Quote from: jcfialaThe RPGA community in Denver is fairly mature, with gamers from the teens into the 40s playing in the Living Greyhawk campaign.  I've sat down to tables with three generations from the same family playing together.

I'm not saying that you don't get some bad seeds in it, because occasionally you do, but generally in Denver the RPGA is a fairly positive roleplaying environment for folks who like to play D&D, but don't have a time for a regular game, or for folks who just like playing in a shared world.

My experience with Living Greyhawk in Calgary, and this was with it's first year or so of existance, was roughly the same. Generally people ranged from pretty good to at least bearable (I might have more flexibile standards?). But there were a few cliques, that I was on good terms with, that had some annomosity towards each other and towards those outside of them. That left me in sort of a uncomfortable position.  Plus there was one TOTAL turd of a GM/player that was also a super keener, so he was always around....or maybe that was because he really didn't have much else going for him in life?

Also it seemed that our region, the Duchy of Urnst I think, was largely overseen (out of Vancouver I think) by Sado-masochist style GM/players compared to other regions.

Quote from: blakkieMy experience with Living Greyhawk in Calgary, and this was with it's first year or so of existance, was roughly the same. Generally people ranged from pretty good to at least barrable (I might have more flexibile standards?). But there were a few cliques, that I was on good terms with, that had some annomosity towards each other and towards those outside. That left me in sort of a uncomfortable position.  Plus there was one TOTAL turd of a GM/player (that was also a super keener, so he was always around).

Yeah, we got cliques too.  I tend to ignore them generally.  And unlike other areas, the RPGA hasn't pushed all non-RPGA gaming out of the conventions... in fact, it's rather the reverse.  With the classic modules disappearing, and with the other Living campaigns drying up, the local GMing community is producing a lot of really interesting games.

QuoteAlso it seemed that our region, the Duchy of Urnst I think, was largely overseen (mostly out of Vancouver I think) by Sado-masochist style GM/players compared to other regions.

Amusingly enough, the region here in Denver is the 'County of Urnst'.  Don't f*** with the duck.  

Quote from: jcfialaYeah, we got cliques too.  I tend to ignore them generally.  

The part that was hard for me was because I was on good terms with most people and mostly considered 'in', I knew firsthand that there were some people using DM disgression to stubtly gank the PCs of players they didn't like. This was when characters were maybe 4th or 5th level at most, and there were no NPCs in our region that knew how cast Raise Dead muchless Resurrection. The regional coordinators stipulated there were no clerics that were able to cast spells over 4th level, and IIRC specifically stated that PCs could not come back from the dead in anyway shape or form. Also in real world geography we are a several hour drive from even the edge of our region, and even further to any city of note, so I only ever played an region-specific modules from outside the Duchy once. It was at a Con that came together for just that reason in some little mountain town near the Idaho/Montana border (about an 8 hour drive for me I think) so it could get the OK to include multiple regions at the same convention. County of Urnst and maybe another region too, I forget because it was about 5 years ago.

County of Urnst is the one that started out with all the undead modules, right?

Quote from: blakkieCounty of Urnst is the one that started out with all the undead modules, right?

Yeah.  Back in the dawn of 3rd edition, some of the folks running our region thought that the rogue's sneak attack, especially once you gained access to invisibility, was far too powerful.  So they went with a campaign arc starring lots of undead to mitigate that.  Experience eventually proved that they were worrying a bit too much.

Quote from: jcfialaYeah.  Back in the dawn of 3rd edition, some of the folks running our region thought that the rogue's sneak attack, especially once you gained access to invisibility, was far too powerful.  So they went with a campaign arc starring lots of undead to mitigate that.  Experience eventually proved that they were worrying a bit too much.

Oh great, some more fucknuts trying to backdoor house rules just like ours removing character resurrection. :rolleyes:

Eventually that turd GM/player would have been dealt with, or at least the damage minimized. He was slowly being phased out of GMing (no new modules for him ). But when the patients are running the assylum and they are doing so about 1300km away with very little input from locally (even though Calgary had a very active community and a higher PC per general population ratio), well you can't expent to get much straightened out.

