Post/Author/DateTime	Post
smerwin29 12-11-06, 06:58 PM	If you are the Senior DM for an event, you will not be able to get credit for playing any adventures that you ordered after the end of the event that you ordered the adventures for. THIS INCLUDES EVENTS THAT YOU CANCEL. So if you run a convention and order 10 different adventures, then at a game day three months down the line, you play one of those adventures, you will not receive any credit for playing that event. This is particularly important for those playing games that are tracked online. Please keep this in mind when you are scheduling your events and ordering them. Thanks, Shawn
Butterface 12-11-06, 07:03 PM	Good to know!
Wrathamon 12-12-06, 04:15 PM	how about if you are not a senior dm and just a herald running an event?
grahamdrew 12-12-06, 04:35 PM	how about if you are not a senior dm and just a herald running an event? If you schedule the event you're the Senior DM. Senior DM isn't a "level" like Herald or Master, it's just the guy who does the ordering. Andrew Beard
WolfStar76 12-12-06, 04:44 PM	That stinks. But it also explains why I haven't received credit for the DM's Mark I ordered but was only a player for. :-/
Butterface 12-12-06, 04:46 PM	I'm just a little worried about having ordered Mere of Shattered Souls back before it was available for download, and then had to cancel the event rather than not have it reported. I tend to do alot of ordering for our games and then hand the mods out to DMs who are actually running the game. . . so now I guess I won't be able to get credit for Mere. Another reason for the adventure journals I suppose! If this keeps up, it's going to look really weird at gencon when I sit down to play.
pedr 12-12-06, 09:13 PM	Just to note that this has always been the case. The RPGA general rules prohibit the Senior GM for a 'home' event from playing a scenario once it has been ordered. For gameday/retail/convention events the rules allow play up to and including the date of the event, so long as the player has no actual knowledge of the scenario. The system might or might not enforce the first restriction (i.e. disqualifying players who play a scenario they have downloaded for a home event prior to the end of the home event) but definately enforces the second one. This is all spelled out in the RPGA rules - although I'll admit they're not the easiest thing to make complete sense of! This does cause the 'missing file' problem to be more severe as gameday senior DMs who expected to be able to find someone to run a slot zero type table for them prior to the event but are then unable to play at all end up being disqualified despite not ever having been able to download the file. It would be very useful to get this communicated forcefully to RPGA HQ so that Senior DMs can be assured that if a module is listed in the database it is actually available for download. One note, though: the AJs are not a solution to this - the rules are clear, if not terribly well-known. Basically if you are ordering a home event, make sure you've played, or are willing to eat, any module you order. If you are organising a larger event, make absolutely sure you will be able to play by the end of the event, if you ever want to. Playing a game which you have already downloaded in other circumstances is not permitted by the RPGA rules and your character has no right to the rewards of the adventure.
psgj 12-13-06, 02:08 AM	I haven't done this but I am curious. What if someone orders a mod then cancels the order. Later they play in that mod with three other players. The one player does not get credit for the mod. Does this invalidate the entire table since there are only three valid players not four? psgj
smerwin29 12-13-06, 08:25 AM	I do not know the answer to that. I only know that the person who ordered the mod would not get credit for playing it. The system might still accept the table as legal and give the other three players credit. As others have pointed out, this is not a glitch in the system. This is RPGA policy, and has been for a while. Just like DM's can't play an adventure after running it, people ordering the adventures can't play them after running an event (or cancelling an event) with those adventures ordered. Shawn
Wrathamon 12-13-06, 06:45 PM	yah that does suck... I normally setup the events, run one of them and play in the others. :(
bertman4 12-14-06, 06:32 PM	I haven't done this but I am curious. What if someone orders a mod then cancels the order. Later they play in that mod with three other players. The one player does not get credit for the mod. Does this invalidate the entire table since there are only three valid players not four? psgj As far as I know, it will invalidate the table. I've seen a few rare cases in LG where that has happened. Bertman
Marcus Majarra 12-17-06, 10:58 AM	Just to note that this has always been the case. The RPGA general rules prohibit the Senior GM for a 'home' event from playing a scenario once it has been ordered. For gameday/retail/convention events the rules allow play up to and including the date of the event, so long as the player has no actual knowledge of the scenario. The system might or might not enforce the first restriction (i.e. disqualifying players who play a scenario they have downloaded for a home event prior to the end of the home event) but definately enforces the second one. This is all spelled out in the RPGA rules - although I'll admit they're not the easiest thing to make complete sense of! This does cause the 'missing file' problem to be more severe as gameday senior DMs who expected to be able to find someone to run a slot zero type table for them prior to the event but are then unable to play at all end up being disqualified despite not ever having been able to download the file. It would be very useful to get this communicated forcefully to RPGA HQ so that Senior DMs can be assured that if a module is listed in the database it is actually available for download. One note, though: the AJs are not a solution to this - the rules are clear, if not terribly well-known. Basically if you are ordering a home event, make sure you've played, or are willing to eat, any module you order. If you are organising a larger event, make absolutely sure you will be able to play by the end of the event, if you ever want to. Playing a game which you have already downloaded in other circumstances is not permitted by the RPGA rules and your character has no right to the rewards of the adventure. Not to contradict you, but I have been able to order modules (including DM's Marks) for fellow DMs to run with myself as a player, and it all worked out nicely.
