The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: Stargate525@ 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.

That's actually one idea I have for contests where people will build something small like a village or a character or such. All the submissions will then be set up as drop in micro-modules for settings.

A few suggestions:
1. More integration between the forums and the wiki. It is difficult to notice what is going on in the wiki; I mostly use the forum and some people refrain from posting their material there. A "what's new on the wiki/what do people need wiki comments on" would be nice. Or perhaps just encourage people to make forum discussion pages for wiki settings?

2. Implement something akin to LC's recent megathread. This was one of the "you look at my setting I look at yours" threads and it actually worked quite well. I think the real issue with it is that it drowned in other posts. Most people only really keep track of the recent posts page because we are a relatively small community. Maybe if we put a big box/link on the front page with constant and easy access to threads such as the megathread they would not be so easily forgotten and continue to operate.

3. Make it easier to sign up. As previously mentioned, somebody needs to actively accept new members. Either make this automatic or rely solely on a captcha to scare away spambots. It's just too much trouble that you can't sign up quick and fast. I have tried getting one of my friends on the board for a long while, but his computer and user account continually puts a stop to his efforts.

4. Make settings more readily accessible. Much of the threads are work in progress etc. I think we need to show new users that we actually make some things. Put a spotlight on Celtricia, Cadaverous Earth and other complete or almost complete settings to draw new users in. then we can introduce them to the messy construction yard. Perhaps we could have dedicated pages to complete settings or simply a centralized page with links to sprawling wiki adaptations.

5. Redo the search engine so that if I make a search on the front page it automatically assumes I mean the forum. It's not often I (or anyone) need to search the News, and it's a bit troublesome to click through to the forum and then search.  

6. I'm not so sure about whether we should market ourselves as creators of generic npc's and towns to insert into people's campaigns. I see this as more of a creative community, not a plug-and-play community. GM's should come here because they enjoy working on their own setting and want some feedback and inspiration, or perhaps a finished setting that appeals to them, but not just bits and pieces.  

Quote from: Conundrum CrowA few suggestions:
1. More integration between the forums and the wiki. It is difficult to notice what is going on in the wiki; I mostly use the forum and some people refrain from posting their material there. A "what's new on the wiki/what do people need wiki comments on" would be nice. Or perhaps just encourage people to make forum discussion pages for wiki settings?  

Definitely this one.

At one point there was talk about each member getting some kind of integrated section for their setting. So you'd be able to browse a list of settings, and get the details, discussion boards, etc. all in one place. I don't know exactly what Ishy had in mind, and this was a while back, but it sounded like something really good for us.

Build Worlds and games,
Play in Worlds and Games,
Get feedback and plug 'n' play for your Worlds and Games.

Join the Fortitudinal Testudinal community.  You  have nothing to Fear But Fear itself, and nothing to lose but your mental hymen.

Quote from: LordVreeg the UnsleepingBuild Worlds and games,
Play in Worlds and Games,
Get feedback and plug 'n' play for your Worlds and Games.

Join the Fortitudinal Testudinal community.  You  have nothing to Fear But Fear itself, and nothing to lose but your mental hymen.

I'm scared now.  :(

Hi.
I just noticed the IRC tab and mibbit was added- that's great. It automatically connects to the otherworlders server.

Next on the agenda, I think, should maybe be looking at registration-- both the
1. Autoapproval
and the
2. Ability to respond to a thread when not registered (the post reply button will take you to a REGISTER NOW page).(If you don't understand what I'm talking about, try to log out and then go into a thread- note what buttons are missing).

Then
3. Allow posters to have news reporting function maybe? Can you just enable that and not give them thread admin rights. I'm pretty sure that with most forum software you can. I'd suggest allowing limetom to post the news, and whoever becomes a constant who runs contests.
--
Another idea-
I think the calendar we have is good in concept, but I also think that people don't use calendars. But we need somewhere to easily see where games are going on IRC and for which setting...

I'd suggest maybe Just having a small feed in the place where the calendar was where news posters can place details like-->

Cadaverous Earth (LINKED) Wed 3PM EST - 7PM EST
(with a link to the thread for the game).

And the header for the section would be "IRC Games"

The only difficulty would be keeping the thing updated if the game creators can't update the calendar themselves; if the only people who can update it are the news editors, that's an improvement over just having Nomadic update it, but still not ideal.

>>6. I'm not so sure about whether we should market ourselves as creators of generic npc's and towns to insert into people's campaigns. I see this as more of a creative community, not a plug-and-play community. GM's should come here because they enjoy working on their own setting and want some feedback and inspiration, or perhaps a finished setting that appeals to them, but not just bits and pieces.


I support crow on this. I think Obsidian Portal and a few 'megathreads' on some of the other forums do this. Now, I don't think that it would hurt to have these places, but I also don't think that it should be a focus. It's not our core competency and it wouldn't be unique for us to have it.

People would probably be concerned regarding the quality of the generics, regrettably.

Accomplishing the generic village, etc. information seems best done through the ongoing contests we have had- like the "design a festival" contest and others.

Making a dynamic page on the website front tabs that lists the old contest threads might be a good idea in that case-- people could see in one place where the contests (and 'generic NPCs etc' are... Like it would be a dynamic feed linked only to the recent threads in contests... Now, this may require more management of the contests section; moving threads that have nothing to do with contest.

