Independent Spaces for RPG Discourse

[Reynard]

Yes, Discord is great for gathering a group. Not great for following anything in detail. Though I think search function is better than Yochai claims. You just have to be really specific.

I creat a Discord server for each individual campaign, with various subjext specific channels and private channels for each PC for bluebooking, etc. It works great for that.

 

[TheSword]

I creat a Discord server for each individual campaign, with various subjext specific channels and private channels for each PC for bluebooking, etc. It works great for that.

Yeah, it’s great, I do the same. It’s very useful.

The ratter has 8,500 members and 60 channels. It’s a bit harder to manage.

 

[Distracted DM]

Thought of a couple more @SlyFlourish

The Piazza - Index page

Giant in the Playground Forums - ostensibly for Order of the Stick discussion, but often has wide-ranging TTRPG discussion too.

Yes! Good call in GitPG, that place has some good discussion.

I guess another thing to remember is that WotC used to have their own forums, which were unfortunately closed down years ago. The designers were on there fairly frequently too.
Ofc now DnDBeyond has forums but... It's DnDB.

I creat a Discord server for each individual campaign, with various subjext specific channels and private channels for each PC for bluebooking, etc. It works great for that.

I used to do the same, but after I started running a bunch of games and it's all in the same world, I made a single server for everyone. Originally I kept the different game channels hidden from other groups, but eventually decided (partially due to requests) to let everyone see all the table channels

 

[SlyFlourish]

Oh, maybe it does! That's just how I interpreted it. I could be wrong!

You interpret correctly. Basically, not a big information conglomerate like Facebook, X, Tiktok, Reddit, Instgram, YouTube.

Real forums made by real human beings (like you!).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Real forums made by real human beings (like you!).

Dear Real Human Being (Like You),

I write to offer you the certificate of Armchair Lawyer based on your contributions towards [RANDOM_NAME_MESSAGE_BOARD_NOT_BIG_INFO_CONGLOMERATE].

...

Signed,

Totally Not Robot

 

[Morrus]

real human beings (like you!).

You can’t prove that!

 

[SlyFlourish]

You can’t prove that!

An AI model of you would look so much better....

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You can’t prove that!

Ask him to identify all the bicycles in a picture.

 

[aramis erak]

Hello friends!

I did a segment on my Lazy RPG Talk Show (posting tomorrow) about independent spaces on the net for RPG discourse. Basically, where can we meet fellow TTRPG enthusiasts and have great conversations about it.

Yochai Gal had a good post just today about the topic.

For my show, I put together a list of the places I like (of course, EN World is at the top – thanks Russ!!):

• EN World
• forums.rpg.net
• Mastodon — dice.camp
• Mastodon — chirp.enworld.org
• Bluesky
• My Blueskky Starter Pack
• TTRPG Blogs
• RPG Blogroll
• ttrpg.network
• Top Rated RPG Podcasts

What other places am I missing?

RPGGeek.com - interface ttakes a bit to get used to, but there's lots of discussion in the general areas.

My only "rules" for this thread are: no X, Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, or YouTube (I know I know).

Basically I'm looking for independently owned platforms for good TTRPG conversations.

No offense to En World's staff, who seem pretty good about not beating us over the heads with their own product, but given that the EN Publishing is linked to EN World, I don't think it qualifies as independently owned...

 

[Thomas Shey]

Hmm. I would argue that Reddit is not a message board. it has some similarities, but it lacks the key feature which is one continuous conversation, instead opting for the “nested replies” structure.

In many ways it actually reminds me more of old mailing lists, just not dependent on email servers.