Hey everyone,

There've been a lot of new people here the past couple of months, and I'm getting really curious how people are discovering the site. How did you discover The Forge?

Was it a link from another site? What site? Was it a web search? What were you searching on? Word of mouth? The flyer at GenCon?

Personally, it was an announcement about the site that Clinton posted to Gaming Outpost that brought me here.

What about you?

Paul

Blame Jared.

I was pretty bummed about the GO switch & had resigned myself to posting only on RPGnet. And then I was bopping around Memento-Mori & saw that Jared had a new forum. I clicked on it, & low & behold, there was a whole slew of fora on the Forge!

Well, I'm not particularly new (13th registered- which is particularly interesting because I was born on the 13th(a friday), discovered RPGs when I was 13(though I had invented them before that), and find the number 13 generally popping up in my life at least as much as 5 and 42) nor do I post a lot (preferring to lurk until I get an actual game group up and going and maybe a site with some of my designs on it). But here goes anyway...

In my case, like Josh's, you can probably blame Jared. I was first here way back when it was Hephasteus' Forge and had no dash (I think?). I was introduced to the Forge probably by Memento-Mori, though it might've been Gargoyle13. Not really sure. Anyway, when that site became defunct I started following GO to keep up on all the cool discussions. After the GO change, either Jared's or Clinton's sites brought me to the new Forge.

So here I sit, waiting quietly in the background, reading and waiting, occasionally making meaningless little nothing posts full of annoyingly long sentences (and surreal asides), biding my time and preparing myself for the day when *ABRUPTLY CEASE TRANSMISSION*

Through GO, I'm pretty sure. I've never been certain if I was an "early" or a "middle" member of the Forge - it seemed like there were a LOT of meaty threads here before I joined, so I never considered myself "early".

Gordon

MOOSE

I think I did a Lycos search for "free roleplaying games."

-lumpley Vincent

It's Jared's fault. After hooking up with Jared to write NightWatch, which started over at RPGnet, I began checking out the forums at his site. Suddenly one day his forum was hosted by The Forge, and well...that's the story.

About.Com brought me here, though I had been here in the past due to the directions of Mr. Sorensen.

Peace,
Bret

Through a link on RPG.Net, and I found RPG.Net because a conversation started about Little Fears on WW's Exalted forum.

Holy schmoly...do I get residuals or something? :wink:

Residuals? Nah...

But you might try hitting Ron & Clinton up for a "referral fee". ("Sign a friend up to the Forge & get $50!")

I was introduced to the Forge by Ron, back when it was still "Hephaestus' Forge"; actually, before it had even gone active and anyone other than EP Healy and Ron knew about it.

Ron made me do it.

I sez "I don't have time to look at two gaming sites (GO and The Forge)." Ron Sez "Check out the Forge, it's been updated and it's going to be 'the place'".

So I left GO and came over here, and look what happens to GO... Let that be a lesson to you all! What that lesson is, I'm not sure... :smile:

Sean

A friend of mine-Sean Demory or sdemory on the forge, kicked me onto it for discussions originally on the memento mori stuff (there's a cheap pop for you Mr. Sorenson). Fro mthere I have been hooked at work and at home.

I like the site so much more than GO or RPG.net, but that's mainly because the discussion is easier to navigate around. It's also because the posts are a lot more informed than rpg.net. People here tend to take things a little more seriously.

I followed Ron over from GO like a trained seal.

Mike

I'd checked out the site before and thought it was intersting, but never stuck around. Then I got hooked after I met Ron at Gen Con this year and bought Sorcerer.

Now I'm in here every day reading posts and occasionally adding my two cents worth.

I can't quite remember how I bumped into the site. I *think* it was through memento-mori. That's likely.

And gosh, it's good. You people are fantastic. =)

Joe.

I found the place through a local gaming club's links :smile:

I was on GO, when I had took a hiatus for about a month, came back and it was the "Ghost Outpost"...I was wondering where all the people who talked about better things than "and one time, at Gen Con...(bandcamp, whatever)" and their mighty Drow Necromancers and all those things that make me wish to activate the Double Postal Gene and cleanse the earth with fire(The Biblical Cleanser tm, now in pine scent!)....

Following links and such, I found myself in a higher realm...where I watch and occasionally say stupid things :razz:

Bankuei

I knew of the site, through lunch with Ron at last year's GAMA, picking up Sorcerer at this past GenCon, and references on memento-mori.com.

I had forgotten about it, though, until Mads Jakobsen came over to RPGnet last week and tried to bring his argument with Ron and The Forge over there.

So, here I am. Glad to be here.

Glad to have you here, GM. Even if it does mean there are now three Gareth's posting here.

[ This Message was edited by: joshua neff on 2001-12-09 17:37 ]

I really don't remember how I found this thing.

Sincerely. Not a clue.

I know I vistsited it when it was Hephaesus' Forge a year or two ago a couple times, but I have no idea what it was. I think I mistook it for a publisher or something and didn't really check it out.

Then I somehow found it again, before it became The Forge and have been making a pest of myself ever since. I think either someone else told me about it, possibly Paul, so blame him. Or I found it trying to find Ron's essays and the like. So blame him.

