So this past weekend my daughter and I started our AL journey. Went to the local game store where they were running it. Now, beforehand I had done a decent amount of reading up. I wants things to go smoothly, and wanted to be prepared. I had been told beforehand that we were in Season 8 (which I then read up on) and that for the session we’d be running ToA. Gnarly setting, so we came with a Divine Sorc and a Ranger.

The session went amazing. We had a ton of fun, my daughter did great remembering the things she could do, there was a good bit of RP. Overall a good table. We completed the module at 3.5 hours. Session ends and I pull out our AL logs. We get 350xp, and the 50g from our completed quest.

Now here’s where things get concerning. I bring up the whole Season 8 ACP/TCP thing, which the GM running the table confirms...and the main GM running at a different table kinda goes over all of it for the GM at our table, no problem. But wait, the module was only supposed to take an hour...so 1 ACP. Since we took more time due to RP, and because he was newer to GM’ng AL, and coaching my daughter through turns since she’s brand new, our 3.5 hour amazing session was only rated at 1 hour of content.

I feel like we were penalized for our RP. What was this great session ended up leaving a slight sour taste in my mouth. Is this normal for AL? Where hammering through combat and encounters is more encouraged than RP and flow of the session? And we don’t even get to keep the stuff we got in the session?