This is the only fun RPG board right now

[calithena]

Seriously, the rest of them require either too much mental work or are too full of constant fights, or both. No doubt sooner or later this board will get settled in with differences between camps of purists about the right way to interpret morale in OD&D or something...but in the meantime it's sure great to come here and not get annoyed by what I read.

[makofan]

Thanks for the reminder - let's keep it that way! All of us here like other games as well, so in this forum we just celebrate the wackiness and mystery of OD&D

[crimhthanthegreat]

I am hopeful that this board is (and will remain) full of The Real Old School folks and what I mean by that is, I like telling you what I do IMC and I like reading what you do IYC and as long as you and your players are happy doing it your way IYC, I could care less that it is different than the way I do it IMC since I and my players are happy with the way we do it. It will always be fun as long as we remember that there is no one right way. The Real Old School folks know that every ref does it different, that every ref and every campaign has different house rules and different notions of the intent and interpretation of every rule. I think the consensus here is that we really like having non-contentious discussions and free sharing of ideas in a non-judgemental environment and that most of us and Fin are and will remain committed to that.

Note: The Real Old School is an emphasis added item saying that if you are a member here and you are having fun and you think it is "way cool" that there are so many different opinions and ways of doing things and your main worry is trying to figure out what you are going to "steal" and try out in your own campaign, then you are The Real Old School.


Oh Yeah, calithena have an Exalt!

[tgamemaster1975]

calithena said:

Seriously, the rest of them require either too much mental work or are too full of constant fights, or both. No doubt sooner or later this board will get settled in with differences between camps of purists about the right way to interpret morale in OD&D or something...but in the meantime it\'s sure great to come here and not get annoyed by what I read.

Thanks calithena and may the camps of purists fighting about things never come to pass. I hope it stays like it is now, no one attacking anyone, just fun had by all.

[Deleted]

I agree--110%. I've never liked a lot of the posters on the other boards, nor their attitudes. Sure, I like abject humor, but I never intend to be a jerk (sometimes my humor falls short, but, hey, I'm an honest guy who has always struggled with that little thing called tact). I really don't forsee occuring here any of the problems that plague the other boards. I seek solace here due to the overwhelming bad attitudes I've experienced on a large majority of the other forums. Who knows, maybe we'll all start a NEW trend of civil & friendly discussion, &, with any luck, our example will rub off on others. This board is really one of the few highlights to my mostly mundane days, & I'm grateful & pleased by ALL & EVERYONE'S opinions on this board; truly this is a diamond in the rough. Keep on postin'!

[jrients]

cal, I pretty much agree with you. This cozy little outfit is the most friendly and inviting board I frequent nowadays. Lately I pretty much only check two others and one mailing list. I can't be bothered with a lot of hostility over what should be happy fun times.

[tgamemaster1975]

I think a lot of the credit for the atmosphere here has to go to Finarvyn. I think the challenge will be when we go past the 500 member mark (just guessing on size) to maintain this site as the friendly inviting place we love. Peer pressure is powerful in that regard and firm moderation when peer pressure doesn\'t suffice. I think giving newcomers a warm welcome and continually being polite with each other is a big part of it. When you like someone elses post and you say so and pass out an exalt from time to time, it makes it tough to be mean.

[foster1941]

I'm definitely enjoying this board at the moment, but I don't expect it to last forever. In my experience, one of two things invariably happens to internet discussion fora (not just rpg ones): either the membership remains at a fairly small level and eventually enough members either run out of things to say or move on to other things that the board stagnates and fades away, or the board continues growing and becomes more impersonal which then leads to an attempt to "build community" through off-topic chatter and in-jokes and such, which leads to cliques, which leads to board-schisms, etc. Perhaps it's possible to have a sufficient critical mass to avoid #1 without falling into the trap of #2, but in ~15 years on the internet I've never seen it happen yet...

[korgoth]

I wonder if the relaxed attitude of this board (much appreciated!) has to do with the structure (or lack thereof) of the subject matter?

It seems like it would be hard to be a "purist" about OD&D, given that it appears to be a toolkit for making your own fantasy campaign rather than a set of norms and regulations (not that there's anything wrong with those per se). And with that comes the necessity of each Ref blazing the trail of rules and interpretations off in his own direction. That just seems to be expected, so that there's hardly any possibility of fighting about the 'original intent' of the rules. The original intent seems to be that you'd come up with something and run with it.

