Has the RPGA failed?

[Odhanan]

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.

Maybe because bringing players together is not put forward. It emphasizes the "living campaigns" and participating in the RPGA through sanctioned games. Sanctioned games that are not "open" but framed down to the creation of PCs and such. This is a real inhibitor for DMs and players out there, IMO. I do not see how I could even consider joining an association that tries to force rules on me. And that's counter-productive when you try to bring gamers together.

Can you be part of the RPGA without participating in sanctioned, "living" campaigns? And does the RPGA do anything *else* than this? Does it organize con, produce stuff created by its members, and so on? Does the RPGA create OGL living campaigns? About other d20 games than WotC's? With different levels for characters? I don't feel the RPGA is a welcoming environment, but rather a clunky establishment.

 

[glass]

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.

I used to love the old (white cover) Polyhedron. I didn't mind the renamed-d20-Gamer Polyhedron, but it never lived up to its illustrious name IMO.

Also, many years ago, RPGA membership got you a 10% discount at the TSR hobby shop, when such things existed.


glass.

 

[Bill Muench]

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

Okay, you're from Syracuse and you have a low opinion of SRM... I have a feeling I know you, but I can't decide which person you are. Jonathan?

 

[glass]

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

Incidentally, I found my current group (well, most of them) via http://www.accessdenied.net/. Might be worth checking out if you're having difficulties.


glass.

 

[Crothian]

I played in two adventrues with the RPGA this year. THey were bad adventures, just not well written at all.

 

[Bill Muench]

Okay, here's the primary purpose of the RPGA: marketing. It exists to run games and introduce people to D&D. That's pretty much the overriding goal in a nutshell.

I write adventures for Living Greyhawk and Mark of Heroes, and I tend to put things from new products into what I write. In LG that also means I tend to give access to things from new products. If you want to use them, you need the book. If you don't want to buy the book, no big deal, just don't use them. One of the best quotes I ever heard was, "Well! I guess I know who the RPGA works for!"

Duh.

Bill

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Last year some time, I think, the local game club at my graduate institution joined up and tried to do some Living Greyhawk thing.

I think the guy starting it wanted to have a nice structured game environment, with ready-built modules, that could draw in some new players and give the players we already had a regular session. But it died because it was TOO successful, or so I hear. Reports from my friends were that people from out of town showed up to wait all day in line to get into the game and something about the rules mandated a first-come first-play methodology so it was going to end up that every week we'd be running a mini-con for non-local folks showing up from all over the state. While that would be fine in small numbers, it sounded like it was more than the GM was able to handle.

--fje

 

[Piratecat]

Has the RPGA failed? Well, it ultimately failed me - but that's because I turn out to be in a minority.

I joined back in 1989, and have run or played in over 300 modules. RPGA games were the best DM teaching opportunity imaginable - I'd play with amazing judges, and I'd watch them and yoink the DMing tricks I liked the most. I'd play with bad judges, and learn what not to do. Then I'd run games, and the feedback forms people filled out told me exactly what to do and what not to do in the future. If I have any skill as a DM, it is because of RPGA judging. Heck, I won "best RPGA judge" at GenCon for 2 or 3 years straight, and this is why.

In addition, back then the only type of games were modules with pre-generated characters (and pre-generated personalities.) Stepping into a completely foreign PC personality taught me to be a good roleplayer, and I've made great friends with some astonishingly good roleplayers as a result. I have dozens of friends who I wouldn't have if not for the RPGA, people who I love dearly. They liked the same sort of games I did, and we tended to draw together over the years.

Then Living Games started to erode the "classic" pre-gen games. Most people wanted to create their own replayable PC, so fewer players played pre-gen games. That meant that fewer of the good authors wrote them any more, which meant that the games you could play weren't very good. The RPGA completely alienated me when they even removed the character interactions from "classic" characters, giving me no reason whatsoever to play in their tournaments.

This was compounded when they removed the post-game judge rating because it was "too much paperwork." With no source of feedback on how I did GMing, I no longer even had a reason to DM Living Games instead of doing something else. At the time it struck me that they were shooting themselves in the foot, and I still feel this way.

Nowadays I don't participate in RPGA games unless specifically asked by a friend to judge, and I really miss the days when the RPGA was giving me exactly what I wanted. I just don't have much interest in the Living games and the culture that has built up around them, and current RPGA leadership isn't giving me much hope that things are going to improve for the type of game I prefer.

