Has the RPGA failed?

[Perithoth]

Has the RPGA failed? Kind of an open ended question. If the origional poster has defined what the goal was in the first place I could reply to it.

As it stands, each reply to this post is glimpse into the expierences of each poster.

Here is my story:

Old school gamer (started back in 1979 with 1st Edition) and Greyhawk lover. Stopped playing in the 90s and came back when Living Greyhawk was introduced by the RPGA in 2000.

For me joining the RPGA was a godsend as I could pick up and play anywhere, my PC was portable. I didn't have time to run my own home game or time to join one run by someone else.

* In the 5 years I have been a member I have met many gamers who I would never have met otherwise.
* I have played some sublime adventures and some really bad ones too.
* There has been tremendous changes to the RPGA even in the last 5 years, some good, some bad.

Some things to think about for those old school Ex-RPGA players.

1) Memebership is free
2) The GM program is slowly but surely being rebuilt
3) Home Games can now be reported for reward points
4) The RPGA will evolve, constantly. If you don't like change stay away.
5) For those that do not have a steady group, it is a great way to meet people.
6) It is mostly staffed by volunteers, the membership has grown explosively, and the intimate group it was for TSR is not possible today.
7) Did I mention, Home Games now can be reported...

Bryan Blumklotz
AKA Perithoth
Lord of Grumpiness

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Is it true that you can only acquire certain items in the sessions? For example you can't loot the body of a dead PC becuase of certificates and stuff like that?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Is it true that you can only acquire certain items in the sessions? For example you can't loot the body of a dead PC becuase of certificates and stuff like that?

Essentialy true.

You can lute the bodies of everything. But you can't keep anything above a set cap amount based on the average party level.

I had played in many many adventures where we looted more than the cap amount and used the over-cap to pay for things like healing, reincarnate, raise dead, lesser planar ally costs.

There is a good reason for this. The D&D system assumes a specific amount of treasure owned by PCs. The limiting of the amount of treasure value (coins, equipment, or magic items) that a PC could walk away with from an adventure keeps characters balanced with each other with regards to this aspect of D&D. Create Item feats are limited in ways also to keep the treasure balance. Someone can't get a cohort with Create Item feats for instance.

In the past, characters could walk away with whatever they could "Greyhawk" off of the corpses of enemies. Some players in the past abused this terribly and amassed a significant treasure base with which they bought vast amounts of magic items. Combined with certain D&D 3.0 quirks, you got things like characters with dozens of potions of haste, dozens of potions of shield. Imagine a fighter quaffing a potion with 3.0 haste and potion with 3.0 shield, and having dozens and dozens more in their bag of holding, all bought with excessive amount of treasure above what D&D assumes PCs of specific levels have... yeah... abuse. It's one of the big factors that led to Living Greyhawk getting into an arms race between authors trying to challenge PCs who abused the system, and PCs finding more ways to crack the 3.0 rules obnoxiously. That's just one story of how prior treasure systems were abused.

[edit]: Added: Each adventure also does list specific magic items and special equipment that can be aquired, and you are limited to picking from those items. You must purchase the items, but you cannot use the over-cap treasure to buy these. (Still, you can use any found item during the adventure you find it as much as you wish, you just can't take it with you when the adventure is done.) Items are listed with access restrictions (any), (regional), (adventure). (Any) can be bought at any time, (regional) can be bought during any regional adventures or metaregional adventures, (adventure) can be bought within the next three adventures after which you lose access until you get access in another adventure.

 

[kenobi65]

Eric's reply is accurate for Living Greyhawk. Each RPGA campaign has its own rules on wealth, magic items, etc. But, one of the things that I believe is pretty much standard across RPGA campaigns is that, if a PC dies, his stuff "goes with him."

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Many of these stories make me sad. I mean it sounds like the RPGA is certainly a benefit to some but for most it just doesn't meet its own goals.

 

[MerricB]

A quick note on RPGA record-keeping for ongoing characters:

D&D Campaigns: Mark of Heroes and Legacy of the Green Regent
In these campaigns, your character's advancement is tracked online. At the end of the session, the DM answers a series of online questions on how well you did, and the character gains XP and gold accordingly. When you log on to your account, you can find the current Level and Gold of the PC.

Before each session, you can basically recreate your character. Your race and starting class are set, as are your current level and GP value, but everything else can be changed.

A standard set of generic questions (taken from the Mark of Heroes: DM Mark adventures, where individual DMs create the adventure themselves) are:

1) Did the PCs reach the adventure objective or objectives?
-> a) All or most objectives.
-> b) Some, but not all objectives.
-> c) None of the objectives

2) Did the PCs defeat the adventure encounters?
-> a) All or most of the encounters.
-> b) Some, but not all of the encounters.
-> c) None of the encounters

3) Did the PCs earn and retain most of the treasure in the adventure?
-> a) All or most of the treasure
-> b) Some, but not all of the treasure.
-> c) None of the treasure

4) Rate the group's roleplaying
-> a) Fantastic. Everyone had interesting and fun characters that interacted with the adventure in very fun ways.
-> b) Good. Most everyone had interesting and fun characters that interacted with the adventure in very fun ways.
-> c) Okay. There was some roleplaying.
-> d) None. They treated the adventure only as a set of objectives. There was no role-playing.