P.S. You didn't happen to go to that Con, did you? It was in the fall of 2001 sometime I think. Forget the name of the town, although I might remember it if I looked at a map. It was an old mining town that was sort of touristy because of some old buildings downtown.

Quote from: blakkieOh great, some more fucknuts trying to backdoor house rules just like ours removing character resurrection. :rolleyes:

Eh, it wasn't a house rule, just well-meaning adjustment.  Even aside from that, the idea of an undead threat to the county was fun, and it had a good storyline.  And once it was clear they'd overeestimated the possible impact of invisible rogues, the folks in question stopped worrying about it.

QuoteP.S. You didn't happen to go to that Con, did you? It was in the fall of 2001 sometime I think. Forget the name of the town, although I might remember it if I looked at a map. It was an old mining town that was sort of touristy because of some old buildings downtown.

No, I didn't.  At the time I didn't have the money for out-of-town conventions very often, and although I enjoy some of LG, I wasn't interested in investing that much time or money into travelling to such a con.

Quote from: jcfialaEh, it wasn't a house rule, just well-meaning adjustment.

They wanted to but couldn't remove the SA rule directly, so they mostly nulified it indirectly. Basically they intentionally screwed with Rogues.

Quote from: jcfialaEven aside from that, the idea of an undead threat to the county was fun, and it had a good storyline.  And once it was clear they'd overeestimated the possible impact of invisible rogues, the folks in question stopped worrying about it.

At least it had that going for it.  I still played my Rog/Sor/Rgr character in a couple of them, and they were pretty fun. However I made up a Gnome for the last one I played (and I'm not sure this was a County one or from another region) and I found it was questionably designed. Ironically without Undead I think. Basically it tended to end up a TPK because it was a cave and if you went one encounter too far into the cave (and we sure didn't see any warning signs) you were up against insanely powerful opponents (more than one invisible opponents IIRC and this was a 1st/2nd level party). Still we had steamrolled the opponents up till then and put up a seriously good fight so one member of our party survived. My character would have too if there had been any healing ability left at the end of the fight. My Gnome had gone negative and nobody could pull off a Heal check, but she had made her own stabilizing check. Then the other surviver dragged her out *doh* and the DM ruled I had make a fairly high DC Con check (DC 18 I think). Made it. Then the DM had me make another, which the character failed. :/  Oh well, it was that character's first adventure and overall it was pretty fun too.

QuoteNo, I didn't.  At the time I didn't have the money for out-of-town conventions very often, and although I enjoy some of LG, I wasn't interested in investing that much time or money into travelling to such a con.

At the time I'd never been to a Con other than the glorified game day we had in town, and wanted to see what it was about. Glad I did because I meet some really fun people, and the drive through Montana was OK too. Not sure I would again though. Not sure I'd get permission either with all the kids I've got now.

Quote from: blakkieThey couldn't remove the SA rule directly, so they mostly nulified it indirectly.

Well, yeah, but only in those, what, five or six modules?  The rest of them had orcs and evil dwarves and rust monsters and the like.  It's not like we only had undead in the county for the first year of the campaign... and there were also the adaptables and core modules then too.

Quote from: blakkieAt the time I'd never been to a Con other than the glorified game day we had in town, and wanted to see what it was about. Glad I did because I meet some really fun people, and the drive through Montana was OK too. Not sure I would again though. Not sure I'd get permission either with all the kids I've got now.

Ah, yes.  Cons are a lot of fun, and Denver is active enough (and isolated enough) that there's actually three good gaming conventions each year here.

Quote from: BagpussUK GenCon then went from strength to absolute rubbish when some company that couldn't run a piss up in a brewery took over. They gave in running the UK side of things and another company took over but by then GenCon brand had alienate most of its fans, the following year it was staged in a tent, this year it wasn't staged at all.

As an aside...

