The State of the CBG: An open invitation to your comments

[Weave]

I'm not sure the calendar game-time listings would be of much use to regular players in those games (who tend to know when the sessions are held), but they'd be great for people who just want to drop in and watch an IRC game here and there, or for people looking for a game to join in on. I think it's a great idea to organize that information in a more browsing-friendly way.

I, personally, would love to see something like this.

[Lmns Crn]

Hopefully the IRC link on the main page will go far to encourage people to casually participate in IRC games run in this community, even if it's just to drop in now and then to watch and cheer along.

[Numinous]

Halfway through the thread at the moment, but wanted to post this comment before I forgot it.

I would really like to have a 'like' button on each post. There's a lot of the time when I look around and I think 'that was a really cool idea!' but I either don't have the time to reply or I can't think of anything constructive to say. A Like Button would at least show the author people ARE reading your work and liking it, even if they don't respond.

Interesting idea, what are people's thoughts on this?

 Depends on the implementation. Would a 'liked' thread display the user name of all the people who liked it? I suppose that's useful.

Conceptart.org uses this.  This picture shows how it works.  I support it.

[Mason]

Could we make the home/front page a little snazzier?

Its alot of greys/blues...maybe a new THECBG 'creating campaigns' logo?

Hell, that could be your first contest Nomadic: Design the new logo.

[LordVreeg]

Hopefully the IRC link on the main page will go far to encourage people to casually participate in IRC games run in this community, even if it's just to drop in now and then to watch and cheer along.

Umm.  Great.  I guess an arena-like atmosphere would be interesting for some of these games.  We HAVE had some pretty spectacular deaths.
I won't be asking thumbs up or down, though...

[Lmns Crn]

"We who are about to dice, salute you!"

[SDragon]

Can we re-instate the Setting Showcase?

This would be cool, but I'm not sure how feasible it would be for long-term. The problem this had was that it required work from pretty much the entire community.

If we get enough new ideas in this thread, I suggest we work first on the ones that can be coded right into the site, then the ones that only need one admin, and then we can start working on things that require effort from the community-at-large.

[Ninja D!]

I'm really with Stargate525 on the idea of having at least a section of ready-made parts. Were this something that the community wanted, I would gladly contribute to it fairly regularly and it would probably get more a little more active in the community despite my ADD personality / way of life. I think that something along those lines could also easily be included in a revival of the magazine (something that I would think shouldn't be done any more than quarterly, possibly twice a year). Assembling this sort of thing through ongoing contests would also be a wonderful idea, especially since everyone seems to want more of those. Maybe more of a focus on contests with bite-sized parts could really solve that problem. Breaking settings up into parts that can be commented in individually would also serve that purpose and help make this site more active, I think. One of the reasons I don't post as often as I would like is that by the time I get to a thread, the overall content is usually overwhelming.

I like the idea of being able to quickly rate something without typing out a full response. It's less valuable but can still be encouraging because at least you know someone is reading. I really like the way ENworld has this implemented, where you give people XP and they gradually gain levels. I also feel that if something like this were to be added to the site, it should be on posts, not threads. That really seems like it would say more. Even, as ENworld has it, being able to include a small comment that would go on the post would be nice, even ideal. Phrase it as thanking or whatever if that makes people feel better. I think the general idea is the same.

Tags on posts would also be a great idea, which I feel would work well with the above or even go to serve the same purpose.

What would people want from a contest? I could maybe run a couple, if it doesn't require too terribly much from me.

On a side note : I step out for a while to play some video games and this site gets turned upside down. The CBG never gets old.

[Elemental_Elf]

This may or may not be possible... But is there any way we can re-order the smileys so all the really common green ones appear at the top of the list? Also, can we add more smileys?

[SDragon]

This may or may not be possible... But is there any way we can re-order the smileys so all the really common green ones appear at the top of the list? Also, can we add more smileys?

We used to have a ton more smileys. It might be cool if we could get those back.

[LD]

For the unregistered people, on the first page there's a rather long introduction to the site. It's sort of outdated and I remember starting to read it many times, but giving up when it started repeating itself.

I also don't like how it pushes the recent threads section down on the screen. That section is probably our best advertising point.

Could that be shortened into 2 sentences maybe?

Current:
[ooc]Welcome!

Welcome to the Campaign Builders' Guild. The original ideas of the CBG were founded by Xeviat-DM at the Wizards of the Coast Message Boards, and expanded upon over the course of several months to become the thriving community you see now. There is one sole purpose for this guild, this site, and these forums: to help with the creation of GM-created, homebrew campaigns. In an RPG market where there are literally hundreds of published worlds - some good, some not - it is difficult for GMs to choose a world to adventure in. Often times, they will begin work on their own, personal campaign, sometimes inspired directly by pre-existing campaigns, and sometimes inspired by nothing more than the memory of playing outside in the creek when younger. This site is to help mold those ideas, to shape those themes, and to inspire in even greater detail the creation of complete worlds and campaigns to play RPGs in. Come in, join the guild, join the conversation, have a great time! Please submit all site-concerns to "The Cogs" forum, and please introduce yourself in the Rogue's Gallery once you're registered

Cheers!
-Ishmayl[/ooc]

Suggestion
[ooc]
Welcome to the Campaign Builders' Guild (CBG). The CBG was founded in 2006 by Xeviat-DM at the Wizards of the Coast Message Boards and it migrated here under the leadership and ownership of Ishmayl until 2010, when noble Nomadic took over.

This guild's purpose is to help with the creation of GM-created, homebrew worlds and campaigns. This site is to help mold your ideas, present them for review, to shape themes, and to inspire in even greater detail the creation of complete worlds and campaigns in which to play RPGs.