Plus, the game seems simple and modular enough that while you can add rules and rulings which might make one game very different from another, there's not much of a core 'balance' that has to be preserved, unlike some games which hang a number of rule subsets on one or more assumptions such that if you undermine the original rule or balance thereof, you undermine all of the subsets and 'break' a significant portion of the system. Also, I am adding this sentence so that this paragraph does not consist entirely of the enormous compound sentence I just wrote.

That's not to say that it's impossible to argue about. But I think there is less that would tend to promote arguments. The 3-part alignment system is also less contentious than the 9-part (a 3-part system that replaced Law and Chaos with Good and Evil would go back to being contentious, however).

[calithena]

Well, I hope it goes well. Let's enjoy the good times while they last, whether it be for months or decades to come!

[coffee]

I have to agree with pretty much everything said above. This is a great little forum, and I'm proud to be associated with it.

I think part of the sense of decorum might stem from the fact that we, as a group, might be older than the average makeup of other fora. With ages doesn't necessarily come wisdom, but it does seem to bring more patience. At least it did in my case!

[crimhthanthegreat]

Here is to hoping that we have a nice long run as a great place to play. ;D

[doc]

This group is still very young. What usually happens, that I have seen, is that boards like this go full steam for 6-12 months and then slow down considerably, but flare up again once or twice a month with a plethora of new posts. I don't think that this board is in any danger of disappearing any time within the next few years, though.

Doc

[Finarvyn]

tgamemaster1975 said:

I think a lot of the credit for the atmosphere here has to go to Finarvyn.

Thanks, and I'll certainly do my best to maintain that fun atmosphere.

Honestly, I think that AD&D had a lot to do with some of the anger that goes on with many boards. (Oh, no. I hope I haven't just started an edition war. ) My rationalle is simply that AD&D was the first rule set designed to be official D&D. Gary's reason for putting together AD&D was in part to have standardized rules of play for tournaments and whatnot. At that point, once "official" rules are out there, debates start over how rules are "supposed" to be interpreted and I think that's where a lot of the anger comes from.

As others have mentioned in this very thread, OD&D isn't like that because the rules are only supposed to be guidelines and each DM is encouraged to be resourceful and creative. If I want to bring Mentzer B/X rules into my OD&D campaign, that's okay. If I want to import 3E feats into my OD&D campaign, that's okay as well. It's a lot easier to be forgiving of others when there's no sense that rules "must be" a certain way.

Anyway, that's my thought on the matter. Either way, I hope that newcomers continue to arrive and share their thoughts with the same patience and encouragment as the current members. This board is growing and evolving in ways that I never anticipated, but it's becoming everything that I could never quite find in other boards.

Thanks to all of you!

[calithena]

Good points, Fin. Also because edition change always hurts, as we're seeing on some of those other boards right now, and the change from OD&D to AD&D had its share of pain too.

[jdrakeh]

Well, it's certainly one of the only boards that doesn't seem prone to regular incursions by fans engaging in guerilla marketing for their Favorite System. That has been my issue with other forums as of late.

Or, heck, with the hobby in general.

If you ever read my blog (my Place for Venting), you'll see me unload on some very specific individuals or fan groups that are literally ruining this hobby for me. I (moments ago) started to post a thread entitled "**** This Hobby Sale" at ENWorld. It might yet get posted by the end of the day.

It seems that people have become progressively more clique-ish in recent years with regard to playstyle or system proselytization. Like I told a friend the other day, I just want to play games -- this need for certain groups of people to force their own personal preferences on me has become very nearly unbearable.

I'm glad that this forum isn't defined by such behavior, as many others seem to be.

[crimhthanthegreat]

When we set down to play at my table, we are there to have fun and that is about the extent of it. I would assume that it is the same for most, if not all, of you too. So when I come online that is really all I want to do too just have fun. And here that has been very possible, I have read more great posts here among our little group that I have all of the other forums that I have read combined.

[jdrakeh]

I hear you. I want to play games and have fun, too. Really, that's all I want to do. So few bulletin boards seem to be about that. I'm pleased to see that this one is.

