Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Mattprowse Apr 16, 2010 11:03:41	Hello all, I am attending Gencon this year as an almost complete newbie.  I will be travelling from the UK and am not currently a member of the RPGA.  I have been running 4e since it came out and now want a chance to actually play the game.  Gencon represents my best bet of being able to do that. However, I have some questions. I have currently signed up for P1, P2 and P3, which are marked as RPGA LFR games.  I assume I will need to become a member in order to play.  Is it possible to do this on the day with minimal hassle?  I tried to join a while back and ran into difficulties being in the UK. It is an LFR game, are you expected to have played in LFR events and played a character to the various different levels to be able to enter or can I just turn up with a character made legally using the character builder and play? Is there anything else I should be aware of about RPGA games beforehand? Any advice would be much appreciated.
#2 kenobi65 Apr 16, 2010 11:26:21	You can join the RPGA at the convention.  That isn't a problem. What is an issue is that you've signed up for games requiring Paragon-tier characters...and, in LFR, you *must* start your characters at 1st level, and advance them in level through play.  So, you can't show up at that P1 adventure with an 11th-level character you just cranked out in Character Builder. You'll find it useful to read the RPGA Character Creation Guide, which can be downloaded here (it's the second document listed on the page): www.wizards.com/dnd/Event.aspx?x=dnd/4ne... Note that the front part of the CCG contains general rules for RPGA play, while the back half contains specific rules for LFR play.  Anything in the front half (the general rules) can be trumped by campaign-specific rules (in the back half), and one of those is the "LFR characters must start at 1st level" rule. There are three LFR adventures being run at GenCon which are made for low-level characters (levels 1-4): MINI 2-1, MINI 2-2, and MINI 2-3; if you can get into those, you could play them as a new player.  In addition. "D&D Classics: Curse of the Gray Hag" is an RPGA game, but it's a "classic", which means that it's not an LFR adventure...it's a "one-shot" 4E adventure, in which characters are provided for play.  There are also a Delve and an Arena being run in the RPGA area, which are short adventures with pre-generated characters, which you play using generic event tickets.
#3 pedr Apr 16, 2010 18:01:27	Also, if you want to try to find some places to play D&D in the UK (whether RPGA/Living Forgotten Realms or otherwise), join the D&D UK group on here (community.wizards.com/dnduk) and/or check out the forum at www.ukroleplayers.com There are probably going to be non-RPGA 4e events at GenCon as well, though finding tickets for them will be a matter of keeping an eye on the event catalogue and signing up when you see available tickets. I don't know which version of D&D NASCRAG (nominally) uses these days - if you want a very different slant on D&D, check them out. It's an experience, and there's never any problem getting to play - they're very good at expanding to fit as many players in as they can! Have fun at GenCon (I'm terribly jealous!)