Blackman (you might know him from enworld) about how the current AL supported content might fit together.

I haven't read it that closely, but I liked his charts.

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Tools for 5e Spellcasters!

Here's a updated AL character sheet that merges the spell list from the default 5e character sheet (form fillable).

Here's the form fillable spell sheet by itself.

And here's a neat online 5e spell database.

If your looking for an online game, try our Google Group.

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Maps of Hoard of the Dragon Queen now online!

WARNING for PLAYERS - SPOILERS.

The artist has put images/maps up for Hoard of the Dragon Queen, which is the big Adventurer's League storyline this season, up on his online store.  The maps look great, and if all you want to use it for is Roll20, you can just download the sample image.  I could probably get a better quality image from taking a picture on my smart phone and scaling it up, but this is far less work.

But do the artist a solid and buy a few.  I'm sure they are spectacular at their actual size.

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Basic Rules Updates

Looks like the Basic Rules have been updated: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules.

Also, there's the DM's Basic Rules: http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/DMDnDBasicRules_v0.1.pdf

From just a glance it appears that DM's Basic Rules is a mini-monster manual.  I'll write more once I've had a chance to really read through it.

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Finding or Creating Tokens for VTTs

I just noticed there we're a few people on the list that we're asking about how to find tokens for their player characters.   Tokens are what represent your character when you using maps on the various VTTs and in the case roll20.net, all a DM needs to do is drag and drop your token onto the virtual table, give you control of that token, and your good to do.

If you want to make your own token, with either your custom image or something you find online, Token Tool, is your best bet, and is an easy program to use.  Keep in mind you'll need to install it and it uses Java.

If you want to find a top down token of your own, Google Image search works wonders, or there's plenty of free top down tokens at Devin Night's site.

When DMs ask for your token just email them the one you want to use.

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Dungeon Masters - Start Thy Engines!

So in order to help DMs figure out how they can get things going I wanted to outline a few steps that may help encourage you to get started and start running online games.

The Player's Handbook comes out tomorrow in FLGs and on the 18th everywhere else, and being that the rules from the Basic Rules PDF are less than a month old I can see why there are very few 5e games going on online. But, we have enough to get started now.

 

The Adventure

As of this date there is one adventure that is sanctioned for DnD's organized play: The Lost Mines of Phandelver and this comes in the Starter Set.  The adventure itself can be broken down into 2-3 hour chunks, and I'll do that in a later post, but being so early in the products life cycle, there will a good chance you'll be starting from the beginning with players that have never played it.  There will be more officially sanctioned adventures later on, but this is all we have right now, so not a difficult choice. If you don't already have it, I think they sell it pretty much everywhere.  Here's the official word on how to run Lost Mines for Adventurer's League characters now.

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Projects of Debatable Usefullness

Given that my history with organized play program comes from Pathfinder Society, I have to admit that I yearn for a bit of structure.  If you read my rambling post, that attempted (badly) to differentiate the philosophical approaches of PFS and Adventurer's League, you may understand where I'm coming from.

So in order to bring over some of the structural aspects that I think made running games (and joining them) easier, and to help DMs integrate new players into their ongoing story lines I decided to create a few tools, that are not at all required for DALOC players or DMs to use, but that I think may be helpful.

First Draft of DALLOC Character Database

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Recruitment Thread Formatting

Adapted from a post by Michael Rai.

I'd like to propose using somewhat of a standard format in subject lines for recruiting for DALOC games on the Google Group. This helps when searching through forum posts for games and puts most of the necessary recruitment information in the subject line.

Subject Line: [R20/G+] LMoP Part 2 Phandalin (Level 1-3): Thursday July 31 2014 @9:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)

After discovering the kidnapping of your employer, Dungrin Rockskeer, the group followed the trail to Cragmaw Hideout, took out most the goblins, and formed new friendships with some others. Though they were unable to rescue Rockseeker, they were able to rescue his comrade and protector, Sildar Hearthwinter. And now the party continued their journey to Phandalin, still seeking clues as to Rockseeker's whereabouts, and run into another problem. The town has been taken over by bandits!

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Community Made Lost Mine of Phandelver Maps

This was made by Torgaard and posted to the Fantasy Grounds Forum.

If you don't want to spend the money on Mike Schley's map, here are some community made maps that can be dropped right into Roll20.net or your VTT of choice.  Player's be aware: SPOILERS.

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In Defense of Adventurer's League...

If you are not familiar with Pathfinder Society (PFS), then this won't mean much to you, but hopefully this can still be helpful.

I've been exchanging emails and having online conversations with gaming buddies of mine, all of us having been involved with Pathfinder Society and Pathfinder Society Online Collective, and I realized that Adventurer's League really is a different beast.

It's been hard to really get our collective heads around it.  PFS has a pretty rigid structure, and that means it has a predictable progression path and for many people, satisfying reward system.  For those of you that are not familiar, PFS is an organized play model organized by Paizo Publishing.  They release scenarios (3-4 hour adventures) and they release over 20 of them every season.  Each scenario has a level range (1-5, 5-7, etc) and they can only be played once and GMed once.  Each scenario is meant to take one session to complete, and once you complete one you get the rewards and you can buy an magic items that are found (you don't get it for free just because you found it).

