Season 9 is Here!

It's here! The Season 9 player's and dungeon master's guides are here. There are a few big takeaways that are worth sharing, dealing primarily with the changes between Season 8 and Season 9. The biggest of them is that there is a predominant philosophy of streamlining the administration and logging in order to make more time for fun.

Before I continue, I'd like to invite you to read the article about Season 9, as well as the Adventurers League Player's Guide (AL PG). For our dungeon masters out there, they've also provided the AL Dungeon Master's Guide (AL DMG), which is also a good read for players, but not necessarily necessary.

The biggest topics at hand are Seasonality, Gaining Levels, Magic Items, Gold, Downtime, Renown, and Factions. Understanding how these work, especially how they work compared to Season 8, will make transition into the new season much less stressful, and will dispel any any misunderstandings and misgivings.

Seasonality

Season 9 is introducing a concept known as Seasonal Advantages. The idea is not dissimilar to the original concept of seasonality, except without the restrictions and there is an advantage to creating a race other than tieflings or aasimar. When you create a character, that character belongs to a season, and those character choices you have available are tied to that season.

For Season 9, when you create your character you can elect to choose the aasimar from Volo's Guide to Monsters (VGM) without making that your "+1" (the general guidance being that you can only use the Player's Handbook and one other source book listed in the AL PG in character creation). In more straightforward terms, when you create your character you can make an aasimar from VGM and still use another book to create your character, but that boon only applies to aasimar.

Additionally, if you choose to play as a tiefling from the Player's Handbook (PHB) or the aasimar from VGM, at 5th level you can choose to permanently replace some of your racial traits for a permanent flying speed without needing to use other AL PG approved sourcebooks.

• Aasimar can replace the Light Bringer trait (which provides the character with the light cantrip) and the racial trait they gain at 3rd level (Necrotic Shroud for Fallen aasimar, Radiant Soul for Protector aasimar, or Radiant Consumption for Scourge aasimar) to sprout wings and gaining a flying speed of 30 ft.
• Tieflings can replace their Infernal Legacy trait (which grants them the thaumaturgy cantrip, hellish rebuke spell, and darkness spell) for the Winged Trait from Sword Coast's Adventurer's Guide (SCAG), which sprouts bat-like wings from the character's shoulder blades and grants a 30 ft. flying speed as long as the character isn't wearing heavy armor.

Fear not, intrepid heroes. If you don't want to play as an aasimar or a tiefling, you won't be punished. Characters that are not aasimar or tieflings can take an Inherited Malevolence during character creation. When you create your character, you can choose to take any one common magic item from Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGE), except magic armor or weapons, a clockwork amulet, a dark shard amulet, a hat of wizardry, or a ruby of the war mage. Additionally, the item taken has a feature from the the table on page 6 of the AL PG. You may choose one of the Infernal Legacy features, or you can choose to roll a d20, to see what kind of dastardly trait your new magic item has.

Gaining Levels

Gaining levels in Season 9 has been overhauled. Advancement Checkpoints (ACP) are out, and milestones are in. This new system is significantly less rigid, and allows for a lot more flexibility for players and dungeon masters alike. There are three conditions with which characters gain a level (to a maximum of 1 level per session):

• When an adventure is completed (such as a DDAL or CCC).
• In a hardcover adventure, the character gains a level when the dungeon master provides a milestone.
• If a character has had 4 hours of play since the last time they gained a level (or 8 hours at tiers 2-4), and the dungeon master hasn't provided a level of advancement after that marker.

Conversely, the player can choose to not advance their character when they meet one of those criteria, in which case they don't level up until they choose to between session or during a long rest.

Whether you choose to advance your character or not, you must still log whether you gained a level at the end of the session. Although not a requirement, it's recommended that you log how many hours that character has been played at their current level (at a minimum of the either 4 or 8 hours needed to self-advance), so you can track whether or not you are able to gain a level with that character, regardless of whether or not the dungeon master has awarded any milestones.

