Much of this information is contained in the RPGA Newcomer's Information Page, but is listed here in Q&A form for quick lookup. Once you find your answer(s) here, we still recommend reading that page for a better overall view of the RPGA.
If you have additional questions or comments, please see the FAQ Discussion Thread, here. Replies to this thread are discouraged to keep the FAQ simple and concise.
General:
1) What is the RPGA?
The RPGA (or Role Playing Gamers Association) is organized play arm of Wizards of the Coast dedicated to role-playing products.
We're here to help you get the most out of your role-playing games, by offering a variety of free RPG adventures, as well as places to play, and a way to meet new people to play with!
We're here to help you get the most out of your role-playing games, by offering a variety of free RPG adventures, as well as places to play, and a way to meet new people to play with!
warfteiner's guide to sanctioning events
So, we've had plenty of folks asking how to order adventures and how to navigate the "new" RPGA/DCI site. I use the quotes simply because I should've had this posted weeks ago but work interfered (doesn't it always?) and many people are now quite comfortable with the site... but this post is for those of you that aren't 100% comfortable with it and want a picture-by-picture guide!
Each image should be pretty close to exactly what you see on your screen. If the format looks slightly different, please know that I use Firefox - IE/ Opera/ Mosaic/ etc will have a different visceral look and feel, but the same functionality at the heart of it.
A few things to assume, here:
1 - You are a Herald-level DM or higher.
2 - You have basic web familiarity.
3 - ... you'll send me pie. I love pie.
4 - The images are not edited. They're goofy-lookin' 'cause it's late and I'm using Windows paint...
Here we go! Follow the circles to find the easy path!
1.) From the basic http://www.rpga.com website:
2.) The RPGA/ DCI log in. Enter your number (old-schoolers, update to a 9- or 10-digit number please) and password.
3.) Hit your event sanctioning button. Look to the lower-right of your screen.
4.) What are we playing today? Circles FTW!
5.) What type of event today? Use your drop-down box.
6.) Here are your options. Conventions will need a convention code (or so I hear; I've never set up a convention).
7.) Where are you playing? At home? At your FLGS? Your local disco? Spell it out, man!
8.) Personal data. It's not shared, and if you don't fill it out, Chris Tulach will find you... and make you work in HQ at GenCon... (and you still can't rub Dave C.'s bald head for good luck when you get there)
** PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ORDER ANYTHING BUT A "HOME" GAME, YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION WILL BE LISTED ON THE WIZARDS.COM EVENT CALENDAR!! **
(so: if you want to get an RPGA-sanctioned game for Joe, Jim, Kim, and Bob on the block... make it a home game so random scrubs don't show up at your front door demanding xp and Mountain Dew)
9.) Sort the campaign files for easy reading:
10.) Add some adventures to your event order. Bear in mind that home games only get two adventures no matter how many consecutive days Joe, Jim, Kim and Bobbo keep you practicing those Iron DM skills. The little circle on the right is where you should be selecting your desired adventures, the big circle on the bottom is what you need to hit after you select the appropriate adventures-in-question:
11.) Verify your selected adventures! Few things suck harder than going to all this work only to realize that you've ordered the wrong adventures for your event (ok, so lots of things are worse but we're talking in dice-chucking terms here):
12.) Verified, locked and loaded? Awesome, let's go press that little "next" button and move on. It wants to be hit! Look at it!:
13.) Finalize it!
14.) Go to My Events!
15.) Check your email for the sanctioning number (this is mostly used when a DM has set up multiple events and gamedays). Then, inside My Events, find the event with the sanctioning number that was emailed to you and click on it.
16.) Find the adventure(s) and download it! Hopefully you have software to deal with .zip archives and .pdf files...
17.) Reporting an event is a whole 'nother animal. We can cover that later, time permitting...
So, there you (mostly) have it. It's clunky and looks like I threw it together... because I did. If there is demand I can do a whole slick flash presentation later on - but for now, hopefully this will help the new DMs or those that just don't know the new system yet.
Feedback encourages, PMs welcome, and pie suggested. Warm pumpkin, or maybe some dutch apple with caramel glaze this week?
- warfteiner.
Each image should be pretty close to exactly what you see on your screen. If the format looks slightly different, please know that I use Firefox - IE/ Opera/ Mosaic/ etc will have a different visceral look and feel, but the same functionality at the heart of it.
A few things to assume, here:
1 - You are a Herald-level DM or higher.
2 - You have basic web familiarity.
3 - ... you'll send me pie. I love pie.
4 - The images are not edited. They're goofy-lookin' 'cause it's late and I'm using Windows paint...
Here we go! Follow the circles to find the easy path!
1.) From the basic http://www.rpga.com website:
2.) The RPGA/ DCI log in. Enter your number (old-schoolers, update to a 9- or 10-digit number please) and password.