The result of this is very structured sessions with very a predetermined path. GMs are not allowed to change stats or create combats that are not scripted.  This is of course a very simplified explanation, that isn't completely accurate, but this is the gist.

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DALOC Collected Resources

Official Wizards of the Coasts

Quick Start Guide
Dungeons and Dragons 5e Free Basic Rules (printer friendly)
AL Player's Guide (printer friendly)
Official AL Organizer's Website
Official AL Forums
Official AL Character Sheet
Official AL Adventure Log

DALOC 

Sanctioned Adventures List
PDF Fillable Adventure Log
PDF Fillable Character Sheets (Beta)
DnD Adventurer's League Online Collective Google Group

VTTs

Roll20 - Free, and the most commonly used VTT recently.
Maptool - Free
Tabletop Open RPG (TTopRPG) - Free
D20Pro - Free 30 day trial, or free to play if the GM has guest slots.
Fantasy Grounds - Paid Licenses Only (though a GM with the Ultimate license can host for players without one)
RPGTable Online - Free to sign up and play, with options to pay for tiles and tokens. Uses Java plugin.
Updated: August 3rd, 2014

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Getting Started: First Steps

Welcome to DnD Adventure's League Online Organized Play.

We’re glad you decided to give it a try.

Here are three things that everyone will need to do when starting in Adventurer's League, whether you are going to Play or DM:

If you have very little time (Player's Only):

1. Download and read the Quickstart Guide. 
2. Download a use one of these Starter Set Pregenerated Characters.
3. Download a use an Adventure Log. (DALOC produced form-fillable PDF Adventure log)
4. Sign up and look for a game on the DnD Adventurer's League Online Collective. 

If you have more time to prepare (Players and DMs):

1. You should download and read the free Basic Rules.
2. Download and read Adventurer's League Player's Guide.
3. Create your own character with the Basic Rules, following guidelines in the Player's Guide and record it all on a Character Sheet. (DALOC produced form-fillable PDF Character Sheet) 
4. Players will need to download a use an Adventure Log. (DALOC produced form-fillable PDF Adventure log. 

Keep in mind that on the official material you will see a item called DCI number which you can get after you use your character in a FLGs store or a public convention. As long as you follow the rules listed in the Adventurer's League Player's Guide you can level your character in home games or online games and still use that same character at official live events. You'll even still be able to use the magic items you acquired. Just make sure your Adventure Log is filled out correctly and that you are only playing in adventures sanctioned by for Adventurer's League organized play.

As a player you are not required to own or purchase anything in order to play. Just be on time and be courteous with other players, and have fun! Online DMs will need to own a copy of the AL sanctioned adventure or get a copy from their FLGs store.

Your Next Step will be to Decide if you want to walk the path as a Player or as a Dungeon Master.

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Fillable Character Sheet Beta

This is the first release of the PDF Fillable Official DnD Adventurer's League Character Sheet.

Please keep in mind this is a Beta, and I'm looking for feedback on how the elements work (or are not working) and I'll issue new releases with bug fixes.  I know the tabs are still out of order, but there are a lot of fields and I haven't had a time to really polish it.  Let me know if there are fields that are not working correctly and what version or Reader you are using.

This is another resource that I think will be helpful in getting AL online play going.  I hope this is helpful.

Download the beta here.

Download version 2 beta here.

Download version 3 beta here.

Download version 5 beta here.

Here's a new version that has a spell sheet for 5e casters.  Download it here.

Here's the spellsheet by itself.

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Download the Form-Fillable Adventure Log

As I'm thinking through the logistics of running Adventurer's League games online, I realized players are going to need a form fillable PDF of the adventure log.  With this, you can send a completed and up to date form to the DM prior to your game.  You can use Adobe Reader to enter text and save as often as you need.

Download the file here.

Future site updates (in no particular order):

• Form Fillable Adventurer's League Character Sheet
• Guide to running Lost Mine of Phandelver on Roll20 (currently the only option to play AL as of the date of this posting)
• DM's Guide to Posting Games and Recruiting Players

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Official Resources Page for DnD Adventurer's League

This official resources page was not easy to find through the menus on the official Dungeons and Dragons website, but it does have all the official downloads down at the bottom.  I'll relink most the items here on this blog, but it's a good place for players to figure out exactly what Adventurer's League is (and isn't).

Items of interest include:

• The Basic Rules
• Adventurer's League Player's Guide (printer friendly version as well)
• A Quick Start Guide
• Adventure Log Sheet
• DnD AL Character Sheet

Link: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/events/adventurers-league-resources

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A Few Thoughts on the Player's Guide

Just finished reading the Adventurer's League Players Guide and here are some of the highlights of AL organized play.

Character creation is almost exactly as it appears in the Basic Rules, with a few exceptions.

• You can't roll your own stats. 
• You can't be of Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil alignments, though can be Lawful Evil if you belong to 2 particular Factions. 
• Picking a Faction itself, is optional. 
• You can pick an "origin story" from the yet to be released "Tyranny of Dragons." I assume this means from the soon-to-be released Hoard of the Dragon Queen. 
• You take max points at first level, and the suggested average at each level after 1st. So you don't roll for hit points either.  
• So unless you want to roll for background traits, there are no random elements in character creation. 

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