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[forsaken1111]

Simple question, all answers accepted. What would you want in a website centered around pen and paper roleplaying games?

Forums? File depot? Free candy?

[Grakelin]

It should feature some roleplaying games.

[forsaken1111]

It should feature some roleplaying games.

-facepalm-

[Captain Mayday]

Simple question, all answers accepted. What would you want in a website centered around pen and paper roleplaying games?

Forums? File depot? Free candy?

Please expand upon what you're suggesting here. I'm aware of several similar sites, and as the author of a partially built (although working) game system, I am naturally interested in the introduction of new sites in this vein.

[Googolplexed]

Something that stands out from the rest, or fills a niche

Hey, its your job to come up with this

(Get a decent community though)

[forsaken1111]

Simple question, all answers accepted. What would you want in a website centered around pen and paper roleplaying games?

Forums? File depot? Free candy?

Please expand upon what you're suggesting here. I'm aware of several similar sites, and as the author of a partially built (although working) game system, I am naturally interested in the introduction of new sites in this vein.

I'm thinking of revamping my current website, which is essentially just a (poor) gaming blog, into a website based around PnP roleplaying games. I'd like to know what you guys would want to see in such a website. I'm already planning to put in a forum and likely some community tools, as well as a file depot for members to share files. (Maps, tiles, etc)

Really I'm just trying to get some ideas about what else should go in. Sky's the limit, though I can't do anything too fancy as my budget is limited for now. Even if I can't implement something immediately, I could do so later when my budget expands a bit.

TL;DR - I have webspace and I wanna use it to support pnp gamers/developers.

Something that stands out from the rest, or fills a niche

Hey, its your job to come up with this

(Get a decent community though)

Yes that is the idea, I'm just trying to gather specific feature requests or interests and figured someone on here may have an idea or three.

[Captain Mayday]

I suppose the File Depot is a must.
Potentially some avenue to submit rulesets for review, or to review rulesets that are already out there.
As to ways to differentiate, let us review some of the major sites out there.
www.rpgnow.com
This site is basically Amazon for indierpgs. It allows customers to place reviews, but only in the exact same way that Amazon does. It lacks a forum to have any meaningful conversation about a given item.

http://www.rpg.net/
This is an idea similar to your own. It is a horrendously laid out site, though. It offers reviews, and a forum. The site is difficult to navigate, but once you get into the product reviews you can see there are customer reviews and links to associated products, which is pretty good. Most of the download links are on an affiliate site, however.

Actually... that's about it, as far as I can tell everything else is either related to cRPGs, or is so hopelessly laid out and filled with such tripe that it can be safely ignored.
So in short, I'd say that if you made a sharper looking rpg.net kind of site, it'd go pretty well.

[Max White]

Free candy?

I don't eat much candy, how about fruit.

[Gatleos]

Free candy?

I don't eat much candy, how about fruit.

Furthermore what's your distribution method? How are you going to pay all the shipping costs to send the candy to every registered member? This is a serious issue to work out before anything else.

[Blargityblarg]

Two words.

Giant.

Catapult.

[DJ]

Built in tactical map would be nice, with movable tokens of course. Best thing IMO would be your own system with as much rules support from the site as possible (check if movement is legal, declare attacks of opportunity, apply all needed modifiers to rolls, that kind of thing), so the players rarely have to check the rules.

[forsaken1111]

I suppose the File Depot is a must.
Potentially some avenue to submit rulesets for review, or to review rulesets that are already out there.

Hm, good idea. A way for members to submit a picture/description of a PnP RPG rules set and discuss it, write reviews, etc. I'll write that down. Perhaps even a way to submut specific books under a 'header' so, for example, one could review the Dark Heresy roleplaying game and then click through to see what people think of the books individually as well. A file depot is definitely in, probably something similar to DFFD.

As to ways to differentiate, let us review some of the major sites out there.
www.rpgnow.com
This site is basically Amazon for indierpgs. It allows customers to place reviews, but only in the exact same way that Amazon does. It lacks a forum to have any meaningful conversation about a given item.

