So, tell me of this RPGA...

[Ycore Rixle]

GenCon Indy last summer was the first time I played in any RPGA events. I enjoyed them and consequently made time in my schedule this winter to attend some local cons with RPGA events (Winter Fantasy, Ubercon, ConnCon). I've had fun and found that the other things at the cons - board games, just hanging out - are great too.

As with any organization, you'll find some great people in the RPGA, some not so great, some you'll get along with, and some you won't.

To me, the best thing is to walk into a con and see 1000+ (or in GenCon's case, 25000+) people enjoying your favorite hobby. Nice sense of camaraderie.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

I've walked into a few people yet who have claimed negative experiences with them. We're all entitled to our opinions but perhaps it would be more helpfull to the original poster ifyou were more specific.

Well, I've not had an actual experience with the RPGA directly, but I've had instances of playing alongside RPGA members in various games in the past. Keeping in mind that the three experiences I've had were with individuals, these have often been troubled games.

Generally, the biggest issue (i.e., the one each of them had in common) is a tendency to push the GM towards using RPGA standards and disrupting the game with "well, in the RPGA, we'd have done it [some other way]" when they didn't like a decision, scenario or character build.

I do try to not let this effect my view of the RPGA, but it has probably been a major reason for me to essentially ignore them as an entity. And, of course, once in a while a thread or email list will include someone saying, "well, in the RPGA we..." and, well, it rubs me wrong.

Granted, I can honestly say that I had not a clue that PC or ArthurQ were RPGA members, so they can't be all bad...

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Not Just Member, but Judge :-D

(and in one game at Winter Fantasy, Executioner....)

 

[GothVader]

I have been running games at cons now for several years, and I have to say that I particularly dislike the RPGA.

The weird thing is, I learned how to structure a good convention adventure from them, that is until the thing that killed RPGA… Living (insert whatever).

Since the conception of Living every RPGA adventure I have tried has been pretty bad. There is just no way to write an adventure for the range of character levels they allow to participate. In fact, the whole idea of having a character you take from event to event is a bad one.

I think it all stems from the RPGA caving into the endless whining of people who insist that they must play their own characters. It has made the bookkeeping a nightmare, the adventures impossible to set challenge ratings for, and worse, encouraged bad players who care only about how much stuff their character collects.

In a well-written convention adventure, pre-gens are the way to go. People who complain about having to play a pre-gen should be slapped. I have found that anyone who actually plays in a game in order to enjoy the game never complains about having a pre-gen character.

In fact, my friends and I have formed a club, Big Daddy Thwak’s Millennial Army, specifically for the purpose of running games at conventions, so people have an alternative to the RPGA. Ask anyone who has played in our events, we run top-notch productions.

BTW, if you run enough events, many conventions will provide accommodations, you don’t have to be a member of the RPGA for that.

It is true that the RPGA gives out some good swag, and if you enjoy their games, more power to you. I can only say that IMHO the quality of the adventures is low. I have also found that the kind of players I just don’t like gravitate more towards the RPGA.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Um, They handle the Green Regent adventure very well. Each adventure gives you a certain amount of XP, and gold which is added to your account.

So long as you play the same "character" all the way through, you can modify that character almost any way you please. No need for specific book keeping.

You just follow standard PHB rules and the gold limit and use item costs they provide.

 

[qstor]

I posted a reply on the thread on RPG.net. I've had mostly good experiences. I'm planning on DMing at GenCon. This year again. I did at GenCon Milwaukee in 2001.

Mike

 

[Seule]

Just like any gaming group where you have limited control over who you play with, results can vary. I generally play with a select group of people, and it's great fun, and there are a wide variety of scenarios to run. It's also a good time hanging out with gamers you haven't met before, and be able to chat about adventures you've both played.
"Remember River of Blood? That one beat us to a pulp and left us for dead! How did you do in it?"
The campaign administration are generally good people and dedicated gamers, given that except at the highest levels they are all volunteers.
I spent last weekend running games at Gryphcon, our local gaming convention, mostly for people I had never met. That's some good gaming.
As far as campaigns go, I find Living Greyhawk to be the best organized (and worst, as it's the biggest by at least a factor of 10), and Living Spycraft to be the most sheer fun. Legacy of the Green Regent is acceptable as beer-and popcorn gaming, and Living Force is.... well, I hear other people like it.

--Seule

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I've enjoyed the RPGA's Living Campaigns so far. The thing I like about the Living Campaigns is the portability. When I moved to Canada for a year in order to study for a masters' degree, I was able to find a community of gamers playing the same game and continue playing my old character from California. When I finished my classes and moved back to California to work on my thesis from home, I was able to bring my character back with me. The ability ot join a campaign, know roughly what's going on, have a rough sense of the rules, etc. is worth the paperwork associated with it.

As a player, the RPGA has really given vivid demonstration of the variety of play styles and kinds of characters that can be built. (In a home game, it's very easy to fall into an insular pattern of thinking that D&D works only in XYZ way because that's the way you and your six friends play; in an environment consisting of thousands of players, you're more likely to run into concepts you hadn't considered and encounter styles that your DM doesn't typically use).

As a player, it was also Living Greyhawk's 28 point buy system that broke me out of second editionitus in thinking about ability scores. Playing in a lower powered game made me realize that the game works just fine when 15 and 16 are high scores instead of 17 and 18.

As for the quality of the modules, I'd say it's generally average to good. My experience is that about half of the home games I've been in have been better than a run of the mill Living Greyhawk module and about half have, for some reason or other, been worse. (Of course, I try to control the quality of both my homegame and Living Campaign experiences--the one by picking who I game with and the other by looking for good judges).

I've also written a few modules for Living Greyhawk and I've found that writing modules for a range of characters isn't as difficult as some people seem to think. The big difference between a "standard" convention game and a Living Campaign scenario, is probably the role of the DM in the module. In a "standard" game, the DM generally wrote the module himself and has a bit more flexibility to make things up if the players do something dramatically unexpected. In an RPGA game, the DM doesn't have unlimited flexibility to makes stuff up and is interpreting someone else's module rather than creating their own.

 

[Thaniel]

I thought about becoming a member, but I don't like a lot of their 'house' rules. I can't think of examples at the moment, but I remember I was very put off.

Thaniel

 

[buzzard]

I play plenty of Living Greyhawk and do enjoy it. Sure some of the adventures are complete bowsers, but I usually still have fun at the table. Good gamers are more important than a good adventure in a lot of cases. Living Greyhawk is the biggest game by far, so it will expose you to the biggest selection of gamers.

However as for the classics vs. living debate, well I used to play primarily classics at cons. After a period of runnning into way too many weak stories where you have to play preposterous lame characters, I gave up on them. Now we have local writers making their own classics which are reputed to be appreciably better than RPGA fare, but I've gotten sufficiently into the living campaigns, that I don't wish to invest the slots at cons (I usually have few enough slots left to me after judging).

My only beef with the RPGA is their killing a bunch of good living campaigns (jungle -sniff sniff). Also they have a bunch of annoying rules about ordering scenarios which to be quite honest, everyone fudges. I mean really, why shouled you need to order a home game adventure two weeks in advance? Why can't the host not be the DM?

Feh. Sure, I suppose some of it is to avoid cheating, but I really doubt it has any positive effect.

buzzard