The end of a session in my local game store brings the worst part of my role as a dungeon master. Then, I inevitability struggle to explain the Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League advancement and reward system to casual players who just stopped by to roll dice, kill monsters, and collect loot. “No, you don’t keep the gold. Instead, you get treasure checkpoints.” As players grapple with D&D without XP and with a treasure allowance, I show pages from the campaign documentation. “See, this evergreen list shows things you can get with points.” The players take the pages, and I start searching through another document. “The costs aren’t printed there, so you have to check this list, but then you need to reference the table in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.” Casual players who just drop in for a D&D game often lack a Dungeon Master’s Guide.
I don’t see new players every week, but even repeat players need repeat explanations. Sure, I recommend downloading the campaign documents, but few players do the assigned readings.
Between the confusion and the homework, the current Adventurers League rules form a barrier that some players just bounce off. I want to reduce that barrier, so I created a quick-start guide that consolidates the essentials on two sides of a sheet. This reference draws from four campaign documents and the Dungeon Master’s Guide. It might list more high-level loot than necessary, but I see players reach tier 3 without ever getting their own copy of the Player’s Handbook. Besides, I wanted a reference for myself too. Plus, everyone likes to browse the rewards that wait at higher levels.
Download the reference, share it, and then please tell me about any mistakes that need correction.
Thanks for this! I’ll share with my AL group and if there’s any questions I’ll let you know. 🙂
Nice work! Thanks!
I have a wizard in my group and he wants to know if he can buy a spell scroll of any spell with his TCP to log that spell in his group. Can he only buy spell scrolls of spells that he knows?
Wizards can spend treasure checkpoints to gain spell scrolls, which they can copy into their spellbooks. Wizards must spend downtime to copy spells. Adding spells takes 2 hours per spell level. Each downtime day spent provides 8 hours for making copies.
I quit playing Adventurers League completely with the new rules on XP and GP. It wasnt worth the time to convert all my characters over. Sticking with homebrew for now until they go back to the way it should be.
TY very much!
Looks pretty good. What about “point buy” for ability scores?.
Very nice guide!
Asking for our local community in Russia – is it possible for us translate it and use for our players and DMs?
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Thanks! This came in handy at Origins as that is the only time I DM AL. Will you update this for season 9?