thread: 2005-12-03 : I Cop to Hyperbole
On 2005-12-05, John Kim wrote:
The numbers speak pretty clearly: People who made those fora their home are not the Forge's intended audience.
I think you have an odd reading of the statistics here. Of the designers, RPG Theory is often an extremely popular forum. So, for example, Ron's most frequently posted forum after Adept Press is RPG Theory. The same is true for Vincent, Ralph, Emily, Ben, and Alexander. In fact, Actual Play seems less popular with designers than RPG Theory is—let alone smaller forums like Connections and so forth.
If we don't want people without commercial designs posting on the Forge, then I think it should simply be an openly stated policy rather than trying to indirectly discourage them by shuffling around the boards.
Speaking as a wonk, I happen to think that there actually isn't a major lack of number of RPGs published in the world. There are hundreds of both commercial and free systems out there, and dozens of new ones appear every year. Thus, I've never made it a big priority to put out my own commercial work. Where the Forge has made a difference isn't in the number of systems published, but rather in the critical thought that has gone into them. We wonks play, question, and I think improve the games which are written by our feedback and support. The ideas which appear in RPG Theory and GNS also drive designs—like how fellow wonk Chris Lehrich's ritual essay gave inspiration to Ben Lehman's Polaris.
This makes CS go "Amen."
This makes BL go "Polaris?"
Is there an RPG theory thread that inspired the game? If there is, I've totally forgotten it. The core inspirations are:
- My own neurosis
- The "adventures in..." AP posts
- Vincent's pre-blog (roleplaying theory, hardcore).
This makes SF go "Polaris inspirations link?"
I'd love to see one -- to the "adventures in..." Actual Play, that is. We know where Vincent's stuff is, and I presume Ben's neurosis is not on-line.
