How (and why) did the CBG start?

[Darkxarth]

Yes, I know it sort of began in a thread on the Wizards of the Coast forums, but how did it even start there?  And why was it started as its own individual website?  Those of you who've been around since the beginning of this particular site, how has our community evolved from its conception to now?

[Elven Doritos]

Very good questions. I'm going to let Ishmayl and Xeviat answer these, hopefully they'll see it.

(But c'mon, we know it's all about the ElDo. I kiiiid!)

[Túrin]

I asked Xeviat how and why he got the idea to start the CBG when I interviewed him for CBGuide #2, so you can read his answer there.

The idea to start a separate forum was developed fairly early on and was speeded up greatly because Ishmayl actually set one up.

The first separate site was a subsection of Ishy's homepage. Back then, Ishmayl, Natural 20, myself and a couple others posted occasionally but the board was flooded by posts from the so-called Triumvirate: Cymro, Eldo and Kalos Mer.

After some time, we moved to our current site, which opened up great possibilities for expanding.

That's the story in a nutshell, though I bet others will have their own take on it and will highlight some other interesting tidbits.

Túrin

[SDragon]

I asked Xeviat how and why he got the idea to start the CBG when I interviewed him for CBGuide #2, so you can read his answer there.

The idea to start a separate forum was developed fairly early on and was speeded up greatly because Ishmayl actually set one up.

The first separate site was a subsection of Ishy's homepage. Back then, Ishmayl, Natural 20, myself and a couple others posted occasionally but the board was flooded by posts from the so-called Triumvirate: Cymro, Eldo and Kalos Mer.

After some time, we moved to our current site, which opened up great possibilities for expanding.

That's the story in a nutshell, though I bet others will have their own take on it and will highlight some other interesting tidbits.

Túrin

I remember the Shadowfell boards....

Whoa, how long ago was that?

[Elven Doritos]

I remember the Shadowfell boards....

Whoa, how long ago was that?

Well over a year ago.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

I started the Shadowfell boards in December of '05 I believe, then we transfered to these boards last March.

The reason everything began?  Because we were sick and tired of the only responses we were getting on our campaign threads at WotC being something like, "Yeah, that sounds good, keep it up."  As nice and complimentary as that is, it's truly not all that helpful ;)

[Elven Doritos]

I'd also suggest reading the first post over at the WotC thread; Xeviat's original intentions are clearly laid out. It was a wonderful groundwork to build up from.

[SDragon]

I started the Shadowfell boards in December of '05 I believe, then we transfered to these boards last March.

The reason everything began?  Because we were sick and tired of the only responses we were getting on our campaign threads at WotC being something like, "Yeah, that sounds good, keep it up."  As nice and complimentary as that is, it's truly not all that helpful ;)

Either that or, we were tired of not getting any comments whatsoever. One of the main complaints early on was that WotC seemed very unfriendly in nature, especially to such a specific demographic as "worldbuilders" (remember, WotC caters to the "general D&D gamer" demographic).

Once the Shadowfell boards were up, we could create a place that not only catered specifically to worldbuilders (many forums discussing various aspects of worldbuilding, as opposed to one forum for worlds), but also had a CoC that encouraged friendly, civil behavior early on. Where WotC might make a rude remark about a typo, we make fully statted creatures, and everybody (even the one that made the typo) gets a good chuckle out of it.

[Darkxarth]

So, the CBG was created so that worldbuilders could have their own personal community where they could have specific support from other worldbuilders, which they weren't getting at WotC.  That's what I thought, but I felt the need to make sure there wasn't something I had missed.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Sounds about right :)