pedr 12-17-06, 04:21 PM	DM's Marks were always supposed to be more flexible, and allow anybody to play one even after they've DM'd one. There were reports that the system was erroneously not allowing this but it might have been fixed. I don't know as I've not tried it. Aside from this, the system is not infaliable. It sometimes allows things which the RPGA rules do not allow. I have heard other anecdotal evidence that the system is not disqualifying the Senior DM from playing in Home-game events. Nevertheless the rules are clear that it isn't allowed. For reference, the rules are here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga/hq/genrulestext Whether you choose to follow them when the system doesn't enforce them is up to you, but you should be aware of what they are when you make your decision!
JJeff 12-19-06, 04:30 AM	Ok, if my area has 2 judges running XE and one of them is willing to eat the Mod. Judge A orders for, say, 1st Jan 2 weeks before (on 18th Dec) and Judge B orders for 7th Jan (2 weeks before, 25th Dec). Can Judge B play in Judge A's game and get credit for the game? Or must Judge B wait till after Jan 1 to order the game (and thus be able to run it only on the 15th) to get credit?
pedr 12-19-06, 08:03 AM	This depends on two things: whether the RPGA ordering/reporting system enforces the RPGA rules and whether the 7th January game is a Home Game or a Game Day. If the 7th January event is a gameday then everything's fine: so long as Judge B plays the module before the 7th January he is not breaking any rules and the system should allow him to get the credit. For a gameday, retail event or convention the Senior GM can play all modules he's ordered right up until the end (i.e. registered date) of the event. Assuming he's not read the modules, of course, but that's on the honour system. It is only for Home events, where the assumption is that usually the session GM is the Senior GM (although that's not a rule), that the Senior GM is not permitted to play any modules ordered for the event after he's completed the order. The fact that you're quoting 14 day lead-times suggests you're talking about gamedays, so you shouldn't have a problem. There's anecdotal evidence that you wouldn't have a system problem even if you were running Home events, but that would clearly be against the rules. Does that help?
Harliquinn 01-02-07, 10:02 AM	It is only for Home events, where the assumption is that usually the session GM is the Senior GM (although that's not a rule), that the Senior GM is not permitted to play any modules ordered for the event after he's completed the order. Does that help? Just to clarify, and perhaps to question, the actual rules mention "Downloading" the module, not ordering it. I wonder if there is a distinct difference in the system. For home play events, the GM is not allowed to play in an adventure from the day the event is sanctioned and the adventure downloaded. So would you be okay ordering it for the future but not downloading it until you have actually played it? This could be of consequence for the next few weeks with the windows of play. Harli
pedr 01-02-07, 10:32 AM	<academic lawyer hat on> The question is whether the 'and' in the quoted sentence requires implies that both 'the event is sanctioned' and 'the adventure download' have to happen before the GM is not allowed to play, or whether it is considered to be one operation (sanctioning and downloading). It's not completely clear, but if the rules meant only to restrict to after the event was downloaded it would be easier and less confusing to have written "... from the day the adventure downloaded," as "the day the event is sanctioned" adds nothing. I'm of the opinion that the more correct (and certainly the safer, for those of Lawful persuasion!) interpretation is that the rules prohibit Senior GMs from playing adventures which they've ordered for a Home Game from the day that they've ordered it. <academic lawyer hat off> If you have trouble getting things (for XE, I imagine) ordered with the five-day lead time, you might want to consider discussing with the Senior GM of the event you play at to fold the two sets of games in together and for him to report both. That way you don't need to order it at all.