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What version of D&D does Living Greyhawk use?
Living Greyhawk uses D&D v3.5 published by Wizards of the Coast. As a courtesy to the other players at your table, you should be reasonably familiar with the Players Handbook, even if you have not played D&D before.
Are there special campaign rules?
Although D&D v3.5 forms the basis of the rules, there are a few modifications. They are all outlined in the current version of the Living Greyhawk Campaign Standards (LGCS). You should read this and be familiar with it before generating a character.
Who can run adventures for us?
Generally speaking, your DM must have passed the RPGA Herald-level DM Test. (See next question for details). For regional adventures, you can use any qualified DM who is a resident of the region that you are playing in. For a Core or adapted adventure, it's even easier--any qualified DM from anywhere can run this adventure for you.
What is a Herald-level DM?
In order to ensure that a DM running an LG adventure has at least a basic understanding about the game, the DM must first pass an on-line Herald-level test on the RPGA website before he or she can order adventures. The test consists of twenty questions about the core rules of D&D v3.5. There is no time limit. The test is "open book"--you can flip through the Player's Handbook as you do the test. If you fail, you can retake the test as many times as necessary in order to pass.
Which adventures can I order for home play?
Assuming you are a Herald-level DM, you can always order Core and Adapted adventures, and you can play them anywhere. If you live in one of the Canadian provinces that owns Ket (Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI or Newfoundland) and you are also going to play the adventure in one of those provinces, then you can order any Ket adventure or VTF adventure.
What is APL?
APL stands for Average Party Level--an indication of the relative strength of the table you are sitting at. The APL of your table will determine how great a challenge your party will face in the adventure.
While the plot of a Living Greyhawk adventure is the same for lower-level and higher-level parties, the encounters are scaled to be tougher at higher APLs. While fighting at higher levels obviously means deadlier traps and encounters, the rewards are commensurately greater, since treasure and xp are also scaled to APL--the higher the level, the greater the reward.
All adventures are scaled to even-numbered APLs (2, 4, 6, etc.). Most adventures fall in the range of APL 2-12, but there are adventures that start at a higher APL and scale upwards to APL 16; other may start at APL 2 and only scale up to APL 6 or 8. Before you play an adventure, the DM will tell you the range of APLs the adventure was written for.
The APL of your table is calculated by simply dividing the total levels of all characters by the number of characters. This is rounded to the nearest whole number, and if 6 players are at the table, 1 is added to the result. The final value is the APL of the table.
For instance, if a table consists of two 4th-level fighters, a 4th-level sorcerer, a rogue-1/wizard-4, and a 5th-level cleric, then the APL of the table would be (4 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 5)/5 = 4.5 = 5. Since the APL of the party falls exactly between 4 and 6, the party can choose to either "play down" to APL 4 or "play up" to APL 6.
If another player with a 6th-level bard joined the table, the APL would now be ((4 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 6)/6) + 1 = 5.6 = 6. With the addition of the new player, the table no longer has an option, it must play the adventure at APL 6.
Note that combat-support animals such as riding dogs and warhorses will also add to the APL. If this will bump your table up to an unacceptable APL, the owners of the animals can choose to leave them at home for the adventure.
(Animals that are class features--a wizard's familiar, a druid's animal companion, or a paladin's special mount, for example--are not counted in APL calculations.)
What is a legal table?
A "legal table" for any Living Greyhawk adventure must have a DM and between 4 and 6 players. Everyone at the table must be an RPGA member. (New players can sign up on the spot.)
What is "eating an adventure"?
You should always play an adventure as a player before you DM it. The reason is that if you DM an adventure before you have played it, you are no longer eligible to play it--after all, you've read the complete adventure, so you already know where the monsters and traps are--that's not fair to other players. DMing an adventure before playing it is called "eating an adventure" or "eating a mod". If you only play Living Greyhawk at home, and nobody in your group has played an adventure, obviously someone in your group will have to eat it. If this is the case, make sure everyone at the table has passed their Herald-level DM test. Then everyone can take turns ordering adventures and eating them. Better yet, get to a convention or game day and play the adventures there; then you can go home and DM them for your friends.
What is a Time Unit?
A Time Unit is a way of measuring how much you use a character during the year. Each character starts on January 1 with 52 Time Units, or TUs. In the last year of the Living Greyhawk campaign, it no longer costs Time Units to play an adventure. However, some out-of-adventure activities will cost TUs, such as crafting a magic wand or being imprisoned for committing a crime.
If your character runs out of TUs, you will not be able to play with that character anymore--it is finished for the campaign. If you wish to continue to play LG adventures, you will have to use another character. This is not unusual--most players have a "stable" of 3 or 4 characters at various levels.
What does "access to treasure" mean?
Treasure is one of the great motivators in D&D. There's nothing like getting a slightly used +1 sword to make a character forget about the nasty hobgoblin who used to own it. In a traditional session of D&D, treasure is split up between party members as it is found, or sometimes at the end of each session. During the first year of Living Greyhawk, this was also the mechanism for treasure--at the end of each adventure, the two or three items of treasure were represented by pieces of paper called "item certificates", or "certs" for short. The players would simply dice off for the certs. By the end of the first year of the campaign, it was clear that something was not working with this system--some players had incredible luck with their die rolls and owned a hoard of great stuff. Other players owned nothing.
So the Circle (campaign administrators) decided to make a change. Now at the end of each adventure, no player gets to keep the actual items that were found. Instead, the DM adds up the gp value of all of the treasure, loot and coin found, then splits the total gp value amongst the players (up to a pre-determined ceiling scaled to APL. For instance, at APL 2, you can receive a maximum of 450gp).