Peter Adkison bought the rights to the Gen Con brand and ran it in the UK over the Easter weekend in 2003 (against the better judgement of nearly everyone who had run the 2002 event!) He then decided to sell the licence to run overseas events to companies in those locations. Horsemen Events Ltd. bought the licence for the UK. In 2004 they ran it in Minehead (in a marquee) and in 2005 they ran it in Bognor Regis. Due to problems with the venue, 2006's event was cancelled but Gen Con UK will be back next year at the University of Reading. [1]

Back to the RPGA. Everything Bagpuss has said is right. When the UK ran their own version it was excellent. Once the US took over it died. Broken promises were just the tip of the iceberg.

I'm still a member of the RPGA and play in their Living Greyhawk campaign on a semi-regular basis (actually played my first game in over a year last week). In the UK, the campaign is well run [2] and seems to have avoided too many Cat Piss Men (but not them all).

[1] I know all this because I'm the Marketing Manager for Gen Con UK
[2] But I would say that as I'm the UK region's webmaster

I think I'd rather hammer nails through my cock than join the RPGA.

I like the occaisional RPGA event. I had a good time with Living Greyhawk starting last year, the D&D Open (played at GenCon) is pretty excellent. The new campaign (Xendrik Expeditions)  is a lot of fun.

There are some awful stereo typical lamers in Living Greyhawk, make no mistake. There's a guy in my region I eneded up in two slots with- ruined both slots. I see him all over the local mailing list... But I also see a lot of talk about avoiding that guy. So eh. Its what you make of it. The3 RPGA is s a cool concept and the good times I've had outweigh the two bad slots I've had.

There are definitely some cool guys, and a lot of girls playing in my region.

I've had little dealings with them except at cons.  

The last one, Gamecon South Bend, was interesting.  They asked for a specific amount of GM badges so the people running the games could get in for free and for several tables.  But come the con there were only about five other RPGA people who showed up besides the GMs.  So they all sat at two tables admist a sea of empty tables reserved for them and played.  

In all appearances it looked like they planned ahead to get themselves in for free to play.  Especially after one person told me that three of the guys who got GM badges didn't GM games at all, ever.  

Then they would take their shoes off, prop their feet up on the table and stuff like that.  Were rude to other folks who walked by and then left a mess in their wake.

So my opinion of them is pretty low as well.

When d20 was just getting rolling, I loved it and thought the RPGA would be a good place to start getting involved in the game.

I love the world of Greyhawk and the idea of adventures designed for the world was really attractive. At least I thought there were adventures.

Honestly Im not sure there were. I couldnt find any mention of how to get them on the RPGA members site... I sent an email or two to customer service that went unanswered.

Couldnt really get any info about events either.

So I shrugged my shoulders, read my Dungeon magazine every month, and ignored their repeated attempts to get me to reup when my year expired, since it was the only time they'd contacted me since I joined.

All in all I was left feeling like I'd joined a club that the members really didn't WANT me to join.

Chuck

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalI think I'd rather hammer nails through my cock than join the RPGA.

Well, all I need to do is find your name and address, and I can sign you up for the RPGA from here.  So, if you could videotape yourself hammering a nail through your cock and send me the picture, I'll make sure not to sign you up.

(Couldn't resist.

The local RPGA group is a large somewhat older group of gamers who drive me fucking nuts every time I've attempted to participate. They run the absolute worst con games I've ever seen. Questioning GM decisions seems to be akin to questioning their parentage. In one session for example, while walking along on the road with a group of 8 other people, I was attacked by 3 wolves for no reason that I can determine other than it was rolled on the GM's random encounters table (this is also one reason I don't play D&D anymore). When I questioned the GM on it, he shrugged, pointed at the book, and mumbled something about tables.

I played in 4 games that weekend (Marvel Super Heroes, Delta Green, Shadowrun, and D&D: LG), and that one was by far the worst.

And then after I expressed my displeasure with the gaming experience, the local group tried to recruit me as a member.