New Forum Poll

[Morrus]

Our little Star Wars/Trek forum experiment seems to have gone well. It's not super-busy, but it's a nice little place to discuss gaming in those universes, and the various games each has.

It was created to test a hypothesis. I plan to further test the hypothesis with a second forum. The question is - which game or genre? The hypothesis assumes we have fans right here on EN World of certain things who don't talk about them due to lack of encouragement and a belief that such conversations would not gain traction. The Star Wars forum looks positive on that front.

So, here are my suggestions. What do we have fans of here?

- Superhero gaming
- Cypher System (Numenera, The Strange, NTYE)
- Fate
- Savage Worlds

I'll put those in the poll, and include an "other" option.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

None of your four options would entice me to look at a special forum, mayby Savage Worlds once a week or so. The only special forum I can imagine reading through right now would be an edition neutral one for WFRP.

 

[Umbran]

The problem with game-specific forums is that you'll get virtually no traffic from people who aren't interested in a particular game. I think the Star Wars experiment went well in part because you wrapped Trek in there as well.

I would think a leaning more towards genre, and less towards specific games, might be more constructive.

You might also consider having them be impermanent. "This month's sub-forum" is a feature, with spotlight on a topic, instead of a ghetto that eventually runs down.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I'd like to see a World of Darkness forum or, if that's too specific, a horror RPGs forum.

 

[amerigoV]

The problem with game-specific forums is that you'll get virtually no traffic from people who aren't interested in a particular game. I think the Star Wars experiment went well in part because you wrapped Trek in there as well.

I would think a leaning more towards genre, and less towards specific games, might be more constructive.

I really like that idea. As much as I love Savage Worlds (and voted said system), there is not going to be much traffic here about it. But I have enjoyed reading a bit of the Star Wars/Star Trek stuff because it is not system specific.

Much of the 5e traffic has settled into the details of the system (which does not interest me). I realize at its heart this is a D&D board and occasionally even try to respect that . But I like the idea have some fantasy genres as well: Sword and Sorcery (captures Conan, Lankhmar, and those games that emulate it), Epic Fantasy (which most D&D falls into), maybe Dark Fantasy (Dragon Age, etc). Maybe those are just filters within a Fantasy Genre forum.

I would love to come here and get some great ideas to take back to my various games that are not rooted in a particular system.

 

[Morrus]

The issue with temporary spotlight forums is really a resources one - time, effort, primarily. All that searching for and moving threads back and forth is as tedious as it sounds!

 

[Umbran]

The issue with temporary spotlight forums is really a resources one - time, effort, primarily. All that searching for and moving threads back and forth is as tedious as it sounds!

Well, so don't pretend that you're going to be comprehensive for a temporary forum. In a temp forum, pre-existing threads are only there as tinder for the fire anyway, to give a conversation some footing. But the ultimate hope should be threads that aren't related to what you move in temporarily.

Say you were going to a forum about "pulp" - you gather up threads about FATE and Savage Worlds (which are particularly good at it), maybe do a search for threads that focus on steampunk, or other pulpy bits, and let it run. When you're done, you know all the results are going back into General, so no further sorting is required - you just select and move *all* the threads, and be done.

 

[Morrus]

Well, so don't pretend that you're going to be comprehensive for a temporary forum. In a temp forum, pre-existing threads are only there as tinder for the fire anyway, to give a conversation some footing. But the ultimate hope should be threads that aren't related to what you move in temporarily.

Say you were going to a forum about "pulp" - you gather up threads about FATE and Savage Worlds (which are particularly good at it), maybe do a search for threads that focus on steampunk, or other pulpy bits, and let it run. When you're done, you know all the results are going back into General, so no further sorting is required - you just select and move *all* the threads, and be done.

That is an accurate description of how I did it with the Star Wars forum.

It takes ages. And is a lot more fiddly than you think! There are prefix issues....

 

[Audrik]

I'd like to see a World of Darkness forum or, if that's too specific, a horror RPGs forum.

I would second this suggestion. World of Darkness covers several games and has had a pretty strong following for decades, and horror RPG is a broad category that covers old school heavyweights like Call of Cthulhu as well as plenty of newer games in the genre.

 

[Morrus]

"World of Darkness + Other Horror Gaming"?