It's worth noting that for some gamers, the RPGA is a fantastic resource. I'm just no longer one of them, and I'm at a loss as to what to do about that.

 

[Quartermoon]

Can you be part of the RPGA without participating in sanctioned, "living" campaigns?

Sure! As a member, you can download any module from their library of adventures from past cons, as well as play. Here's their page describing themselves in detail: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga/hq/newcomers

And does the RPGA do anything *else* than this? Does it organize con

Yes, one called Winter Fantasy, in January. But it has been having problems of it's own, the most obvious is that they can't decide on a site. Used to be In Ft Wayne, then moved to NJ in '04 and VA in '05...no telling where it will be this year.

produce stuff created by its membership

Well, yes...members can write adventures that the RPGA will then supply to cons and game days. And most of their Living campaigns rely heavily on material supplied by member volunteers. But it's not a publisher.

Does the RPGA create OGL living campaigns? About other d20 games than WotC's?

Yes, a few...see the list and links on the page I linked above. Kingdoms of Kalamar, Arcanis, Spycraft & Dragonstar all have Living campaigns.

All this being said, the RPGA has gone downhill for several years. It is very different now than it was when I joined in the mid 90's...it USED to have a terrific tradition of "classic" games--one shot rounds with pre-generated characters--and had a voting and award system that did its best to teach/encourage quality role playing. There were fantastic role-playing tournaments at GenCon every year (yes, they still run the huge GenCon Open, but that has nothing to do with role playing and everything to so with strategy & statistics). There was advancement, so that the better a player you were, the better events you qualified for (thus you could be pretty certain to have a table filled with quality players--I still remember many of the Master's Tournament games I played because the role playing was so supurb!)

Sigh. Then came Living City, their first living campagn, and the idea that you could KEEP the character--and thus all the goodies earned in the event--slowly took over. Without having the characters written to match the adventure (which meant that everyone was crucial to the plot and each other, and complex stories could be played out) much of the depth was lost. Keeping your character from con to con destroyed the freedom to experiment that came with knowing you'd have a new and different character every time.

So, yes, now the RPGA is mostly about the Living Campaigns, and the quality of those depends as much on the local scene for you as anything. I am lucky in that I live near the home base of the Living Death organizers, and I love Living Death. It's the closest thing to a home game that I have. But your milage may vary.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Okay, here's the primary purpose of the RPGA: marketing.

...

One of the best quotes I ever heard was, "Well! I guess I know who the RPGA works for!"

Duh.

This is indeed the best summation of what the RPGA's purpose from WotC's perspective is. Marketing. And not only getting new players into D&D as you mentioned, but also hinted at in the quote heard above. To get players of the Living Campaigns to buy new books.

There are much more than 10,000 active players in Living Greyhawk right now. If a new mod introduces access to some nifty magic item, feat, spell or prestige class from a book, if just 10% of those LG players buy that book "just in case they will want to get that nifty new thing", that's a nice bump in sales. Odds are with some books like the Complete series, 30-40% of LG players might buy them. WotC and the RPGA staff at HQ know this well.

But the experience the average gamer will have with the RPGA comes through volunteer authors, edited by volunteer Triad personel, approved by volunteer Metaregion assistants, run at Cons operated by volunteers, played at tables judged by volunteers who may have only read the mod last night and got 4 hours of sleep where the other players may have only been randomly assembled. Sound like a system where every player just may need to lower expectations? The quality will and does vary from region to region. I have been able to play in to high quality regions, Shield Lands (Minnesota and Dakotas) and Highfolk (Wisconsin), so my experience has been very high quality... still, there have been lowlights in all this time.

Yet if players are aware of this situation, and come to sit at a table at an RPGA approved Con, they can get a fun time out of it. Personally, I don't expect the same type of RPG experience out of an RPGA table as I do with my regular group.

What might an average player can get out of the RPGA? The ability to shepherd and guide a character's development over many years is a big one, an RPGA campaign will never just "wither and die", but will either go to conclusion like with Mark of Heroes in Eberron, or your character will simply "retire" and you can start a new character in the same campaign where your old one has made an impact already... The ability to play in a campaign with standardized rules as close as possible to the Rules As Writen. If you are the type with such an interest but never get to play in a group often enough, you can see how the Rules As Written can be optimized in ways you may have never considered before.