Has the RPGA failed?

[JoeGKushner]

I keep seeing threads about how impossilbe it is to find a group.

Isn't the RPGA supposed to help out in this regard?

Do you use it? Is it too 'formal' for you?

Are you just uninterested in it?

I've never messed with it myself, but I've had some solid groups in the past so not a big deal.

 

[EricNoah]

I have to say ... even after all this time, I don't totally know what the RPGA's purpose is. I was even a member for a while (to get the free stuff and because at the time some of that free stuff -- i.e. Polyhedron -- could provide valuable pre-3E hints/news). But I never "did" anything with the membership per se.

 

[CarlZog]

I'm with Eric on this one. I've never understood it either.

Mind you, I joined the year it started, but that was just 'cause you got a magazine, a certificate suitable for framing and a nifty membership pin! I let it run out after a couple years.

Is matching individual players with regular groups one of its goals?

I thought it pretty much just organized convention games.

Does it have a mission statement or some kind of stated goals.?

carl

 

[JoeGKushner]

I have to say ... even after all this time, I don't totally know what the RPGA's purpose is. I was even a member for a while (to get the free stuff and because at the time some of that free stuff -- i.e. Polyhedron -- could provide valuable pre-3E hints/news). But I never "did" anything with the membership per se.

Ditto as far as the Polyhedron. Loved some of those old articles and bits in it.

 

[Melkor]

I've been a member for quite a while now, but I'm with Eric – I still don't know what exactly the RPGA really does.

 

[JesterPoet]

I don't really participate in the RPGA either, though I've been thinking about doing the new Eberron thingy they have going on.

But the free battlemat they gave me for joinging (since I joined before they made it free) was a really nice deal.

 

[DevoutlyApathetic]

Any of you guys play in the Living campaigns? That is basically what the RPGA does. They're a mixed bag.

Well in my opinion most of the campaign are pretty bad with weird/silly/lack of rules. (25 point buy in Ebberon....right.) What the campaigns lack the people can make up for. I've met some simply great guys through RPGA play who can make the 'eh' campaign's games great fun. That's really the only thing I can recommend about them.

 

[shaylon]

I play in RPGA sponsered events occasionally at my FLGS and at Cons, but I think that the RPGA has serious problems and I believe that veteran gamers are quickly put off by them.

A couple of examples from an RPGA adventure I DM'd as a one shot for my regular group.

-There was a murder in the module and the PC's were investigating. The module required a heal check (DC 25 IIRC) to determine certain things about the murder. I thought this wsa the strangest thing, and so did my group.

-One of the grey boxes was missing the last three or four sentences leaving an "ad-lib" moment.

-There were countless mispellings

-They seem to have a terrible railroading effect. I understand that there are goals that need to be accomplished in a set amount of time but there are many published adventures that do this and don't make the party feel like they have only one choice.

I think that the RPGA can be good at getting people to start playing the game but with their mistakes and sometimes odd ways they turn a lot of people away as they get better at adventuring. Oh and I have never played in an RPGA event where I met a stranger and we continued to play, although I did hang with a couple of guys at the RAM after a Green Regent game last year.

-Shay

 

[IronWolf]

I am an RPGA member. I joined when I started getting back into the game as an easy way to maybe meet some folks and get at least some sporadic gaming. A friend and I joined in on the Legacy of the Green Regent track at Gen Con 2004. It was an easy way to find a game that almost certainly be played at a con (i.e. there would be a DM to run it) and it sounded like fun. We've also played an event or two at a game day at a local store. We even home ran two of LotGR modules from a Con we didn't make it to.

Frankly though I am pretty disappointed in the RPGA. My experience has been with the LotGR track which was supposed to run for two years with the finale at Gen Con Indy 2005. About nine months ago support for the campaign was awful with little communication from staff to players. This includes last minute level bumps and such. The campaigns standard download contains several errors and has not seen an update in some time. And to top it off it is rumored the finale will not be running in Indy, but moved to SoCal. All this learned from rumors of course and no official announcement that I have seen. So I have had a sour taste left in my mouth from the whole thing as their interests seem to have shifted to the Mark of Heroes campaign. We will probably end up playing the finale at some game day or home game and then I am probably done with the RPGA.

 

[DevoutlyApathetic]

I see IronWolf knows the pleasure that is associating with SRM.