Where to discuss other roleplaying games?

[Cpt. Lundgren]

I'm in a bit of a search of somewhere to discuss other roleplaying games. While we have the "Other Roleplaying Games" subforum, its current hidden form do not fit me. I'm registered at several niche forums, just like TrekRPGNet, but I'm looking for a "general purpose" RPG site.

I'm aware of these sites, but I have a problem with them by one reason or other. I won't go into the specifics, but it ranges from "to much activity in the subforum, they should have broken it up into different subforums" to "I don't like the attitude and discussion climate at the site."

http://forum.rpg.net
http://www.therpgsite.com/forum.php
https://rpggeek.com/forums/region/2/rpg
http://www.enworld.org/forum/forum.php

I'm mainly a cultural/slice-of-life type of roleplayer, so the place needs to be open-minded and mature enough to handle sensitive topics when talking about setting, without giving the feel the site support those topics in real life. Basically, the site should be LGBT-friendly and support equality and being able to handle discussions about ingame sexism, racism and homophobia. Star Trek is very much my utopia, where I actually would consider to live if it was possible, and the Federation is quite free of those issues. But I also enjoy playing in settings on the other end of the spectrum.

Frankly, there are definitely room for improvements here at TrekRPGNet. Hopefully, no one thinks we are LGBT-unfriendly; but being quiet about it makes it a wild card for those it matters the most to.

In any case, what other sites are there to talk about any RPG or setting?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

I suggest you isolate specific people who's opinions and focuses on RPGs are ones you are interested in, and following them on social media and/or creating your own space for talking about games.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

I suggest you isolate specific people who's opinions and focuses on RPGs are ones you are interested in, and following them on social media

I prefer being able to toss up questions and bounce ideas as we can do on a forum.

and/or creating your own space for talking about games.

As I don't want to manage yet another site, nor drop TrekRPGNet, it would limit my option to make a parallel site joined at the hip (technically being the same site, but by default only seeing the Trek related stuff when going by forum.trek-rpg.net, and sharing things like General Chat between them).

A big advantage would be that I would hang around here a lot more than I'm currently doing. The drawback is that it would require changing the forum software (which I will have to do anyway within the next couple of years).

That idea also depends on how many here would be interested in a sister site, where we can talk about other RPG's.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Most of the game-forum talking I do is actually on some private or semi-private facebook groups; the site-management aspect there is pretty light.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

Most of the game-forum talking I do is actually on some private or semi-private facebook groups; the site-management aspect there is pretty light.

I have been more or less active on Facebook for almost a year now, and I am a member of two different roleplaying related groups there. Facebook groups really don't fit what I'm looking for.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Well, it's the people that need to fit, not the format.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

In general, I think the previous assumption of the internet as being a series of public fora that people wander in and out of that retains everything they say forever is shifting towards one where public statements are more specifically targeted to the kind of space and often self-moderated for that space and people are more casual in private spaces or where stuff isn't kept forever.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

Well, it's the people that need to fit, not the format.

Huh? "Your opinion is wrong, and you have to change"? Or are we arguing semantics? Because if the later, then okay, I don't fit the format Facebook provide.

In general, I think the previous assumption of the internet as being a series of public fora that people wander in and out of that retains everything they say forever is shifting towards one where public statements are more specifically targeted to the kind of space and often self-moderated for that space and people are more casual in private spaces or where stuff isn't kept forever.

And while we close down the the forums, we can scrap the books as well since the focus have shifted to movies?

I get it. Facebook fits your need to chat about gaming. The sites I mentioned above fits me better than Facebook does, but as none of them are what I'm looking for, I'm checking if someone are aware of another site. So, do you have any suggestion on places besides Facebook?

[WaveMan]

I wish I could help you Cpt, but I am about a decade out of touch with paper RPG's (I solely focus on CRPG's now) and have little experience with RPG dedicated forums. Maybe try to discuss other RPG's here (I know you said it's not your preference) and see how it goes, though as the dedicated poster count doesn't seem to be that high here I doubt you will get that much feedback.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Huh? "Your opinion is wrong, and you have to change"? Or are we arguing semantics? Because if the later, then okay, I don't fit the format Facebook provide.

I mean it in the sense that the format in which the discussion happens isn't as important to the content of the discussion as the participants. I loathe facebook, but it's where the particular agglomeration of that particular group of people has ended up talking about things and there is now an inertia that keeps it there.

And while we close down the the forums, we can scrap the books as well since the focus have shifted to movies?

