The Campaign Builder's Guild

Pair o'Dice Lost posts there as well as here; I bet people like him would post more here if they received more feedback on their worlds when they posted them up.

The best good difference CBG has from GITP is that people can run IRC games on the CBG. I don't think there's much of a point in advertising PBP posting- they already have a good PBP area.

What they don't have is the platform for IRC games and the excellent wiki and the excellent forum software for displaying worlds.
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CBG could maybe market itself as a good place to 'show off' ones' worlds... Until we get more posters, the new people aren't necessarily going to get feedback (a) and (b) the worlds we build are a bit different from those on GITP-- frankly, GITP posts keep closer to traditional DND whereas here we have Vreeg remaking the system; Steerpike creating a vastly different 'feel', etc. CBG does 'unique' well. And that may intimidate some 'normal' campaign and world builders.

There is a wiki analogue to recent threads. There's a recent activity feed for wikia wikis. You need to know how to code it up though, but you could probably deliver that info to the front page.

I think that's a good idea- the wiki recent feeds.

Also good idea is to have links (rotating automatically?) to some of the more active wiki sections (5 selected by nomadic that rotate as links on the front page.) That's a relatively easy coding job as opposed to the other job (the wiki feed).

Idle thoughts: We could try outreach into other types of creative communities, ones that focus on modding video games, fantasy fiction storytelling, stuff like that.

Quote from: NomadicPoor Limetom...

Seriously though yes, we need more contests.

I second (third?) this and I will also volunteer to help out with the contests if Limetom needs a break. :)

Yeah, I can at least supply ideas/write-ups for contests as well!

For the chat thing, what about a Mibbit widget? The basic ones are free and do include advertising, but it'd probably be the easiest and most cost-effective method to get a more easily-accessed chat room on here.

Make Adventure Moduals... Arch... Mini-one offs.... whatever... Make a Large city stuffed with adventure ideas and work with the CGuild to get the town maps, overland maps, and encounter maps. Together there is no reason why the two sites cant put out 1 decent adventure  every 2-3 months. We have LOTS of material here, but nothing that a causal gamer can stop by grab something good and playing at his table tommorow. U need a map? go to the Cartographers guild and find one that works. Wanna learn how to make one your self? they got Tuts. Need a professional one? wanna show the map you did in 5 min in paint on your first try? you can

People come here for.....
we can supply them with...
or teach them how to...
they give back...
they tell friends this is the place for...


Whats our Identity with out Turtles?!?!?!

Lots of great feedback, too much in fact for me to quote it all so I'll touch on some key points (let me know if I missed something you wanted me to comment on). First off it's good to know we've got some interest for running contests and this is something we can start right away without needing a new site so then here's what I'll do for that. If you would like to run some contests send me a PM showing your interest and a few ideas on contests you would like to run. I'll organize our contest runner pool and get that going. For each contest I'll get you a news article with a link to your contest and some details on it and we can hopefully get some entries. On that note I encourage the community to submit their ideas to any contests you can. I'll do so if there's only a couple submissions but I'd really like to see everyone who can putting in the effort. I see that most of us want us to grow which is good, but that's not a solo job for me but a collaborative effort involving the whole community being active and showing the world how vibrant and ready to grow we are. If you can do that I can do my best to bring the people here in the first place.

On the topic of easy mIRC access I'm going to talk with isomage about getting me founder access again on #thecbg so that I can set it up properly as well as talking with him about possible bot functions and commands that would support new players and DMs. After we have a foundation I'll likely grab something like mibbit and incorporate it into the site so that we can give it a test run.

Great comments so far, keep it up. This is very helpful for me in learning what to do with The CBG. On the other front I will say that I have set a meeting with Ish and BF and they're going to let me pick their brains on how to run the front end and back end of the site.

Expanding some of our focus from just setting creation to GMing discussions could be an interesting way to make things more welcoming to new people, but I've always thought our regulars were more than welcoming. I haven't been away due to a lack of welcome, or a lack of feedback; just a lack of motivation, a busy life, and a lack of direction.

Something I have always pined for but could never find enough support for was an official but unrequired setting template. Especially for new people, it would provide a starting point. Strengthening the wiki support would also make things easier to discuss a setting; threads are great for individual topics, but they are difficult to present everything.

You're starting off great Nomadic.

we need to provide a service essentially.

come to the CBG were you can find a city, a nation to put it in, an adventure arc, and a couple encounters. Got a session tommorow lots of home work? Come to the CBG. Lets encourge the posting of complete small pieces. Less WORLD building, and more usable bits and pieces that make up greater WORLD building. Organizations, GREAT NPCs/Characters, Cities, Nations, Worlds. Lets break the content up.

We need to change how we post information so that it is a) easyer to put it up piece by piece b) people can find pieces they are looking for in your collection of pieces (search by orc tribes or camps, search mage guilds, search noble houses) these things i can see GMs looking for.

Lets welcome non World building proficient gamers, so they come and read threads, take things for their tabletop, learn to write their own stuff, post it up on the site, and piece by piece build their own collection of mateial. The con worlders will get an influx of gamers to read their stuff, and eager GMs wanting to pick their brains and learn from them. And they get to know OTHER PEOPLE are exploring their little world.

Lets be less about completing the wall(world), and more about building bricks(people, places, plot).

Quote from: Light DragonCBG could maybe market itself as a good place to 'show off' ones' worlds... Until we get more posters, the new people aren't necessarily going to get feedback (a) and (b) the worlds we build are a bit different from those on GITP-- frankly, GITP posts keep closer to traditional DND whereas here we have Vreeg remaking the system; Steerpike creating a vastly different 'feel', etc. CBG does 'unique' well. And that may intimidate some 'normal' campaign and world builders.

