Having a Forum for My Independant Game on this Site

[Tom Tom]

I see that this website has a section of forums dedicated to independant games. I've written a game which is 3-4 weeks away from being written up onto a website; how do i get my own forum in the independant games section here?

I'm posting the rules on the game site's web pages and also compiling a .pdf at the same time. Though i've not finished doing that yet, there's still alot to see and read on there and i'd like to try and generate some interest for my game a few weeks before it's posted in it's entirety and the .pdf's. ready for download.

Please help. Thanks.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Tomas,

The basic process is easy: you ask me, and I say yes or no. The requirements for "yes" are that you really have at least one game available, and that it's independently published. So you're already most of the way simply by making your post. I do have a couple of words of advice, based on my long experience here.

1. If you have a forum here, the only person who's going to make it work well is you. I suggest thinking of it as an on-line magazine or letters page, and you're the one who sets the tone and encourages topics of interest. Without such a presence on your part, if you simply set up the forum and hope it does something helpful somehow, then it won't. So your forum should have an explicit goal of some kind - a reason for existing that someone can understand when they arrive.

2. You should establish, or help to establish, some internet identity for your game before starting the forum. That means that it should already have some supporters who will be willing to congregate at your forum, and that when the title is mentioned in one of the active RPG websites, at least a few people should recognize it. For the Forge, I suggest posting about it in Playtesting (to talk about experiences during the game's development) and in Actual Play (for experiences with the game in its final form). In fact, if the game doesn't have this sort of identity, then opening the forum too soon will be counterproductive.

I am not saying that you have to do any of these things in order to have the forum. But I am saying that many people have not gained any benefits from having a forum here, and those are the reasons.

If you have other questions, then you can ask them here, or if you'd prefer that it be a private discussion, then email me at sorcerer@sorcerer-rpg.com.

Best, Ron

[Tom Tom]

Thanks for the reply Ron. At the moment my game is in the final stages of being posted onto it's own website. I've only told a few friends about it so it hasn't gone public yet. I'm now starting to try and mention it to players around the net and this is the first place i've come to do it, as this site seems perfect for the indie writer.

My game is about 3-4 weeks away from completion but it may need some fine tuning after that though. My plan is to have the rules on the website itself and the .pdf available to download for players initially and then when/if any bugs have been ironed out, i'm going to turn it into a proper book. Leisure games in London are looking at my site at the moment to decide if they would like to stock a proper book based on the work i've done so far.

You may as well take a look yourself:

www.maleficarum.weebly.com

After looking at it, let me know if you think i should set up the forum section now to try and generate interest, or hold fire until it's completed.

[Tom Tom]

Ron, i've made it easier for yourself and others to see my game now as i've now got a sister website to my original one purely dedicated to the formatting of the book. This site contains what will be the work in it's final form, taking into account changes after proof reading. It even contains the public domain pictures i want to put in the book and my colour campaign map i've been altering with windows paint.

Go to www.maleficarumbook.weebly.com for the formatted version of my game and go to www.weebly.com for the site with all the extra pictures.

thanks.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Tomas,

I'm in Sweden at the moment, and not on-line very much. I can't take the time to look at the material for another week or so, for which I apologize. This is to let you know I haven't forgotten you and will return to the thread.

Best, Ron

[Tom Tom]

no probs. just take a look when you've got time.

www.maleficarum.weebly.com (rules in webpage format)
www.maleficarumbook.weebly.com (rules as they will appear in the printed book and .pdf)

[davidvs]

Best of luck, Tomas!

In case it helps, I just blogged about the places I know to share a new RPG.  Perhaps these places will be of help to you.  If you know of others, please let me know!
http://davidvs.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-diceless-rpg-goes-public.html

[Tom Tom]

thanks david. leisure games in london have seen my sites and they say they like the quality of my work and will stock the game when it's in print in a few weeks time.

i've also just commisioned a professional cartographer to do me a campaign map which won't be on my site for a couple of weeks though i'd guess.

[Tom Tom]

i looked at your new storytelling rpg. very interesting, i've never played a game of that type before.

[M. J. Young]

Tomas, Ron suggested getting some attention to your game before it appears here.  Let me suggest that one way to do that is to write articles for role playing game web sites.  Most of them have information posted on them concerning what they require and expect and how to go about writing for them.

The advantage is that it gives you some personal visibility and credibility in the gaming community, as well as exposing your game.  If you can say, "I faced this problem when working on Malificarum, and this is how I resolved it," without making it sound like "Here is a plug for my game," you can get the name out there without sounding like you're posting promotional ads on a lot of sites.

Also, I realized as I was writing this that I had to pull the name of the game out of the string that is the URL--you never used it.  Don't be afraid to use the name of your game; you want people to recognize it when they hear it and be able to recall it to mention it.

I know that RPGnet is always looking for good articles, and although Gaming Outpost's traffic is way down they make posting articles fairly easy.  Places to Go, People to Be has a reputation for a higher standard, and you'll have to contact their editorial staff to discuss what they might be able to use (and it's a considerably longer process time-wise), but they also translate the best of their material into their French publication as well, which gives you wider exposure.

I hope this helps.

--M. J. Young

[Tom Tom]

"Also, I realized as I was writing this that I had to pull the name of the game out of the string that is the URL--you never used it.  Don't be afraid to use the name of your game; you want people to recognize it when they hear it and be able to recall it to mention it."

could you explain what this means please? i don't know anything about computer language or programming.

[Tom Tom]

ron, just letting you know that you won't be able to access my site from those links anymore. things have changed in the past week as my game has been accepted for sale at a couple of major rpg outlets but i still would like my own forum here.

if you want to see my work first, then let me know and i'll let you look at my game privately.

[greyorm]

could you explain what this means please? i don't know anything about computer language or programming.

All MJ means is that you never said the name of your game (and that he deduced it from the URL you provided). The important bit isn't about strings or URLs or computers or whatever; the point was you never actually said the name of your game in your posts, and you should.

[Tom Tom]

i see now.

i just assumed that when i left the links to my sites that people would logically assume that that's what my game would be called as well. i'll make sure i clarify in future the name of my game in my post text and not just in the links.

thanks for explaining that.