Positives on the RPGA

[billd91]

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.

I'm currently running an irregular Living Greyhawk campaign as a home game. We were looking for some RPG to have fun with for occasional session every couple of months. Living GH scenarios work well for this since they generally take 4-5 hours to run and cost me relatively little in setup and maintenance. If I were to run the Adventure Path series in Dungeon (a good alternative) we'd probably have to stop half-way though a module and try to remember what happened 2 months later when we got together again.

The other bonus is that the players can take the very same PCs to any other Living GH campaign in the area or at a con and play them as is for a little extra game time. And that's the reason for the restrictive character options in building, developing, and anal record-keeping. Transportability means you have to follow certain protocols fairly strictly.

If these positives don't apply to you, that's fine. You won't find participation in RPGA as useful. But if you like these options, then RPGA is a good resource.

As far as point of RPGA events: I guess I'm not sure what your comment means. Do you think RPGA events at conventions don't make sense to you? From my point of view, participating in games at conventions with players I've never met is one of the great pleasures of going to a con regardless of how stable my home group is or how frequently we met to play. If we went to a convention and only played with the same group (unless we could only meet at the con), that would be pretty pointless to me.
And with the Living campaigns, not only do you get to play with new players... you get to take your own, lovingly obsessed-over character.

 

[Mr.Black]

I play Living Greyhawk in Texas (Bandit Kingdoms) and I really enjoy it. At first, I thought the game was too restrictive and had too much paperwork. However, it provides a continuous campaign that will always be there with a pretty much level playing field for the players. I've met a lot of good people and made many friends.

While there are powergamers in Living Greyhawk, the same can be said for any home game. Munchkins will be munchkins. I've seen my share of roleplayers and powergamers in LG. It's up to the DM how much roleplaying will be in the module.

 

[wocky]

I'm part of a group of people in Argentina that's been doing monthly RPGA mini-cons for about a year and a half... for around 30 people each. (We also held tables at larger cons... like a D&D's 30th Anniversary event for 250 people).

What's good about it?

Most of all... it provides us with a constant flow of pregenerated adventures. I'm not too thrilled about the quality of the Green Regent (FR) modules, but Living Greyhawk has some very good adventures available. We have around 6-7 DMs at any time, that all prepare the same adventure (or two different adventures at most) for the same mini-con... we sometimes playtest it before, translate handouts and prepare and photocopy battle grids (for specific encounters).

What does it all add up to?

Well... if you are in Argentina and want to play some D&D... it's one of the easiest ways to go. Specially if you don't know any other players, since there's some chance for friendly chat after the game, when many of us stay for beer and burgers. People who met in our gatherings have been known to play outside of them. The pre-gen modules and support from other DMs doing prep for the same module you are make it much easier to run a game, even if you normally wouldn't have enough time.

That said, if any of you happens to come to Argentina, you're more than welcome to come play... we even have an english speaking table!! Just head over to the RPGA forum at www.juegosdeque.com and leave us a note.

 

[Saeviomagy]

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..

You didn't really read my post too closely, did you? The high level/low level thing was a problem with NON rpga modules. RPGA modules that allow any and all levels generally mean it - like some old dungeon modules, the levels of the PC's are largely irrelevant.

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 said I appreciated why it was done, but that doesn't really change the feeling you get when you find out that the cool item you found in a module will be taken away from you, because it'll take at least another two modules (or whatever - I do remember that it's more than one module before a 1st level character gets to 2nd, which doesn't line up with my normal experience of D&D...) to level up, and even then you can't afford to buy one... Nor have you ever, in the mandatory downtime within the game, encountered or been able to find the certain unusual item that you actually want...

To others - the basic point of my comments about faking reports for home games was this - also bear in mind that I've never experienced the new system for sanctioning home games (which sounds like it's a lot less restrictive), this is based on running living style modules for a local regular group:

A home game can afford to not have the item purchasing, character generation and 'you can only have X if you've got a card' rules from the RPGA. Those rules are to regulate strangers, are necessary to do so, and are quite effective at doing so. They do, however, interfere with many's enjoyment of the game in general.

So - if someone wants to play a kalashtar psion, but you don't have the card, then you just do it, and write it up as a human bard in the adventure log. That's the level of faking I'm talking about.

Thus - you've eliminated the downsides of an RPGA game while keeping the upsides (ie - you can get modules and with a little work you can take along a character to conventions, and you get some free minis and can sell campaign cards...)