Magic Items

Magic items in Season 9 are once again getting a major overhaul. Don't worry, the magic items themselves aren't changing. What's changing is how you acquire them. Along with the removal of ACP, Treasure Checkpoints (TCP) are no longer going to be a part of being rewarded magic times, but the intent of every player at the table being granted the choice to have the option of getting it will still stay in place. The Adventurers League team achieved this through Magic Item Limits.

The process is amazingly simple. Whenever the party finds a magic item, every player can choose to take any of the found permanent magic items during that session. If the player would like to take any of the newly found magic items, but have reached their magic item limit, they must swap out one of that character's currently owned magic items for it. The magic item limit is determined by their tier:

• Tier 1 (levels 1-4): 1 magic item limit
• Tier 2 (levels 5-10): 3 magic item limit
• Tier 3 (levels 11-16): 6 magic item limit
• Tier 4 (levels 17-20): 10 magic item limit

Legendary items are somewhat of an exception to these rules. If a tier 1-3 character finds a legendary magic item during their adventure, they may not keep it for use. Instead, they unlock it and must wait until that character gets to tier 4 before they can choose to take possession of it. Fortunately, any legendary item found before tier 4 doesn't count against that character's magic item limit.

Trading items has been simplified, as well. Gone are the days of matching both rarity and table. Now, if you want a magic item, all you have to do is match the rarity of items. That means that you still can't trade that Ring of Regeneration for a Cloak of Elvenkind, but you can trade the Cape of the Mountebank for some Bracers of Defense. If players want to trade magic items between any characters at the table, they may do so without incurring penalty, but it costs 15 downtime days to do so for every character involved in the trade otherwise.

Magic items also play a significant role in character death in season 9. In the event of a character death, the player may sell one of their magic items (not including common magic items) for spellcasting services to bring them back to life (or if they are affected by anything that removes them from play). When they do so, that magic item is lost, as is that slot until the character reaches the next tier.

As an example, if a character dies at 7th level, and doesn't have the gold to bring them back into play, they may sell their +1 shield, as well as reducing their magic item limit to 2 magic items. However, when they reach 11th level, their magic item limit is raised back up to 6 magic items. 20th level characters regain their magic items slots after they've completed two adventures.

All that being said, players may still take the option of reviving their character even if their magic item limit has been reduced to 0, or if they have no more magic items they can sell.

In any case, you still have to log what magic items that your character gained and lost during that session. This is still the case for gaining or swapping magic items, trading magic items, or if you had to sell them to return to play.

Gold

There is no doubt that gold is on a lot of players' minds. The short and simple of it is that there aren't many differences between season 8 and season 9. Characters still don't get their gold directly from the adventure. If it's mentioned, the DM still ignores it. Gold is still awarded to the players in amounts based on their tier. The big difference is that it's not awarded when you gain a level. Characters are granted gold by the DM based on the number of hours they play, although there is a maximum amount of gold a character can earn per level. There is a minimum and a maximum amount of gold a DM can grant each hour, too, but DMs are strongly encouraged to grant the maximum amount. The amount of gold granted per level is:

• Tier 1: 10-20 gp/hour (80 gp/level limit)
• Tier 2: 15-30 gp/hour (240 gp/level limit)
• Tier 3: 100-200 gp/hour (1,600 gp/level limit)
• Tier 4: 375-750 gp/hour (6,00 gp/level limit)

Once a character reaches 20th level, their gp limit resets each time they complete an adventure.

While it is required to log how much gold your character earned and/or spent during the session, it's recommended that you also track how much gold you've earned since you last gained a level, to ensure that you have the appropriate amount of gold.

Downtime

Downtime is one of the most streamlined system for season 9. You gain downtime days each time you gain a new level at a rate of:

• Tier 1: 10 downtime days
• Tiers 2-4: 20 downtime days

You must log how many downtime days that you acquired or spent during the session (or between them), and what activities those spent downtime days were used for.

