The DnD Adventurers League changed a number of rules for the upcoming Dragon Heist season. Some loud players are very unhappy. Let’s talk about that. (Thread)
As a player, change can be really tough. Our character is often a persona. It is your vessel in that fiction, and hugely important to us. Change is rough because it breaks that fiction.
Big programs also give us a sense of mastery. Over the years we can derive well-being through that sense of mastery. Many changes can rob us of that sense of accomplishment.
So, we’ve upset our sense of fiction and our self-worth, and also lost our sense of mastery. Beyond that, we all have opinions. The campaign, especially when it’s good, feels ours!
This can be especially true when we’ve poured our energy into it. Maybe we grew the program at our store. Maybe we run a con of thousands. Maybe we are always on the forums.
We can feel really invested. We can feel ownership. But we don’t own it. As crucial as we may be, we aren’t the admins.
Admins have it tough. They are our overlords. They make these changes and own the praise and the blame. When we are so close to our characters, to the program, we can feel that they simply don’t see what we see. Let’s talk about that.
As far back as I’m aware of, no one became an admin for fortune, and very few for fame. (This may well start changing, but that’s a thread for another day.) For current and past admins, they come to give.
Admins have various reasons for wanting to be there. To create, to give back, to improve, to diversify, to grow, to learn. I’ve never seen a cause that wasn’t primarily noble. It was about making play better.
Most admins are very experienced. They know games and they know players. Lately we’ve done a cool thing, diversifying with new Admins who have less experience (though still a lot), are younger, and bring tons of new ideas.
While I’ve worked with many admins since 2000 and consider them friends, my direct experience was with Ashes of Athas, the Dark Sun campaign. I had sworn I would never ever be an admin, because it’s too much work.
I couldn’t say no to Dark Sun. It was a ton of work. Insane. From initial design to the final die roll, it was a crazy sleep deprived, and still wonderful ride. I deliberately tried to change many rules to make the campaign better. But...
Here’s the thing. It was never a perfect campaign. What I quickly learned: it would never be. It could never be. It’s not just that “ask 5 gamers they want 5 different things.” That’s true.
More than that, it was that an organized play campaign is like having a machine with sliders. When you slide me control up, another slider goes down. You might want both down, but then two other things must pop up.
There are too many connections between systems (XP, loot, downtime, author incentives, DM rewards, store play, convention play, home play, optimizers, story, etc.). A tiny change to make one aspect better can be terrible elsewhere.
Then you have resources. You are basically already guaranteed insanity and sleep depravation if all you are doing is writing adventures. We only released 9 very good adventures a year. It was still insane work. 1/3rd of our authors would give up, unable to meet standards.
Maybe another 1/3rd still required what felt like rewriting half the text. The rest just required 3-4 sleepless nights of polish. Yup, those were the easy ones!
But, adventures are only part of the job. You have to also work conventions, advertising, working with fans and volunteers, distribution, and also listen to feedback and change rules.
Because you can’t do it all, you pick and choose. You do what you can. There were things I wanted to do, knew I should do, and yet the campaign ended without them. Being an admin is about tough choices.
Fans may think the admins don’t see things. They see them. They even designed knowing that problem. But they likely also saw many other problems, and had many hard choices to make.
Working with admins in Living Greyhawk and LFR really opened my eyes. I have undying gratitude for this who have served as admins. It is an incredibly demanding job.
Admins, especially the most experienced ones and also the brand new ones, oft n see something others don’t see. The need for periodic change. New admins question why a rule is the way it is.
Experienced admins have seen so much that they realize that without change, the play stymies and the players and DMs fall into ruts. They also become too close to the rules and begin to believe change can never come.
It’s also important to try new things. We can’t learn without new approaches. We can always go back. And, at times we do. We often mash two old thing together, or take an old aspect but implement it in another way.
Some of the best aspects of play we have today, not just in organized play, come from experiments made in organized play. Those experiments are vital.
Change is painful. Change is necessary. The AL admins have implemented changes, and it’s clear they understood that adoption would be tough for some. They’ve been giving out hints for a while, trying to help prepare us.
Any one of us will have a feeling that some aspect could have been handled differently. You know what? Every admin feels that way too.
If you are in the AL, I would urge you to consider all of this, and to learn about it. The more you interact with admins (at cons, through social media, etc.), the more informed your perspective will be.
Hang out with marshals and DMs and admins at a convention. Get a feel for what they do and how hard they work.
Know that change will come again. The constant in organized play is change, and it must be. The game will be healthier for it. If you can see that, help others through the tough times.
They are tough times. For admins and players and DMs. Seldom are admins sure that the change was 100%. They still deserve our respect and care. If you see admins, start by thanking them for what they do, not by discussing your pet peeve.
It’s easier when we realize they are human. They are weathering an imperfect set of choices. They are fans. They are like us. As con season kicks in, give them the respect they are due and help educate those around you. (End)