(Other adventures have more specific questions, but that gives you an idea of what they're like).

If you find a magic item in an adventure, you can use it for the course of that adventure. After that, you have to spend some of your total wealth to have such an item (assuming it isn't special).

Some items are story objects which PCs gain as certificates after play.

Living Greyhawk
After the abuse of the certificate system in Year One, the game has settled down to the Adventure Record system. Basically, after each adventure, you get a sheet of paper (the Adventure Record, or AR) which is filled out with your XP totals, current GP, purchases in the session, magic items encountered, special favours received, etc.

XP gained and GP gained are capped by how difficult the adventure was. So, a group playing at Average Party Level (APL) 2 will not get more than 450 XP and 450 GP each; a group playing at APL 6 will not get more than 900 XP and 900 GP each, etc. (The actual caps slightly vary on the sheets).

Magic items encountered may be used during the course of the adventure. After that, every PC has the chance to buy them. This access comes in a number of different types, and is marked on the ARs.

Adventure access (the most common) allows the PC to buy the item only within 3 adventures of playing the adventure. This represents them taking the item in the adventure, the grace period is because they might not have enough GP to take really nice items straight away.

Core or Regional access allows the PC to buy the item at any time after a core or regional adventure from that point on. This represents finding a shop or ally who can provide the item to them.

"Any" access gives the PC access to the item from that point forward.

All characters can always buy (almost) anything in the PHB, as well as the following items:
* +1 weapons, +1 armour, +1 shield, +2 stat enhancer, scrolls or potions in DMG up to 750 gp value, +1 ring of protection, +1 amulet of natural armour, +1 bracers of armour, +1 cloak of resistance.

Anything else must be found.

Cheers!

 

[kenobi65]

To build on Merric's excellent summary, most other current RPGA campaigns still use some variation on the "log and cert" system for record-keeping, as originally used in the Living City campaign.

You maintain a logsheet for your PC, recording relevant data on each module you play (module name, date, DM, XP gained / spent, GP gained / spent, etc.) (In Living Greyhawk, this info is part of what's on the Adventure Record. In MoH and LotGR, this info is part of your online character record.)

Specific treasures (both concrete, like magic items, and abstract, like favors) are represented by certificates ("certs" for short). If the party found a +2 longsword on one of the bad guys they defeated, there'll be a cert for a +2 longsword at the end of the module. It's up to the players to decide how to divvy up the treasure at the end of the event.

 

[LordStorm]

RPGA, Living Campaigns and the death of Classics

I have been a member since the early 90s (it was my second membership). I have played D&D for a long time and at conventions since the early 80s. I am generally happy with the RPGA and so are my 4 kids that play now as well. I actually agree with both the critics and fans of the RPGA.

Classics fulfill a different need than Living Campaigns. I played lots of classic modules (RPGA and non-RPGA - assigned a pre-gen'd PC) and found that while fun, they were like chinese food, always hungry an hour later. With a Living Campaign I found the perfect home and con campaign. I can play when I want to (per my schedule), Judge when I want to. I can go to lots of conventions and sit down and play my PC(s).

Classics went away as more players decided to play Living Campigns, it was that one idea was "Bad", it was just a choice players made.

BTW The D&D Open is still a classic module, even though it is very competitive and not RP focused.

As for the Living Campaigns, I have played them all at some point, but only play Liv Gryhawk and Death regularly. I'm giving the Eberron MoH D&D campaign and try and so far its fun.

I encourage everybody to give the RPGA a try, and more than once. The gamers are no better nor worse than any home campaign.

Later
Mark S. Middleton
PS helped TSR with playtesting lots of D&D stuff in the 80s & 90s. Provided organized raw text for all the Spell Compendium Books.
PSS author of 3 Veluna LG adventures
PPSS Ran Campcon in Columbus Ohio for several years
etc, etc, etc

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Eric's reply is accurate for Living Greyhawk. Each RPGA campaign has its own rules on wealth, magic items, etc. But, one of the things that I believe is pretty much standard across RPGA campaigns is that, if a PC dies, his stuff "goes with him."

Man if you can't loot your dead comrades how can you call this D&D?

 

[caudor]

I encourage everybody to give the RPGA a try, and more than once. The gamers are no better nor worse than any home campaign.

I think I'll give it another try myself.

I've been tempted to startup a new RPGA group in my area with an emphasis on being player friendly (especially new player friendly). Of course, I'll need to investiage how to go about this first.