Your experience with RPGA events..good or not so good?

[caudor]

I've been playing D&D since right around 1980. During the time I've had the good fortune to play with many friends (and family), and several informal but tight knit groups. But also during all these years, I dreamed about going to Gencon to play in RPGA events or maybe getting into a local RPGA club. Well, that never happened until fairly recently.

I decided to go to one the local events in my area. I was excited about the opportunity to make some new friends, and see what the experience was like. I had signed up for a spot via the group's webpage and introduced myself on the message board to let them know I was coming. Someone posted a reply to welcome me, and all seemed well...

Well for me, it did not turn out anything like I had hoped. This particular group of people seemed to know each other very well, but I got the immediate impression that I wasn't exactly welcome in this circle. While no one was outright rude, I began to pick up the on body language and other signals. It is just one of those things you can 'feel' pretty quickly. And even though I cheerfully greeted the group and introduced myself before the game, one really wanted to speak with me outside the gaming session. In fact, one person openly complained that I sat in his usual seat. So I politely excused myself and moved. Then another person said I had his seat, so I moved again. I'm a person that usually gets along great with just about anyone. So perhaps I just picked the wrong group at the wrong time.

So I'm curious, has your experiences with new groups been good or not so good?

 

[Luddite]

As someone who just tried the local RPGA, I had a completely different experience. So for the most part, its all a matter of location. I would guess that events that host only one or two tables are going to have some level of cliqueish-ness. If the event is more open, like a convention, then you will have a larger random sample and more likely to play in a group that has not played together itself.

The RPGA is made up of all types of gamers. So there will be people and groups you don't like, and people and groups that will fast become your freinds. You may need to dip in the pool a few times to find the right temperature.

-The Luddite

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I was pleasantly surprised with the local RPGA where I am (Kansas - Dyvers region). There are good times and bad, just like anything else.

It may just take a while to get comfortable with the group, and have them get comfortable with you. I'd say give it a couple more sessions, see if different people come, if different judges run the games differently, etc. If you've been to three sessions and it still isn't working for you, then try to find another way to get your gamin' jones.

-rg

 

[TeaBee]

The RPGA is great, as are the vast majority of it's members. Some people in life are jerks, for all sorts of reasons. Some of them are RPGA members too.

Generally, I find the problem you mentioned to be less of a problem at Cons, though I've heard of problems with groups like that even there.

Try again, with other people. You'll probably like the results. That's one of the great things about the RPGA, you're not stuck with the same judge and players time and time again... unless you want to be.

 

[Pyske]

My overall experience has been poor, with some very enjoyable exceptions. My experience is generally better in non-D&D games, so my general policy is to avoid RPGA D&D events unless I know and trust the GM and players. For example, I loved the RPGA events at EliCon or ConnCon, when I went, because I knew people there, and they could point out which games to play and which to avoid. I haven't enjoyed the local RPGA events nearly as much.

My recommendation is not to give up on RPGA, as there are some truly exceptional GMs and games. (Including PirateCat, although I was trashed and not a very good player when I met him.) Instead, hunt around for a player or GM you like, who also knows the local RPGA scene, and ask them which events to sign up for.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[MrFilthyIke]

I've had good and bad experiences myself. Stick with it though, it's a GREAT way to meet new people or bump into old friends from online. Just remember, some people in all hobbies are "clique-y", and the mods are somewhat generic.

Get involved for the sake of meeting new people, if for nothing else.

PS: Play Living Kalamar, Living Dragonstar, and Living Force. Those are the best campaigns.

 

[d20Dwarf]

My experiences have been similar to caudor and Psyke. I think there is definitely an insular mentality throughout a lot of the RPGA, but I've also had a couple of good experiences.

The RPGA tournaments, on the other hand, have never been anything but awful.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I've only taken part in 3 RPGA events, but they were uniformly bad experiences.

Living Force was the worst of them...an idiotic railroaded adventure, where we got such thrilling adventure as...

DM (reading right from the book): "OK...you meet the guy, and he says that...oh wait! Someone has to roll diplomacy...(we roll) Ok, he says that you should go to a warehouse"

Us: "Uh, what for?"

DM(still reading): "Um, he says that that's what you are supposed to do. That's all it says".

...coupled witht he fact that there was basically no ability to loot anything (Despite the fact that we were engaged in gunplay with multiple guys, it turns out that between them they only had one blaster.

