RPGA Opinions

Hello-

I need some opinions. Let me state up front that I understand these are opinions, and my milage may vary, offer void where prohibited, etc.....

Anyway, I've been invited to participate in an RPGA event this weekend.

I've been told that much of the RPGA is about the politicing of powergaming munchkins, so I'm a tad reluctant. I'm sure this varies from group to group, however.

What are your experiences with the RPGA?

Thanks for you time.

francisca said:

I've been told that much of the RPGA is about the politicing of powergaming munchkins, so I'm a tad reluctant.

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"Politicking"? Uh, no. Politics almost never come up in the game, ever.

The issue with powergaming munchkins is overstated, but it exists. The issue with the RPGA is that they forbid house-rules. RPGA games restrict the game to the rules as written in the Core rules, and FAQ. Period.

It is then the issue that the parts of the rules that are badly phrased, confusing, or badly thought out are exploited. Nearly every change to spells from 3.0 to 3.5 were due to obnoxious exploiting in RPGA tournaments.

If you are familiar with the Core Rules, you will be fine. If you supplement your gaming with house rules galore, or just wing everything if you can't cite the page in the Core Rules, you will have bad experiences. Bad experiences either dealing with those who are trying to steamroll you into bad rules interpretations, or bad experiences watching rules exploiters walk through adventures.

If you are playing with friends you trust, and who know your style, and with a DM who is familiar with the mod more than just getting it a hour before sitting at the table, RPGA gaming can be very rewarding.

Lastly, most of the players who were bad apples aren't playing much anymore, or have advanced their characters so far, so fast, that you will never have to worry about playing at a table with those players. Level 2 characters don't sit at tables with level 14 characters, in other words.


Regards,
Eric Anondson

RPGA has the same spread of gamer types as homegames, EXCEPT: those who espouse "Who needs rules? Let's just inhale deeply of the toke of freeform gaming. I mean, what is D&D but a bunch of friends talking?" will be fed to the monsters in the first encounter

Format is key here. If the setting is not time-limited, then lengthening 4 hours of combat and quick NPC interrogation to 5 or 6 hours with full RP is a very enjoyable mix.

If the goal is to be done come heck or high water in 4 hours, then don't expect to get
any RP done besides character introductions and witty remarks.

Presuming this is Living Greyhawk we're talking about, and not the series of one-shots known as "D&D Classics" then you have to think of it this way:

"If I and my companions make no effort to RP, there will be none."

Living Greyhawk would have a completely different feel if the same group of six
characters always played together. In practice, most people can't arrange that, so
subgroups of 2-3 players play together most of the time, and the other 3-4
players are people you've not met or gamed with more than five times.

If Living Greyhawk had come out when I was in high school, me and my buddies would
have been a solid lock to play virtually every game together.

Now, I'm 30+, married, involved with my church, non-gaming friends etc. I can make
time to hit the occasional RPGA gameday, and I'm in a 1-2 times a month homegame,
and there's no way for the schedules of almost any six 30+ professionals to merge
very often.

If you're worried about how often you can RP and all that, then I would only
recommend playing RPGA events if you can get at least one other friend to always
play them with you, so you can team up to add more RP to the session.

One big disadvantage of the RPGA is that the same rules booklet that ensures most
judges run things by the rules also limits said judges.

The judge is running a published adventure, and has only minor powers to embellish
it. Even if you had a great in-character RP with some famous NPC in Part 1 of a
series, unless the same judge is your judge for part 2, said NPC won't remember
anything of the cool conversation you had.

After all that, on the bright side, for those of us with busy schedules, it means the
same PC can adventure from level 1 to 10+ with many different judges, enjoying
a potpourri of styles and players, even if the player can't be around consistently
on the 2nd saturday of every month, etc.

Realistically, presuming you can't get a regular group of good RP people who also
understand game mechanics to adventure with, you should seek out a group of
RPGA players (group = club = 20+ players) who are enthusiastic about bringing in
new players and going with the flow to make the game better.

I know of some RPGA judges who are truly "screen monkeys" as depicted in Knights of
the Dinner Table (comic strip and book) and ceaselessly talk during the game about
how parts of the module are poorly written, etc.