[Deleted]

This is a really great thread and I am bumping it to the top just as a reminder of what we are about and so all the new folks can find it easily.

[oldgeezer]

Nov 30, 2007 13:19:01 GMT -6 calithena said:

Seriously, the rest of them require either too much mental work or are too full of constant fights, or both. No doubt sooner or later this board will get settled in with differences between camps of purists about the right way to interpret morale in OD&D or something...but in the meantime it's sure great to come here and not get annoyed by what I read.

OH YEAH?




























( ;D )

[crimhthanthegreat]

oldgeezer you about gave me heart failure there for a moment. Ya got me good on that one.

[driver]

So now we have a thread in which we get together and congratulate ourselves on not being as cliquish and exclusionary as all those other jerks?

[Random]

Maybe OD&D discussion just puts everyone in a good mood.

[mythmere]

The Classic boards at DF are pretty laid back, too -- I think Basic and OD&D fans are generally a pretty tolerant community.

[Rhuvein]

Jul 30, 2008 14:56:44 GMT -6 @driver said:

So now we have a thread in which we get together and congratulate ourselves on not being as cliquish and exclusionary as all those other jerks?

Yer darn right thar fella. We're the only ones having fun and we're in a good mood. No one else but us!

;D

[crimhthanthegreat]

Jul 30, 2008 14:56:44 GMT -6 @driver said:

So now we have a thread in which we get together and congratulate ourselves on not being as cliquish and exclusionary as all those other jerks?

Cliquish! Exclusionary! Not at all, I fully support everyones right to add OD&D to their list of gaming choices and come join us. After all, only a very few of us play only OD&D.

[blackbarn]

I agree completely. I don't own OD&D and have never played it, but this is still my favorite gaming forum. Lots of great, imaginative ideas get tossed around here, and nobody is too scared of new ideas being tried out, no matter the source. It's refreshing, and a nice change from the usual feuds and "we don't mention that game!" attitudes you find elsewhere. Here, it's all about gaming and the spirit of gaming.

[driver]

The overwhelming majority of the members on every other old-school board I know about are great folks. As a board grows, it invariably acquires trolls and passive-aggressive (or aggressive-aggressive) idiots, and it only takes one or two to make an environment unpleasant. The admins either bring down the banhammer or they don't, but either way, the board culture changes through no fault of the other members.

A lot of it comes down to numbers. If 99.5% of your members are awesome, and you have 1,000 members, that still leaves 5 vocal jerks, and that can really change the tenor of the board.

That said, this is the only board I still post on, as this problem hasn't manifested yet (with a couple of near-misses) and this is the only really OD&D-focused board I know about. So I view its continuing growth with selfish trepidation ... I can't imagine we can dodge the growing pains forever.

[blackbarn]

Dec 1, 2007 11:57:59 GMT -6 foster1941 said:

I'm definitely enjoying this board at the moment, but I don't expect it to last forever. In my experience, one of two things invariably happens to internet discussion fora (not just rpg ones): either the membership remains at a fairly small level and eventually enough members either run out of things to say or move on to other things that the board stagnates and fades away, or the board continues growing and becomes more impersonal which then leads to an attempt to "build community" through off-topic chatter and in-jokes and such, which leads to cliques, which leads to board-schisms, etc. Perhaps it's possible to have a sufficient critical mass to avoid #1 without falling into the trap of #2, but in ~15 years on the internet I've never seen it happen yet...

Actually I have been posting on a small forum with the same people for 10 years now, and it is still going, with new posts and new things to say every day. But the number of members is quite small. I'm just saying it is possible.

[Deleted]

As driver said above things tend to happen. I don't like it either. I don't post much, I lurk and read a lot. I want to read about OD&D etc. I would like to see any "drama" nipped in the bud and deleted. If someone doesn't like someone else let them talk about it somewhere else. I don't want to see it on this board. I don't care who did what, all I care about is what are they contributing to this board. What they may or may not have done somewhere else on some other board is irrelevant to me.

This is a darn great fun board and I hope it stays that way for a long time. That's how I see it.

I don't mean any offense to anyone, but it's like if I owned a bar it would be take all your fights outside preferably wayyyyyyyyyy down the street.