Not to place all of the blame at the feet of incompetent GM'ing, the players in all three RPGA event I took place in were total knobs as well...whiners, muchkins and crybabies to a man (you have not experienced the RPGA until you try and get a guy to use up a freaking "potion Certificate"; you'd think you were asking him to have a root canal).

People I respect (hi PC) assure me that this is not the way RPGA events work on the whole, and I'm sure they are right; but you asked for our experiences and these are mine.

 

[Death_Jester]

Greetings caudor

It is not just you buddy I have had several encounters with the RPGA and none of them have left a very favorable impression. Like you I have been playing since the early 80’s. In the Mid 80’s I went to my first con and during that con I had the good fortune to play in a RPGA sanctioned event. At the end of the con I get a prize from them, a years subscription to the RPGA and a module.

Well I waited and the membership to the club never arrived. The year afterward the con had a second even also sanctioned by a different section on the RPGA. They had no idea about the previous years group and no record of me having won the membership. That was cool I wasn’t too concerned about it. I played in that year’s event and won another years membership. Just like the previous years membership it never arrived. When I tried to get in touch with someone no one at the con could give me any information about them.

So we fast-forward a few years and I’m going to a RPGA sponsored con in the area. I have this falling out with an RPGA “master” and from that point on I seem to have problems advancing in the games. Not a problem for me as I get to hang out and talk with people that didn’t advance as well. They introduce me to mystery Science Theater 3000 so they weren’t all bad.

While playing my buddy got to see the play list for the people that did advance. This is a guy that I would have trusted might I add. Not the kind of kid that would make stuff up just to start stuff or given to flights of fancy. He saw my name on the list and the person that they did call as being an alternate on the list. What makes this more damning is that the GM was this very same “master” RPGAer that I have had problems in the past.

Now I can understand if the guy has problems with me but that just seems petty really. I mean a judge in a competition should be above all that in order to do the job fairly. I never went back to that con and it fell apart a few years later as TSR took the majority of the talent in that club as employees. I never found out if the “master” got taken on as an employee and I don’t really want to know. I hope he and his Hawaiian shirt are happy wherever he ended up.

All I can say is that in my area the RPGA has become so calcified and insolated it seems to have forgotten that new people can join. It has really hurt the club and the image of the RPGA more then anything else. It is a shame that something with such a wondering premise has, at least in my case, become so very sad. The elite have taken over and if you aren’t in the clique you don’t have a place at that table.

The worst part is that these people don’t really know the gaming community vilifies them in general because of the very insulation that keeps them separate. Sort of a catch 22 now to break them out of the cycle that will lead to the demise of the group but it does keep them occupied.

This has only been my experiences and my views of things so your mileage may very of course. I’m sure there are several people here that can recite positive experience to equal my negative ones but you asked for my experiences and that is what I have given.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I've had good experiences, and I've had bad experiences. It just depends on the people running the events, and the DMs. My biggest complaint with the RPGA is the modules. Most of the ones I've played in seem too tough for the level of characters taking part.

As an example, the first RPGA event I went to, I signed up to play in two modules which were connected in their storyline. During the first session, I was placed at a table with all 1st level characters. After we finished the module, the DM asked how many of us were playing the second part of the story. We all said we were. He said, "Well, make sure you get a table that has some higher level characters, because a group of all 1st level characters won't make it through the next module alive. In fact, I refuse to run that module for all 1st level groups."

So when they assigned tables for the next module, sure enough, the organizers sent all of the 1st level characters to one table. We complained, telling them we had heard it was too tough for 1st level characters, and asked if we could be spread out among the other groups going through that module. They told us no, all the 1st level characters had to be grouped together. Almost all of the characters were killed before we even got close to the end of the module.

At another RPGA event, I had a 1st level character, and spent almost the whole adventure unconscious, with negative hit points. All of the other characters were of higher levels, and the players kept saying, "This module is too tough for us." In the final encounter, I finally died and couldn't be resurrected.

The next module, my 1st level character survived, but our 3rd level cleric was killed by a minotaur, and other characters spent significant time with negative hit points.

But the people I was gaming with were great, and kept inviting me back to their table to game with them. They made me feel very welcome.

In my many years of being part of lots of different organizations that have some sort of pecking order, I can tell you that those groups always attract their share of jerks who are on a power trip. They like to feel important, and superior to other people. It's really sad, but it is a fact of life. The trick is to find a way to avoid those people for the most part, and have fun.