PDA

View Full Version : AL FAQ and Common Questions



Talen
July 4th, 2015, 19:03
Quick Answers

Question: As a DM, how can I obtain the adventures to run online?
Answer: To get the Expeditions to run online, you must live-stream your online game using any free-to-watch streaming service, such as Google Hangouts On Air or Twitch.tv, you can get the D&D Expeditions adventures to showcase in your game. You can do this in one of two ways: 1) Contact a store to be your sponsor; it can get you certs and the adventures. 2) Contact Wizards Customer Support and tell them you want to stream D&D Expeditions. They will give you access to the adventures, but not any magic item certificates. In the email make sure you give them the link for your streaming page. You must have a Wizards login and be logged in to fill out the form. You can find additional general information at https://dnd.wizards.com/playevents/dms

Question: How do I play in an Adventurer League game in Fantasy Grounds?
Answer: Read the AL Player Guide, Create a PC, Sign up for a game, Send your DM your character....and game on!


Read the Adventurers League Players Guide https://media.wizards.com/2015/downlo...DALPG_EEv1.pdf (https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DDALPG_EEv1.pdf). This has character creation and campaign rules.
Keep a player log. There's a form at https://media.wizards.com/downloads/d...LgLogsheet.pdf (https://media.wizards.com/downloads/dnd/DnDAdvLgLogsheet.pdf) but there are others.
Watch some Fantasy Ground and 5e tutorial videos. There are many examples on Youtube as well as here at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/i...p?title=Videos (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php?title=Videos)
Create your character in either pdf or Fantasy Ground format to send to your DM.
Join a game! Adventurers League game announcements are found at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums...-Announcements (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?23765-Game-Announcements)
If you have any questions after all that -just ask. But really, the easiest way to get into the swing of things is to join a game.




Adventurers League in Fantasy Grounds Bootcamp

I. What Does a Player Need?

1. Must have a Legal Character


WOTC website provides the overview at https://dnd.wizards.com/playevents/players
Start with the AL Players Guide at https://media.wizards.com/2015/downlo...DALPG_EEv1.pdf.
Ability Scores must be standard set or point buy (ALPG p.3



2. Must have an Adventurers Log sheet (Many examples) https://media.wizards.com/downloads/d...LgLogsheet.pdf


Tutorial on completing log https://dndadventurersleague.org/tuto...gue-logsheets/



3. DCI Number is optional for online players (Wizards Play Network).


Provided at Store Play
Some online DMS can provide cards (pm Talen)
Required to trade magic items


4. Magic Item Certificates


Not required. However, needed if you intend to trade acquired magic items




II. Essential Fantasy Grounds Information

5. What Version of FG do I need as a player – Do I have to pay?


The answer depends on the type of license your DM has.
If the DM has an Ultimate License, Players play for free and select the Demo license when downloading Fantasy Grounds at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/downloads/
If the DM has a Full License, must also purchase a Full license when downloading Fantasy Grounds at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/downloads/



6. Helpful for players to review instructional videos at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/i...p?title=Videos



Character Entry into Fantasy Grounds using licensed D&D packs for purchase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nurEMR4JJeU
Character Entry completed manually (free): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-POluSDHAc
Playing the Game: There are several excellent general FG tutorials and D&D 5e specific tutorials on the wiki page linked above. I’d highly recommend the Quickstart Guide from Xorn https://www.fantasygrounds.com/fileli...ickplay-1a.wmv and the tutorial series from Dulux Oz at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...TLg2mSNf5deVQN
Importing/Exporting Characters: Once you have your character and you want to transport him/her between games, you can easily do so with the import/export feature described at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/i...ter_Management




III. Miscellaneous Adventurers League Rules

7. No Attribute or hit point rolling for characters: Must be standard set or point buy described in the AL Players Guide for attributes and fixed hit point value in class entry.

8. You must select a story origin (currently either “Elemental Evil” or “Tyranny of Dragons”. This is important as you only use campaign specific character options if you have that season’s story origin. For example, you may only play a Genasi if you have selected the Elemental Evil story origin.

9. Use starting equipment bases on class and background. You cannot roll for starting wealth (ALPG p4).

10. You are not required to select a faction, but factions provide benefits -for example, free resurrection up to level 4.

