Forum Request Thread

[Big Mac]

I wonder if it would be possible to create the Masque of the Red Death a sub-forum for Ravenloft. We currently have 16 threads with the [MotRD] tag, and increasing interest in the sub-setting.

You didn't confirm that there were at least five active posters, but I just did a search for "MotRD" topics at The Piazza and got 18 topics, with four topic creators (yourself, Havard, Big Mac and sam). The first topic has a meaningful reply from Morfie (a chart of Dungeon magazine articles) so Masque of the Red Death gets the green light.

[Morfie]

So I am partially responsible for this creation?
I have had a positive effect on The Piazza?

SQUEE!!

[Havard]

So I am partially responsible for this creation?
I have had a positive effect on The Piazza?

SQUEE!!

You have 542 positive effects on The Piazza Mofie!

-Havard

[Big Mac]

So I am partially responsible for this creation?
I have had a positive effect on The Piazza?

SQUEE!!

Yes. The Piazza doesn't do "if you build it, they will come", it adds new forums based on people discussing a campaign setting enough to prove that a bespoke forum is viable.

If you like any other settings (or RPG rules systems) that do not yet have a bespoke forum, feel free to drop a topic, or two, and talk to anyone else that is interested, and you might be part of the group that helps underpin another forum request. (You could also do what Angel did, if you have the time to count topics/posters of anything else you are interested in.)

[shesheyan]

I would like sub-forums in the Other Worlds sections, by broad genres. That section now has 37 pages. Its getting larger by the week.

My first idea for categories would be :
- Fantasy
- Sci-Fi
- Horror
- Other for anything else or unclassifiable games.

[shesheyan]

I vote for WhiteLeaf to get a dedicated sub-forum on Home-brew Worlds. The shear volume of posts and word count should justify it. And Willspell is the only active creator in that section.

[Ashtagon]

I would like sub-forums in the Other Worlds sections, by broad genres. That section now has 37 pages. Its getting larger by the week.

My first idea for categories would be :
- Fantasy
- Sci-Fi
- Horror
- Other for anything else or unclassifiable games.

This seems eminently reasonable. Do you have a shortlist of settings which would be moved from the base board into the sub-boards?

I vote for WhiteLeaf to get a dedicated sub-forum on Home-brew Worlds. The shear volume of posts and word count should justify it. And Willspell is the only active creator in that section.

While there is a phenomenal amount of text on Whiteleaf, it doesn't meet the other criterion for having a dedicated sub-board, specifically, a minimum of five posters engaging in meaningful dialogue about the setting. Browsing through the more recent threads on the setting, I actually struggle to find any posts that are not by the setting's author.

[shesheyan]

I would like sub-forums in the Other Worlds sections, by broad genres. That section now has 37 pages. Its getting larger by the week.

My first idea for categories would be :
- Fantasy
- Sci-Fi
- Horror
- Other for anything else or unclassifiable games.

This seems eminently reasonable. Do you have a shortlist of settings which would be moved from the base board into the sub-boards?

Good news!

Lets start with Science-Fiction. Here is a list of titles a identified in the 37 pages of Other Worlds.
- Alternity
- Star*Drive
- Star Fontiers
- Star Craft
- D6 space
- TORG
- Warhammer 40k, Rogue Trader
- Star Trek
- Shadow Run
- Cyberpunk 2020
- Metamorphosis Alpha
- Gamma World
- Eclipse Phase
- Coriolis the Third Horizon
- Armageddon 2089
- Fallout
- Barsoom
- Jules Verne
- Starfinder
- Numenera
- Doctor Who
- Ringworld
- Stellar Adventures
- Earthdawn
- Buck Rogers
- Infinity RPG
- Stars Without Numbers
- Other Dust
- Ultramodern
- Neurospata
- Judge Dread
- Stargate
- Dying Earth
- Crios: A world at war
- Palladium RIFTS
- Babylon 5
- Firefly
- Mindjammer
- Space 1889
- Fading Suns
- Battle Tech
- Heavy Gear

If someone knowledgable about Horror could do the same as I did we would petty much be done. A Superhero category might be viable.

