This sounds a lot like the Mark of Heroes Special Event at Gencon. It is an RPGA event. So each person who plays needs an RPGA number and a character, although they were giving out premade to the new people for 1 dollar (25 cents per sheet for photocopying).
That all being said, it sounds like you still got a bad DM for this adventure, as there was more room for role playing than that in the mod. Still, they are required to run the mod as written. If they aren't given a description of the person, they don't have one to give you.