To join the chorus: Blame Jared. IIRC, I clicked over here from his web site, or else he referenced it on the Gaming Outpost.

One day (during the Golden Age of GO) I was browsing the web and decided to see if there were any links with Hephaestus in the title (forge being a logical add on) and found this. Joined, and there was little activity. So I come back almost a year latter to see that new members are running to the site, and that I can't log in because I forgot my username and password (P. S. who do I contact to erase The Account Formerly known as 'R'? )

Nothing to do with remembering that I too will die.

Ranko

I found it while using google to search for free RPG rule sets on the web. Certainly glad I did.

Cheers, Julian.

I think it was Moose.

I had a really bad year in 2000, quit doing small press comics, and then, sometime this year, discovered online forums for rpgs like rpgnet. That awakened the long-dormant rpg-design bug that slept inside me.

I started posting at rpgnet, hooked up with Moose after reading about WYRD, then I think he pointed me to Ron's essays or something. I can't remember exactly.

Right after I posted the original rules for The Pool I started visiting this site more and more. So far, I've found no better site for this kind of thing.

James V. West
http://www.geocities.com/randomordercreations/index.html

Maybe this is a first, but I actually found this place via an ad in Sorcerer.

And a wonderful place it is. I want to write a long review on Sorcerer, and an article on how Ron's article on GNS changed my gaming life, but first I gotta get proof by getting in some Actual Play. Then I'll also throw in a nice Topic of "why gaming is like sex" (in brief, lots of people put up with the bad sort of either because they don't communicate; they think that it's supposed to "just happen"; and the advertising is not very helpful).

Nice to listen to you all, and thank you, Guruji Ron, for opening my eyes about some very critical stuff.

--TQuid

I often visited Hephaestus Forge in the past, mostly to learn about free RPG's on the web.
I came here after Ron told me he was reviewing my Wuthering Heights Game, I had a look at the new sites, which looked cool, that's why I've registered as a proud user.

I migrated here after the Gaming Outpost forums went to subscription-only. The Forge has been far more productive, in my opinion. Kudos to Clinton and Ron (and anyone I'm leaving out due to ignorance).

Best,

Blake

Moose. The rat bastard.

I'm spending more time here recently, now that I have a serious focus again. I have to admit that my initial impressions back in May/June were that the folks over here had a very condescending attitude toward traditional gamers. I have a problem with that kind of thing.

I find now that I may have been mistaken, or overly sensitive. I have never been a "traditional" gamer anyway. It has taken me a long time to accept that I am a narrativist. I have enjoyed the game systems I have played, but I recognize that they are not designed for my needs. I have always had fun playing them, but I can be freer with fewer restrictions.

So I expect that I will post more here than I ever did at RPG.net, since the discussions tend to be much more germaine and interesting.

Skippy

Hmm. I came over because the address popped up in discussion on eitehr RPG.net or GO (before the crap). Can't remember which. How I got on those is another question .. but I guess they just came to my knowledge while scouring the 'Net for anything rpg related.

Well, as much as I'd like to give off a really cool and unique story, I'm going to have to tell the truth. The boring truth.

I saw a link to the Forge in an Rpg.net thread.

Pulse-pounding stuff, huh? ;0)

One word. Jared.

His, at first glance, sarcastic remarks to a post of mine on RPG.net were pearls of wisdom in disguise. A facination of checking out remarks by Jared lead me to a link to the Forge.

Later,
Chris

Kicks up his feet and thumbs through a stack of checks.

That's right, keep 'em coming and I'll keep them coming.

But seriously, cool. Thanks for joining us.

Join us...join us...

Well, I've been doing RPG stuff on the net for years. I was trying to design RPGs before I even really knew how they worked. :) The first thing I did when I got internet access (actually, even before that... I went to the library and used a floppy) I did a search for "Free Net RPGs" (many variations). I found John Kim's page, Unclebear.com, RPG.NET, and so on. After I actually got my own computer and connection, I did some extensive downloading / printing. I bet I've got more net published games in my desk drawer than anyone else here. :) Anyway, at some point in all this research I went to one of the RPG newsgroups (rec.games.fantasy.role-playing I think it was... maybe it was one of the advocacy groups) with my very first game design. It was called "Adventurer" and it sucked big time. :) But, I got a lot of nice comments from cool people (I actually met Travis (Efindel) there, and Bradd Szoyne too, I think). At least one person pointed me to the RPG-Create mailing list, which at the time was at onelist.com. I was never a big fan of usenet, and that list was ideal for me... posts came right to my computer, and I could read them at leisure. All very organized. I learned a lot of great stuff there about various systems, probabilities, conventions, etc. etc. Unbelievably, I've grown to the point where my stuff looks actually looks like a game now, even one that was actually writen by a game designer sometimes. I even have a game (shameless plug ahead) in the production line of Crookedface Games, to actually be sold for real money.

So, I've met and seen a lot of people over the internet, many of whom post here. I think the specific referall to the Forge came from Raven when there was a big GNS debate going on in RPG-Create a while back. I only just now got around to joining on.

Okay, that's the end of my really long, and probably pointless and uninteresting post. Next time don't ask questions. ;)