D&D General Differences Between D&D Boards

[BrokenTwin]

In addition to criminally bad search functions, the amount of RPG forums that STILL don't have a dark mode or mobile-friendly GUI is mind-boggling.

I don't really find Reddit OR Discord to be great replacements for the benefits of the forum structure, but Discord is pretty much the only place I can go to get information and discourse on some of the RPGs I play. I'm not fond of how siloed they are though. Part of why I like using forums is because of the wider variety of opinions, preferences, and viewpoints that happen when you have a bunch of people playing different (sometimes drastically different) games interacting in a shared space, without the chaotic mess that usually happens in Reddit threads.

 

[not-so-newguy]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned The Piazza message board, but I lurk there from time to time. Specifically the Mystara section. Folks on that board have an in-depth knowledge of the setting. Good place to go if you're looking for detailed answers.

 

[Umbran]

In addition to criminally bad search functions, the amount of RPG forums that STILL don't have a dark mode or mobile-friendly GUI is mind-boggling.

EN World - Wait, what's this?

www.enworld.org

 

[BrokenTwin]

@Umbran: Oh my god, that timing is uncanny.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

EN World is now pretty much the only RPG community I still frequent. The discussion here is a good mix of topics ranging from rules questions, to DMing advice, to sharing worldbuilding, to reviews of products. I am a bit of an outlier in terms of age so the threads discussing older editions generally go over my head, but I feel very welcome here nonetheless.

Back when 5e was brand spanking new I used RPG Stack Exchange which isn't really a discussion forum and more geared towards Q&A. It helped wrap my head around some of the weird rules. Since I have a handle on things I go there much less.

I'm not very fond of Reddit. It's "democracy" voting system tends to just enforce echo chambers and threads are so transient that long form discussion isn't very feasible. To me it's more like a social media platform where people go to share jokes or links or images rather than talk about the game. But maybe I just don't go on the right subreddits.

 

[Aldarc]

I will say something nice about RPG.net: it's a pretty good place to talk about games that aren't D&D because those forums have a more vibrant sense of non-D&D/OSR games out there and I appreciate that the moderators - much like here - do try to make it an inclusive place.

 

[happyhermit]

Rpg.net is a good place for 4e fans to talk about 4e, hard pressed to find a place where more people (and mods) consider 4e to be the best D&D. It has a lot of discussion about other ttrpgs. Games that deal with left-wing political issues get a lot of buzz there, but discussion of some ttrpgs and creators is banned. Some of the "Let's read" threads provide a ton of content, though they can get a bit snarky for my tastes. If number of moderators/admin per capita is a plus, this site has to hold the record.

RPGsite has a free exchange of ideas and differences of opinions, people are nice at times, but they don't have to be it's small and the overall quantity of discusion actually focused on ttrpgs is not very high IME.

 

[Eltab]

I thought I was pretty clear.

Reference the 'hard to read' observations upthread: Do you usually use bold for 'moderator voice'? I see Color and Quote tags but no others as I construct this post.

And: Should this tangent be handled as a thread in Meta?

 

[DammitVictor]

I will say something nice about RPG.net: it's a pretty good place to talk about games that aren't D&D because those forums have a more vibrant sense of non-D&D/OSR games out there...

Yeah, I will second this. Most of the other RPG forums have a heavy focus on D&D-- either the newest edition, the OSR, or 3.X-- and RPGnet is a rare exception to this. They're good for a lot of the modern narrative-driven games, White Wolf games and their successors and imitators (a little too good for these), and... the non-OSR portions of the indie community. (And, to be fair, it's where I first encountered a lot of OSR games, too.)

EN World has its focus on 5e with a secondary "I'm with D&D" vibe. Giant in the Playground is a 3.X board with some 4e and 5e activity-- they list TSR D&D with "Other Games"-- and RPG Site only recognizes two legitimate eras of roleplaying design: the Late Seventies and the Early Eighties.

I don't know any good places to discuss D&D 4e.

RPG Pub is an all-around good site for discussing games in a positive atmosphere... but they also skew pretty old school.

 

[Zardnaar]

Paizos not bad if you like Pathfinder or Golarion.

Dragonsfoot subsection 2E might be best place for 2E, good for OSR stuff skews heavily 1E.

 

[Bravesteel25]

EN World has been my home for 11 years (Started a new account when I had to change e-mails) and I have never really found a need to go anywhere else. I'm a D&D guy through and through, and even when the WotC boards were still around I liked EN World much better. The moderators here do a great job at enforcing rules and decorum without slapping everyone with the ban hammer all the time.

I follow pretty much all the D&D subreddits, but it is mainly there for browsing material when I am bored but otherwise engaged. It isn't very good for long-form discussions like those that occur here.

EN World forever!

 

[MichaelSomething]

Let's not forget the Imgur now. It's not the deepest conversation you can find but it's good for a laugh.