[Ashtagon]

I was actually thinking in terms of tagged settings that are already being discussed within that board. In any case, I wouldn't really class TORG as strictly SF. It has both fantasy and horror sub-settings (as well as subsettings from just about every other genre).

[Big Mac]

There are already forums for Warhammer (where Warhammer 40K is also discussed) and Gamma World.

I think what you are probably seeing there is the redirects that are left behind when forums have been created.

If you can see any Warhammer 40 K or Gamma World topics in Other Worlds, please use the report post feature to alert a moderator. Thanks.

[shesheyan]

I was actually thinking in terms of tagged settings that are already being discussed within that board. In any case, I wouldn't really class TORG as strictly SF. It has both fantasy and horror sub-settings (as well as subsettings from just about every other genre).

Hum... so Other Worlds will remain a melting pot without any kind of classification? Sub-forums would make users life easier at first [Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Horror, Superhero and Other] sub-forums would help give character to this section. Games in there look like Lemures waiting to be promoted to full devil status with enough threads and posts!

[shesheyan]

I believe Alternity(Star*Drive) qualify for a dedicated forum. I can see at least 7 threads with by various users with real discussions. This includes the new Alternity version by Sasquatch Game Studio.

[Ashtagon]

Searching the thread topics, here's the case for an Alternity rules forum.

* viewtopic.php?f=44&t=19923

Just the one thread about Alternity as a rules system. That's not enough (yet!) to qualify.

Star*Drive as a setting board would necessarily allow for discussion of the setting in the context of the d20 Modern rules as well. I see two relevant threads:

* viewtopic.php?f=13&t=19519
* viewtopic.php?f=13&t=19933

Again, this isn't enough (yet!) for a board to be made for it.

To get either of these, the rule is to have five threads with meaningful discussion (i.e., "that's cool/sucks" posts don't count) from at least ten posters. If you are aware of any threads that should be counted, feel free to submit a moderator report to get the threads tagged correctly.

[Big Mac]

I believe Alternity(Star*Drive) qualify for a dedicated forum. I can see at least 7 threads with by various users with real discussions. This includes the new Alternity version by Sasquatch Game Studio.

Don't forget you need to show that (at least) five people are posting meaningful posts about something (as well as ten meaningful topics).

It helps if you are one of those people, because it's not just about "winning" a forum - it's about launching a subcommunity that will hopefully continue to grow.

I had a hard time getting the "business case" together for Ghostwalk, because other people didn't really want to talk about it, as much as I did. And I've posted quite a few topics, since Ashtagon said I could have the forum, only to have no response.

What I think was supposed to happen with this topic, is that someone interested in something (either in Other Worlds or The Crunchy Bits) would keep an eye on how many people were talking to them and keep an eye on how many topics they had seen and then do a double-check, when they thought it was at 10 topics and 5 posters and come back here and ask for a forum.

What is actually happening is that some things are going above 10 topics, without anyone making a request.

How many of those things you have mentioned are you interested in? If you have stuff that you are personally keen to see The Piazza have bespoke forums for, you can drop topics from time to time, see if you can find some other people to talk about that thing and then aim beyond the actual point of getting the bespoke forum. If you do that, you will get what you want...at some point.

[shesheyan]

How many of those things you have mentioned are you interested in? If you have stuff that you are personally keen to see The Piazza have bespoke forums for, you can drop topics from time to time, see if you can find some other people to talk about that thing and then aim beyond the actual point of getting the bespoke forum. If you do that, you will get what you want...at some point.

How members minds of this community work eludes me. My posts about Frontier Space (d100) and Ultra-Modern (d20) got very minimal replies. Then I spend a lot of energy on posting about Coriolis the game (d6 pool) and my campaign, got only 2 replies but 1075 views... so I just dropped it recently. My campaign will go on but I won't post in the thread without some kind of replies from other members.

