Has the RPGA failed?

[Chaldfont]

I volunteered to DM some RPGA games at Gencon in 2002. We didn't get the adventures until the last minute and they were filled with errors and accidental omissions.

For one of the adventures, they screwed up and didn't have the module! So they just photocopied the first dungeon from City of the Spider Queen and gave us pre-gen characters from a completely different adventure. These PCs were customized for a wilderness adventure and had very little equipment. They basically told us DMs to just make it work. The players were all pretty disappointed and they told me that this kind of thing happened frequently.

That was my first and last association with the RPGA.

 

[Ghostwind]

My biggest complaint against the RPGA is how long it takes to process membership forms. In every retailer kit, they provide 2 RPGA forms and 2 DCI forms to sign up. To date, not a single person that I have signed up and mailed in the forms has received any kind of response back (and this goes back to Worldwide D&D Day last year). There is no way you can tell me that every one of those forms was lost in the mail. Simply put, the existing clerical structure SUCKS and provides no incentive for retailers to encourage people to join up, especially when they only provide 2 forms a month!

This is just a symptom of the vast problems the RPGA has. I've been a member for a very long time, but it is virtually impossible for me to have other people to play with because none of them can seem to become members. Wotc needs to establish an online RPGA registration system that will allow folks to join instantly as players. Not wait years for a confirmation card that requires them to then log-in online and finish the registration process.

I could go on, but I think I've made my point. There needs to be a new organized play system that is both retailer and user friendly because it isn't the RPGA.

 

[Glyfair]

My biggest complaint against the RPGA is how long it takes to process membership forms. In every retailer kit, they provide 2 RPGA forms and 2 DCI forms to sign up. To date, not a single person that I have signed up and mailed in the forms has received any kind of response back (and this goes back to Worldwide D&D Day last year).

My understanding is that recently the RPGA was somehow moved under WotC's marketing division. However, they apparently have only three employees that are in charge of everything the RPGA is doing. That seems to include the person responsible for the web updates.

I've started running a few events. I occasionally run some of the Dungeon adventures, and published adventures that points are available for. I also have started running my home games under it, since you can earn points for that. I also have started running the Mark of Heroes campaign.

My experiences, some based on hearsay, is that the Living Campaigns are the best the RPGA has in way of organization. It's not really run by the RPGA, but by volunteers. The participation in your area will pretty much determine how good it is to you (regionally or locally). Even so, the adventures are still produced by amateurs. That means the adventures will range widely in quality (although they have an approval process that theoretically will eliminate the true drek).

The Mark of Heroes has been mismanaged almost from the beginning. I hear the Legacy of the Green Regent was worse. They were supposed to be a regular series of adventures you could run as part of a campaign, with your recurring characters. However, adventures were sporadic and often very late. The adventures have almost no tie into Eberron (indeed, one plotline deals with a "new" plane which really doesn't fit in with Eberron's unique cosmology) and could be for any generic campaign (I do have hopes for the upcoming 7th one, though - it's written by Keith Baker).

Supposedly, there was supposed to be a monthly series of adventures that each DM could use to run their own adventure. Given the number of adventures missed for LotGR campaign, this made sense to keep the campaign going. However, the RPGA couldn't even keep this going and have only had 3 non-convention ones so far, since January (3 out of 8 - not a good percentage.)

Also, they have Dungeon magazine advertising you could run their adventures for RPGA reward points. However, the refuse to keep the website updated with those events. Only by bugging the Paizo people was that fixed earlier this year. I just recently checked and they are just a bit behind, they are missing the ability to run adventures in some issues.

After some discussions on various forums, people who are close to those on the inside (but not officially part of the system) have basically said that the RPGA doesn't care about their participants concerns. I'm sure the staff is overworked and probably is burned out. WotC cleary has it on the bottom of their priorities, or they'd give them enough employees to get out from under their backlog (at least).

