Exquisite Dead Guy said:
I was reading about LotGR on Wizards site and it sounds very interesting. Is here anyone here who has played/gm'd it? What are your thoughts on it?
I play a lot of RPGA campaigns, but I never played LotGR, because most of my RPGA play is done online, and they specifically banned LotGR from online play.
I think it was an interesting idea, in theory, but it suffered from poor execution. They had this idea of having only a small number of modules available at any one time, and fairly short availablility windows for them (a couple of months). (This is compared to Living Greyhawk, which has dozens of modules available, and each module is available for several years).
The problem they ran into was that they were frequently tardy in getting these modules uploaded into the system. Frequently, if you'd go to order an LotGR module to run for your group, you'd find that there were NO modules currently available.
The other problem they ran into was with the "level bumps." At predetermined intervals, they'd ratchet the campaign forward, and automatically advance all the PCs to a particular level. But, they were often late in getting those level bumps implemented, too...I recall that there was a bump that was supposed to go into effect right before GenCon Indy in 2004. Of course, it was late, and they didn't get it into the system until the day before the convention. (This is problematic because LotGR PCs were all maintained on the RPGA computer system...if the system didn't say you were 10th level, you *weren't*.) They actually had the gall to tell players who were going to be playing LotGR at GenCon that they should, once they got to Indy, go to an internet cafe and download their updated PCs there.
The campaign was supposed to have wrapped up at GenCon this past August, but, not surprisingly, the finale modules weren't ready! Allegedly, they're going to do the finale at Winter Fantasy in February, but it's been in a sort of limbo for months now.
Exquisite Dead Guy said:
Does anyone know if it will be available as a commercial product at a later date?
Possible, but I'm not sure I'd count on it. As a rule, RPGA has shown little or no interest in redistributing any of their campaigns in this way (and, RPGA's contracts with their authors have often not given RPGA any republishing rights, anyway).
Exquisite Dead Guy said:
If not, is there a way for me to obtain the whole campaign by joining the RPGA (I'm supposing membership is required)?
Not by becoming a member, no.
Members are only allowed to order / download "active" modules; at this point, for LotGR, only modules #21 and 22 are active and available to be ordered. (And, when you order a module from the RPGA, you have to indicate the date on which you plan to run the module, and you need to report afterwards that it's actually been played, and by who. If you keep ordering modules and not reporting results, eventually, they stop you from ordering any more.)
Also, when you order modules from the RPGA, you're given a link to download the PDF of the module (not a hard copy), and, further, redistributing the modules for purposes beyond official RPGA play is against the rules.
However, many (I'm not at all sure if it's "all") of the LotGR modules were printed up in hard-copy form and distributed to game stores as part of the "Retailer Packs" that WotC regularly sends out (undoubtedly, with the intent that the stores would run the adventures for patrons). You can sometimes find these for sale on eBay.