I dunno- it's not something I see as a huge goal, but that's one possible way I see to maybe make it work.

Quote from: Conundrum Crow6. I'm not so sure about whether we should market ourselves as creators of generic npc's and towns to insert into people's campaigns. I see this as more of a creative community, not a plug-and-play community. GM's should come here because they enjoy working on their own setting and want some feedback and inspiration, or perhaps a finished setting that appeals to them, but not just bits and pieces.  

I wasn't really saying that we should market it, but it would do a lot to help retain people if there is some sort of immediately useful aspect in the site somewhere, organized and easy to find. I'm pointing out that there is a lack of free plug-n-play stuff, and we could do something to fill that niche without turning from the main mission of the site.

Quote from: Light Dragon>>6. I'm not so sure about whether we should market ourselves as creators of generic npc's and towns to insert into people's campaigns. I see this as more of a creative community, not a plug-and-play community. GM's should come here because they enjoy working on their own setting and want some feedback and inspiration, or perhaps a finished setting that appeals to them, but not just bits and pieces.


I support crow on this. I think Obsidian Portal and a few 'megathreads' on some of the other forums do this. Now, I don't think that it would hurt to have these places, but I also don't think that it should be a focus. It's not our core competency and it wouldn't be unique for us to have it.

Ditto. The whole reason I came to this place to begin with was for its specific focus on world-building. I'm not sure if marketing ourselves differently, as a generic GM outpost, would be something I'm comfortable with (not that my comfort matters), and though it's always nice to see the Guild expand in members, I wonder if switching its focus so radically would sacrifice its mission.

Quote from: CC3. Make it easier to sign up. As previously mentioned, somebody needs to actively accept new members. Either make this automatic or rely solely on a captcha to scare away spambots. It's just too much trouble that you can't sign up quick and fast. I have tried getting one of my friends on the board for a long while, but his computer and user account continually puts a stop to his efforts.

still[/i] getting spammed like crazy. It sucks that the place has to be locked up like Fort Knox, but it's the only real way to protect the site and the users from malicious attacks.

Oh, and just a point of note- for people who are not registered- they dont' see the following tabs: WIKI, IRC, DONATE.

I'm not sure how an unregistered user would even find the wiki.

Quote from: Light DragonOh, and just a point of note- for people who are not registered- they dont' see the following tabs: WIKI, IRC, DONATE.

I'm not sure how an unregistered user would even find the wiki.

For security reasons, I don't think any of these should change.

EDIT: On second thought, I just don't know if any unregistered users would need to enter the IRC, I'm skeptical about their need to access the Wiki, and I know they likely won't donate.

Quote from: Elven Doritos

Quote from: Light DragonOh, and just a point of note- for people who are not registered- they dont' see the following tabs: WIKI, IRC, DONATE.

I'm not sure how an unregistered user would even find the wiki.

For security reasons, I don't think any of these should change.

EDIT: On second thought, I just don't know if any unregistered users would need to enter the IRC, I'm skeptical about their need to access the Wiki, and I know they likely won't donate.

Whether or not they're likely to donate, I'm not really sure what security issue might arise from allowing strangers to give us money. I mean, I don't really care one way or another, I'm just saying.

Quote from: Rorschach Fritos

Quote from: Elven Doritos

Quote from: Light DragonOh, and just a point of note- for people who are not registered- they dont' see the following tabs: WIKI, IRC, DONATE.

I'm not sure how an unregistered user would even find the wiki.

For security reasons, I don't think any of these should change.

EDIT: On second thought, I just don't know if any unregistered users would need to enter the IRC, I'm skeptical about their need to access the Wiki, and I know they likely won't donate.

Whether or not they're likely to donate, I'm not really sure what security issue might arise from allowing strangers to give us money. I mean, I don't really care one way or another, I'm just saying.

Hence the edit.

You cannot very well show off your campaign creations if people who aren't registered can't see or easily access the wiki. The wiki link NEEDS to be there.

While an argument can be made for keeping people out of easily accessing the IRC due to security issues; something has to give- either it needs to be easier to register or the IRC needs to be open to others to ENCOURAGE them to want to register and to join games.

You can't get people joining games if they don't know that they exist or they can't get to them easily.

Quote from: Elven DoritosDitto. The whole reason I came to this place to begin with was for its specific focus on world-building. I'm not sure if marketing ourselves differently, as a generic GM outpost, would be something I'm comfortable with (not that my comfort matters), and though it's always nice to see the Guild expand in members, I wonder if switching its focus so radically would sacrifice its mission.

Rawr. I was not implying that we re-brand ourselves. I'm just saying that if our focus is campaign and world-building, there is a lack of things here that GMs and players (who might not be actively building, but are interested in the result) can actually use quickly, or things that play well with other settings. It's awesome that a lot of the settings are tight and interwoven, but I think it hurts us in some way that we don't have any settings or setting peices that someone can take and use without having to also give out a fifty-page induction manual.

It's like a site that's a community of writers, but has no character studies, writing prompts, or plot examples (obviously not the best comparison, but servicable, I think).

EDIT: Also, what happened to the store?