Sell me on the RPGA

[Reynard]

Heyall.

In seeking ways to play more often and meet new gamers, I am considering joining the RPGA. I was actually a member way back when (late 80s, early 90s) but never actually *did* anything as a member (except enjoyed Polyhedron).

Anyway, these days I have a game I play in and a game I run, but I would like to be able to run games at cons. I have done it a couple times and I love giving strangers a enjoyable gaming experience. So the question is, does joining the RPGS help me do that? Are there other benefits I am not aware of?

I would like to hear from RPGA members, as well as folks that run games at cons, regardless of whether they are members.

Thanks.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

I joined as Gencon as a DM.
Let me say the games are a blast and lots of Fun at least to run.
My only major problem was that the adventures werent well edited.

I'm gonna post something bigger about my RPGA DM experience later.

 

[lordmalachdrim]

Personally I dislike the RPGA if only because they only do d20 stuff now. They use to have other systems like Shadowrun but those were dropped.

When it comes to running games at a Con I've never had any trouble. I contact the people at the Con send them a blurb (system, and short description), they put it in thier pre-reg pack. I show up and run the game. Nice and simple.

 

[Morbidity]

Member of the RPGA. I moved countries and didn’t really know anyone let alone any other gamers in the UK. Still haven’t met any that live within an hour of me. So the RPGA and playing at conventions and gamedays makes sense. Living games are good b/c you get a sense of continuity by playing the same character and being able to develop them as a person … though not as good as an ongoing home game b/c the games aren’t as developed and you don’t play with the same people all the time. You meet lots of gamers: some of whom are very bad, some of whom are very good and have ultra-cute Oxford English accents … hmmm think I may be revealing too much here. Anyway generally everyone is very nice and very friendly. Some of that may be b/c I’m female and females at cons or gamedays are generally in short supply, but I think that gamers are generally a friendly bunch anyway.

 

[TalonComics]

After Living Greyhawk got the year one mods out of the way and fixed the year two mods I've enjoyed playing pretty much 90% of the time.

Also, a big factor for me was seeing total free membership and that modules became free to order instead of 5 to 10 dollars a piece. If a module didn't make you were essentially out that money.

For Talon RPGA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/talonrpga/), our main goal is to bring players in the area together for a day of fun and allow those new to the area a place to meet new folks. Because I'm in a city with two universities that is a major issue for many new gamers to the colleges.

~Derek

 

[qstor]

Member of the RPGA. I joined for the Liiving Greyhawk campaign. I've stuck with it despite a few rules changes and I'll continue to stick with it after the conversion to 3.5. I'm writing a module now as well. I think you get what you put into it. I've also been a judge and author for my old region of Geoff. I enjoy judging at cons since a lot of times judges are in short supply.

I also like a few of the other campaigns like Living Kalamar, Dragonstar and Living Force. One of the things that attracted me was the clean cut adherence to the 3.0 rules after having a few home DM's that mixed 2e and 3e or were out to kill the PC's.
If you're looking for a group or cons in your area you'll have to check the Yahoo! Group for your LG region a lot of RPGA gamers hang out there. Check the RPGA events calender too on the WOTC web site. Unfortunatly to find a regular RPGA game you'll have to have Net access.

Mike

 

[Emiricol]

Member of the RPGA. I joined for the Liiving Greyhawk campaign. I've stuck with it despite a few rules changes and I'll continue to stick with it after the conversion to 3.5. I'm writing a module now as well. I think you get what you put into it. I've also been a judge and author for my old region of Geoff. I enjoy judging at cons since a lot of times judges are in short supply.

I also like a few of the other campaigns like Living Kalamar, Dragonstar and Living Force. One of the things that attracted me was the clean cut adherence to the 3.0 rules after having a few home DM's that mixed 2e and 3e or were out to kill the PC's.
If you're looking for a group or cons in your area you'll have to check the Yahoo! Group for your LG region a lot of RPGA gamers hang out there. Check the RPGA events calender too on the WOTC web site. Unfortunatly to find a regular RPGA game you'll have to have Net access.

Mike

Is it still the case that you have to actually GO to a Con to get your DM certificate (or whatever it was). I recall I gave up on RPGA mainly because there's no RPGA events near me, so I couldn't get the certs, so I couldn't start RPGA events near me... bleh.

I hope that's changed.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Member of the RPGA. Biggest attraction to me was that someone outside my normal gaming group would run the adventures, letting myself and my gaming friends play together. Normally, one of us would have to serve as the DM.

My group lucked out and got a really fun, very effective DM who went beyond the call of duty by narratively linking together the RPGA modules. He gave the adventures a "campaign"-like feel. Also, he ran the adventures as home games instead of at cons, so we weren't limited by the 4-hour time slot limit--meaning, we had time to role-play.

So, you could be like our DM and run fun home games for strangers.

And yes the RPGA is a great organization if you want to run games at cons. Con DMs are often hard to come by.

-z

 

[Mark]

I've been too busy to participate in RPGA stuff these days, but it is good GMing experience, there's a huge network of players, and it can be a lot of fun. If you are having difficulty finding a game (or just want to expand your gaming time), the RPGA can be a good way to do that.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

any other rpga websites you guys recommend?