Azzorak's Thoughts

I firmly believe that this site can be successful and I very much want to see that. For the sake of my friend's success and because I have longed for a place to call home in the rpg world. Most sites just don't seem to have what I am looking for but this site is pretty close to my idea of a perfect community, we just have to turn it into a community. Below are a few thoughts to help foster activity and to help make the site seem active enough that visitors may wish to stay. I will post my suggestion followed by a brief explanation of my reasoning.

1. I would like to see a Wargaming Subforum - I am an avid roleplayer, and I love video games and board games, but I am primarily, at least these days, a wargamer. I think it is an area of gamer that this site neglects. I would enjoy having a place to talk tactics, show off miniatures, post some tutorials, and a place to track a campaign I am running (plus other people can follow and comment on it if they wish). Adding in a place for wargamers especially if I (or others) can start filling it with useful information will attract another type of gamer to the site.

2. The ability to name the custom game type - Not sure how much effort this would take but it would be nice if when you select custom from the game type list when posting a game that a text box would pop up asking for the game. This way on the latest game or join a game screen it would say Beyond the Golden Sea | Custom - Numenera | Azzorak. This is less important now at our small size but later when we grow to a large community with many many games running at once it will be far more effective to not have to click on any game labled custom just to see what it is, of course as more systems get added this will be much less needed, but there are still many obscure systems out there so we will never cover them all.

3. Do not hide active game subforums - With non members and members who are not in a game unable to see the subforums the activity level on the site looks extremely low. Right now I notice there is a full Savage Worlds game and I notice the GM for the game checks in frequently yet never posts elsewhere. It is entirely possible there are numerous posts happening that I cannot see. Also some people (myself included) just like to follow games and get inspiration. On a final note I like to see the caliber of player and GM before joining a site or joining a specific game and so the ability to spectate is critical to me joining a site. I think by default the game threads should be visible. Perhaps give the GM the option to hide the game or specific threads if they feel it is necessary. To prevent spamming the board just make the ability to post permissible only to members of the game.

4. Focus on big brand game systems for now - I too am guilty of asking for more obscure systems such as Little Fears and Airship Pirates, but spend time adding and refining more common systems such as the latest editions of DND, Shadowrun, WOD, WH40K RPG, Pathfinder, GURPS, Etc. More well known games are more likely to be what attracts a bigger playerbase. Obviously many of these systems are in place already but they need to be refined and improved upon more than we need a quickly built up sheet for obscure games. Many others have already suggested improvements to the D&D sheet and I have noticed a few calculation bugs on it that I will post in the appropriate place.

Some thoughts:

1. Sure. Not my cup-o-game but that's a good idea.

2. Agreed.

3. This should *Definitely* be optional. Not every GM or player is going to want their game public. That said, I would be happy to have mine public (I'm the Savage GM - also, I do post elsewhere. I'd wager I'm one of the most active people here, not counting my posts to my game. But by and large the site itself is quiet).

A big part of the "activity" looking low is because the top level forums don't "light up" when there are new posts. This is a feature that the site REALLY needs. Right now, I only check what's new by the "most recent post" tooltip on the front page. Going into the main forum area, I'd have to scour through all of the sub forums manually to see what's new. That's tedious, and I (nor most other guests) will bother doing that.

4. Agreed. Focus on either updating the systems that there are currently active games (Savage please!) or the popular systems (Pathfinder and D&D 5.0 are the two I would focus on-- Shadowrun, WOD, WH40K and GURPS are not actually that popular, all things considered. And definitely don't have anything significant on Pathfinder and D&D as far as popularity goes).

Maybe not WH40K or GURPS but Shadowrun has a pretty big following and WOD was pretty popular where I was from, though I am not a huge fan so I wouldn't argue for it either. Also never is the wrong word, you are probably one of the most active here, but you had few recent posts outside your game, probably due to the fact that there is little to post about. Thanks for your input.

so, yes.

On a more concise response.
Yes to wargaming, they are typically VERY social on forums and very proud to show their work or armies off.

