I'd be remiss if I didn't post this:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drrep/20080730

This is the official announcement for Living Realms which debuts at GenCon.

The important part that I am most excited about is the third from the last paragraph.

"But perhaps the most important thing that's changed is the philosophy behind being a DM for our shared-world games. In the past, emphasis was placed on tournament-style play. Under this philosophy, adventures had to be run "as written" to provide a "consistent" play experience. Tournament-style play is an artifact of the past, and while it does have its place (like the D&D Championship Series) it runs counter to the experience of an accessible shared-world campaign. Now, the DM has been given one golden rule: Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible. DMs are now empowered to adjust adventures to accomplish this task, just like they would in their home games. Having a good play experience is now the number one priority."

I'm not sure you guys will ever appreciate how much work went into this philosophy shift, but I credit Chris Tulach and a dedicated group of players and DMs for getting this done. To me, this was the single greatest weakness of the RPGA (along with another previous philosophy that told players they couldn't use anything but the core books without special dispensation- with the excuse that the previous administration was paranoid about "cheaters"). The way it works now is that when you play at an RPGA event, you play D&D just as it is written in the book.

We're also working on a DM skill-improvement program.

Alright flame-away, I know you want to.

Quote from: Abyssal Maw;230048"Having a good play experience is now the number one priority."

This is a quantum shift for RPGA.  I hope their membership can adjust because if so, this attidude will do marvels for their long term growth,.  

There are pretty serious flames about this on the RPGA forum that I am on for the East Rift (Pacific Region) and lots of consternation about both this and the new Replay Rule.   The Replay Rule says you the player can play the same module again, but with a different character.   Gone are the days of RPGA players skipping out on a session because their event doesn't have enough new mods.  

Another quantum shift is that WotC is going to play authors to write RPGA adventures and oversee their creation.  Every adventure will now be vetted by WotC for quality and playtesting is mandatory.   That should hopefully increase the quality level quite nicely.  

Overall, RPGA is setting itself up for excellent growth if DDI can ever pull its head out of its ass and become the computer game table as promised.

That's the best RPGA news I've heard in a long time.  Every RPGA in my neck of the woods bristled under the iron rule of consistency.  A couple years back I dipped my toes in Living Greyhawk and came to the conclusion that the house rules were written primarily to accommodate maladjusted jerks.

That's excellent news for the RPGA, and should address one of the big turn-offs some folks had with it.

I'm curious to see how the RPGA and Pathfinder Society match up!