PlanetADnD.com

I thought I'd start a new topic just for chatting about anything in general. You know, the kind of stuff that probably won't sustain an entire thread of its own, but is still worth talking about. Plus, it can be a useful way for the community to get to know each other some.

First, I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome our newcomers--LilDavid67, slamo and Malware. Welcome to Planet.

I'm quite pleased that mltillis' Waterdeep game seems to be to a good start. I had just been expressing my concern a few weeks back that all of Planet's games were run by moderators/admins and were all 2nd Edition; I was worried newcomers would mistakenly conclude that only staff members could run games and that we only allow 2E games here. Waterdeep is not run by a staff member and it's 3E, so it was exactly what I was hoping for. Even better, it's brought in three new people, and it's always a good thing to bump up membership a little.

In other news...this heat! August is half over and it's still really sweltering, even this far north. Is it bad where the rest of you are? I'm actually looking forward to autumn, if only so I don't break out into a sweat by just sitting in my living room.



Oh, yeah. Did anyone notice I passed the 75,000 post mark and have become the first person to obtain the rank of King? Don't worry, though. I don't expect anyone to start calling me "King Jaded." No, no, "your grace" will do just nicely.

Then I'm glad I suggested we moved the game here from KoM.

I've actually been trying for sometime to get something other than 2e games here, at first I think the title of the site had am effect to make people think we are only a 2e site, or perhaps it's reputation.. but Frankly not so many people play anymore..

We have a growing community, one to be proud of, I look forward to playing with the newcomers, will be fun.

Suggestion Jenara? Seemed like more of a strong-armed coercion...

All jokes aside. I'm glad to be running a game again, this game in particular. And though I have not been previously active here, I have been around the gaming forums for a fairly long time. With any luck the feelers, that I've sent out to some of the members of the now pastured ShadowRealms and Fairburne's Glory, will bring a few other players into the site.

I've never even heard of ShadowRealms or Fairburne's Glory, but yeah, Kingdom of Mass seemed to dry up pretty quick, or so it would appear. I wonder if that's indicative of some widespread trend or just a coincidence? Then again, Unseen Servant seems to still be going strong. I hope roleplaying isn't declining. Nah, that doesn't seem likely, especially with 5E just around the corner.

I would be surprised if you had heard of them as both were small sites, and we are talking years ago. I quit forum gaming when my daughter was born in 2007. Just in the last two years have I found the free time to pursue it once again.

I have my own observations and opinions about sites drying up like KOM. When I played over the years, I always sought out smaller sites around the size of Mass, (What is it on the fourth incarnation now?) as the huge 5000 plus member forums always felt impersonal to me.

Why do some sites die off while others like Myth Weavers grow and continue on with out missing a beat? What I have noticed is the sites going strong have more than half of their games in a non-DND format. Of the games that are DND formats, more than half are Pathfinder, 4th Ed, or 5th. Basically DND 3.5 and earlier is now relegated to being a niche of the role playing community with few newer members coming in as a whole. So we are essentially cannibalizing other sites to maintain members.

Another issue that affects smaller sites may come in part from a sense of obligation. Many players feel that they should run a game in exchange for playing in other games on the site. Then the games struggle to maintain players as there are half as many games as active players on the forum. Not wanting to see someone's game die off, the most dedicated members of the forum join to help out. Eventually it leads to everyone running one or more games and then playing in four or five others until they burn out. As your core members drop out from the strain, the site goes into a rapid decline from which it most likely will not recover.

Ideally a forum needs to maintain a ratio of at least three non-dm players to every player who runs and plays a game, just to stay healthy.

Third is an issue with 1st and 2nd edition games lack of newly published materials. A lot of old players have already run through the TSR line twice now and have little interest in a third go at the same module. Not everyone is up to running their own homebrew game though. For those people, I would suggest checking into some of the material being written for Osric (ADND 1st Ed) and Hackmaster (ADND 2nd Ed). The systems are very similar, essentially the same thing Pathfinder did with the DND 3.5 rule set. By the way, the last version of Hackmaster dropped the parody aspect that was in Knights of the Dinner Table.... It would have been cool to hand out demerits like Weird Pete though.

So this started out as a thread to talk about anything and.... it's talking about roleplay and sites .

Back to the topic Jaded brought up: So it's on the Pacific cost that all the warm air got stuck! We've had rain and chilly winds for the past week here in Germany, and it looks like Summer is over for good. I'm glad I'll be in the Eastern US for the next three weeks. But I sympatise with you, King Jaded. We had waether like yours in June, and I didn't want to use the computer except early in the morning, before the sun was really up. Just addind the laptop cooling fan made the temperatures unbearable.

And another topic: I'm now taking care of mutants. Welll,I had one mutant in the household last year (before the age of genetics, the term "mutant" was used for boys whose voices changed from Soprano/alto to Tenor/Bass), but that is over now. But this year, I have a collection of mutant snapdragon plants. I noticed one plant that had sown itself wildly next to my garage and collected its seeds. I'm now cultivating the daughter plants and recording their behavior in cooperation with a University botanical garden, and will continue next year. It's fun to see how the traits get inherited.

