Isn't Pathfinder Off Topic for this Forum(Was in the 4e Forum)?

[Dragonblade]

Most likely structure:

General (non-rules) 4e threads mingle with 3e threads in the General forum.
We have one forum for 4e rules.
We have a different forum for pre-4e rules (which will be primarily 3.x, of course.)
House rules is low enough volume to handle both 3e and 4e house rules.
Pathfinder lives in the OGL forum.
We pillory anyone who tries to start an edition war.

I particularly like that last one.

This is good.

 

[Greylock]

This is what I was going to post in reply to Piratecat in the Paizo thread in General:

What? There's an OGL Forum? Seriously?

I'm not joking here. I had to actually go look. And now, I see the answer to a question I never asked, which was why so many other games never got mentioned here.

Pretty much the only forum I spend any amount of time in is the General Forum. Haven't had much use for the others in a long while. Sometimes, I'll pop by the Art forum, but that's it. And some nights, the 4E forum, but not daily.

 

[Dagredhel]

Would a poll be appropriate to determine interest in a seperate Pathfinder forum or sub-forum? I may very well be in the minority, but I'm at least as interested in Pathfinder as 4e, and it would be convenient if all related posts had their own place.

 

[trancejeremy]

While I agree that technically Pathfinder is an OGL game, the OGL forum is basically a graveyard.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Maybe now it won't be.

 

[Crothian]

While I agree that technically Pathfinder is an OGL game, the OGL forum is basically a graveyard.

Then the Pathfinder people will have it all to themselves and it will be like their own little forum.

 

[EricNoah]

Random thoughts, take them for what they are worth...

I'm wondering if a little re-arranging might help some things. There's no doubt that there will need to be separate 3e & 4E rules areas. Maybe the 3E rules and OGL/d20 stuff (and Pathfinder) should be bundled together somewhere; and likewise I think there is going to be a lot of non-rules 4E discussion (future products, etc.) even after release -- so much so that it would easily overwhelm General if moved there. If I'm sticking with (or moving to) one edition, I am going to want to see the forums for those items together -- maybe a group containing 4E General and a 4E rules; and a group containing 3E/d20/OGL/Pathfinder General and 3E/d20/OGL/Pathfinder Rules area.

On the other hand, I'm concerned about what too much edition segregation could do to the site.

Would also depend on ENW2 and how much a user can do to hide certain topics -- if I'm not a 4E player and I see 75% of the threads in general are 4E, if I can filter those out somehow ... but then, isn't that the same as edition segregation?

Let me toss out a potential outline:


*RPG General - Come shoot the breeze on edition-neutral topics related to D&D and other RPGs, such as player problems, DMing technique, blah blah blah. Please look for the D&D 4E and D&D 3E/d20/OGL/Pathfinder forums to discuss topics related to these specific games. [the current General forum is the seed for this forum]
*Off Topic - blah blah blah. No religion/politics blah blah.

D&D Edition Spotlights [to steal a term from RPG.net]

*D&D 4th Edition General - discuss forthcoming products, settings, adventures blah blah blah. See below for rules discussion. [the current 4E forum is the seed for this forum]

*D&D 4th Edition Rules - discuss 4E rules, including character build advice/suggestions. [new forum, would need to appear as soon as official final rules start appearing]

*D&D 3rd Edition/d20/OGL General - including 3.0, 3.5, and third-party products based on the d20 system, including Pathfinder, Arcana Evolved, Spycraft, Mutants & Masterminds, etc. See below for rules discussion. [the current d20/OGL forum could serve as the seed to this forum -- folks would have to understand that a lot of this forum's "past" is actually burried in the General forum]

*D&D 3rd Edition Rules -- rules & character build advice [use current rules forum as seed]

[I'm debating if House Rules forums would work better by edition or as one unified forum, with good topic tagging a must]

From there similar to how it is now.

 

[Mark]

(. . .) maybe a group containing 4E General and a 4E rules; and a group containing 3E/d20/OGL/Pathfinder General and 3E/d20/OGL/Pathfinder Rules area.

This sounds like a good solution that would not leave any forums as too quiet or too busy.

 

[LightPhoenix]

While I agree that technically Pathfinder is an OGL game, the OGL forum is basically a graveyard.

Which is unfortunate, but it says something to the interests of people coming to ENW. If people aren't interested in OGL games, ENW shouldn't bend over backwards to accomodate them. Like Crothian said, the Pathfinder folks will, in spirit, get to have their own forum since no one else posts there.

I think that the current edition should be removed from the previous ones. That is to say, 4E gets a Rules and a House Rules (and maybe a PC/NPC) forum, and then all the other editions get a seperate, but identical breakdown. I think this because I believe that once 4E is released, it will be getting the vast majority of traffic here. Compare with the amount of 3E traffic to the amount of traffic for other editions.

 

[Mark]

(. . .) I believe that once 4E is released, it will be getting the vast majority of traffic here.

I do not doubt this to be true.