I'm curious about the RPGA...

vulcan_idic

Explorer
Hello,

I've known about the RPGA for a long time now, but I've never participated. I'm in Germany at the moment but in December or so I'll be moving back to my hometown of Champaign Illinois and rejoining my home campaign. When I do I was also considering beginning to participate in RPGA events just for fun, but although I know about the RPGA and I've heard about Living Greyhawk, Mark of Heroes, Living City, and so on, I really don't know a whole lot about them, whether or not there are any events in the Champaign Urbana Area or really what to expect from such a game. Are RPGA folks generally friendly to newbies? I've been playing D&D for at least 10 years, just never with them. Any advice?

Thanks!!
 

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Eh, It's a very mixed bag. I play (and run) Living Greyhawk games on occasion, and I've been in RPGA games that were great, and RPGA games that were terrible.

The people that play in the adventures are often nice people who are fun to play with, but there are also a lot of over-the-top min/maxers and downright cheaters--Because the individual DM running your game probably isn't that familiar with your character, you have a lot of opportunity to bend and break the rules when a DM's knowledge of some specific tactic is fuzzy.

Plus, whenever you run into genuine optimizers, you also run into people who think they've discovered ways to cheat the system, but are really just wasting everyone's time with tactics that look impressive but are no more powerful than a standard attack.

The adventures themselves are often a mixed bag as well. Firstly, they're often uninspired, railroady affairs--One adventure that was specifically described as "non-linear" merely presented the same four fights in a different order based on one choice that the group makes at the beginning of the adventure. Once the adventure actually started, they could make no decisions about what to do or what pace to do it in.

Secondly, they're often set up with the worst players in mind. That means A) The roleplaying is optional at best and nonexistent at worst, so that the folks who can't roleplay themselves out of a wet paper bag can still handle the adventure. and B) The encounters are usually set up to challenge the Min/Maxers, so if your characters aren't optimized, your in for a tough (and usually unsatifying) slog.

Thirdly, Adventures are usually intended for a broad range of character levels, but the authors don't really take into account what variously-levelled characters are capable of. In some cases, characters can break the adventure simply by using the high-level spells they've earned access too. In other cases, characters are put up against foes they simply lack the resources to defeat (DR + fast healing+flying vs. a first-level party, permanent status ailments before the characters have access to curative magics that can remove them, etc.) And in some cases, the combats are just plane ridiculous because the high-leveled characters are reverse-engineered (One adventure had characters going up against a mage in full plate--At the higher APLs, he had some ability that let him cast spells while armored, but at that level, his spells just failed half the time.)

Really, There are only 3 reasons to Play Living Greyhawk:
1) Not enough players or not enough time to have a regular game. RPGA's biggest strength is its ability to bring random strangers together for a game. And even if you've got a group, RPGA can help your GM cut down on the prep time. RPGA is a vast source of free premade adventures
2) GM sucks (for whatever reason). The highly-structured adventure format that leaves little wiggle room can be really helpful for the novice (or merely crappy) GMs. In fact, running RPGA adventures is a good way for a novice GM to beef up his rules mastery and table management skills.
3) They can be fun. More that half the time, RPGA adventures I run or play in end up being mindless combats. As someone who doesn't even like mindless combats, I end up walking away from the table with a smile on my face 70% of the time, simply because I'm playing D&D with a good group of people. If you do enjoy mindless combats, then you'll probably have even more fun than I do.

(Note, I only ever play in Living Greyhawk Adventures (most of which are Nyrond Regional or MetaRegional adventures). I don't know how similar the adventures I play are to adventures from different RPGA campaigns (or even just differend LG regions).
 

vulcan_idic said:
Hello,

I've known about the RPGA for a long time now, but I've never participated. I'm in Germany at the moment but in December or so I'll be moving back to my hometown of Champaign Illinois and rejoining my home campaign. When I do I was also considering beginning to participate in RPGA events just for fun, but although I know about the RPGA and I've heard about Living Greyhawk, Mark of Heroes, Living City, and so on, I really don't know a whole lot about them, whether or not there are any events in the Champaign Urbana Area or really what to expect from such a game. Are RPGA folks generally friendly to newbies? I've been playing D&D for at least 10 years, just never with them. Any advice?

Thanks!!

In February in Champaign there is a great little Con called Winter War. The last few years there has been an extensive list of RPGA games. I have not played in them, but it may be a great way for you to test the waters.

Good luck and welcome back to Chambana!
 

arscott said:
Eh, It's a very mixed bag. I play (and run) Living Greyhawk games on occasion, and I've been in RPGA games that were great, and RPGA games that were terrible.
Pretty much what he said. I met some people that I would like to game with again, but by and large, they were the min-maxxing munchkins and/or smelly fatbeards that everyone seems to prattle on about.

That's my experience, anyway. YMMV. You just have to go give it a shot and see if it is for you.


poge said:
In February in Champaign there is a great little Con called Winter War. The last few years there has been an extensive list of RPGA games. I have not played in them, but it may be a great way for you to test the waters.
I'm going to make an effort to make it over for that next year.

__________________
 

arscott said:
Eh, It's a very mixed bag. I play (and run) Living Greyhawk games on occasion, and I've been in RPGA games that were great, and RPGA games that were terrible.

Pretty much what he said, although I'm a bit more optimistic about Living Greyhawk than he is.

The advantage of the RPGA ... lots of different people to play with. You can learn a lot about roleplaying by seeing different GMs and different players. Relatively easy to find a game.

The disadvantage of the RPGA ... lots of different people to play with. There are some people that can be annoying at times.

Living campaigns like Living Greyhawk have their own issues. The good part is that your character can travel from table to table. The bad part is that the magic item system and equipment and accounting was a mess the last time I played, although I don't know how it has changed in the last year or two.

Modules are very railroady and combat intensive.

However, there are opportunities to roleplay, you just need to take them.
 

The RPGA helped me meet a large number of other gamers, from which I've established most of my meaningful friendships in moving around the U.S. Convention gaming or home gaming alone is nice, but whereas you've also always got someone to game with in the RPGA because of the "Living" factor of gamedays.

Home gaming, DDO, and conventions will come and go, but the RPGA goes on.

It's nice to have it all :)

jh

..
 

Endur said:
Living campaigns like Living Greyhawk have their own issues. The good part is that your character can travel from table to table. The bad part is that the magic item system and equipment and accounting was a mess the last time I played, although I don't know how it has changed in the last year or two.

I wouldn't call it a mess, though it does require a fair bit of paperwork (assuming you're talking about Living Greyhawk here). Other campaigns do things differently.

Endur said:
Modules are very railroady and combat intensive.

That depends an awful lot on the campaign, and the module. Even LG has "roleplaying-intensive" modules...and other campaigns, such as Living Death and Living Arcanis, have a very different feel, and are pretty roleplaying- and story-intensive.

As with Emirikol, I've met a lot of good friends, and good gamers, through the RPGA. Yes, I've also met a few folks I wouldn't want to game with again, but you'll encounter that with *any* convention-based game, so don't blame the RPGA for that.

Also, for the original poster:
- You can check out the RPGA's web site (www.wizards.com/rpga) for more info on the various campaigns. Living City, which you specifically mentioned, is no more.
- There's an active group of RPGAers in Champaign (I believe it's called Circa), mostly playing Living Greyhawk. The LG campaign is divided into regions; Illinois and Indiana are in the Verbobonc region. You may want to join the Verbobonc Yahoo Group (http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Verbobonc/), which has, among other things, announcements of conventions and game days, and may help you find other gamers in Champaign.
 

I have never participated in any of the RPGA's "living" campaigns, but the idea is certainly appealing. Just out of curiosity, for those of you who do participate, do you actually get the sense that you are adventuring in a dynamic, living, breathing world, or is it more like a series of one-offs loosely strung together? Not sure if I'm making my question clear here. Do events in one region ever cross over and effect events in neighboring regions? Do you feel like your characters' actions actually affect the world you're playing in? Has anyone attempted a history of any of the "living" worlds that takes into account these world shaping events?
 

pogre said:
In February in Champaign there is a great little Con called Winter War. The last few years there has been an extensive list of RPGA games. I have not played in them, but it may be a great way for you to test the waters.

Good luck and welcome back to Chambana!

Cool! That sounds very interesting - an idea time to give it a try. Where do they hold that do you know? Where can I get more information? Do they post signs in FantasyRealm (gaming store on campus green st.), if it's still around?

And thanks for the welcome back - maybe I'll run into you sometime!!
 

francisca said:
Pretty much what he said. I met some people that I would like to game with again, but by and large, they were the min-maxxing munchkins and/or smelly fatbeards that everyone seems to prattle on about.

That's my experience, anyway. YMMV. You just have to go give it a shot and see if it is for you.



I'm going to make an effort to make it over for that next year.

__________________

I kind of got that feeling last time I really heard about it a lot - I worked with a guy about three years ago who did it a lot, running and playing, and that was basically his sentiment. He's actually what I got most of what I know about it all from.

If you do I hope we run into each other... and that I'm one of the former types rather than the latter! :)
 

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