D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Mar 5, 2014 8:48:01 GMT -8
OP needs to built similar to some aspects of Roll20 - navigation needs to be more intuitive and campaign forum sub section should load a standard forum style interface (why reinvent the wheel - forums work well as process of design evolution then you get the OP forum and basically 'WTF"). Character sections should be more than just a block of text: a customised form, with titled subsections, would be better - for a start I'd move PC/GM secrets to the TOP so they can be seen more easily. The whole lot needs more unifying - changes in one sub section should automatically update similar references in others. maxinstuff - get coding . . . Aaron Dancing Dwarf Nickel Swimming Campaign Management ? I'd back that. I'd love to see how some of the really shiny campaigns use their OP pages for player/GM interaction; because its certainly clunky for me. The kickstarter brought in $83k which sounds nice but I'm sure for IT people its a weeks salary of nickels. I just appreciate the shininess of the thing. Makes me feel like I'm engaging in a legit activity and not scrounging around in back alleys somewhere managing my campaign porthole...Like I said before I use it for all my games, but it ain't perfect but to squeatus's OP...I don't think there's a current better option for campaign management. Finding games though ? Use roll20.
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Post by henryhankovitch on Mar 10, 2014 17:29:54 GMT -8
Originally, the free version included a comments board for each campaign, separate from the campaign fora (which required the subscription). My group always used the comments board for basic discussion and group communications, particularly for game scheduling. With that feature removed, the free version has basically no usefulness to the group as a community portal. Before, Obsidian Portal was basically a combination of a tools that you could find for free elsewhere, bundled somewhat conveniently under a single banner. Now they've put enough of those features behind the paywall that you may as well just set up a personal Proboards forum or whatever instead.
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Post by Houndin on Mar 11, 2014 7:11:45 GMT -8
I have used Epic Words in the past. I liked how it allows for players to blog in character as well as has forums for discussions, and a wiki. I think the only feature that's not free is file storage, but I could be mistaken. One of the nice things is that the Wiki does phrase recognition and automatically cross links resources and NPCs without the need for the fiddly bits of most wikis. Oh, and GURPS is one of the listed systems.
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Post by squeatus on Mar 11, 2014 9:18:54 GMT -8
I have used Epic Words in the past. I liked how it allows for players to blog in character as well as has forums for discussions, and a wiki. I think the only feature that's not free is file storage, but I could be mistaken. One of the nice things is that the Wiki does phrase recognition and automatically cross links resources and NPCs without the need for the fiddly bits of most wikis. Oh, and GURPS is one of the listed systems. I think I may have seen this a few years ago, but forgot about it entirely. Nice with the GURPS support, too. Only sadness here is that while the developer seems to have returned from a long absence, it seems like almost all of the development activity ended around 2010. :/
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Post by Arcona on Mar 24, 2014 5:41:06 GMT -8
Are you looking for online/remote games only or would Play by Post interest you?
There are 2 boards that do a lot of playbypost (Giantitp and Mythweavers) and from time to time games online or via skype are also advertised although I dont know how successful they are and if they end up sticking.
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Post by squeatus on Mar 24, 2014 14:10:24 GMT -8
Are you looking for online/remote games only or would Play by Post interest you? There are 2 boards that do a lot of playbypost (Giantitp and Mythweavers) and from time to time games online or via skype are also advertised although I dont know how successful they are and if they end up sticking. OMG I forgot about both of those entirely. It's been a really long time since I looked into pbp games, although I think due to schedule wonkiness I'd almost prefer that for now. As for online/remote games I'd almost prefer to save that stuff for gaming with friends. They'd be more likely to understand my frequent absences (on call) where I'd just be punishing a random group of online gamers. I'll have to check into those resources again for sure.
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Post by Arcona on Mar 25, 2014 0:25:11 GMT -8
Its some times hard to get good games running in PbP and there is always some disappointment when the game dies or the DM gets bored etc... but there are some gems. There are games in both boards above that have actually run for years with occasional player changes as people dropped...
If you can stomach the slow posting rate and the fact that combats might take a week or two to resolve in a PbP then it is a nice escape.
I also find it helps with my descriptions and ideas when it comes to normal TT/remote gaming because in PbP you MUST describe things nicely and you do get to roleplay a lot (or you know, you end up in another combat that takes 2-3 weeks to resolve!)
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Mar 25, 2014 7:39:44 GMT -8
I think this is the main reason that I create actual plays. It helps keep me from being a lazy DM and fall into "I hit/you hit/we miss" that isn't fun for anybody. Especially me when I go back and listen to 'em. Our Pathfinder game last night with the mighty heroes battling rust monsters and mummies in a tomb felt delightfully old school. Yet I found myself describing in detail how a rust monsters feathery antennas would gently caress the paladins shield and armor as they rapidly decayed. Games are just better if we as GMs take the time to make each combat/fight/conflict evocative. I often do session recaps in my Obsidian Portal page (bringing it back! to the OP) and I try to incorporate some play by post strategy there. Expand character dialogues, provide more in depth descriptions, and just bring more depth to the game that is difficult to do in a 3 hour session.
But its nice to have the game make steps to make fights more interesting. Which is why I do appreciate systems that lend themselves to hit locations/critical effects to constantly provide a source of keeping fights visceral. (i.e. warhammer)
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bevinflannery
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 109
Currently Playing: Pathfinder, Savage Worlds
Currently Running: Pathfinder/3.5, FATE Core
Favorite Species of Monkey: It's an ape, not a monkey.
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Post by bevinflannery on Mar 25, 2014 17:19:00 GMT -8
Are you looking for online/remote games only or would Play by Post interest you? There are 2 boards that do a lot of playbypost (Giantitp and Mythweavers) and from time to time games online or via skype are also advertised although I dont know how successful they are and if they end up sticking. I also highly recommend rpol.net I've been running a pbp campaign there for 4+ years, and there are lots of other long-running games -- using every system imaginable, or none at all -- there.
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saithan
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 6
Preferred Game Systems: GURPS
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Post by saithan on Apr 4, 2014 21:16:54 GMT -8
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