The Pub: Five Years On and What I’m Thinking…

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
The Smogon subforum? They are and they're still playing Mafia. Bless them.
 
Is Orange ENWorld? The forums are nearly as worthless as Purple, although the politics does tend to stay in the chest thumping threads. Morrus gets props for doing 2000AD and actually publishing a game system and products. Of course if any of the kiddies actually red old 2000ADs, he'd have to stop in a hurry.
Nah... RPGGeek for the stupid orange blob they replaced Ernie with.
 
Nah... RPGGeek for the stupid orange blob they replaced Ernie with.
Oh, the Geek is so self contained (unlike the boardgame part) that any attempts to feud with them would strike me as utterly pointless. I'm not sure they'd even notice.

"This person called us names"

"That's nice. What's the new QOTD?"
 
Not without inventing new language objects.* Y'know it's a bit of a derail but there was a time when TMP was an amazing resource. Maybe we should continue increasing miniatures coverage. Sure there's Dakka Dakka and Warseer but they're very impersonal jumbo forums and discussion of minor games is pretty limited.

*Really if you wanted a feud with the TMP forums you'd defend the owner.
 
We I suppose we could have a feud with The Miniatures Page. That's Frothers Unite's territory but there's no harm in contributing to a good cause.
I searched for it and went to the landing page intended to check it out and... nope. I mean, there's something to be said for stability, but that layout has to be 30 years old.
 
Yeah, the owner complains that the advertisers he drove away are forcing him to lay of half a dozen staff. Think about that. I get that it's a hand coded, old school piece of software that isn't compatible with any known standard by any known means but dude, upgrade your site.
 
Other forums aren't really a concern, it's the wider reach of social media.
Principle's the same, though.

If people read about us and stay away, okay, their loss. If people read about us, come for a look, and like what we're doing, cool. If people read about us and come here looking for a fight, they'll find we're not into that sort of thing and leave.

We've got this far by being aggressively ourselves and building our own culture. It isn't for everyone and that's fine.
 
I will also point out that the purple and the brown hardly mention us at all these days. Which I know is different than Krueger's point about social media, but does put the idea there's any serious "feud" into sharp relief.
 
I will also point out that the purple and the brown hardly mention us at all these days. Which I know is different than Krueger's point about social media, but does put the idea there's any serious "feud" into sharp relief.
I'm quite happy with that. Let us be perceived as a bunch of middle-aged white dudes and not worth bothering about. We need to import zeitgeist and drama from the Site or the Purple like we need a hole in the head.
 
I was thinking a couple days ago that the Pub will be five years old in April. That’s like fifty years in internet time. I’ve seen sites crash and burn in six months, hell, I’ve been involved with some! To me, it’s absolutely amazing what this place has become. I thought I might get like twenty five people to show up. We are closing in on 2,000 registrations and hundreds of active members. Truly mind-blowing and I’ve had a few successes before.

As my wife and I were driving around doing some shopping today, I told her that I was thinking of perhaps expanding the Pub. That you never just want to sit on something and have it get stale. She asked me how I would do that and I said maybe I’ll make the Pub an actual source for RPG news and reviews as well as keeping in place this awesome community we have. I said there is no one place on the internet like that, as other sites only cater to certain kinds of RPGs (d20, OSR, etc). There’s no Amazon for RPG news. Some places outright ban discussion of certain games. So there’s opportunity there. She thought it sounded like a good idea and she has no skin in this game. She just wants me to do well with my hobby.

I haven’t quite got the particulars down about the technicalities of it all, but I have considered using Wordpress as a base and go from there. I do have some experience with it which definitely helps. I have also considered paying folks to write short reviews and articles that would be posted on a weekly basis. I wouldn’t want to go halfway on this and fail. I would need content. The forum itself would not change at all.

I want to see the Pub grow and not stagnate and I think this is one of the best ways to move forward in the age of social media, not that I love it. We might be able to reach more younger people as well, which is always great.

Comments, suggestions, feedback?
News (ie release dates) is fine, but has limited audience because most people are players who sont buy products and most players play dnd. Lol

Reviews is tough because I believe to review a game one must play it. Which is why the vast majority of rpg reviews are entirely useless. Reviewer does a light read of book... Ok resolution mechanic CHECK, chargen CHECK... Yup! Has everything you need to play. Two thumbs up! Additionally keeping up with reviews gets burdensome or you need to allow member reviews which will greatly vary in quality.

If you want to expand maybe stick to system neutral discussions and analysis. I enjoy topics on the Alexandrian (or wtv that site is called). Possibly do videos on similar topics.

As far as stagnating, if membership is increasing as is I would argue the site hasn't stagnated. Possibly never will.
 
Well, there are reviews and there are reviews. It doesnt need to be a light read through and a mic drop. If were to review Mothership, for example, Id talk a little about the mechanics, and little more about evocative writing, and then spend most of my time talking about the awesome system for creating random space hulks, which is bloody genius.
 
No you don't. Ponies need to be fed and looked after every day, housed in a paddock with enough space to be run around and taken out for exercise every two and a bit and kept in stables if the climate isn't very mild. They are a lot of work (source: Mum and Sister used to be horsey people).
Hmm, OK, I want a pony sandwich then.
 
Are you mostly talking about modern settings and things like urban fantasy? If so, I think I can see what you're getting at, although I'm less pessimistic about it than you.

If not, I'm more confused by how politics would creep into something like a review of Maelstrom Rome. (Ok, yeah, ancient politics, but one suspects that's not the kind of contentious politics we need to avoid. Very few people are going to have strong opinions on the struggle between the Populares and the Optimates!)

I'm mostly thinking about fictional settings that make assumptions about how certain local political and cultural policies will work out.

As an example that hopefully is clear without foraying too much into it, someone's view of the soundness of a setting where the cultural habit is for all people in the culture to routinely carry a sidearm is not likely to be separate from their political views on topics related to such.

Modern period games are just more directly fraught.
 
I'm mostly thinking about fictional settings that make assumptions about how certain local political and cultural policies will work out.

As an example that hopefully is clear without foraying too much into it, someone's view of the soundness of a setting where the cultural habit is for all people in the culture to routinely carry a sidearm is not likely to be separate from their political views on topics related to such.

Modern period games are just more directly fraught.
I feel like you are stretching to imagine potential problems by assuming the reviewers are incompetent or working in bad faith.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top