(Message georges:8)
Subj: FRPG Tournament and Fan Club Update
From: George Sundborg <georges@frpg.com>
To: l5rinfo@frpg.com, deadlandsinfo@frpg.com, lbsinfo@frpg.com,
rageinfo@frpg.com, ambassadors@frpg.com
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 17:19:13 PDT
-- /blue/homes/cowell/Mail/mhl.format --
FRPG Tournament and Fan Club Update
This is a lengthy post that will cover a number of items and issues for
both the FRPG fan clubs and the tournament scene. This is not a
game-specific post, so if you are fan club member or tournament players of
Legend of the Five Rings, Doomtown, Rage, or Legend of the Burning Sands,
then this post is for you.
George Sundborg
FRPG Tournaments & Fanclubs
Table of Contents
I. Tournament Rankings
II. Tournament Search Engine
III. Tournament Contact Info
IV. Tournament / Fan Club T-shirt Update
V. Imperial Herald #11
VI. Tombstone Epitaph #2
VII. Imperial Herald #11 L5R Promo Cards
VIII. Tombstone Epitaph #2 Promo Cards
IX. Imperial Herald #10, Imperial Ambassador, and Tattoo Madness
X. Imperial Herald #10 Taka's Treasures Koku Cards
XI. Imperial Herald #9 Taka's Treasures Koku Cards
XII. L5R and LBS affiliation in the Imperial Assembly
XIII. LBS Content in the Imperial Herald
XIV. Imperial Herald #10 LBS Promo Cards
XV. LBS Fan Club Merchandise
XVI. FRPG European Tournaments and Fan Clubs
XVII. FRPG Fan Club Policy Updates
I. Tournament Rankings
Many of you have questions and/or concerns about your tournament rankings
now that the DCI is the sanctioning body for FRPG tournaments. The process
of merging the old Imperial Assembly ranking database with the DCI's has
been more time-consuming than we had hoped. Making matters worse, our two
database administrators left the company, leaving us with a significant
manpower shortage.
The good news is that we are just a couple of weeks away from going live.
At this time, I cannot address the precise details of the FRPG ranking
system, but I can make these assurances:
1. You will be able to access your ranking online.
2. There will be an appeal / reporting process for any ranking discrepancies.
3. We will post an explanation of how rankings work, as well instructions
for accessing your rankings, and the details of the appeal process should
there be a problem. We will make this information available at
www.frpg.com, www.wizards.com., and to the FRPG listservs.
To all of you who have ranking concerns, I appreciate your patience in this
matter, and I am sorry we have been a bit of a black hole on the matter.
II. Tournament Search Engine
Many of you have had problems with the DCI Tournament Search Engine at
http://events.wizards.com/DCITournament/
The search engine is not particularly intuitive, and is optimized for the
Magic tournament scene. However, it possible to use this search engine to
find FRPG tournaments in your area without a great deal of difficulty. I
have included some step by step instructions below.
In order to find all future tournaments in your area, follow these steps.
1. Point your browser to http://events.wizards.com/DCITournament/
2. The top center of screen shows a list of available games. Select the
game you wish to search for by clicking on it. .
3. In the lower center of the screen, make sure the "Status:" field reads
"Future." You can select this option in the drop-down list.
4. Select EITHER a Region OR a Metro Area. Do NOT select both. I recommend
using the Region field as opposed to the Metro Area field.
5. Press Search. Please note that the search engine will display only the
first page of search results. If there are additional pages, you can
navigate forward and backwards through the search results. These navigation
controls are located in the upper right corner of the screen.
If you wish to find all tournaments in a particular state on a particular
day, follow the steps above, but be sure to enter a date in the date field.
Dates must be entered in the following format: MM/DD/YY.
III. Tournament Contact Info
The FRPG tournament sanctioning application has a lot of useful
information, but it does not include any information about where to send
your check or money order. If you are paying for a prize kit or any other
FRPG tournament-related fee, please make it payable to:
FRPG
Attn: Tournaments
Box 707
Renton, WA 98055
IV. Tournament / Fan Club T-shirt Update
After a looooong delay, I have just learned that the new L5R Clan t-shirts
will arrive this week. We have approximately 150 t-shirts on back order
that we will fulfill first. For those of who have been waiting, you can
expect to receive your t-shirts no later than Friday, 5/7/99.
