While the D&D Adventurers League admins, Regional Coordinators, and Local Coordinators are all over the internet answering questions and facilitating games of D&D, some questions come up often. This article aims to tackle a few of these questions at a time. To see previous questions please review the FAQ Wiki.
Are the articles from Unearthed Arcana on the official site able to be used in Adventuers League?
The only content allowed for Adventurers League Play will be listed in the Players Guide for the current season. Any content not shown in that resource would need to be on a limited-edition certificate and provided by an Adventurers League admin or other approved party (ex: the “Cleric of Death” certificate was handed out during the Tyranny of Dragons storyline to a small number of players, and unlocked the death domain from the DMG for a single character of the recipient’s choosing).
Thus the articles in the new Unearthed Arcana are not playable in the Adventurers League. As stated in the article the rules are written in pencil and not ink. Feel free to use them in your private home games though.
Do Dungeon Masters have to assign the DM rewards they earn for running an adventure to one of their characters immediately, or can they merely note that the rewards were earned and apply them to one of their characters later, essentially banking them to use at a later date?
When DM rewards are earned, a Dungeon Master only needs to keep track of them. Look for the separate logsheet that the campaign is preparing for that purpose. Thereafter, the DM can apply the rewards to his or her characters at his or her convenience. The rewards do not expire and need not be applied to characters within any certain period.
If my item certificate has powers that do not match what is shown in the DMG, can I use those powers or abilities, or do I have to play it exactly as shown in the DMG?
Yes, the adventures often have quirks for the items, but the full item abilities are not always shown on the certificate. Any other powers that might be indicated on the certificate are in addition to the normal description of the item – the elven cloak from Tales Trees Tell, for example, has a permanent endure elements effect on it (and thus, the wearer).