Hm... so allow for product reviews and forum discussion. That seems reasonable and not terribly difficult.

http://www.rpg.net/
This is an idea similar to your own. It is a horrendously laid out site, though. It offers reviews, and a forum. The site is difficult to navigate, but once you get into the product reviews you can see there are customer reviews and links to associated products, which is pretty good. Most of the download links are on an affiliate site, however.

You aren't kidding, that site is horrific. I can certainly do better than that.

Actually... that's about it, as far as I can tell everything else is either related to cRPGs, or is so hopelessly laid out and filled with such tripe that it can be safely ignored.
So in short, I'd say that if you made a sharper looking rpg.net kind of site, it'd go pretty well.

Yes that is my thought/hope as well. Initial focus would just be community building and getting reviews up, maybe continuing my blog and updating it a bit more often.

I don't eat much candy, how about fruit.

^.^ I'll see what I can do.

Furthermore what's your distribution method? How are you going to pay all the shipping costs to send the candy to every registered member? This is a serious issue to work out before anything else.

Ah, we use a modified sending spell which allows the transmission of a single handheld item.

Two words.

Giant.

Catapult.

That also could work, but I feel range might be an issue. Also I'm pretty sure it's illegal to hurl fruit and candy across the world in catapults.

Built in tactical map would be nice, with movable tokens of course. Best thing IMO would be your own system with as much rules support from the site as possible (check if movement is legal, declare attacks of opportunity, apply all needed modifiers to rolls, that kind of thing), so the players rarely have to check the rules.

See, this is an issue. A simple tactical map isn't hard, including movable tokens and such. Rules support is a whole different issue, because which system do we support? We cannot support every RPG system in the world. I think, rather than make my own virtual tabletop, it would be better if the site had a section where people could link to and review useful gaming tools.

[Sowelu]

I would love to see a GM author forum where people post their plots and schemes, and banter and swap advice on how to balance things or how to twist their players' minds.  Also a general repository of "plots and situations I would love to drop on players but the story is going somewhere else so I can't", keyed by game and genre.  Even things as advanced as fully-developed user-contributed scenarios, like the kinds you find in stores sometimes (a few dozen pages, places and maps and characters + backgrounds).  A creative-commons kind of approach to that would be sweet.

Unfortunately, the hard part there is actually building the community itself, and you can't pull that out of thin air.  I don't know how many other users would want that.

[forsaken1111]

I would love to see a GM author forum where people post their plots and schemes, and banter and swap advice on how to balance things or how to twist their players' minds.  Also a general repository of "plots and situations I would love to drop on players but the story is going somewhere else so I can't", keyed by game and genre.  Even things as advanced as fully-developed user-contributed scenarios, like the kinds you find in stores sometimes (a few dozen pages, places and maps and characters + backgrounds).  A creative-commons kind of approach to that would be sweet.

Unfortunately, the hard part there is actually building the community itself, and you can't pull that out of thin air.  I don't know how many other users would want that.

That was the idea that generated this whole scheme actually. I want to have a repository where people can share and swap their creations, from single adventures and npcs to whole settings, discuss them, swap DM and Player tricks and tips for various gaming systems, etc. An open, relaxed gamer community.

I've wanted something like that for a while, and nobody has provided one, so I said fuck it I'm gonna make one and see if other people want it.

I don't think the challenge there is generating the community. If you make a place with all of the things people want, they should show up over time and the community will build itself. I think the challenge is making it self-sufficient. Advertising revenue is a hard business model as most people have ad-blocking software. Donations is an even harder business model because it relies on charity.

One thought was that I could go for a micro-transaction model based around premium user-submitted adventure modules and content, with the author getting a portion of the income. This would only be for people who wanted to charge for their content, with people being free to submit things for free download as well.

I could also do a subscriber model with subscribers gaining some kind of benefit.

I don't know. I have no expectations of becoming rich but the website does need to support itself enough that it doesn't bankrupt me.

Anyway my first step is getting a forum and file depot up to allow file swapping and discussion while I brainstorm and refine my overall goals for the site. This thread has been great so far for ideas and insight, keep the suggestions coming. You have a chance to help shape the future!

[AntiAntiMatter]

Campaign ideas, settings, GM software aids, other helpful stuff. And while we're at it, forums. Perhaps hosting of RPGs that are free/abandoned.