LBS Clan t-shirts, LBS Logo t-shirts, L5R Logo t-shirts, and Doomtown Logo
t-shirts will follow soon after, I do not have a solid confirmation on when
these t-shirts will be delivered, but it will be in the next 10 - 14 days.
V. Imperial Herald #11
Contrary to suspicion, the current Imperial Herald is still #10. Imperial
Herald #11 has not been released yet. We are still gathering content for
#11, and are working toward a late May release.
We have made some changes to the content and layout of the Imperial Herald,
which we hope that you will be pleased with. We don't want to give too much
away, but there are more than a few hints about what we're up to in this
post, so read on. . .
VI. Tombstone Epitaph #2
We are feverishly working on getting the next Tombstone Epitaph (#2) out
the door in the next few weeks. We do not have an official release date
yet, but we are aiming for early to mid-May. As a thank-your for all the
members who have been so patiently waiting for Epitaph #2, we will extend
your GTC membership by three months. All GTC members as of 4/30/99 will
receive a new membership card in the 4-6 weeks to reflect their new
renewal dates.
VII. Imperial Herald #11 L5R Promo Cards
Two L5R promo cards, Forward Patrol and Duty of the Magistrate, have been
posted on a few personal websites as the promo cards for Imperial Herald
#11. This information is wrong, though the posters should not be held
accountable for our mistake. These cards were accidentally included in a
very small number of mailings to new and renewing members, and were
described as the promo cards for Imperial Herald #11. Again, this is our
mistake, not the posters.
Here's the real scoop:
Forward Patrol will be a promo card for Imperial Herald #11. We will
include it with the Imperial Herald #11 when we mail it to all current and
new members. The Imperial Herald #11 is not currently available, but is
scheduled for release in late May.
Duty of the Magistrate is a promo card, but will NOT be included in the
Imperial Herald #11. It WILL be made available to all Imperial Assembly
members, but at a date to be announced later.
The Imperial Herald #11 will also include a special card surprise. It is
not a promo card (and it is not Duty of the Magistrate!), but it is a
little something we want everyone to have.
VIII. Tombstone Epitaph #2 Promo Cards
There will be two promo cards released with the Tombstone Epitaph #2. We of
course want the cards to be a surprise so they will remain a secret until
the Epitaph #2 is released (see below how good we are keeping secrets!).
The second of the two promo cards is in addition to the four promised.
IX. Imperial Herald #10, Imperial Ambassador, and Tattoo Madness
Unfortunately, we have run out of the current Imperial Herald (#10), and
the accompanying promo cards (Imperial Ambassador and Tattoo Madness). We
believe this shortfall is primarily due to a spike in IA membership and
several small issues related to the hand-off of the IA from AEG to FRPG /
the DCI. We do not anticipate that this problem will happen again to this
degree, and we will accommodate the IA membership spike in future Imperial
Herald and promo card print runs.
X. Imperial Herald #10 Taka's Treasures Koku Cards
We still have many of the cards listed for Koku redemption in the Imperial
Herald #10, but we have run out of the Tattooed Men card. Please see the
FRPG Fan Clubs Policy Changes section below for more information on
requesting Koku cards that we no longer have in stock.
XI. Imperial Herald #9 Taka's Treasures Koku Cards
We have run completely out of all cards made available for Koku redemption
in the Imperial Herald #9. Please see the FRPG Fan Clubs Policy Changes
section below for more information on requesting Koku cards that we no
longer have in stock.
XII. L5R and LBS affiliation in the Imperial Assembly
There is a fair amount of confusion regarding affiliation for L5R and LBS
if you are an Imperial Assembly member. Here's the real deal: If you are a
member of the Imperial Assembly, you are member of the fan club for both
L5R and LBS. This means for one flat fee, you can select an affiliation for
both L5R and LBS, you will get promo cards for both L5R and LBS, and you
will receive a membership card for both L5R and LBS. You will receive only
one Imperial Herald, which will contain content for both games (there's
more on this below). This contradicts at least two policies we have had in
the past, and I am sorry for all the confusion.
If you have signed up for either the L5R or LBS fan clubs and would like to
add an affiliation for the other, please send an email to
georges@frpg.com. You will be send a confirmation when the change has been
made.