3.) Hit your event sanctioning button. Look to the lower-right of your screen.
4.) What are we playing today? Circles FTW!
5.) What type of event today? Use your drop-down box.
6.) Here are your options. Conventions will need a convention code (or so I hear; I've never set up a convention).
7.) Where are you playing? At home? At your FLGS? Your local disco? Spell it out, man!
8.) Personal data. It's not shared, and if you don't fill it out, Chris Tulach will find you... and make you work in HQ at GenCon... (and you still can't rub Dave C.'s bald head for good luck when you get there)
** PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ORDER ANYTHING BUT A "HOME" GAME, YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION WILL BE LISTED ON THE WIZARDS.COM EVENT CALENDAR!! **
(so: if you want to get an RPGA-sanctioned game for Joe, Jim, Kim, and Bob on the block... make it a home game so random scrubs don't show up at your front door demanding xp and Mountain Dew)
9.) Sort the campaign files for easy reading:
10.) Add some adventures to your event order. Bear in mind that home games only get two adventures no matter how many consecutive days Joe, Jim, Kim and Bobbo keep you practicing those Iron DM skills. The little circle on the right is where you should be selecting your desired adventures, the big circle on the bottom is what you need to hit after you select the appropriate adventures-in-question:
11.) Verify your selected adventures! Few things suck harder than going to all this work only to realize that you've ordered the wrong adventures for your event (ok, so lots of things are worse but we're talking in dice-chucking terms here):
12.) Verified, locked and loaded? Awesome, let's go press that little "next" button and move on. It wants to be hit! Look at it!:
13.) Finalize it!
14.) Go to My Events!
15.) Check your email for the sanctioning number (this is mostly used when a DM has set up multiple events and gamedays). Then, inside My Events, find the event with the sanctioning number that was emailed to you and click on it.
16.) Find the adventure(s) and download it! Hopefully you have software to deal with .zip archives and .pdf files...
17.) Reporting an event is a whole 'nother animal. We can cover that later, time permitting...
So, there you (mostly) have it. It's clunky and looks like I threw it together... because I did. If there is demand I can do a whole slick flash presentation later on - but for now, hopefully this will help the new DMs or those that just don't know the new system yet.
Feedback encourages, PMs welcome, and pie suggested. Warm pumpkin, or maybe some dutch apple with caramel glaze this week?
- warfteiner.
warfteiner's guide to event reporting
On with the show!
1.)
First and foremost, you're gonna see this screen. Enter your DCI number and password to continue.
2.)
Next, see the circled bit that says "Event Reporting"? That's where we're headed.
3.)
Click the little bubble next to the event that we're going to report, and then click next. Yay, follow the circles! ;)
4.)
We have a choice to make at the bottom of the screen: are we canceling the event (and making sure we award no points, gold, or experience at all - to anyone!, or are we reporting the event? Choose wisely...
5.)
Enter the player and DM numbers in the appropriate boxes, and click the "Add Player" or "Add Judge/DM" buttons as appropriate. Note: a judge can also be entered as a player if there are multiple sessions for this reporting event.
6.)
If you see this, your player has indicated an invalid or non-existent DCI number. Feel free to pillage their village at your leisure. (that's right, I said it... and I'll say it again, too, when I get another bad DCI number! :P)
7.)
Review your player and judge names. If something is in error, such as that judge Alan being a big jerk that isn't allowed to judge anymore because he always tries to TPK his parties with gigantic flying aboleths and illithid vampires that weren't in the adventure (DME?), now is the time to change it. Otherwise, click the "Add Session" button and we'll marshal forward.
8.)
Here we see a couple drop-down boxes. When you click the black arrow in the "Adventure" box you will see a list of all the ordered adventures for this event (remember, for home events you're limited to two adventures total). When you click "Judge", you will get a list of people that you just entered under the judge heading, and the same is true for the "Player" boxes as well.
9.)
Here you can see that I have already selected the appropriate adventure from my drop-down menu, as well as giving that terrible DM Alan a chance to redeem himself. His players are indicated in their own drop-down menu, and I'm going to make darn sure that I credit the correct character for each player (as they're all indicated 1-Default Character, I'm hoping we're good but I can always check by opening that menu).
Be sure to record the correct total for the gold and XP gains/losses, as well as Bundle IDs and Certificates. These last two have their own vague but perfectly functional drop-down menus.
Finally, adventure questions. These should've been answered by the judge at the table - all you have to do is move those bubbles to this form. If the questions aren't answered, be sure to salt the judge's lands, and.... yeah. You get the point.
10.)
If you need to add another game session, now is the time to do so; simply repeat steps 5-10 as many times as needed until all your tables are entered. Otherwise, let's move on!
11.)
Profit!
1.)