The items that you found are also listed on the Adventure Record. You now have "access" to those items, and if you have enough gold, you can use it to buy the item. (Note that the only items you can buy without this special access are mundane items from the Player's Handbook, plus low-level scrolls and potions.)
For example, an APL-2 party defeats an ogre and takes a +1 keen scimitar and a wand of cure light wounds from him. They get to use the scimitar and wand for the rest of the adventure if they wish. At the end of the adventure, the DM looks in the adventure index for the value of the scimitar and wand, and discovers that the total value is about 9000 gp, or about 1500 gp per person.
However, this is more than the gp "cap" of 450 gp for APL 2, so each player would receive the maximum of 450 gp. In addition, the players would gain access to the +1 keen scimitar and the wand on their adventure record, and when they have enough gold (750 gp for the wand, 8315 gp for the acimitar), they could purchase one or both items.
Note that "access" comes in several flavours:
- Core access: You may buy this item after completing any Core module.
- Regional access: You may buy this item after completing any module in the region where you gained the access. For instance, if you gained this access in Ket, you may buy the item after any Ket module.
- Metaregional access: You may buy this item after completing any module in the metaregion where you gained the access. For instance, if you gained this access in the VTF metaregion, you may buy the item after any adventure set in a region belonging to the VTF metaregion.
- Adventure access: You may buy this item after any adventure, but only for the next three adventures. Once you start a fourth adventure, you lose access to this item.
- Any access: You may buy this item after any adventure. There is no time limit to this type of access.
What does "Greyhawking the body" mean?
After defeating the bad guys, you may find items on them that you will be able to use for the rest of the adventure. However, due to the treasure access rules, you will have to "hand everything back in" at the end of the adventure and receive gp for it instead. "Greyhawking the body" simply means removing anything of worth that can be used during the adventure, with the understanding that the party will lose it at the end of the adventure and be recompensed with gp.
Note that if you buy something during the adventure--a potion of feather fall, for instance--you will continue to own it until you use it, which could be several adventures later.
What paperwork is involved?
There are over 10,000 people playing Living Greyhawk. In order to keep track of everyone, there's going to be a bit of paperwork. It's important to bring ALL of your current paperwork for the character you are playing to each play session:
- Session Tracking Sheet: Before play begins, the DM will pass this around. Fill in your name and RPGA number, and pass it on.
- Magic Item Creation Logsheet (MIC): If your character has the ability to create wands, potions, scrolls, etc., you fill out this sheet with what you want to create before play begins and give it to your DM. He or she will sign it at the end of the adventure and give it to you to keep with the corresponding Adventure Record. You can download a copy of the MIC here and print off more copies for your own use.
- Adventure Record (AR): At the end of an adventure, the DM will give you an Adventure Record (AR). It will indicate how many gp and xp you earned from the adventure, how many TUs it took you to complete the adventure, what special favours (if any) you earned, and what access to treasure you earned. On the AR, fill out your character's name, home region, the date and event name, and add up a running total of your character's total xp, gp (after buying and selling equipment) and TUs. Hand it back to your DM and he or she will sign it and give it back to you.
- Magic Item Logsheet (MIL): This sheet keeps track of magic items in your possession--when you made them, got them or bought them, and when you sold them, lost them or broke them. You can download a copy of the MIL here and make copies of it as you need them.
The LGCS has more information about how to properly fill out an MIC, AR and MIL.
What do I have to bring in order to play?
As with any D&D game, you should bring polyhedral dice, pencils and scratch paper, and a 25mm miniature to represent your character on the game board. For a Living Greyhawk adventure, you should also bring
- A "Greyhawk-legal" character. If this is your first adventure, bring several 1st-level characters--that way you can play the character that fits in well with the class mix at the table. Generate your characters before you arrive.
- Any previous Adventure Records and other paperwork for the character you are playing.
- Your RPGA card
- Although the DM will have the core rule books at the table (the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual), it always helps to bring your own copy of the Player's Handbook. This is especially important if you are playing a spellcaster--you are expected to know the range, duration and effect of any spell you throw before you cast it. Having to ask someone for their copy of the PHB every time you want to cast a spell will slow down play.
- If your character is carrying any item or uses any spell or feat that is not found in the core rule books, you must bring the rulebook it is from, or at least a photocopy of the specific page. If the DM has any question about the item, feat or spell, you can show the DM the specific description. The DM has the right to disallow any item from the table if you can't show him the rules for its use. Note that you should always check the most current version of the LGCS to make sure your item, spell or feat is legal for use in Living Greyhawk.
- If you are at a table with people you haven't played with before, a "table tent" with your character's name, race and class is a courtesy.
How often can I play?
You can play just about as often as you'd like. Consider this: By June 30, 2008, the last day that new Living Greyhawk adventures can premiere, there will be 15 Ket adventures, 15 VTF adventures and 50 Core adventures in play--a total of 80 adventures available to every player in Ket until December 31, 2008. But hold on--there will also be 30 Core adventures in play, and if you're lucky enough to make it to DDXP (February) and Origins (June), there will be 3 or 4 "Core Specials" each year. And RPGA has approved 15 "adapted" adventures available. So the easy answer is that you can play almost 100 adventures.
However, we're not done yet--there are a number of other regions within a few hours drive of Ket, depending on which part of Canada you live in, and each of these regions also has 15 adventures in play this year. and there are 4 other Metaregions, and each of them will have 15 adventures in play.
The end result is that you can play just about as often as you would like.
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