11. What are downtime days used for (See ALPG p5 for a complete list)?


Spellcasting services (Cost of services provided on ALPG p.12)
Non-magical Crafting
Practicing a Profession (maintain a lifestyle)
Recuperating
Training (learn a new language/set of tools)
Catching Up (automatically advance a level at 4th and 10th level)
There are Faction specific Downtime Activities (See Elemental Evil Downtime activities on ALPG p.9)


12. Don’t forget to record lifestyle expenses.


Whenever you engage in a downtime activity, you must pay lifestyle expenses as described in chapter 5 of the free Basic Rules or the Players Handbook.



13. Read the Rules on Buying and Selling Items (ALPG p6)



Buy or sell mundane items (gems, trade goods, etc.) at 100%
Arms, armor, other equipment sell for 50% cost
Arms and armor from monsters is worthless (can be used during the adventure before rendered useless.
Magic Items cannot be sold and not available for purchase except for potions of healing.



14. Magic Items (ALPG p 6):


Permanent Magic Items: If no agreement from group, PC with lowest number of permanent magic items can select, If tie, Roll d20, highest wins. You do not have to select an item. Items not selected are “left on the table” and may not be sold.
Consumable Magic Items: If no agreement from group, Roll d20, highest wins.
Certificates are required to trade magic items. Certificates may be available in an online game, but are usually not.
Players cannot generally craft magic items except for potions of healing (ALPG p 21)



15. Rules for Disease, Death and Recovery on ALPG p.12


IV. Useful Resources

16. Basic Rules available for free: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules
17. Fantasy Ground Adventurers League Forums: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums...s-League-Games
18. Adventurers League Official Online Play Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlineadventureleague/
19. WOTC Organized Play D&D Adventurers League Site: https://dnd.wizards.com/playevents/organized-play
20. D&D Adventurers League Wiki: https://dndadventurersleague.org/sage...itle=Main_Page
21. D&D Adventurers League Organizers Page: https://dndadventurersleague.org/


V. Where Can I find Games?

22. Check the Official Adventurers League Online Play Tools at https://www.alonlinetools.net/ for regularly scheduled games and Expedition of the Week. Tutorial for Tools use at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bPy...ature=youtu.be

23. Check the Fantasy Grounds Forum Game Announcements at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums...-Announcements and Fantasy Grounds Game Calendar at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/


VI. How Can I DM?

24. To gain access to the Expeditions to run online, you must live-stream your online game using any free-to-watch streaming service, such as Google Hangouts On Air or Twitch.tv, you can get the D&D Expeditions adventures to showcase in your game. You can do this in one of two ways: 1) Contact a store to be your sponsor; it can get you certs and the adventures. 2) Contact Wizards Customer Support and tell them you want to stream D&D Expeditions. They will give you access to the adventures, but not any magic item certificates. In the email make sure you give them the link for your streaming page. You must have a Wizards login and be logged in to fill out the form. You can find additional general information at https://dnd.wizards.com/playevents/

Skillkoil
February 25th, 2016, 17:52
Most of the links in this post are dead. Don't know how much this is kept up but couldn't get many of them to work.

jamessmckay
March 5th, 2016, 17:06
I will be updating this sticky later this weekend. There are some significant changes.

Jim

Raz651
October 15th, 2016, 10:48
[QUOTE=Talen;220238][SIZE=4]Quick Answers

6. Helpful for players to review instructional videos at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/i...p?title=Videos



Character Entry into Fantasy Grounds using licensed D&D packs for purchase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nurEMR4JJeU
Character Entry completed manually (free): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-POluSDHAc
Playing the Game: There are several excellent general FG tutorials and D&D 5e specific tutorials on the wiki page linked above. I’d highly recommend the Quickstart Guide from Xorn https://www.fantasygrounds.com/fileli...ickplay-1a.wmv and the tutorial series from Dulux Oz at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...TLg2mSNf5deVQN
Importing/Exporting Characters: Once you have your character and you want to transport him/her between games, you can easily do so with the import/export feature described at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/i...ter_Management


The link for explaining how to export a character is a dead link. Is there a way for a player to export a character from an Adventure league game from a GM's server at the games end? Point being that I should be able to take that character to another game. whether it be another online AL game by a different GM or a live game at a store.