The metaphor would be better served by comparing print books to ebooks, but there is also certain ways that, yes, film and television have shifted casual popular entertainment consumption now vs. the days of the Illustrated Police News of Victorian London. The medium of the latter still exists (basically as comics) but the social context is very different.

I get it. Facebook fits your need to chat about gaming. The sites I mentioned above fits me better than Facebook does, but as none of them are what I'm looking for, I'm checking if someone are aware of another site. So, do you have any suggestion on places besides Facebook?

Facebook isn't 'a site' the way TrekRPG is a site; it's a network of curated sub-pages and linkages formed through different ways of self-sorting. Same with twitter, tumblr, G+ (which seems to be solely inhabited by tabletop gamers) and other social media networks. This is one of the differences in the internet now versus 1998. So twitter serves as a lot of people's primary discussion site, with wider content sorted into a topic via hashtags and retweets and attracting people into creating curated lists of posters they follow; tumblr functions in a similar way.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

I wish I could help you Cpt, but I am about a decade out of touch with paper RPG's (I solely focus on CRPG's now) and have little experience with RPG dedicated forums. Maybe try to discuss other RPG's here (I know you said it's not your preference) and see how it goes, though as the dedicated poster count doesn't seem to be that high here I doubt you will get that much feedback.

I made a search, and during the last two month, 49 members have logged in and only one had only zero posts. Some of them have not posted in several months. We probably have at least that many who passes by, without having an account or logging in. So while I think we are too few at the moment (after all, we do have a hidden "Other Roleplaying Games" subforum), I think we have enough people here to possible build a site like that.

However, I do think there would be a risk it would take over and drown out the Trek talk. So if I would open it up so we would try to attract people to talk about gaming in general here, it would be by creating an apparently different site, but where it would be able to access everything from either website if one wants to; or just see what "belongs" to the specific site.

Doing something like that would be a lot of technical work to set it up and more administrative work if it is successful, and a lot of unnecessary work if no one else if interested. So, step one is to see what is out there in any case

[Cpt. Lundgren]

I mean it in the sense that the format in which the discussion happens isn't as important to the content of the discussion as the participants. I loathe facebook, but it's where the particular agglomeration of that particular group of people has ended up talking about things and there is now an inertia that keeps it there.

The metaphor would be better served by comparing print books to ebooks, but there is also certain ways that, yes, film and television have shifted casual popular entertainment consumption now vs. the days of the Illustrated Police News of Victorian London. The medium of the latter still exists (basically as comics) but the social context is very different.

Facebook isn't 'a site' the way TrekRPG is a site; it's a network of curated sub-pages and linkages formed through different ways of self-sorting. Same with twitter, tumblr, G+ (which seems to be solely inhabited by tabletop gamers) and other social media networks. This is one of the differences in the internet now versus 1998. So twitter serves as a lot of people's primary discussion site, with wider content sorted into a topic via hashtags and retweets and attracting people into creating curated lists of posters they follow; tumblr functions in a similar way.

Facebook groups are too fragmented for me. The groups are to narrow in focus, or fills up with messages to fast so it is really horrible to follow and hopeless to answer.

One thing I love about http://www.rollspel.nu (a Swedish forum to talk about any roleplaying game) is that you have D&D players (all editions), Indie/Forge-games players, Neo-trad, BRP, WoD, etc. You have people talking both Swedish and English games, and you have a lot of different play styles. It also have a very strong selling point to me as I actually can meet up with people from there. Being able to read posts, and chat, with people having a very different game style has made me aware of a lot I want in my game style. In a way, it is what I'm looking for.

There is two drawbacks of that site. First one, it is in Swedish. I want to read and bounce ideas with people outside of Sweden as well. The second is that while they are quite good at moderating, there is one member being one a "white night crusade", and while I'm more or less in the same opinion/political corner, I'm about to leave the site because he makes to much ripples so it isn't enough for me to put him on Ignore (and he is the first one I have ever put on ignore on any site).

Then there is the fact that I'm mainly into culture/slice-of-life gaming myself, which is a very niche type of gaming, as most talk about encounters. Facebook discussions are not really search engine friendly, which makes it hard to find unless you already knew what to look for. On a multi-purpose site that manage to keep a wide range on people on it, then there is also the odds to stumble over thing I didn't even knew I wanted to know.

[WaveMan]

I had noticed a lot of guests visit the site, eg there were 67 just now plus one member (me obviously), though as I said few actually take the time to post.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

I had noticed a lot of guests visit the site, eg there were 67 just now plus one member (me obviously), though as I said few actually take the time to post.

Most of those guests are however search engine spiders the forum software fails to detect as spiders. The actual number should probably be around 0-5 guests.