Also agree, being able to see whats going on a game i'm -not- in would be great. Being able to follow and check out what others are upto is kinda cool, it's like sitting to watch someone else play an RPG so you can get a narrative, like watching a live movie.

I think some of the other features and not just game systems could be worked on firstly. There's a large number of games you can do, so get 5e in there, then focus on some other areas of the site for a bit until their is more activity and need for other systems.

The reason I suggest focusing on Pathfinder and D&D is because I've been part of several play by forum communities and all of them had 3-4 active pathfinder / D&D (3.5 or 4.0) games. It's just a really popular system, with a lot of play by forum players (I don't know why either because tactical, grid-based combat is a pain to do online - I much prefer systems that let me abstract combat for play by forum games --- BUT that's a discussion for another thread).

I certainly agree about the popularity of D&D and Pathfinder, but we do need more than just those. Veteran gamers such as myself generally avoid those games after playing them to death a decade ago. I will play D&D but it is not my first choice and I wouldn't stay in a community if it was all they had; that being said, I agree both system should be refined as much as possible in the near future and getting 5e up and running is probably critical to our success right now. Also I would like to thank Keleth for implementing the Miniature boards so quickly, I know it pretty easy to do, but I am glad you did is so quickly. Just a note you typoed the name of the board as Wargames/Miniture Game, just for the sake of having a professional looking site I would just correct the spelling of Miniature in the title. Obviously its just a typo, I do it a lot in my posts as I tend to type quickly, but for the professional appearance of the board it is important to correct.

This is what I get for rushing you features Azzorak :D Fixed.

I've said it once before, have a way for people to make systems to put up as well.
1: so you have less of a work load.
2: so we can throw up systems that we want to see
3: so if you get a bunch of people making RPGs and Systems, they can throw their systems into here for testing, playing and discussion :)

Right now, decoupling systems from character sheets would take a lot of code changes; its a pretty integrated system because I've setup framework for a lot of cool features using character sheets. I may be able to make it so anyone can submit a system, and upon approval, it automatically uses the custom character sheet until one gets built.

But along with that, I do plan on having either a MediaWiki network or a sudo-wiki network for games and systems, for exactly what you're mentioning ExperienceLtd. I started thinking about it after you mentioned it a month or two ago.

You could add a game system called "Custom" and a Generic Custom character sheet (mostly open fields of various types). Then, any GM who wants to use a system not officially supported (or beta test their own designed system) can use that and just instruct players on how to use the "Generic Custom Sheet" to facilitate their game.'

EDIT you seem to already have this. So, good on you! :)

ooh yeah, that'd be pretty neat!
make a blank template character sheet perhaps that can have stats, hp, armor, spells, etc filled in on locations wherever or whatnot.

Well, currently there is a "custom" character sheet with is just a big blank text box. I've been thinking about how to upgrade that, and I have some ideas, but its relatively low on the to-do list.

i've got this character sheet design..but it's pretty specific for one thing, and that's my systems combat bits. ^-^;
i don't think it'll help just yet

Really still think 3 is pretty important to increasing the appearance of activity on the forum, again it would be up to the GM whether or not the game was public but I think the option should be there.

Ok, that's fair. I have to determine whether people would see things like hidden notes/hidden rolls, or would just be treated as another player in the game, but I should be able to do that with relative ease.

*Definitely* just treat as another player (without posting ability). My hidden notes are hidden for a good reason!

I agree they should just be a player who cannot post, just like a guest viewing the site. They shouldn't even have to join the game it should just be there like any other post, unless the GM chooses to make the game private. Anything the Gm hides from the player should also be hidden to guests and spectators.

As another suggestion how about a thread on the site discussion board, stickied if that feature exists, with a list of approved ideas that are currently in development. This way repetitive suggestions come up less and guests and members have an idea of what to expect. It would be best if release estimates were also included.

Good idea on stickies, I'll put together a thread itemizing planned features. Estimates are hard to do right now as time worked depends entirely up on how much of my full time job there is to do.