Point taken Breila... Unfortunately, we are having one of the coolest summers in my recollection as well with the temperature never getting into triple digits. It was dry for the majority, but has rained quite heavy the last week. Weather here is usually different from further up north where you will be. Hopefully it's a bit better there than it is here at the moment. It has one oddball summer all around it seems.

mltillis wrote:Of the games that are DND formats, more than half are Pathfinder, 4th Ed, or 5th. Basically DND 3.5 and earlier is now relegated to being a niche of the role playing community with few newer members coming in as a whole. So we are essentially cannibalizing other sites to maintain members.

Wait...3.5 is now considered niche? Hold on. I need a second to sit down and contemplate what an old man I am now.
But seriously, I agree. That's why I've been recently trying to emphasize that we accept any games here, not just old school D&D. Any game at all. (Except FATAL. ) Hopefully we can diversify things over time, even if the site's title kind of implies we're AD&D only.

mltillis wrote:Another issue that affects smaller sites may come in part from a sense of obligation. Many players feel that they should run a game in exchange for playing in other games on the site. Then the games struggle to maintain players as there are half as many games as active players on the forum. Not wanting to see someone's game die off, the most dedicated members of the forum join to help out. Eventually it leads to everyone running one or more games and then playing in four or five others until they burn out. As your core members drop out from the strain, the site goes into a rapid decline from which it most likely will not recover.

So much agreement here. There was a point, not too long ago, where I was running more than 50% of the games here. It occurred to me that if anything happened to me or if I left Planet, the place would be practically dead overnight. Whenever we did get a new DM (Korgen, betaraybill, NoTrammeling), they always seemed to disappear without a trace, abandoning their games completely. Hopefully we can get more DMs in here soon.

Another problem was that whenever I started a new game, the same group of Planet veterans would always sign up. I would be running several games at once that all had nearly the exact same cast. Then when a new person would show up and want to join, ironically I wouldn't have room for them in any of my games. That's why with my most recent game, War of the Lance, I made a point to try and recruit aggressively outside of Planet to bring in new people. I intend to do the same with my next new game, Unlikely Hero's replacement. This was all for the purpose of bolstering Planet's population, to avoid the very thing you speak of above.

Plus, the more people we bring in, the more likely one of them will start up their own game, as well. And if they recruit largely from outside Planet, as well, that brings in even more people, and so on and so on. So yeah, I highly recommend recruiting outside of Planet whenever you can.

mltillis wrote: For those people, I would suggest checking into some of the material being written for Osric (ADND 1st Ed) and Hackmaster (ADND 2nd Ed).

Yep, I especially recommend Advanced Adventures from OSRIC. It's where I got Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom and Sarcophagus Legion, which I incorporated into Unlikely Heroes.

Breila wrote:So it's on the Pacific cost that all the warm air got stuck! We've had rain and chilly winds for the past week here in Germany, and it looks like Summer is over for good. I'm glad I'll be in the Eastern US for the next three weeks. But I sympatise with you, King Jaded. We had waether like yours in June, and I didn't want to use the computer except early in the morning, before the sun was really up. Just addind the laptop cooling fan made the temperatures unbearable.

Oof, I hear that it's even hotter over on the east coast, so good luck with that! Usually the Pacific Northwest is well known for being rainy and overcast all of the time, but lately it's just been hot, hot, hot. Even worse, my apartment has no air conditioning.

Breila wrote:I have a collection of mutant snapdragon plants.

So it is just me, or does anyone else picture ravenous, man-eating plants upon hearing the term 'mutant'?

Oof, I hear that it's even hotter over on the east coast, so good luck with that! Usually the Pacific Northwest is well known for being rainy and overcast all of the time, but lately it's just been hot, hot, hot. Even worse, my apartment has no air conditioning.

I would just like to say, considering that I live in the Pacific Northwest, that the summers are always drier and hotter. We usually have a week where it gets above 90, but otherwise it stays in the mid 80's until September. With all the fans going at all hours of the day, it is bearable without an AC. The eastern half of the US always tends to be hotter, so enjoy that Breila. I would be miserable.

Despite living in the US, I've never been to the eastern half of the country except for Florida (Disney World twice). I've always wanted to visit Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire during the fall though. I hear the changing of the seasons up there is absolutely beautiful. As I'm a budding photographer, I would be in heaven.

Ah, it's a new week. And it's still pretty hot. But not as bad as it's been lately. I'm still counting the days until September.

So how was everyone's weekend? I've actually been a little depressed lately. So much awful stuff happening in the world. I guess I've been watching too much Star Trek lately, because it makes the world we live in now seem so much more bleak compared to the one portrayed in the distant future. (But hey, at least we avoided the Eugenics Wars of the 90's.)

Speaking of which, and to lighten things up, here's a silly video about the various races of Star Trek.

Finally, it's September! And already, it's cooled down considerably up here. I no longer need to run all of the fans in the apartment at full capacity.

Also, happy Labor Day to my American brethren (and happy Labour Day to the Canadians). I had to work today anyway, at my minimum wage part time job with no benefits, sick leave, or vacation, in what can only be considered the ultimate irony.

Cheer up! At least you know to enjoy the irony. Some would have missed that too. And now you have spare fan power, so you can fly baloons and make them trigger actions, like in 'The incredible machine'.
I hope you are enjoying your work.

Oh, heavens no. I hate my job. But it pays the bills, I guess.

So, thank goodness it is only a part time.

Yay, I'll be going to the local fair later this week. I'll probably get sick from fair food and rides. Maybe this will be the year I don't get a funnel cake, because I finally remember they aren't that great, really.