 

[Sadras]

I find I do not have the time to traverse many forums.
I used to lurk at Dragonsfoot, now I'm lucky if I pop in once a year. Occasionally I check out the The Piazza (for Mystara). And I have tried rpg.net but I keep on forgetting usernames and p/words so I just give up due to laziness. One site is more than enough for me. I do though pop in at Enworld's sister site, Circvs Maximvs, where all the awful goodies that can get your banned for here are allowed there - ofcourse you need to be immune to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing weapons. Only monsters and monster hunters allowed.

 

[amethal]

I'm glad I've never really wandered over there!

RPG net is a great place for discussing games other than D&D (it's fine for D&D as well) and if you have an idea for a type of game you want to play and ask for suggestions as to which system to use then you'll get loads of suggestions. Albeit many of them RPGs you've probably never heard of.

I'm tempted to post a thread asking for suggestions on a system to play a "high fantasy, class/level-based combat-heavy campaign with lots of character options" and see what they come up with. Or rather, see how long it is before anybody thinks to suggest D&D.

That said, it is (I think) the only place I have ever received a warning from a moderator. I mentioned ACKS in response to a post, which turned out to be a banned topic. It had never occurred to me to check the posting rules on an RPG board to see which RPGs we weren't allowed to mention.

 

[Tonguez]

I think I enjoy Enworld because you’re all a bunch of refined gentleman who enjoy discussing the vagaries of Gygaxian estorica whilst sipping mead, not like those young whippersnappers on other boards who just want to fiddle with the latest gadgets.

I do miss the old 3e discussions though and thus have occasionally wandered off upon paths less travelled and the more disquieting neighbourhoods

 

[Zardnaar]

RPG net is a great place for discussing games other than D&D (it's fine for D&D as well) and if you have an idea for a type of game you want to play and ask for suggestions as to which system to use then you'll get loads of suggestions. Albeit many of them RPGs you've probably never heard of.

I'm tempted to post a thread asking for suggestions on a system to play a "high fantasy, class/level-based combat-heavy campaign with lots of character options" and see what they come up with. Or rather, see how long it is before anybody thinks to suggest D&D.

That said, it is (I think) the only place I have ever received a warning from a moderator. I mentioned ACKS in response to a post, which turned out to be a banned topic. It had never occurred to me to check the posting rules on an RPG board to see which RPGs we weren't allowed to mention.

ACKs is banned?

 

[amethal]

ACKs is banned?

Yeah, you can't mention ACKS at RPG.net. I've got no complaints with the way they moderated me - I broke the rules in ignorance, they deleted my post, told me why they had done it, and we all got on with our lives.

Their reasoning is:

The rpg game ACKS and the game company Autarch, as the designer of the game and owner of the company, Alexander Macris, has threatened the board with legal actions multiple times.

Mr Macris's interpretation of the events that led up to his game and company being banned is somewhat different and can be found on the Autarch website. (In a nutshell, "asking someone to stop making defamatory comments does not amount to threatening legal action".)

 

[Bohandas]

I like this site better than GitP, even though I use GitP more due to it's larger size and greater frequency of responses.

I don't like the way GitP handles its rules on politics and religion, which falls clearly into the category of Lawful Stupid. A lot of topics that are more-or-less required reading for fantasy rpgs is suppressed there - You can't discuss ancient mythology because it counts as "religion" and you can't discuss feudalism or medieval england or the roman empire or ancient/medieval warfare because those all count as "politics".

And the no mythology thing is kind of hypocritical too given that the Norse pantheon are semi-major supporting characters in Rich Burlew*'s webcomic Order of the Stick and that the Babylonian pantheon makes minor appearances as well.

That said, it's a pretty decent board due to its sheer size, provided that you remember not to mention any of the blacklisted topics.

*the owner and operator of GitP

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I find that the type and tone of conversation here and on GitP is rather different. I wanted to have elaborate and nuanced discussion about exactly what the merits of or RAW of a particular spell was or to get into extremely detailed discussions on RAW in general, I would definitely go to GitP. Equally though, if I want to discuss how 5E is actually played, and what rules makes sense at the actual table and so on (even if those very much aren't RAW), I would always prefer ENWorld. I feel like the posters he tend to be more seasoned in terms of actual play, more likely to be playing with non-AL groups, and more open to discussing stuff which is outside RAW. I've seen too many potentially interesting discussions bog down at GitP because everyone wants to argue minor points re: RAW, even when the RAW is obviously ridiculous. Equally though, I do often see very interesting threads on GitP about rules-related topics, so both boards have great value.

I find the 5E subreddit to be a bit superficial in just about every way, and sometimes someone will manage to get an outright wrong interpretation of the rules upvoted, which is sad, but I do check it regularly because people often link interesting D&D stuff there. The D&D subreddit is basically wall-to-wall things people built, war stories and pictures of people's characters. That's cool but er... not much use to me.

Those are about the only 5E-related boards I look at.

 

[Ashrym]

I find I don't have time for too many forums so stick with what's generally working for me. I don't use RPGnet or Reddit any more for D&D other than the odd time. GitP gets me a bit more because I'll glance at the boards after checking for a new OOTS if other sites are slower.

No one mentioned DDB but I find the atmosphere there tends to be helpful for the most part so I use that as well, but Enworld is generally where I go.