XIII. LBS Content in the Imperial Herald
The next Imperial Herald (#11) and future Imperial Herald's will contain
content for Legend of the Burning Sands as well as Legend of the Five
Rings. We have said this before, and not delivered - I know. I have seen
the content assignments for Herald #11 with my own two eyes, and can assure
you that there will be several LBS articles.
XIV. Imperial Herald #10 LBS Promo Cards
There are a few copies of the LBS promo card Maymun floating around out
there. Our plan was to have Maymun be the LBS promo card with Imperial
Herald #11. A very small number of these cards were released to new and
renewing members of the Imperial Assembly by accident ahead of time. As it
turns out, Maymun is also available in the Awakenings Basic Set, so he
cannot be used as true promo card.
We have decided to include Maymun with the Imperial Herald #11, but will
also include three surprise LBS promo cards. All four of these cards will
be available when the Imperial Herald #11 is released in late May. All
members of the Imperial Assembly will receive these and the L5R promo cards
mentioned earlier.
XV. LBS Fan Club Merchandise
Just as there have been howls for LBS content in the Imperial Herald, many
of you have Dinari burning a hole in your pocket, and want to know what you
can spend it on. We do not currently have a set list of items that you can
redeem, but we will include one in the Imperial Herald #11 due in late May.
This list of redeemable items will include cards, clan t-shirts, and logo
t-shirts but is unlikely to include any other items at this time.
We will post the list of available items to www.FRPG.com and the LBSinfo
listserv when the Imperial Herald #11 is released in late May. Please note
that you can also use your Dinari to redeem any item available for prize
point redemption in any FRPG fan club, including Doomtown, L5R, and Rage.
XVI. FRPG European Tournaments and Fan Clubs
We are pleased to announce that by this summer, our European offices will
be providing direct tournament and fan club support to their local fans.
Fans will be able to sanction tournaments, order prize kits, check their
fan club status, and order fan club merchandise without having to make long
distance calls or deal with unpredictable postal regulations. We are
confident that this arrangement will provide the customer service and
support that our fans in Europe deserve. More details on this transition
will be posted to the FRPG listservs, www.FRPG.com, and www.Wizards.com
when it becomes available.
XVII. FRPG Fan Club Policy Updates
There are a number of Fan Club policies that I would like to take a moment
to clarify.
A. SASE's no longer required.
A self-addressed stamped envelope is no longer required for redemption
services, including Taka's Treasures or Perry's Pawnshop. We will of course
continue to use any protective covering that you send.
B. Flat-fee shipping and handling
In the past we have required that fans prepay the shipping and handling
costs of all redeemed merchandise. This has proven to be difficult,
especially for our international customers who have to deal with multiple
(and occasionally arcane) postal systems. We have decided instead to
implement a flat fee for all shipping and handling redemption services. The
fees have not been set yet, though there will likely be a separate fee for
international and domestic shipping. The final fee schedule will be
available in the next Epitaph and Herald, and will be posted to www.FRPG.com.
C. FRPG not responsible for lost redemption requests.
FRPG / the DCI will not longer be responsible for lost redemption requests,
such as t-shirt certificates, Taka's Treasures requess or Perry's Pawnshop
orders. Be sure to send any merchandise request to us via some traceable
means, such as FedEx or registered mail. We will not be responsible for any
request that is not sent via some traceable means.
D. Out-of-stock and back-order policy
Though we will try to avoid them, there are going to be times when we run
out of items available for redemption. This happens most typically with
Taka's Treasures Koku cards. In the past, when we have run out of available
items we have been able to fulfill a similar item. However, due to the
increased volume of redemption services, we feel that this is a service
that we cannot adequately perform. Instead, we will return to you a Koku
certificate equal to the amount of the order than we cannot fulfill, and an
invoice noting that we are out of stock of that particular item.
If you order an item that we currently out of stock, but will carry again,
we will hold your order until we can fulfill it. You will receive an
invoice noting that the item is currently out of stock, but will be
fulfilled soon.
We will of course work to prevent either situation from occurring at all
==========
FRPG / DCI
George Sundborg
Tournaments & Fanclubs
425.254.2941
For help with this listserver, send a message with no subject or
message to majordomo@frpg.com
Contents Copyright (C) 1997,98,99 by FIVE RINGS PUBLISHING GROUP, INC