First and foremost, you're gonna see this screen. Enter your DCI number and password to continue.
2.)
Next, see the circled bit that says "Event Reporting"? That's where we're headed.
3.)
Click the little bubble next to the event that we're going to report, and then click next. Yay, follow the circles! ;)
4.)
We have a choice to make at the bottom of the screen: are we canceling the event (and making sure we award no points, gold, or experience at all - to anyone!, or are we reporting the event? Choose wisely...
5.)
Enter the player and DM numbers in the appropriate boxes, and click the "Add Player" or "Add Judge/DM" buttons as appropriate. Note: a judge can also be entered as a player if there are multiple sessions for this reporting event.
6.)
If you see this, your player has indicated an invalid or non-existent DCI number. Feel free to pillage their village at your leisure. (that's right, I said it... and I'll say it again, too, when I get another bad DCI number! :P)
7.)
Review your player and judge names. If something is in error, such as that judge Alan being a big jerk that isn't allowed to judge anymore because he always tries to TPK his parties with gigantic flying aboleths and illithid vampires that weren't in the adventure (DME?), now is the time to change it. Otherwise, click the "Add Session" button and we'll marshal forward.
8.)
Here we see a couple drop-down boxes. When you click the black arrow in the "Adventure" box you will see a list of all the ordered adventures for this event (remember, for home events you're limited to two adventures total). When you click "Judge", you will get a list of people that you just entered under the judge heading, and the same is true for the "Player" boxes as well.
9.)
Here you can see that I have already selected the appropriate adventure from my drop-down menu, as well as giving that terrible DM Alan a chance to redeem himself. His players are indicated in their own drop-down menu, and I'm going to make darn sure that I credit the correct character for each player (as they're all indicated 1-Default Character, I'm hoping we're good but I can always check by opening that menu).
Be sure to record the correct total for the gold and XP gains/losses, as well as Bundle IDs and Certificates. These last two have their own vague but perfectly functional drop-down menus.
Finally, adventure questions. These should've been answered by the judge at the table - all you have to do is move those bubbles to this form. If the questions aren't answered, be sure to salt the judge's lands, and.... yeah. You get the point.
10.)
If you need to add another game session, now is the time to do so; simply repeat steps 5-10 as many times as needed until all your tables are entered. Otherwise, let's move on!
11.)
Profit!
Is there a new or secondary email address to send information to?
Just so you are aware, the email for North and South America does not work. At least it did not work when I tried it.
Is there a new or secondary email address to send information to?
People in the Americas should contact the RPGA via the customer service system at www.wizards.com/customerservice.
If the 'Email Us' tab there does not work, see this thread: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1133626
Also I found this thread which went into the process in detail.
Instructions are here: wizards.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wizards.cfg... - essentially you have to obtain an RPGA or DCI number (the easiest way is to go to a game store which runs Magic or organised D&D events and ask for one), then you need to email Wizards and ask them to authorise you to create private play D&D events. People in the Americas should use the customer service system at www.wizards.com/customerservice - people elsewhere may find that this works, or may find that contacting their local WPN/DCI/Hasbro office is quicker. Contact details are here: www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/sancti...
People who want to run public D&D events can use the simpler system of filling in the form here: www.wizards.com/Company/WPN/Join.aspx
Does sending an E-mail to WoTC requesting the RPGA card stiil works?
Not if the recent changes to the customer service answer is accurate.
If you want to run public events (whether that's LFR or Gamedays in any public venue, or those or Encounters in a store) you can get a DCI number by joining the WPN using the link above.
If you just want to run LFR in private, at the moment you will need to get DCI numbers for you and for your players from a store. In the future, home play of LFR will not be linked to the DCI/WPN system and you will be able to get the adventures from an alternative source (probably the LFR group: community.wizards.com/lfr).
Also, if you let us know exactly what you're trying to do, that'll help us advise you.
Edit: Please could we carry on this conversation in a new thread? If you start a separate thread for this question I'll reply there, as this was originally designed to be a place for answers to frequently asked questions to be posted, rather than a place to ask questions.
So is the RPGA dead?
Absolutely not; it's just that all the message traffic is in a different location now.
When WotC rebuilt the message boards a couple of years ago, they established a "group" for LFR (which is the RPGA's only current campaign), and that's where 99+% of the posts now wind up. All of the old boards were left up, however, and that's why it's still possible to post here, in what looks like a very "dead" message board. The only reason *I'm* here to read this and reply is that, as the VCL for the RPGA, I make a point of coming back to these old boards every few days, to see if anyone's accidentally posted in the old boards, looking for LFR / RPGA info.
The new group is here:
community.wizards.com/lfr
The message boards for the group are here:
community.wizards.com/lfr/go/forum/viewb...
Note that you will likely need to register to join the group before you can post on the boards.
Hope this helps!