The Gaming Den

I'm writing this here because it's the most popular sub-forum here at the Gaming Den.

I've noticed a considerable drop-off in posting rate and visits for the last few months. What's your take on why this diminishment is happening?

It's a small community.

MBs in general have a tendency to lose members over time. (People get bored, have issues with other posters, and so forth.)

If said forum doesn't attract new members to replace the old, said message boards starts to get empty and lonely.

I think it's just a lull.

For one, it used to be summer so the college students that make up part of the userbase here were out of school and could post a lot more.

For two, we've beaten some of our regular topics into the ground. Some people have even changed their minds on these topics so if the topics were resurrected it might just be some users violently agreeing with one another.

You'll notice from my 2E Weapon Sizing thread that the problem isn't a lack of people willing to talk, but a lack of things to talk about. Throw something up here on the forums remotely interesting and we'll probably bounce some stuff back at you.

Hmm. I suppose we could try actually doing some of the projects we've considered on occasion. Stuff like the NPC library and whatnot.

I'm just tired about talking about D&D 3.5E. My feelings on this edition are already well-documented.

If you guys want to talk some Storyteller (esp. Exalted) or some d20 Modern or some Mutants and Masterminds, I'm game. But D&D generates too much apathy for me to talk about anymore.

Like, even posters I used to disagree with like da chicken and RandomCasualty I still usually find common ground. The stuff I argue with them about is little piddling things like weapon sizing and wizards learning cleric spells. Which frankly don't come up all that much in games. No one disagrees with the basic tenets of the game like specialization versus non-specialization or the unfairness of standard multiclassing or whatever.

So there you go.

Yeah, I find there isn't all that much to talk about.

I think it would be kinda cool if we all got together and worked on a version of SAME fantasy or somethng. That'd be a cool project for the board, since I'd like to see that system written up in full sometime.

D&D topics are mostly exhausted it seems.

Guest (Unregistered) at [unixtime wrote:1136952258[/unixtime]]If you guys want to talk some Storyteller (esp. Exalted)

I'll bite on that one. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to get into much of the nitty-gritty or asstacular mechanics, but I'd totally love to hear what you guys think works and what doesn't work about Exalted.

No particular reason I mention this now

I just... Don't get to play D&D anymore, and well, I don't like 3.5e. They rather stopped coming out with rulebooks and just come out with make-me-cry books.

The other games I play have all the rules written out, so there's like, no questions to really ask. FRED pretty much answers every question about HERO and there's really no questions to ask on the online games I play.

And I never really participated in the conversations about settings - though I'm developing a new one - because it was all above my head.

-Crissa

Modesitt wrote:You'll notice from my 2E Weapon Sizing thread that the problem isn't a lack of people willing to talk, but a lack of things to talk about. Throw something up here on the forums remotely interesting and we'll probably bounce some stuff back at you.

My last 3 threads all had 0 replies...

Guess my posting is shit huh

Crissa at [unixtime wrote:1136962913[/unixtime]]I FRED pretty much answers every question about HERO

Bullcrap. Some questions require actually physical experimentation Linky

[TGFBS]
I'm moving this over to MPSMIS.
[/TGFBS]

Well, I'm home a lot less recently. This week, I'm up in San Francisco taking care of my grand parents. Also, most of my game writing stuff is going into Shadowrun, rather than D&D.

While Rob Boyle and I certainly don't see eye to eye on every issue, I am finding that getting an SR4 team together is pretty easy compared to trying to get together a D&D party. I haven't been banned from the Shadowrun boards, and based on the private messages the admins sent me, I don't think I'm going to be any time real soon.

Probably that's going to wait until one of the designers puts forward their great new idea to mesh all the spirits together into one super-entity with 10 sephiroths or some shit and I call them a fvcktard by private email. History has a way of repeating itself, so I guess it's just a matter of counting the days.

-Username17

I'm running Amber DRPG and preparing an old-school Vampire campaign. I barely have time for the games I'm playing in, much less pondering minutia within the D&D ruleset.

-Des

I do miss arguing over D&D, though...

-Crissa

I'm only a lurker, you can't expect me to post

We could pick up It Ends In Darkness again if we have nothing to do...

(hint, hint)

Indeed, picking up It Ends in Darkness would both serve to increase traffic around here and alleviate my boredom. I don't see where this is a bad plan at all.

RandomCasualty at [unixtime wrote:1136953924[/unixtime]]Yeah, I find there isn't all that much to talk about.

I think it would be kinda cool if we all got together and worked on a version of SAME fantasy or somethng. That'd be a cool project for the board, since I'd like to see that system written up in full sometime.

D&D topics are mostly exhausted it seems.

For once I agree with you completely on all points.

Of course, I just started a new semester. And I'm taking 17 credits, including a graduate-level "Math models of human behavior class" (I'm no grad student, and it's my second psych class and third math class). So I don't expect to have much free time.

That said (and I'm not sure if I've said this already), but I've been trying to convert the PlaneScape setting into something that makes a bit more sense (insert link to people ranting about Law vs. Chaos) without loosing the Tony Diterlizzi flavor. And that might end up SAME, if I'm lucky.

I think that's a great idea. Once you strip all the bullshit, I mean alignment out of Planescape, it's very cool. Here's how I'd go about it:

Belief is Power
There are probably an infinite number of Hells and Netherworlds, but only a select few actually connect to anything via openable portals. The planes that are accessible at any time are determined by which factions are in power in the City of Doors. While there is a plane filled with nothing but shrimp, noone can interact with it unless a group of sushi chefs takes over the cafeteria district in Sigil.

Furthermore, a faction's strength determines how much stuff (and in what strength) they can bring in to the center of the great wheel. No faction rules absolutely, so no gods can interfere in the works of mortals. This is similarly true both in Sigil and on the Primes, only by great success can members of a religion allied with a faction bring in outsider agents.

As Below, So Above
The relative strength of the accessible planes (and the things that can be brought forth from them) is determined entirely by the strength of allied convictions on the prime worlds. If philosophies similar to that of the Mercykillers thrive and dominate in a Prime World, the musterable forces of Acheron will be stronger. That's why the factions spend so much time creating allied faiths in Prime Worlds and converting prime residents.

Outsiders are Faithless and Replaceable
An outsider is brought in by belief, but doesn't actually contribute any itself. Once brought in, the outsider doesn't even need the belief level to stay high enough to bring it in to begin with - but the belief level has to go up (or it has to die or leave) to bring in anything else. That's why outsiders spend so much time trying to convert each other. Once a being brought in by the Harmonium switches over to working for the Sinkers, it counts against the total number of summonables that the Harmonium possesses, but it's working for a different faction. On the other hand, simply killing the angel helps in no long-term way: the Harmonium could just summon another one.

-Username17

What is It Ends in Darkness?

It Ends in Darkness is a game Frank was supposed to run on the In The Trnches forum.
The character concepts for it can be found here: http://bb.bbboy.net/thegamingden-viewth ... &thread=10