D&D Older Editions

[Jacob Lewis]

I guess my questions is;
Why are threads discussing material from older editions in the Dungeons & Dragons forum not being moved into this, D&D Older Editions, forum?

Seems that this is where the would belong as they are specifically discussing material from the older editions.

If the thread was tagged as D&D General before the sub forum was created, then it didn't automatically migrate. I had to request a couple of my own to be moved over manually in the Meta forum, and they were eventually moved. But they were my threads I created; I don't know that I would feel comfortable asking for someone else's threads to be moved for them.

 

[Orius]

I guess my questions is;
Why are threads discussing material from older editions in the Dungeons & Dragons forum not being moved into this, D&D Older Editions, forum?

Seems that this is where the would belong as they are specifically discussing material from the older editions.

I'm sure the mods have plenty of time to scour 20 years worth of threads and migrate stuff over here.

 

[Greg K]

Huh, “D&D Older Editions” is now its own forum under “General Tabletop Discussion“.

It seems the official position is: If ain’t 5e, it ain’t D&D.

An...interesting choice. Basically ghettoizes discussion of anything other than 5e, which is less than ideal IMO. But I guess that's just how it's gonna be.

I wish "D&D Older Editions" was broken down further into forums such as:
OD&D and OSR OD&D Compatible
Holmes Basic and OSR Holmes Basic Compatible
B/X and OSR B/X Compatible
BEMCI and OSR BEMCI Compatible
AD&D 1e and OSR AD&D 1e Compatible
AD&D 2e and OSR AD&D 2e Compatible
3e
4e

 

[Akrasia]

I wish "D&D Older Editions" was broken down further into forums such as:
OD&D and OSR OD&D Compatible
Holmes Basic and OSR Holmes Basic Compatible
B/X and OSR B/X Compatible
BEMCI and OSR BEMCI Compatible
AD&D 1e and OSR AD&D 1e Compatible
AD&D 2e and OSR AD&D 2e Compatible
3e
4e

I agree that lumping all pre-5e D&D together is infelicitous (given how radically different the TSR-era games are from the later editions). But your list is far too fine-grained IMO.

A sub-forum for "TSR-era D&D" (and associated "OSR clones") would suffice for OD&D, B/X, AD&D, etc. While there are important differences between these games, they all share many key features and are broadly compatible with each other (back in the day, we used B/X modules with AD&D 1st edition, etc.).

3e should be combined with Pathfinder into a separate sub-forum (3e, 3.5, PF 1e, are all related in much the way that the different TSR versions of A/D&D are).

4e is it's own thing.

 

[Morrus]

We have 200K members and every single one of them would organise the forums differently!

 

[Mannahnin]

I tend to concur that this single "older editions" sub-forum should suffice for pre-5e and for retroclones of pre-5e editions.

That being said, yeah, I agree that the Orcs of Thar (supplement to BECMI Basic D&D) and Oriental Adventures discussions probably do belong in here. No need for moderators to go back through 20 years of old threads, but if there's a current, active thread about an older edition getting new posts on the first page of another sub-forum, that should probably be moved here.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

We have 200K members and every single one of them would organise the forums differently!

Fair. But now you have some members who are generally confused about what to do with these changes that were a) never discussed, b) decided by someone else, and c) wasn't expected or announced. I'm not saying the change was good or bad, but it was sprung up on everyone and now there are some legitimate questions that haven't been addressed yet. So maybe it wasn't going to be as easy as you hoped? Sorry about that.

That being said, yeah, I agree that the Orcs of Thar (supplement to BECMI Basic D&D) and Oriental Adventures discussions probably do belong in here. No need for moderators to go back through 20 years of old threads, but if there's a current, active thread about an older edition getting new posts on the first page of another sub-forum, that should probably be moved here.

I haven't read those threads, but I want to offer some suggestions for the general problem rather than the specific.

1. The Orcs thread was tagged as D&D general, which suggests to me that the topic could be applicable to any edition. If the discussion is focused only towards that edition, then it probably would've been tagged differently and migrated over automatically.
2. The Oriental Adventures thread is actually listed in TTRPG General forums, not D&D. That also looks like a deliberate choice when the thread was created.
3. Either way, I think it is up to the individual author who creates the thread to decide where it goes, or the admins and mods if they feel it necessary to move it somewhere that is more appropriate.
4. The best way to get your own thread relocated right now is just make a polite request in Meta. And be patient.

 

[Orius]

I wish "D&D Older Editions" was broken down further into forums such as:
OD&D and OSR OD&D Compatible
Holmes Basic and OSR Holmes Basic Compatible
B/X and OSR B/X Compatible
BEMCI and OSR BEMCI Compatible
AD&D 1e and OSR AD&D 1e Compatible
AD&D 2e and OSR AD&D 2e Compatible
3e
4e

The last time ENWorld had separate subfora for previous editions, some of them had little traffic at all. Anything pre-3e doesn't get a lot of attention in the first place, since Dragonsfoot and the other old school oriented boards generally get people who want to talk about those editions anyway. And some of those versions of the game like Holmes probably wouldn't be worth a subforum anyway.

 

[bmfrosty]

It's better this way. Easier to find B/X content without swimming through a sea of 5e.

 

[Lanefan]

The last time ENWorld had separate subfora for previous editions, some of them had little traffic at all. Anything pre-3e doesn't get a lot of attention in the first place, since Dragonsfoot and the other old school oriented boards generally get people who want to talk about those editions anyway. And some of those versions of the game like Holmes probably wouldn't be worth a subforum anyway.

And that seems to be what's happening here again.

One thread active today (other than what I'm doing to this one), one yesterday, another's last activity two days ago, and the rest all inactive since last week.

Yet in both the 5e forum and TTRPB-General lots of people still have lots to say about older editions...because that and TTRPG-General are the only places anyone is looking.

Conclusion: current trends indicate this re-org may not be working quite as intended.