I just started an Esper Genesis 5E sci-fi thread with the hopes that it will generate enough activity to one day have a section. Its too soon to tell but it seems it will also be a bust. No replies after 48 hours is demotivating... this community doesn't seem to be geared towards sci-fi RPGs. Star Frontiers and Alternity activity is lethargic. I wish sci-fi lovers would come out of the woodwork and post....

[Big Mac]

I was actually thinking in terms of tagged settings that are already being discussed within that board. In any case, I wouldn't really class TORG as strictly SF. It has both fantasy and horror sub-settings (as well as subsettings from just about every other genre).

Hum... so Other Worlds will remain a melting pot without any kind of classification? Sub-forums would make users life easier at first [Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Horror, Superhero and Other] sub-forums would help give character to this section. Games in there look like Lemures waiting to be promoted to full devil status with enough threads and posts!

We did have some talk of splitting up the entire Campaign Setting section ages back (before the great forum reorganisation) and essentially changing Campaign Settings into "Fantasy Campaign Settings" and then replicating the entire section for "Science Fiction Campaign Settings".

I can't remember exactly why that didn't get done, but I do know that the smaller campaign settings used to all be inserted inside the Other Worlds forum and that had people suggesting that made them less visible and asking for them to be taken out of that section and made into forums in the main Campaign Settings forum.

Subdividing Other Worlds (again) might well help some folks, but there are 924 topics in there. You might be talking of several days work, for whoever does it. It would be significantly slower to do that than to shunt 10-15 topics into a new forum.

Back when we had the great forum reorganisation, I actually stayed up all night and there were several other people moving forums too. I think that still took a couple of days.

[Big Mac]

How many of those things you have mentioned are you interested in? If you have stuff that you are personally keen to see The Piazza have bespoke forums for, you can drop topics from time to time, see if you can find some other people to talk about that thing and then aim beyond the actual point of getting the bespoke forum. If you do that, you will get what you want...at some point.

How members minds of this community work eludes me. My posts about Frontier Space (d100) and Ultra-Modern (d20) got very minimal replies. Then I spend a lot of energy on posting about Coriolis the game (d6 pool) and my campaign, got only 2 replies but 1075 views... so I just dropped it recently. My campaign will go on but I won't post in the thread without some kind of replies from other members.

I know what you mean there.

I've posted what I thought were interesting topics, only to get no reaction.

And then other times, topics just hit people's imaginations and get pages of replies.

I think that sometimes it is because a topic is interesting, but there is no actual "need" to reply, because the topic is sort of "self contained" and doesn't ask for answers or leave mysteries that people want answers to.

I've had to play the long-view with some things. Sometimes I've had no replies for ages and then someone has bumped topics later. Often, after "winning a new forum" and attracting some new fans, they bump old topics that have been dormant for several years.

Recently, I've had another go at relaunching the Spelljammer 3E Conversion Project. I gave up on that for some time, just like you gave up on posting about Coriolis.

I just started an Esper Genesis 5E sci-fi thread with the hopes that it will generate enough activity to one day have a section. Its too soon to tell but it seems it will also be a bust. No replies after 48 hours is demotivating... this community doesn't seem to be geared towards sci-fi RPGs. Star Frontiers and Alternity activity is lethargic. I wish sci-fi lovers would come out of the woodwork and post....

It's possible that the origin of The Piazza (as a forum for D&D campaign settings) might be working against us there. If people are not expecting to see science fiction campaign settings and rules at The Piazza, they may not bother to look here (and then may not notice the cool topics that would have otherwise got them to sign up and start talking to people here).

There was a call for us to put "D&D" into the Facebook group description (and that's still under review by the moderator team) but I think that doing that might actually make it a bit harder for someone like you, who is trying to help support things like Alternity.

