The RPGA

So tomorrow is Worldwide D&D Game Day. As I said previously, I signed Eunice and myself up for a session at our Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS). I hope the experience will be better than when we played at an RPGA event at that same store.

Don't get me wrong, the store itself is pretty cool. And I'm sure there are a lot of people who dearly love the RPGA. From my experience, it was like a bad convention game. There were no real choices to be made throughout the adventure.

Our problems started early, before the adventure began. When we got there we found out that some of the GMs had canceled, including ours, and more people had showed up unexpectedly. Event organizers were scrambling to get everyone into a game, and I commend them for that. Eunice, myself, and my friend Steve got put into a game with at least 10 people. The GM they got hadn't yet read the adventure when we started playing. And did I mention that the adventure was for 5th level characters? Not the first level guys we played.

So it starts out with the party in a city in the desert. The city is under attack by swarms of giant insects. I'm not talking 3 or 4 --I'm talking several thousand. And the insects sort of disintegrate people. So, we're standing around trying to figure out how not to die when we conveniently notice that the only place not being swarmed is the Evil Temple.

Our options:
1. Stay and die
2. Flee to the Evil Temple

Oddly enough, we went with option 1. I have to say at this point I wanted to charge the bugs. I could see the plot train and I was pretty sure I didn't want to get on it. So off we flee to the Evil Temple.

At the Evil Temple we confront the Evil Priest (EP). EP says he knows a way out, and he can come with us if we agree to escort and protect him and his Miserable Slave Peon (MSP).

Our options:
1. Beat up the EP
2. Agree to his demands
3. Take our chances with the swarm.

I was all for option 1. We went with option 2. The party spent the night hanging out with the MSP and watching the bug swarm eat people and buildings, and anything that wasn't part of the Evil Temple.

The next day we flee mightily with the EP and the MSP. I forget what happened on the trip, but I want to say it mostly consisted of, "Take 16 damage, roll a reflex save for half." I lived, barely.

So we get the EP and MSP where they want to go, which naturally is a some kind of underground structure guarded by animated statues. Hilarity ensues, yet we manage to beat up the guardians. I spend most of my time cowering in corner trying to become one with the wall, yet not paste.

Then, as we explore the underground structure we get the big plot twist. The MSP is really the EP, and the EP is really the MSP! And the real EP now has a necklace of fireballs. Which he uses to blast the party. I make my save but die anyway. W00T!!!!one1!!!

I don't remember much about the fight with the REP (Real Evil Priest), but it came down to the REP threatening with another missile (which would kill the rest of the party if he used it), and one player being conflicted about whether or not he should let the REP put us all out of our misery or try and save everyone's life by killing the REP. I thought it would end in a real fist fight.

In the end the DM fudged things and didn't kill off the whole party. He then went and let the survivors go on to the bonus encounter.

All in all I would rather have had surgery.

To be fair, the DM did fill in at the last minute, and was trying to deal with an adventure he hadn't read yet.

The end result was still not fun.

The whole thing left me with a bad impression of the RPGA. In protest I started an Arcana Unearthed game. Everyone involved had a good time.

Anyway, I'm thinking that after our experience tomorrow I will be more motivated to start the AU game up again. Sadly, it'll have to be with some different folks because half the players are unavailable. At some point I do intend to get my own story hour summary of the campaign up on my page.

Anyway, world wide D&D game day. At the very least I hope to get cool 30th anniversary D&D swag.

I'm sure that given the right people it can be a lot of fun. I often say the same thing about gaming. Given the right people any game can be fun.