The Adventurer's League is a catch all term that encompasses officially sanctioned D&D games. There are three different types of sanctioned games, all of which can be played using the same (or different if that's your thing) characters. Encounters, Expeditions, and Epics.
Encounters is a weekly game that takes place over a series of Adventures designed to contribute to the overall story arc of the Forgotten Realms setting and Faerun in general. It is a continuous story line drawing from the Tyranny of Dragons Adventure modules. The first of these is called the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and is where our events will begin.
Expeditions is designed to be a one off type of adventure for both new players and older ones who aren't necessarily looking to devote the time and effort that a weekly game requires. These adventures can be run with the same (or different) character that you use in the Encounters program and are smaller, self contained adventures that are designed to explore the changing shape of the Forgotten Realms.
Epics are much larger, and as the name implies, much more epic adventures run by sanctioned WotC DMs at conventions and other large gaming events; these adventures are Realm-shaking, world quaking events that have a much more visible effect on the world your characters inhabit.
Wednesdays are RPG night at Gamers Link, and if you have interest in playing in any of these different types of events feel free to stop by. We generally start between 7:30 and 8:00. Rolling a character takes little time and we can have you beheading orcs and burning heretics in no time. After that we record each character's experience, magic items, potions, money, hit points, and a few other pieces of information at the beginning and the end of each session. This allows Wizards to see exactly what is going on in our campaign and where we are in the adventure.
I hope I managed to give you a general idea about the different types of play and if you have any other questions you can feel free to drop us a line or contact one of our volunteers.
"There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you're involved in, whether it's a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents, or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things"
--Gary Gygax
