I sincerely hope that my bad attitude about RPGnet is a short term thing. I still hang out there a bit, but the crush I had on their forums is officially over. The review section still has its merits and their are still plenty of fun, creative people hanging out there. But I've been exploring some other general RPG forums. Anyway, here's some other places I've been checking out lately:
ENWorld - Great community if D&D is your bag, baby. Other games are barely on the radar for many users there. Sorta the good twin of RPGnet in that regard.
AnimalBall - A small forum run by some nifty dudes with a small game company. As far as I can tell they run their forum pretty much the way I would: hands off, with a "no big whup" attitude towards the whole thing. RPG Pundit/Nisarg hangs out there, so consider yourself warned.
Story Games - Andy Kitowski's new site. As one of my gaming buddies puts it "more palatable than the forge, more focused than rpg.net". This place is a little artsy-fartsy for my tastes, but a lot friendlier and more relaxed than the forge.
GMs Q&A - A new offshoot of the excellent Treasure Tables blog.
theRPGsite - RPG Blog operator Zachary put me on the trail of this one. Of all the forums listed here, this one looks to me to have the potential to be the next big generalist RPG site.
Dragonsfoot - Old farts nattering on about old editions of D&D that no one plays any more. In other words this place is pure distilled awesome.
Citizens of the Imperium - The best Traveller message board in the known universe. Covers all editions. If, like me, you find the Traveller Mailing List to be overwhelming, you might find this board more to your liking.
FudgeForum - This site is new, as in just-opened-this-week new. Good initial momentum, with lotsa good people crossing over from RPGnet, such as Dave Bezio (a.k.a. grubman), Chris Helton (a.k.a. cjh, mainting of the awesome Dorkland! blog), and Bill Coffin (yes, that Bill Coffin).
Yahoo Groups - A good place to go looking for specialized forums covering just one game. In particular I like the S. John Ross groups (Encounter Critical, Risus, Risus some more, Pokethulhu) and I just recently signed up for Chris Helton's Fudge group.
I guess you should add that Warning to the Witless and Easily Frightened to your RPGSite recommendation, since I've taken to hanging out there too, and have already made friends with some of the mod staff.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to have a great head on their shoulders, as they have no intention of falling into the idiotic totalitarianism of RPG.net
There is hope for us yet.
http://www.xanga.com/RPGpundit
They seem very nice at the RPG Site, as Pundit, said. I'm having a lot of fun over there, and hope to see more and more folks sign up soon.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm a mod at Treasure Tables. It is one polite forum--I haven't had to dole out so much as a warning yet! Great material for GMs there, too.
I agree with you the rpg.net still has some good features. I find a lot of their reviews still useful, and there are some fun, entertaining threads and people both. The rules and mods side of thing need some clarifications, but a solid, firm set of enforced guidelines objectively applied could turn it around in no time. Hope springs eternal.