I don't want the ability to delete characters, just to export them or save them to my local character vault.

If there is not a way to do this. Can this functionality be added to the FG program?

Thank you in advance.

Raz

Talen
October 15th, 2016, 13:00
Raz, I've been absent for awhile but will update my original post when the con is over. You can export your character.
You can get it from your own computer using Manage Characters - select the campaign entry you played in and when it loads up you can export the XML from the character selection screen.

Trenloe
October 15th, 2016, 15:45
A lot of the links are bad - they've been copied directly from a FG forum webpage - where FG shortens the display of long URLs by putting ... in the middle and making the URL invalid. The underlying URL code is not shortened, just the display, but if you copy directly from the web page the text you copy will be shortened (not valid) URL. So you'll need to copy the underlying code if you can (edit the post if it's one of your to get directly to the full URL) or find the correct full URL and replace within the code.

Talen
October 15th, 2016, 15:55
Never knew that...thanks again Trenloe!

Raz651
October 15th, 2016, 18:27
Ok, i understand that you can export from the managed characters list. What I want to do is export my character in the client connected to the DM's FG. There are no export (download) arrows next to my character.

There is an option to import a character, but not to export from my connected players client so I can take it with me to another FG or to transfer it (or convert it) to a regular character sheet.

If this is possible I can not find out how. If not, can it be added.

I hope this explains what I am looking to do better.

Thank you.

Trenloe
October 15th, 2016, 19:16
Ok, i understand that you can export from the managed characters list. What I want to do is export my character in the client connected to the DM's FG. There are no export (download) arrows next to my character.

There is an option to import a character, but not to export from my connected players client so I can take it with me to another FG or to transfer it (or convert it) to a regular character sheet.
You can't export during a game (when you're connected to a GM). But you can export after - this is what Talen is saying in post #5. In the Manage Characters screen you will see a list of the campaigns you've connected to on that computer (the bottom half of the window is the campaigns list) - select the name of the campaign and it will load the character data that is stored from when you last exited the campaign. Note: this is read only, you need to export from the campaign and import into the generic ruleset Manage Characters (or another campaign) if you wish to make changes.

Raz651
October 15th, 2016, 20:28
Ok that makes sense. Have to try that next time I play.

Davuk
September 23rd, 2017, 20:12
Stale many links are dead ... should this still be stickied?

Waldbaer
September 23rd, 2017, 20:45
Edit: posted in wrong thread

michaelzep
April 26th, 2018, 20:58
I want to use Fantasy Grounds for Adventurers League. I don't know much about Adventurers League, but I have been DMing a game out of a store. It almost sounds like it's more trouble then it's worth to do Adventurers League. But I have found the normal campaigns to long and hard to keep up with when people keep changing. I want to use Fantasy grounds but not online. I am making a big TV table for us to play on. I also only see 2 Adventurers League campaigns for sale? So do I have to build the game from scratch?

GarthGiantbane
April 26th, 2018, 22:21
The AL modules are designed to be played in a 4 hour (or less) time slot.

For a live action game, you could use the PDF for all the story telling and RPG elements and use FG for all of the combats. Setting up encounters (even on the fly) is pretty quick and painless. It would take minimal prep to make the encounters and prep (scan) the maps. The last Rob Twohy and Fantasy Grounds College weekly "All Things Fantasy Grounds" discussed module making in FG - in it they dropped a lot of links for module building aids.

Well worth a watch - All Things Fantasy Grounds Talk Show Episode 19 - Module Making (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2caVbp9xMqs&t=720s)

Hope this helps.

JackTheDog
October 29th, 2021, 14:50
Guys, advise good blogs or video tutorials on D&D, I have already studied the manual (https://5thsrd.com/), but rn there is a mess in my head, I want to somehow sort it all out.

johnecc
October 30th, 2021, 02:04
There are dozens of videos, it all depends on what you need help with. Check out the link below for a list of links to videos.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27296-Guides-videos-and-other-helpful-information

You may also want to look at www.fantasygroundscollege.net they have articles with advice and also run online training events.