RPGA

The RPGA (previously called the Role-Playing Game Association, the Role-Playing Gamers Association, and the RPGA Network), is part of the organized play arm of Wizards of the Coast which organizes and sanctions role-playing games worldwide, principally under the d20 system. The group was founded in November 1980 by Frank Mentzer of TSR, Inc., the original publishers of the Dungeons and Dragons game. Wizards of the Coast acquired the RPGA when they purchased TSR in 1997.

Mission

The RPGA was originally formed to provide tournaments to conventions that would be both fun to play and fair to the players in the event. Each player was given a pre-generated character with a background, equipment, and some limited information about the other characters at the table, and a great deal of effort was spent trying to create balanced events. A game master and four to eight players would play a 4-hour adventure supplied by the RPGA. At the end of the adventure, the "winner" of the event was decided (on the basis of rules knowledge and role-playing ability) by tallying votes from the game master and the players (the game master's vote counted double and was used to break any ties). These events are now referred to as "Classic" events. Players were awarded experience points based on how well they did in competitive events, and over time they could advance to higher levels. The players also rated the game master, and the game masters similarly gained experience points and could achieve levels as judges.

Initially, all RPGA events were for TSR products, primarily "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" but also the "Top Secret" (espionage) and "Gamma World" (science fantasy) role-playing games. By the mid-1980s events based on games from other publishers were approved and distributed by the RPGA; the first such event was a Star Trek Role Playing game at Glathricon in Evansville, Indiana.

The RPGA later decided to allow gamers all around the country (and world) to play in a single campaign where everyone could create changes in a dynamic world. In essence it was to create the largest single RPG campaign(s). The first such campaign was Raven's Bluff, the Living City.

The game(s) are set up as a series of "modules" (or adventures) where players play in groups of 5-7 people (one of whom is the Dungeon Master) at a time. Modules with story arc hooks have results sent to RPGA Headquarters for compilation - usually a certain percentage (a majority) is required for a specific result to occur. For example, if a world is cursed due to a cursed item and most people in a particular adventure succeed in removing the object, the curse could be lifted or altered for the world in all future story modules. Players who do not succeed still play in the world and gain experience and character growth as if they had succeeded since the "official" storyline dictates as such.

Membership

Per the Wizards of the Coast website: "When you attend any RPGA-sanctioned event, the organizers will have a membership application and a membership card for you. Ask to register, fill out the short form, and grab your card; you can start playing then and there."

If one is unable to attend an RPGA-santioned event, one may send the required information to the RPGA by e-mail, and the request will be processed in 2-3 weeks.

Campaigns

There are many campaigns run by RPGA and its members today, and they are all free to play, although some of the "Living" campaigns make use of printed campaign books, such as the "Living Greyhawk Gazetteer" and the "Living Force Campaign Guide". Others (such as "Living Death") use free books in PDF format. Below are some of the current and previous campaigns.

*Living Forgotten Realms - Set in the popular campaign world of Toril commonly referred to as the Forgotten Realms. The campaign launched in August 2008 at GenCon. This is a world-wide campaign. While the globe is divided into administrative regions, players are free to play characters from any region, and may play any adventure. This is a departure from the regional system used in Living Greyhawk, which limited play by geographical location.
*Xen'drik Expeditions - The newest of the D&D Campaigns, to be introduced in 2006 and set in Eberron. This campaign will end at Origins 2008.
*Mark of Heroes - Built to support the newest Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, the Mark of Heroes game showcases adventures in the pulp-fantasy setting of Eberron. Players portray members of the Diggers' Union, an archeology-and-adventure society, as they become involved in the ongoing story of the postwar turmoil that engulfs Eberron.
*Legacy of the Green Regent - Set in the Forgotten Realms campaign world and centered on the northern city of Loudwater, LotGR was the first RPGA campaign to feature online tracking of characters and adventure outcomes. Players take the role of defenders of Loudwater and supporters of Mielikki's champion, the Green Regent. This campaign has ended.
*Living Greyhawk - Set in the original Dungeons and Dragons world of Greyhawk. This game has the world of Greyhawk divided among players in the real world so characters have "home regions" and play modules with "local" stories - as well as "Core" (universal) modules that advance the story of the world over all. Modules can be played "out of region" for the character, but take more "time". "Time," in the form of Time Units, was an important aspect of play. However, with the announcement of the end of the campaign, the limits on how many adventures a character could play in a given calendar year were largely removed. The characters of players who play outside their own region are said to be traveling from their homes to the other locales in the world. This campaign came to an official end at Origins 2008, but adventures remain playable through December, 2008.
*Living Force - Based in a custom sector on the fringes of the galaxy, this RPGA campaign was based on the Star Wars RPG, and was following the current movie story line (See ). In 2006 the Living Force campaign ended, in favor of supporting the Star Wars miniatures line versus the RPG books (due to WotC's license agreement with LucasFilm).
*Living Death - Also called "Masque of the Red Death" this game has a free book online and is set in 1890s "gothic" Earth. Characters are in a group called the "Society of the White Rose" and are fighting the evils of the world. It concluded its scheduled 10-year run in February of 2007.
*Other games - Several other games exist: Living Kingdoms of Kalamar; Living Jungle; Living Spycraft (AEG's Spycraft, pulp spy action); Living Arcanis; Living Rokugan; Virtual Seattle; and many more. Some of these have been canceled, and in the case of some third-party campaigns (such as Virtual Seattle) have been replaced by similar Living Campaigns run directly by the game's publishers. Others have been removed from the RPGA, but still continue, generally run by the parent company of the world (e.g., AEG and Living Spycraft, Paradigm Concepts and Living Arcanis).

External links

* [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga/welcome RPGA main page]
* [http://www.dndinsider.com/ D&D Insider]