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*This article is current as of 7/5/2022. The Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Adventurers League (AL) organized play program is updated regularly by Wizards of the Coast. Please check the link for changes.
The Adventurers League Program The D&D AL program was introduced by Wizards of the Coast in 2014 under the program originally titled D&D Expeditions. (Fandom 2022) Expeditions (EX), and later AL after season 3, were tie-ins to the recently released hardcover adventures. For example, Season 1 of EX tied in with the Tyranny of Dragons hardcovers while Season 9 of AL tied in with the Descent Into Avernus hardcover. Each season brought with it an updated Players Guide and Dungeon Masters Guide. FAQs, AL legal adventure guides, and other documents may be released as well. Later AL split into different Campaigns; Forgotten Realms, Oracle of War (Eberron), Misthunters (Ravenloft), and Critical Role.
What You Need as a Player
First, players must have Fantasy Grounds downloaded and updated prior to their game start time. The table they are playing at will require either a Standard License or Free Demo License to connect. If your game listing is not clear reach out to the event organizer/DM for clarification.
Players also need a level-appropriate character for the adventure they are going to play and an AL Player Log for that character for DM review. Characters are ideally created in Fantasy Grounds, but most DM’s find a DnD Beyond link or even pdf acceptable; players must coordinate with their DM PRIOR to the game starting on what format they are going to provide. Pre-generated characters may be provided as well.
Although not required it is recommended that players own the references they used for their character on Fantasy Grounds. If a player does not have the material for Fantasy Grounds the burden is not on the DM to purchase the material for use in the game. Players without the reference material will find their characters are playable in Fantasy Grounds but may not have all the bells and whistles that they expect.
What You Need as a DM
DM’s must either have a Standard or Ultimate license of Fantasy Grounds. When games are listed it must be clear to the players what license they need to connect to the table. With Fantasy Grounds DMs already have access to the D&D 5e Basic Rules and SRD content. They only need to purchase an adventure to run an AL legal game. That’s right, besides an FG license the DM only needs an adventure. Why is that? Because the adventure whether purchased from the Fantasy Grounds web store, Steam, or DM’s Guild contains all the NPC and Item records that will be used for your session along with the story and maps. Most AL modules cost between $4.99 and $5.99 U.S.
Adventure modules are released for AL legal play as pdfs on DMsGuild.com. Once released as pdf then the author may authorize that the adventure is sold with a converted Fantasy Grounds module. Or the module may be converted for sale on the Fantasy Grounds web store and Steam. No matter where or how you own the adventure it can be run in Fantasy Grounds. If the DM only owns the pdf there is no need to do a 100% conversion to Fantasy Grounds, but it sure is nice once you have it. The module can be run directly off the pdf using Fantasy Grounds for dice rolls and theater of the mind; or a hybrid method of just getting maps, images, and encounters in Fantasy Grounds and reading the text from the pdf for increased automation and immersion. It is solely at the discretion of the DM on how they want to run it.
Campaign Types
As mentioned previously there are four main campaigns. Though three of them seem to have an expiration on how long content is released by Wizards of the Coast. Characters made for a specific campaign must remain in that campaign.
The first campaign is the main ongoing campaign called Forgotten Realms (FR). Most AL legal modules were created for this setting. It does not matter what season the adventure is from as long as it is in the FR campaign setting a player can play their FR character (level limits apply).
The next campaign that was released is the Oracle of War campaign in the Eberon setting.
The third is the Misthunters campaign set in the Ravenloft setting. Both Oracle of War and Misthunters are wrapped up.
The fourth campaign is the Critical Role. It was run exclusively from the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Netherdeep adventure hardcovers, no exclusive adventure modules were released to date.
Adventure Types AL legal adventures are either run from an adventure module released on the DMs Guild or from the campaign hardcover book. Most individual FR AL adventures from past seasons contain the prefix DDEX or DDAL for the reasons described above. You may also find adventures with the prefix CCC, DRW or WBW-DC which are authorized FR adventures. Misthunters start with the prefix RMH and Oracle of War starts with the prefix EB. Again, if they are the DM’s Guild website then they should be legal for play.
Reporting AL uses individually filled-out log sheets and the honor system for organized play reporting. The community is charged with holding each other accountable. DM’s could ask to see Player Logs and event organizers could ask to see DM logs. It is not required, and we tend to only see these interactions when something comes into question.
References
Fandom. 2022. Adventurers League. July 5. https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Adventurers_League.
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