Come join the conversation.
 
Cheers!
-Nomadic[/ooc]

Or even...since no guests probably care who owns the site.
[ooc]
Welcome to the Campaign Builders' Guild (CBG). This guild's purpose is to help with the creation of GM-created, homebrew worlds and campaigns. This site is to help mold your ideas, present them for review, to shape themes, and to inspire in even greater detail the creation of complete worlds and campaigns in which to play RPGs.

Come join the conversation.
 
-Nomadic[/ooc]

[Elemental_Elf]

[ooc]Welcome!

There is one sole purpose for this guild, this site, and these forums: to help with the creation of GM-created, homebrew campaigns. In an RPG market where there are literally hundreds of published worlds - some good, some not - it is difficult for GMs to choose a world to adventure in. Ofttimes, they will begin work on their own, personal campaign, sometimes inspired directly by pre-existing campaigns, and sometimes inspired by nothing more than the memory of playing outside in the creek when younger. This site is to help mold those ideas, to shape those themes, and to inspire in even greater detail the creation of complete worlds and campaigns to play RPGs in. Come in, join the guild, join the conversation, have a great time!

Cheers!
-Ishmayl[/ooc]

Eliminated the history since its not necessary for new members to know and the last sentence about where to post site concerns.

[ooc]Welcome to the Campaign Builders' Guild (CBG). This guild's purpose is to help with the creation of GM-created, homebrew worlds and campaigns. This site is to help mold your ideas, present them for review, to shape themes, and to inspire in even greater detail the creation of complete worlds and campaigns in which to play RPGs.

Come join the conversation.
 
-Nomadic[/ooc]

I like that one!

[LD]

Also, less important, but a revision of What is the CBG may be in order. It's a wall of text right now.

[ooc]The Campaign Builders' Guild is your one-stop source for information and communities centered around building and creating homebrew campaign settings, adventures, and worlds for role playing games. World building and campaign building is a craft and an art, to use the words of Raelifin, and goes far beyond just simply creating locales, NPCs, and adventure locations. These things must connect to each other in some sort of fundamental way. At the Campaign Builders' Guild, we will help you achieve a mastery of this art, either through reviewing your campaign setting, critiquing your adventure, or simply basking in the wonder of your campaign world. Go to the forums and ask for help for that new kingdom you're building, and ask for advice on the new magic system you're creating. And while you're here, please ponder others' works of art. Write your own reviews on someone else's setting, and play an adventure RPG in a new campaign world. You can't go wrong.[/ooc]

To (adding paragraphs and cutting out self-referential things to posters who sadly :( no longer post here, since newbies have no idea who they are).
[ooc]
The Campaign Builders' Guild is your one-stop source for information and communities centered around building and creating homebrew campaign settings, adventures, and worlds for role playing games.

Building worlds and campaigns is a craft and an art, and it goes far beyond just creating locales, NPCs, and adventure locations. These things must connect to each other in a fundamental way.

At the Campaign Builders' Guild, we will help you achieve a mastery of this art.

Whether you're asking for help, or posting your own ideas to the forum or the wiki, or writing reviews, or playing an adventure RPG on IRC, you can't go wrong.[/ooc]

[LD]

Hm. One last thought for now:


Since the Setting Showcase is inactive, can we move it below the POLLS (which are active) on the left side bar?

Also, we could move the FANTASEUM section below the Polls too... Fantaseum is nice, but it might be better to make things to do on this site more visible than other sites people may want to go to?

[LD]

Although I have another idea...

If we are not above self-promotion on other forums and if Xeviat and/or Gamer Printshop and/or Nomadic offer the prizes for donating to the CBG that they did in the past - of something like a map of a campaign setting, a dice bag, or something that for them is easy to make but which is a grand reward for those who receive...

Host a BIG contest, like the RPG superstar.

I'd be willing to work on some of the organization work, but we'd need many evangelists to advertise the contest.

The contest would be a variety on Paizo's RPG Superstar. We could call it "Campaign Superstar" or "World-Builder Superstar" and it would have a set word limit... 5,000 words? And it would have perhaps only one round, but potentially 3 rounds that focus on the gradual development of a campaign world.

All the submissions would be public and anyone can receive feedback while making them. But there would be a deadline-- like some of the great contests on the WoTC had deadlines for "design a villain" etc. contests that generally received 20-30 submissions, or like how on the OOTS forums they often have "design a monster" competitions.

If I were to outline the idea, it would work generally like this:

CAMPAIGN BUILDER SUPERSTAR
-Round 1: Design a Setting that Will Blow us Out of the Water
Requirements:
1.Core ethos written
2.Maximum 5,000 words
3.May reuse an old setting you previously used, but must repost it in the campaign area and otherwise comply with the requirements.
4.List of inspirations for your setting (does not count towards the 5K word limit; has a 200 word limit)

ROUND 2:
Design thematic concepts for monsters in your setting.
Must meet the following requirements
-a
-b
-c

ROUND 3:
Design 1-10 adventures for your setting.
-word limit: 2000 words total for all the adventures. Structure them however you like.
-Adventures must be something that a party of players could feasibly individually finish in 4-8 hours each.

Ultimate Prize: Map of your setting?, We'll run the game in IRC.

---
Our goals: Attract new people to look at the site and stick around. And they'll actually receive a decent prize. I'm sure that some Cartographers will spill over, since it also would be good bragging rights, etc.

Alternatively, to make the "entrance cost" lower... it might be best to start with round 2 first or at least a scaled down round 1 that doesn't require a huge time investment. There's a lot to think about here.

As for judges- best case scenario is 2 people from the CBG + one person from the Industry who is famous enough to attract page clicks & views. Each round we give feedback.