I know of some RPGA judges who I wouldn't mind being in a homegame with, who do
their best to accommodate the players, RP when the group wants it, monotone the
boxtext quickly to get to the next combat for the wargamers, and otherwise evaluate
each group of players to help them out.

Most groups will be a mix, with the boxtext read or paraphrased well and at a good
pace, with a DM who can think on the fly, improv RP well, and provide a good
challenge for the players.

You know how at a restaurant, if you say nothing, the meal comes to you as-is on
the menu, with mayo, mushrooms, onions, whatever, and if you want something
different, you have to ask for it?

Same here. If you need an RP-heavy group, you need to recruit it yourself. Freeform
gamers who change rules on a whim, for purely emotional non-logical reasons flee from
the RPGA in droves. They simply don't last in a structured environment.

RPGA is maybe 8 of 10 in structure compared to an average homegame of 5.5 where
the DM occasionally makes exceptions, but always thinks big decisions through, and
has some respect for the rules as written.

If you know the DM and other players, and trust them, then I've just written a few
hundred words for nothing. It's all about the people, not the system.

I think both Eric and atra2 hit some good points, as well as some pitfalls of RPGA play.

Even if you don't know the people you'll be playing with very well, why not play this one time? You really have nothing to lose by trying it once (except for a few hours of time). Assuming it's all low level characters (if it's a "Living" campaign), you'll be fine. If they're all 10+ level and you're brand new (level 1)--don't go.

I new to the RPGA and have had my first Living Greyhawk events (2 of them) at GenCon. The first game was fun, we had a great DM although he had not planned on DMming until later that day and did not have any books. NO ONE at the table had a PH! But it was fun and I had a good time.

The second game, we had a crappy GM. He just rushed through the first Part (The roleplaying part) of the mod, didn't even read one section because it was 'long and boring'. When it came to combat, he went out of his way to kill off characters, often metagaming knowledge about the characters into the NPCs they couldn't possably know about. He claimed it was a badly written mod.

I had some friends who, later in the con, had the same judge and did the same thing to them too. But having heard all the stories about this kind of thing, it didn't suprise me too much. They said he even gloated about killing aff some first level characters the previous day!

Am I going to Quit playing Living Geryhawk? No. I understand that this sort of thing happens, its part of the game.

I can only state my experiance. I have played on RPGA game. One.

The players, were alright honestly. One was a rules lawyer, couple of newbies, and me. The DM though, was horrible. I dont mean to offend but if you have a lisp, you stutter abit, and can't talk without hitting your hand on the table... don't DM. That and she kept making sexual advances on the female player through her male ones at an attmpt at very base humor, it wasn't subtle. It pretty bad. She didn't have her stuff together at all, as we ended up using a PHB as a battle mat, guessing how far we should move with no terrain draw out. The game was 5 hours, and It was mind bending hell. Other RPGA games may not be like that, but I shall never run that risk again.

I think atra2's points are good.

I played in my first RPGA game at GenCon, Legacy of the Green Regent. We had a great table, there was a limited amount of role playing (there was some mind you) but we played Undermountain which was a dungeon crawl and we all knew that going in.

I think RPGA games are good for people who can't get a regular gaming group together. It was also something fun to do at the Con. Of course we had a good DM and good players so I am sure others may have a completely different experience than I did.

Yep, RPGA is good if you go to a lot of conventions and want to play by the rules as written in a preset world.

Since none of these are for me, I have had a bad time with RPGA. This means that I now stay away from it.

For other people, however, it is a godsend. Consider: here is a game where the rules and setting are known from place to place, no matter what. Great for conventions and convention-goers.

Unless you know the DM and the players, you have to think of RPGA games as con games. Sometimes you'll have a good mix of player, judge, and module/story, sometimes, you'll have a bad mix, and most of the time, it'll be ok. If you get involved with the RPGA community, you'll soon get to know who the good DMs and players are and who the bad ones are and you can have a more consistent experience (or at least you'll know that you're getting into on any particular occasion).

Wombat said:

For other people, however, it is a godsend. Consider: here is a game where the rules and setting are known from place to place, no matter what. Great for conventions and convention-goers.

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Also great for people who don't have regular gaming groups, or people that love structure and not using free-form or house-rules.