 

[Mark CMG]

Strange questions and unfortunate timing. Piratecat and Bearendd Nobeard are two folks who would probably chime in on this but they both may be too busy with Gencon, so we'll see. Make a note, Joe, to bump this thread next Tuesday or Wednesday just to see if you get some posters returning from Gencon with fresh RPGAS stories for you.

I think DA has it right, in that the RPGA is a mixed bag...regionally. I know that here in Illinois/Indiana and in Wisconsin there are many active members who work hard to make sure there are plenty of events and that they are as high a quality as the talent pool can muster, and in some cases that's as good as some professionally published materials. I've made some good friends through the RPGA that I'm sure will continue to be for life, at and away from the game table. I don't currently play in the RPGA but I think it is one of the best tools a gamer can have available to him

The RPGA is largely what you make of it, as an individual, so if you've never even looked into it then it hasn't failed you, you have failed it (but that's not to say you need it in the first place ).

 

[shaylon]

(and this goes back to Worldwide D&D Day last year)

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me! I never got credit for the Worldwide D&D gameday I attended last year and sent messages to the RPGA 4 times via there website and never heard anything. Incidentally that would have been enough play points in the quarter to get a reward points package. I forgot about that. That was pretty upsetting.

I wish it was done well. If they made good adventures and stayed up on announcements, it might be better.

-Shay

 

[Bagpuss]

In the UK we use to have a seperate branch of the RPGA, they use to run a school's tournament, there were regional heats with prizes the winner of each region got (tickets to GenCon UK for the final), the winners of the final got to go to Gencon US.

Oh course when RPGA UK got scrapped and it became just the one US branch, it got cancelled. They also didn't keep the promise to convert remaining RPGA membership into a Dungeon subscription for UK members.

I help DM the schools competition in my region and at the UK final, most of the players had never played D&D before the competition and many were better players than some of the folks I know have been playing for years. I'm sure that competition created lots of new roleplayers. That is the sort of stuff the RPGA should still be doing if anything it should be its core mission.

 

[Joshua Randall]

The RPGA should serve as a clearinghouse for getting groups together. Instead, from my perspective, all it does is sanction Living XXX games. And that's it.

Honestly, take away the Living games, and what else does the RPGA actually do?

 

[Romnipotent]

Living RMIT; Melbourne group with 4+ games a week normally

 

[jcfiala]

My experiences, some based on hearsay, is that the Living Campaigns are the best the RPGA has in way of organization. It's not really run by the RPGA, but by volunteers. The participation in your area will pretty much determine how good it is to you (regionally or locally). Even so, the adventures are still produced by amateurs. That means the adventures will range widely in quality (although they have an approval process that theoretically will eliminate the true drek).

As both a player in RPGA games, and a convention coordinator, I'd have to agree with you there. Here in Denver participation in the RPGA and interest in the Living Greyhawk campaign is running very hot, so we've got great stuff. Our triad is both hard working and enthusiastic, and so we've got some of the best LG gaming around, I think.

It used to be that they helped rate judges and players for skill, and provided interesting one-shot modules that you could play alongside the Living games - but lately they gave that up, and nowadays the one-shot fun is provided by our local authors - of which we have many and talented ones.

When the RPGA folded a couple of people around here tried to start up a replacement organization, but it didn't catch on. In these days of the internet, it seems that a national group for coordinating groups would be replaced with a good webpage with a directory, myself.

 

[direcow]

The RPGA was originally started by TSR and then became part of WOTC once they bought DnD. It's essentially part of WOTC's marketing department. Like most of the posters have said they don't do much outside of the living campaigns, but there are quite a few of those. I play quite a bit of Living Greyhawk, which is going on its fifth year. The campaign itself is mostly run by volunteers so the quality of modules can vary, but I've played through some very enjoyable mods. The nature of the campaign favors power gamers but you do occasionally get some good roleplayers and you get to meet quite a few gamers. I'd say that Living Greyhawk is about as close as you can get to a home campaign. The best part of the RPGA games is that at a con you know that there will be events with judges that show up and with mods that have at least gone through some type of review process. For those of you have been put off by Green Regent, I'd suggest you give LG a try.