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View Full Version : If you ever considered having your own RPG website, you totally should! (It's easy.)



Yora
2016-05-31, 05:45 AM
Coming up with a title that doesn't sound like satire or spam turned out to be surprisingly hard. :smallbiggrin:

Most people reading RPG forums probably have come across links to several websites where GMs are presenting their own sub-mechanics, homebrew content, guides on gamemastering and worldbuilding, and so on and on. Of course, a lot of it is of little interest to most people, but some of it is pure gold and I've often found ideas and systems on such websites that are much better than anything published by professional RPG companies. But the vast majority of the people writing all this content are just ordinary GMs without any professional experience, just some interesting ideas based on their experiences with playing and running RPGs.

And this means that you! could also do it!

Last week I found two new websites with nice stuff on them, and by "new" I mean they are only a year old. There was quite a boom in 2010 among fans of oldschool D&D, but many of those sites have been mostly discontinued since then and at least as far as I am aware there's never been a large number of websites with RPG material that goes beyond the OSR crowd.
It's not like everything has been said and there's nothing more to add. Against the Wicked City (http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/) and Dragons Gonna Drag (http://dragonsgonnadrag.blogspot.com/) are both relatively newcommers and full to the brim with great stuff I've not seen or heard before.

And there's probably a lot of people out there who have just as great ideas that people would love to see, but who don't know anything about making a website and never really entertained the idea of doing so. This is why I am starting this thread. I made my own website two years ago and the process is actually stupidly simple. It's really easy to set up and you can get some really good options that are entirely free and don't cost you anything.

The two most popular sites people are using for this are blogspot (http://www.blogspot.com) and Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.com). Both let you very easily set up a site on their server, but Wordpress also has the option of downloading the software and installing it on your own webspace. It's usually not needed (my site (http://spriggans-den.com/) and The Angry GM (http://theangrygm.com/) are the only ones I know who do that), but if you already have webspace I found it very easy to set up, and I barely know anything about this stuff. I've not used blogspot but also have a Wordpress account (though there's nothing on it (https://yora23.wordpress.com/)) and I think most of it is pretty self-explaining, so I am not going to write a full guide for that. But if you want to give it a try and have any specific questions about how something works, I am more than happy to help with that. And I am sure there are also some people around here who could help with setting up a blogspot site.

So yeah. I think there's probably at least a dozen or two people in this forum who could make an RPG related website with cool stuff that a lot of us would love to read. The process of setting up a site might look intimidating, but it really isn't. I would love to see some new people giving it a shot. So if you have entertained the thought, I very much encourage you to give it a try. It doesn't have to be a big commitment. I've seen plenty of sites that only have a post once or twice a month and it's still totally worth reading.

Regitnui
2016-05-31, 09:15 AM
If I started one, it would really be more ranting than mechanics or homebrew. If there's anyone interested in reading me talk about the philosophical implications of familiar abuse or ttRPG as a storytelling exercise, then maybe.

Eldan
2016-05-31, 10:00 AM
I could, but I think it's actually vastly easier to just post it in the homebrew forum here.

Âmesang
2016-05-31, 07:10 PM
My personal forum has a "Pencil & Paper" section which includes at least one attempt at a Play-by-Post game (Pathfinder) as well as a couple of my own characters' stats that I've made public record (easier to handle than a paper sheet and it lets everyone know what my character can/can't do and own/doesn't own).

Likewise my website has a "dnd" sub-domain which still has remnants of a D&D website but is now mostly just a list of various text and image files.

Agrippa
2016-06-01, 01:47 PM
I've started my own blog called A Voyage Into the Fantastic (http://avoyageintothefantastic.blogspot.com/). So yes, I've launched my own RPG blog.

Alent
2016-06-01, 05:52 PM
I'd also like to put in a good word here for Wiki.

Dokuwiki and MediaWiki are both frequently offered as "one click installs" on many low cost website hosting packages, and are an ideal way to piece together a wealth of crosslinked information. My own homebrew is often brainstormed in a Dokuwiki where I have some plugins that let me "embed" content, so rather than just saying "as per (spell/feat/etc.)" and linking to the referenced ability, I can actually embed the ability's text within the ability referencing it.

As with normal wikis, this makes it immensely easier for collaborating with a group. You can keep player notes there so everyone can see what each other noticed, my group stores character sheets in my wiki so that the DM can always know what he's DMing for, whoever is DMing tries to write up all the "common knowledge" setting material up on the wiki so that the group's characters can know what children born in the setting should know.

You can also do fun things like set up your wiki to look like a D&D sourcebook with the parchment wallpaper and the same color and size formatting. :smallamused: