Positives on the RPGA

[Glyfair]

If we wanted to fake results, we'd just fill out forms and not even botrhger playing. The RPGA has a way to play at home and do something for whatever. I don't know what it is or how it works. My friends want to do this, so I am just following the highlty restrictive RPGA rules so I can jion in and have fun.

As far as I know, if you are using the RPGA to sanction your home game (i.e. earn reward points), there are only two main restrictions. You are limited to 4-6 players per session and all players must be RPGA members.

I suspect the "home games" are mostly market research for WotC. They can track how often group that would do this play, and see what worlds they are playing in (you choose to sanction either a Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron or other game).

I've started delving into the RPGA recently to play in the Eberron Mark of Heroes campaign. My general impression is that the RPGA is hit or miss, like any large group. It depends on who you deal with.

However, my experience with the Mark of Heroes tells me that the leaders in the RPGA either aren't doing their jobs, are in over their heads or are given too much to do by WotC without enough resources.

Since the debut of Mark of Heroes at the beginning of the year there have been 5 events you can play in. Of those, 2 have been limited to only Winter Fantasy (or alternate "premiere conventions"), so very few will play in those. Supposedly there are supposed to be monthly "DM's Mark" games where each DM can design their own adventure. They were late on the first and are, again, very late on the second.

In addition, Dungeon magazine has been advertising that you can run Dungeon adventures sanctioned by the RPGA and earn rewards points. I received issue #123 and the last available adventures you could run were in issue #120. After getting absolutely NO response from the RPGA or WotC (and the run around from their new support system), I concluded they had stopped supporting Dungeon.

It finally took an email to the editors at Dungeon (asking why they were still advertising it when the RPGA had stopped supporting it) to get an answer. They stated they didn't hear anything and would check with the RPGA. A day later the Dungeon adventures were updated in the database (kudos, to James Jacobs and Eric Mona for the quick problem solving).

On the other hand, I've heard good things about the Living Greyhawk campaign. I expect, however, this varies from area to area, depending on who is in charge.

From this I've decided that the RPGA can be worthwhile, as long as you don't expect anything from anyone in charge. They seem unconcerned with the rank & file members, and certainly not with communicating with them.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

There are a few things to keep in mind about the RPGA:

First, the play experience will vary widely depending upon the campaign, region, and people.

The people and region you're playing in should be no-brainers. Captain Obvious makes statements like "D&D games will be dramatically different expereinces with different people." That's true for normal D&D games and it's true for the RPGA.

The campaign is also something that should be a no-brainer, but tends to get overlooked in general discussions of "the RPGA." Nobody would expect Pete's Midnight game to be the same experience as Joe's Forgotten Realms or Susan's Talislanta/Cthulu crossover game. You would expect that, in one, an adventuring party might have a formal charter and play options are severely restricted, and another has a more lasseize fair attitude.

Well, that's true of the RPGA as well. The RPGA isn't just one campaign. In fact, the different campaigns will generate somewhat different experiences. In the Living Greyhawk campaign, for instance, treasure division is abstracted (though obviously based on the "sell everything at half price and buy it out of your share if you want it" method). There are then some rules for what you can buy and what you can't. (Generally, you can buy things you've found in the adventure or that you find if you run into people who will sell it to you). Character creation, on the other hand, is fairly straightforward. You don't need any cards or anything like that, and with a few exceptions (mostly Sandstorm stuff that's allowed for characters created for a new Bright Desert module series), it's all available to everyone.

Living Arcanis is somewhat different. You divide up the treasure at the table after every mod which means that sometimes your party of first level adventurers finds a +2 amulet of natural armor and someone walks away with that while everyone else gets nothing. The concrete method of treasure resolution is a lot more flexible but takes more time and can sometimes lead to conflict. As for character creation, all of the options are available to you right out of the gate. It's either allowed or it isn't so there's no "you need a card to play this."

The Ebberon and Legacy of the Green Regent campaigns are the most abstract of all in their record keeping. You just print off your character record which tells you how much gold you have and you buy equipment out of it. It doesn't need to stay the same from mod to mod and, for the most part, it's just assumed that you found whatever you want. Character creation in both campaigns uses a variety of cards to open up various options from the Ebberon, Forgotten Realms, or Complete books.

Living Death and Living Force, etc, I've not played at all, but they're different in their own ways, I"m sure.

As for the modules, I'd say they're a mixed bag. In general, I think they're about as good as what you'd find at a randomly chosen con game if you exclude a good chunk of the worst ones as well as the really good non-traditional (no combat, etc) ones. In general, however, they're pretty good and a good DM can make nearly any of them into an enjoyable experience. (I'm partial to the ones I've written, but there are a lot of good authors out there).

So, how do RPGA games compare to generic homegames? Well, in general, they're less tailored to the particular characters and tend to be less player driven than some home games can be. This is good for some game groups (I remember watching my home group flounder about looking for "the adventure" when I decided to try letting the players direct the story rather than doing it myself). However, it's the tailoring to particular characters and groups that is probably the main strength of a home game vis a vis RPGA games. You're probably not going to have your archnemesis stalking you for ten levels in an RPGA game. In most of the campaigns, you'll have shorter, more discrete adventures.

So why would you play an RPGA campaign as a home game?
1. You don't have a steady and reliable group. The RPGA enables you to play games with a wide variety of different people and still maintain continuity of character and know that nobody's bringing in a +5 vorpal holy sword of doom that their "previous DM" gave their character. It also lets people who missed a session catch up in experience, etc. outside the immediate group. With the RPGA, you can have a regular game with 6-8 people, some of whom are likely to miss any given session, and a few other people who play with the group occasionally.

1.5. The RPGA is also good for playing more D&D without being tied to a fixed schedule. For instance, I play in a home game on Monday nights, but I enjoy playing more often than that. I'm not interested in starting a second group though. So, I play Living Greyhawk and Living Arcanis some weekends or at cons in addition to the home-game.

2. If you don't have a consistent DM. With RPGA modules, you can switch DMs every session and everything will more or less keep on humming. My home group keeps several campaigns running (3 or four of us DM and we switch campaigns every few months), but sometimes we reach a stopping point in one campaign and nobody's ready to pick up theirs. At that point, we often play a Living Greyhawk game or two while the next DM preps his campaign.

3. Your DM doesn't want to write his own stuff--or isn't any good at it. The RPGA modules--or at least the majority of the Living Greyhawk and Living Arcanis modules--compare fairly well to other published modules. In that case, running an RPGA campaign as your home game seems like a reasonable alternative to buying and running modules. It will tend to be different since RPGA mods are designed to run in 4 or 8 hours and a lot of published mods are longer than that. Then again, short stories are just as good a form of fiction as epics and Living Arcanis at least ties a lot of its modules plots together to form a larger tapestry so it might come closer to a mini-series or a Bablyon-5 style TV series in form.

Outside of that, the RPGA is a great way to meet gamers and get to know different playing styles. Since most games will be one offs (with that particular group of people at least), you can meet a variety of gamers and if they suck it's not like they're a part of your gaming group. They're just people you met once for an RPGA game. If they're good, on the other hand, you can game with them more often.

 

[qstor]

Characters who are 11th level being played alongside those who are 1st.

I also don't like the "you have to buy magic items that you found in the adventure out of your alotted character wealth". I appreciate why the rule exists, but when you're playing a low-level character, you simply cannot have any of the treasure that you find in modules, and that sucks. The fact that it's combined with the "you cannot buy magic items that you haven't found in modules" rule means that the system is relying on honesty anyway...

As to playing an RPGA home game? Can't really see why you'd bother, unless you're just doing it so you can fake results to report in and get free cards and minis.

This thread seems to come up every so often, here's my take on the RPGA. As a module writer, player and judge for the RPGA, I've invested a lot of time into the group. I've been asked to be on a local Living Greyhawk Triad too. Sure there's good and bad stuff. I'm found that the good slightly outweighs the bad.

Let me address the two things you mentioned above. In Living Greyhawk, the campaign that seems to have the two issues you mentioned about, 1st level PCs can be played in intro modules which no other PCs can play, I think if your convention/game day organizer is throwing 1st level PCs with 11th level ones, he or she is better off contacting the Triad for intro modules to run for those new players to get their characters up and let the 11th level ones run other games. Just my 2 cents..

As far as not getting the treasure, that's what the standard gold pieces per APL are for. Most of the times are found on the Adventure Record and other things like potions and scrolls under a certain level can be bought anytime after an adventure so a 1st level PC can buy a potion of CLW after a game. It beats Year 1 where there was only one cert of each item after a game and players got screwed if they didn't get the item they wanted.

I've made some friends in the RPGA that I enjoy playing with. I've invested time and life into my PC's and have had color pictures made of them. I enjoy the fact that if I move to California I can play my PC in an RPGA game there.

Prior to starting Living Greyhawk I got some bad experiences with *home game* DMs Living Greyhawk uses standardized 3.5 rules and I don't have to remember house rules or have the DM change the rules on the fly.

I also play Living Force and Living Kalamar. I enjoy both of those games too. I've played a little Living Death and the times I've played that I've enjoyed the campaign.

I'm not a big fan of the D&D campaigns Green Regent and Eberron Mark of Heros. I'm hoping that a new campaign in the Forgotten Realms can be set up after Green Regent ends at GenCon Indy. But I don't thinking anything will happen.

Some people are dropping out since the huge takeover by the RPGA by the marketing department of WOTC. But until it doesn't become fun anymore I'll still stick with RPGA.

Mike

 

[qstor]

Also, at least in these circles, munchkinism is rampant. Depending on your POV, that can be a bad thing.

Thats true of a lot of players in the Living Greyhawk campaign. But in Living Kalamar there are none that I'm aware of, because the campaign doesn't attract those type of players. Living Death is nearly pure role playing. So those 2 campaigns are pretty much munchkin free, IIRC.

Mike

 

[francisca]

Thats true of a lot of players in the Living Greyhawk campaign. But in Living Kalamar there are none that I'm aware of, because the campaign doesn't attract those type of players. Living Death is nearly pure role playing. So those 2 campaigns are pretty much munchkin free, IIRC.

Mike

True! I should have mentioned that my comments were in relation to Living Greyhawk. Thanks for framing them in the proper context!

 

[kenobi65]

As far as I know, if you are using the RPGA to sanction your home game (i.e. earn reward points), there are only two main restrictions. You are limited to 4-6 players per session and all players must be RPGA members.

It sounds like they're playing an RPGA campaign (maybe Living Greyhawk or Mark of Heroes) at home, which would have all the same character restrictions that you'd face playing those campaigns away from home.

It's true that you can now play your "homebrew" home game for RPGA player reward points, but that's a new feature (only within the past year for Dungeon Magazine adventures; only within the past few months for "true" homebrew).

 

[kenobi65]

I've been playing in the RPGA for almost 4 years now. I'd say that at least 90% of the time, it's been very enjoyable. I've met some great friends while playing RPGA games, both at conventions, and online (most RPGA campaigns can be played online).

I think, also, that the smaller / more independent campaigns (Living Death, Living Arcanis, Living Spycraft, etc.) seem to be better managed, because they're *not* being run from RPGA HQ.

I also like Living Force a heckuva lot, even though it is run through HQ. (Though, LF has had its own problems of late, with Lucasfilm holding up approvals on new modules for many months now).

I think that the munchkinism is more problematic in the big "straight D&D" campaigns (Living Greyhawk, and the two D&D Campaigns) that are being run from HQ. Play LD or LF with a good Judge, and you might have a very different view of RPGA than you would in playing Green Regent with a bunch of kids at your FLGS.

I also concur that RPGA suffers from a lack of resources. Their event-ordering system is on an antiquated computer, and they've got very little in the way of dedicated staff.

 

[diaglo]

wish i could change your mind Crothian. but i can't say anything nice about the RPGA since the early days.

it was good then.

but then it got political. and you had to be in the "in crowd". and you had to play it a certain way. and you had to wear .... blahhhh.

i've tried a few living events in the past 5 years...

i'm still not a fan of the RPGA.

 

[Belen]

but then it got political. and you had to be in the "in crowd". and you had to play it a certain way. and you had to wear .... blahhhh.

This is how my previous experience with the RPGA went too. I am rated as a Master level GM, but I only do it in case my friend's who run a game store really need someone to help them out. Luckily, that has not happened as yet.

 

[Desdichado]

but then it got political. and you had to be in the "in crowd". and you had to play it a certain way. and you had to wear .... blahhhh.

What... the "love glove" while playing?

I haven't had tons of experience with the RPGA, despite the fact that I have a member card in my wallet. I did that mainly because one of the guys in our group decided he wanted to get a bunch of rewards by holding sanctioned "home games." Naturally, I didn't think playing "sanctioned" games was much different than unsanctioned ones, with the exception that we'd probably not be playing D&D, but some bizarre house-ruled d20 construct instead otherwise, and there's no Living Bizzare House-ruled d20 campaign.

I haven't had any experience with RPGA "events" but I have to wonder what the point of them is, other than to get gamers together who otherwise don't have groups, or at least groups that meet frequently enough for their tastes. My initial look at the RPGA and the restrictions was a big turn-off too.