I can't say I have any interest in the science fiction RPGs myself, but I do know they are an important part of RPG fandom. I would like to see that stuff grow.

[shesheyan]

It's possible that the origin of The Piazza (as a forum for D&D campaign settings) might be working against us there. If people are not expecting to see science fiction campaign settings and rules at The Piazza, they may not bother to look here (and then may not notice the cool topics that would have otherwise got them to sign up and start talking to people here).

This community is clearly a Mystara + Classic D&D forum with other stuff around. Looking at the total number of posts and thread its very obvious. Spelljammer is good second. Maybe I'm naive to think Sci-fi games activity will rise on the Piazza.

[Big Mac]

It's possible that the origin of The Piazza (as a forum for D&D campaign settings) might be working against us there. If people are not expecting to see science fiction campaign settings and rules at The Piazza, they may not bother to look here (and then may not notice the cool topics that would have otherwise got them to sign up and start talking to people here).

This community is clearly a Mystara + Classic D&D forum with other stuff around. Looking at the total number of posts and thread its very obvious. Spelljammer is good second. Maybe I'm naive to think Sci-fi games activity will rise on the Piazza.

My If subforums could "level up" (Forum Levels) topic might help with the spread of forums across The Piazza.

Star Wars is our most popular science fiction forum. It's what I called "Level 4" (in that topic) and it's got more traction than ten D&D forums/subforums.

Traveller and Gamma World are also pretty popular. (They are both "Level 3") They earned their own forums years before Star Wars got one, but they have not expanded as fast as Star Wars has.

Then there is the d20 Modern forum (in Crunchy Bits) which has been on The Piazza since the start...and which should have picked up when the world's leading d20 Modern forum shut down...but didn't. That's only a few posts less popular than Gamma World.

A lot of the things that I like (Kara-Tur, Chainmail, Ghostwalk, Taladas, The Horde, the SJ3e conversion and Arcane Age) are much further down the "leaderboard".

I think that the individual forums need to hit "critical mass" in order to pull newbies in from search engine results. Sometimes that's from having several people posting, like with Eberron and World of Warcraft. But sometimes it's from one or two people really cutting a path for others to follow. Seethyr really pushed Maztica forward, Kneverwinterknight (who became PelinoreRevived) really pushed Pelinore forwards, Zeromaru X has done amazing things with Nentir Vale and Coronoides made Council of Wyrms leapfrog over several other settings and "level up". Now Contingency_sys has joined, I think that the Council of Wyrms forum might continue to accelerate.

So I don't think it's naive to think that sci-fi game activity will rise on The Piazza, because I think it will over time. But I don't think it is going to be possible to predict which science fiction RPG will gain traction next.

[shesheyan]

So I don't think it's naive to think that sci-fi game activity will rise on The Piazza, because I think it will over time. But I don't think it is going to be possible to predict which science fiction RPG will gain traction next.

Yes I get that. I'm not surprised SW and Traveller gained their own forum over time. They are on the one hand the most popular SF universe and on the other the oldest hard-sf RPG. I have done a lot to promote SF games this year on the Piazza. I can't do more. Unless other people post and reply to topics it will take years to get anywhere. If there is no interaction my only option will be to move along and find dedicated forums, G+ Groups and FB groups.

The «Modern d20 Unlimited» move was a mess. The members voted to move to the D20 Database, instead of The Piazza, which didn't last very long - a year I think. We lost control of administration by doing that. When it was obvious the manager of the server wasn't interested anymore I tried to get access to move stuff but got vague promises and replies until one day I got no replies... everything was lost. The only thing left from that era is The Phoenix D20 Modern add-on superhero rules which now has its own website. http://phoenixprojectrpg.com

[Big Mac]

So I don't think it's naive to think that sci-fi game activity will rise on The Piazza, because I think it will over time. But I don't think it is going to be possible to predict which science fiction RPG will gain traction next.

