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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Timeboxer" data-source="post: 4910294" data-attributes="member: 21471">I've both played and GM'd in the RPGA several times, both in the 3E days and the 4E days.  I'll try to summarize what it's like for you.Firstly, you make a character according to the Character Creation Guide.  Back in 3E, this document was amazingly extensive and had a huge list of banned prestige classes and magic items and feats; nowadays it's more like "Pick stats this way, you can't use Dragonmarked feats from these books, you can't use magic items from these books," and so on.Second, you show up at an event.  If you don't have an RPGA card, you get one.  Yes, you do basically play with strangers, but I suggest that it's best to bring a friend or two and ask to be seated with them.  My experience with this has been somewhat hit or miss.  In my very first event way back in 2001 I went with some friends who ditched me with strangers because the particular GM and table they wanted was full; this resulted in having my first RPGA character molested in-game by a halfling rogue played by someone else at the table (really).  By contrast, I have a friend I've known for two years now who I originally met during RPGA at a random sit-down.  So it's a bit of a mixed bag.Third, you actually play.  During the 3E days they were a lot more stringent about what GMs could and couldn't do during a game, because the organization was much more player-centric; now the GMs have much more flexibility in changing up encounters as long as the story is maintained.  (Or else you can run whatever you want and call it an RPGA game, which is a new option.)Fourth, you track results.  Often you'll get a slip of paper asking you who played in your game, their RPGA numbers, resources lost/gained, and a questionnaire asking if the BBEG was killed/incapacitated, if a certain piece of evidence was uncovered, and so on.  Supposedly the questions inform the future of the campaign's adventures, but I've never felt a strong connection here.  The key thing here though is that things that happen outside the game table are pretty regulated; this ensures that everyone comes to the table, even if you don't know them, adhering to some standard.Last, some months later, you get rewards.  Players get special cards that give their characters special abilities, e.g. "Gain +5 to Diplomacy for one check," "You are allowed to play a non-standard race," and so on.  This appears to have been deprecated in favor of the pre-existing but now expanded GM rewards.In sum, to me it's a bit like a bite-sized version of D&D, in the sense that it's missing the "I'm playing with a bunch of my friends" aspect.  For a period of time when all the GMs in my group were burnt out, we frequented the for our D&D fix, but once we got our campaigns back into gear we spent less time there.  That said, if you potentially want to make some new friends, or you're GMing all the time and you want to play a little, it's a good place to go.By the way -- regardless of how frequently you do RPGA events, I've found that being an RPGA GM is occasionally very useful.  If you show up at an RPGA event or a convention and there aren't enough GMs to go around, and there are lots of sad players who can't play, you can say, "Uh, I'm an RPGA GM!" and suddenly they have a game.  So.</blockquote>

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