Renown

Renown has had a significant reboot. To start, there are no more renown points. Players don't even need to track renown on their logsheets anymore. Instead, renown is tied to the character's level, with the level of renown aligned with the characters tier:

• Tier 1: Novice
• Tier 2: Adept
• Tier 3: Veteran
• Tier 4: Heroic

Along with each level of renown, characters are granted the option of a renown reward based on their renown level or lower, which is refreshed at the beginning of a chapter or adventure. Novice adventurers, as an example, have access to 1 inspiration and 1 potion of healing.

Additionally, an Adept character gains access to a +1 Weapon, a +1 Shield, a +1 Wand of the War Mage, or a +1 Rod of the Pact Keeper (only one of them). This item should have significant personal value to the character, and should tie into the character's background in some way. As an example, a Folk Hero Fighter might have a retired mentor pass down their longsword to the fighter as a gift for proving themself as a champion of the people. The magic item granted to the character by their renown level applies to their magic item limit, and it can't be sold or traded.

Because renown is tied to a character's level, and there are no more renown points, a new system of renown penalty has been put into place to curb disruptive behavior. There are two types of renown penalties: Long-Term Suspension and Short-Term Suspension.

Long-term suspension is imposed for egregious in-game or out-of-game actions, such attacking another character or persistent disruptive behavior. When a long-term suspension has been applied, that character's access to their renown benefit is suspended for a number of adventures or chapters equal to half their level (minimum 1). If disruptive behavior persists after the penalty has occurred, the DM is given discretion to excuse a player from the game, which means the character forfeits all the rewards from the session, nor can the character play in that adventure ever again.

Short-term suspensions are imposed for less serious, but still disruptive, behavior, such as being witnessed committing a crime, or being found guilty of committing one. Ultimately, it's up to the DM's discretion, but the intent is to curb disruptive behavior. The intent isn't designed to stop players from creative problem solving, such as if all the players at the table (or at least all of the players involved) agree that the fallout of a harmful effect will affect each other, such as casting a fireball that will kill a mob of weaker enemies that will also damage one of the Player Characters (PC). When a short-term suspension has been applied, that character's access to their renown benefit is suspended for 1 adventure or chapter.

Because renown is tied to a character's level, there is no need to track it in that character's logsheet.

Factions

Factions still operate in the same way they have before. Characters can still join any faction they meet the requirements for. A character can only be a member of one faction at any time, and maintaining membership requires that your character have the Safe Haven background feature found in the Faction Agent background in the SCAG. Your character doesn't need to maintain the Faction Agent background to join a faction. They can keep their original background, as long as they change the background feature to Safe Haven.

Beyond the narrative and quest benefits granted to character that are in a faction, season 9 has introduced faction magic items, which come in the form of a magic ring determined by that faction with their insignia. While not unlockable until the character is a seasoned adventurer, this magic item still counts as a part of a character's magic item limit, can't be sold or traded, and is lost if the character leaves that faction. The available faction magic items are:

• Any: Ring of Protection
• Harpers: Ring of Free action
• Order of the Gauntlet: Ring of Fire Resistance
• Emerald Enclave: Ring of Animal Influence
• Lord's Alliance: Ring of the Ram
• Zhentarim: Ring of Evasion

There is a penalty for leaving or changing factions, including changing a character's background feature from Safe Haven to another one. Doing so will incur a short-term suspensions.  While this is normally a tool to enable a DM to deal with disruptive behavior at their table, the short-term suspension isn't designed to be punitive. Instead, it's a way to curb abuse of faction switching without being punished for it in the long-term.

While it's not a requirement, it is recommended to log what faction your character belongs to, if any. This will allow your DM to be aware if your character has access to a faction ring.

Even More

Even though these are perhaps the most significant changes for season 9, this is by no means an exhaustive list. There are more changes, and this article is not meant as a substitute for reading the full ALPG or ALDMG.