Just the whole premise of RPGA.
[snip]
That's why I hate RPGA.
I fancied myself a pretty damned fantastic DM, and as much as I hated the idea of Eberron when it first came out, I knew that the "con exclusive" events were supposed to be special, and I knew I'd do a good job. So, I played up all the terrible, scary elements of all the adventures to their utmost, gave people a fright, and everyone at the table their money's worth, and then got a verbal bitchslap from the event coordinator
for not killing any characters. Cut to the end of the convention. I've run the event 3-5 times. I've received 3-5 verbal bitchslaps for not killing any characters. Apparently, I was a disgrace for not only not having killed any characters, but apparently, most other tables running the module resulted in TPK after TPK. This was my first convention with the RPGA, though, so they "cut me some slack."
I noticed a pattern, at the next three conventions, whereby
the players would thank me for making their convention. They'd regale me with stories about nightmare judges they'd had, and for many of the players, I'd "restored their faith in the RPGA." A couple of times, I found particularly flattering, but then this started to happen
nearly every single game session. Apparently I was the only RPGA judge present at those events who had a sense of humor, a fair play style, a good grasp on the rules,
and had actually read the fucking module before running it. I finally left the RPGA to run my own events because I didn't want them to make me look bad. </rant>
