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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StupidSmurf" data-source="post: 2529338" data-attributes="member: 35893">Dropping by a bit late, but thought I'd give my two-cents worth.I was a member of the old RPGA (member # 18996), and I loved the old Polyhedron (my oldest issue is #12). It was my impression that the RPGA was there to organize and promote gaming and keep gamers in contact with each other. If you want to call it marketing, so be it, since marketing can be defined as the process of promoting a product/service  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Here's what I remember that was good/right about the old RPGA:1. Nifty free stuff if you formed an RPGA club (our was the Valiant 13th Regiment).2. Club tournaments at different cons. Meet other clubs! Start a rivalry! Win a trophy!3. A system of journeyman/master/grand master players and DMs, that rewarded good RP.4. The ability for RPGA clubs to playtest TSR stuff (ours helped playtest AD&D 2nd Ed).5. A certain baseline quality/standards for adventures run at cons. While they weren't all perfect, and some stunk, the odds were that if you played an RPGA tourney you could reasonably expect a decent time and something that actually adhered to the rules system featured.6. And this one is the most unforgettable for me: One of the biggest complaints I've had in the past about gaming at cons is no-show DMs (GMs, Keepers, whatever). You plunk down your two bucks, get your ticket, allocate the time slot to play, show up, and BAM...no DM. Congratulations, you're hosed. With the RPGA, at least with my experiences at GenCon starting with Gen Con XVIII, you were guaranteed a seat at a table. And if something got messed up, like advancement to the next round, they straightened it out. I still recall RPGA high-mucky-mucks running around with walkie-talkies, trying to place me at a table when I was accidentally omitted from advancing because someone got my name wrong.7. Club decathalons! Yeah! Great stuff! Your club would participate in a number of events throughout the year, such as playing in various tournaments, or designing a 1-round adventure, or a new item, etc. One year, there was even a skit contest, which our group came in first place and got a nifty trophy!8. Oh, and the RPGA WAS a good way to hook up with people in your area who were looking for a game, especially in those bad old days before the Internet. Ah yes, I remember them well. Me with my Apple IIc, trying to log on to GEnie...ah yes....I had to walk uphill in the snow, both ways, to access a server in those days. And we didn't have those fancy-schmancy mice. Nossir. You used a keyboard and you were glad for it...and..huh? OH..yeah. Sorry.    Anyways.... Yeah, the RPGA was a good way to find players...in fact, through the RPGA, we found a gamer who lived LESS THAN A MILE from my house. Well, actually the gamer found US. See, the RPGA printed a Member Directory, and this fellow found us listed there. Bam. New player, and the guy also baked amazing apple pies.Damn....I'm sounding like an old fart here. I apologize, sort of...I dunno, the RPGA was fun. Sure, a lot of us knew that it was a marketing strategy meant to get more people hooked into playing, but SO WHAT? Wasn't that what we all wanted? More wide-spread acceptance (and perhaps less misunderstandings and game product burnings?)? But the RPGA made it seem like we were all one big happy family (the Addams Family, perhaps, but a family nonetheless...complete with yelling and screaming sometimes). There was the annual RPGA meeting on the night before GenCon officially began, there was the RPGA breakfast during the con (and they gave out service awards!).So what was wrong with the RPGA?THE LIVING CITY. Talk about letting the genie out of the bottle. This got rapidly out of control and became a greedy monster. IMHO, non-Living tournaments suffered when LC got out of control.I'm sure there was more, but that was the most glaring flaw I saw. There was a lot that was right and little that was wrong about the organization. I miss the old RPGA, and have Zero Interest in the new incarnation.</blockquote>

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