Yes I get that. I'm not surprised SW and Traveller gained their own forum over time. They are on the one hand the most popular SF universe and on the other the oldest hard-sf RPG. I have done a lot to promote SF games this year on the Piazza. I can't do more. Unless other people post and reply to topics it will take years to get anywhere. If there is no interaction my only option will be to move along and find dedicated forums, G+ Groups and FB groups.

Or you could maybe do both.

If you see awesome stuff on social media, you could crosspost it here and vice versa. Back when I first joined The Piazza I used to promote both the Spelljammer forum at The Piazza and the Spelljammer Mailing List.

The «Modern d20 Unlimited» move was a mess. The members voted to move to the D20 Database, instead of The Piazza, which didn't last very long - a year I think. We lost control of administration by doing that. When it was obvious the manager of the server wasn't interested anymore I tried to get access to move stuff but got vague promises and replies until one day I got no replies... everything was lost. The only thing left from that era is The Phoenix D20 Modern add-on superhero rules which now has its own website. http://phoenixprojectrpg.com

Is any of that old stuff archived on The Wayback Machine?

If it is, I'd be happy to look over it with you (outside of this topic - the d20 Modern forum would be the best place) and look into copying and pasting stuff over here to create an archive that people can actually reply to. (We had to do that with Gamma World, way back in the day.)

MODERATOR NOTE (by Big Mac): Replies about attempting to recover lost d20 Modern Database website content split off into d20 Modern Database rescue project?

[Yaztromo]

I believe we have sufficient threads (mostly in the Other Worlds section, spread across a long timeline) and "meaningful" participants to the discussions to have a Barsoom section.
What do you think?
The issue with Barsoom is that it is spread across so many different rulesets, so I would like to review with you first if it is worth it making a dedicated section of The Piazza...

[agathokles]

I believe we have sufficient threads (mostly in the Other Worlds section, spread across a long timeline) and "meaningful" participants to the discussions to have a Barsoom section.
What do you think?
The issue with Barsoom is that it is spread across so many different rulesets, so I would like to review with you first if it is worth it making a dedicated section of The Piazza...

I think the first step would be to post a list of links to the relevant threads here -- there is a minimum of 10 threads required for a new forum.

GP

[Big Mac]

I believe we have sufficient threads (mostly in the Other Worlds section, spread across a long timeline) and "meaningful" participants to the discussions to have a Barsoom section.
What do you think?
The issue with Barsoom is that it is spread across so many different rulesets, so I would like to review with you first if it is worth it making a dedicated section of The Piazza...

I think the first step would be to post a list of links to the relevant threads here -- there is a minimum of 10 threads required for a new forum.

I had a quick look yesterday, but only saw 7 (meaningful) topics. (There might be some more that don't have the word "Barsoom" in the title or post. If you have the time to do a search and you do find any, please use the report post button on the top post and add a note for the moderator that says "Please add a "[Barsoom]" tag to this topic title" as it will help us make sure those topics don't get missed. )

There is also the 5 people making meaningful discussions thing to go with. If/when someone makes a list of 10 meaningful topics, we can do a count. Does anyone know any Barsoom fans they can invite over here to help build a bit more interest in the world?

[Yaztromo]

Looking at Other Words section:
1) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=20393
2) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=18287
3) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=18911
4) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4042
5) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=17461
6) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=15317
7) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=16697
8) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=7414
9) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=16009
10) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=16018 (arguable)
11) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=15696
12) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=15695
13) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=15316
14) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=13771
15) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=13529 (arguable)
16) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=13104 (arguable)
17) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=10103
18) viewtopic.php?f=44&t=8308

Wishing Well section:
1) viewtopic.php?f=48&t=18707&p=203513&hil ... om#p203513 (arguable)

I may have missed a few, but in general I think we have the numbers (WRT meaningful contributors, I think we have enough just in this single thread viewtopic.php?f=44&t=7414 without having to check around too much).
My worry is that the posts are spread across a very long timeline and many different rulesets, setting variants, adaptations and publishers.