I think this actually bears repeating. As a newish member of the community, I can certainly say that there is a TON of talent on these boards, and a good amount of it comes from very different approaches to "typical" D&D (whether that be 4E, 3.X, Pathfinder, 2nd Ed, whatever, etc.), which, as silly as it might sound, will come off as intimidating to some newer posters. There's people here who's writing can blur the line between forum post and poetry, and the CBG being the tight-knit community it is, people know who other people are. Go over to the Wizards of the Coast boards and you'll soon drown in anonymity amongst the hundreds of other posters who feebly appear and disappear overnight. Sure, there's big names, but getting there generally takes some work. On the CBG, you deal with a very smart community, and you get recognized fast. There will be some that don't like that, surprising as it may seem.

What I'm saying is: the CBG seems to attract a certain crowd. In my opinion, this is a good thing; a breath of fresh air. Sure, you might end up with less members, but the members you do get are usually pretty top-notch; you don't usually get any screaming matches, trolling, or that sort of ilk. People are generally willing to help, read, and critique. PEACH, if you will ;). I like the current community, and to echo the sentiments of Vreeg, I also would like to see more activity (I'm guilty of this myself), but I don't expect to see a flood of new, lasting members. I do expect to see a nice handful of new, lasting members, and I think that's what we could use. What the CBG does quite well, is take the diamonds amidst that flood of new users and keep them.

Now, getting to the whole advertisement thing, I would say I strongly support it. I found the CBG boards a year or two back ONLY BECAUSE I was around when Luminous Crayon posted The Jade Stage on the old Wizards boards way back when, and I adored it (still do!). A couple years later, I thought to myself "Man, whatever happened to settings like the Jade Stage?" and I googled his name. Lo and behold, I found he had posted on the Campaign Builder's Guild. Now, I tried to join then and there, but I had some random password problems, and it said I couldn't register or something, so I forgot about it. I actually had the same problem AGAIN when I rejoined about a year later, but somehow I got in. I think that was just my computer being weird, but it could be worth a look to see if anything is wrong; that would certainly keep new users away! I'd love to give the details of exactly what happened, but I honestly can't really remember... I think it had something to do with someone having to approve of my account, and it aways said it wasn't approved or something. Either way, one day it just started letting me post without telling me, which is why my join date is actually much longer ago than when I started posting. ...And I'm rambling - LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THE CBG!!! Find a way to spread the word. I'll do my best to let people know on my end.

Tech-wise? Yeah, I don't have much to offer... I haven't gotten to hardly even tinkering with setting stuff yet.

Sadly, I also wasn't around when the magazine thingy was going on, but it sounds SWEET. I'm not sure how often I would be able to participate in it, but I'd do my best to chip in!

Oh, and Vreeg mentioned something about making the forums more manageable for massive threads: please do! Sometimes, I just don't know where to start with places like Celtricia, but I really want to dig into it and know what its about since I see it everywhere. It also doesn't help that I don't have nearly as much time on my hands as I'd like, but this would be a step in the right direction.

Weave is Taasty.  I like eating waxy lit crayons, too, as his House of Termination has 4 walls.  Yum.
Just call me Rampan.

To Lathe's point, we had this riotous, ' build a village' thread.  
God, that was fun.

Just wanted to pop my head in.

I don't think I could really add anything that has not already been said. I like the idea of focusing on gaming, and using an integrated chat feature.
This CBGuide revival sounds great, but I think that should probably be put off until things are a bit more organized.

Light Dragon said it well, and was echoed by a few other members, this should be a place to 'show off' ones world, (outside the confines of game systems, in my opinion) blur game system,art and poetry, and create a unique experience for the reader; if they can take that and use it in a game or get inspired by it for future CBG creations, that is great.
 
 per what Weave said about certain crowds (and I believe was discussed in that Dragons Den thread LD mentioned) there will always be trolling, and the occasional screaming match. I've found that given a solid community base, those sorts of people are generally ignored, wittingly rebuked or simply get bored after a while.

 Good luck to Nomadic.

Quote from: LordVreeg the UnsleepingTo Lathe's point, we had this riotous, ' build a village' thread.  
God, that was fun.

I remember that, it was fun.

On to comment/suggestions, since I dabble in publication these days, perhaps having workshops for publishing settings/worlds from members here in prepping it for publication. In my Kaidan - in final devopment I describe the patronage system of development and publication, perhaps we could try gather our own pool of patrons and try to publish a local setting and gear it for publication.

I'm still early in my understanding of the process, but even other kinds of more traditional PDF publishing could be done with sales directly from theCBG.org with partial payments towards hosting costs, etc.

Just an idea.

GP

@ the whole 'things that GMs can use' idea.

It's always bugged me that there's no quality place to find a bunch of different setting blocks, as it were. While building your setting's cities from the ground up is always cooler and more preferable, it's annoying when I've got a campaign the next morning, the PCs are heading for a city that I wasn't expecting them to get to for another month, and I'm also out of ideas.

I think that a section that's simply a repository of 'stripped' campaign elements (specific setting elements stripped or tempered to be more setting neutral) for DMs to pull, such as cities, dungeons, regions, landmarks, entire nations even, would be a good... pull. If we wanted to be more evil about it, we could have each setting's stripped pieces accessible via a password, which can be given out like badges.

Ooh, a place for badges would be cool, one that's on the sidebar instead of in the signatures. Integrate them into the site, morelike.