Come for the Contest, Stay for the Community

I was wondering how many of you fine message board brothers and sisters recently came to these boards due to the contest? I'm sure some of this has been discussed before somewhere on the boards, most likely in nineteen or so different threads, but I was wondering out loud and thought it'd be interesting to see y'all sound off in one centralized place.

I actually joined the community to correct a weird speculation on one of the boards about how Boomer, the guy who plays Hennet in the PSAs, maybe wasn't "acting" so much as "just a huge, giant freak-monster".

(I, of course, was flattered - but it IS acting.)

But I've become a regular on these boards because of the super-awesome community; certainly a FAR better group of people than I have found anywhere else, including youtube, fark.com, HCrealms, max-minis, or 4chan.

In all honesty, this board has renewed my faith in people.

That's 'cause you're being stalked. ;)

There's also more forums than just the one for RPG Superstar! Come out, come play with us! (Or slack with us, if ya want.)

There's also more forums than just the one for RPG Superstar! Come out, come play with us! (Or slack with us, if ya want.)

Oh, I've fallen in love with the other sections of the Message-Boards - I just sometimes feel like I don't have much to contribute!

I've opened a few threads with an engaging, thought-provoking question in the headline, thinking "This looks like a job for . . . Boomer!", only to discover that the question was answered, and VERY WELL, within seconds of the post.

I love this community.

I hung out a while to see reactions to articles in Dragon, but really the contest amde me an active member. I've ventured into the other community forums, but the contest just has me by the...well, it has my most significant attention for these forums.

I visited sporadically before the contest. Now, I check regularly.

I'm someone who came entirely for the contest. And I love the community. Very friendly and relaxed around here.

I've ventured out into the other forums occasionally, but I find this software a bit weird and I'm not sure how to easily check for new posts in all the interesting threads without searching through each forum and subforum to find what I'm looking for. Any help there?

I'm someone who came entirely for the contest. And I love the community. Very friendly and relaxed around here.

I've ventured out into the other forums occasionally, but I find this software a bit weird and I'm not sure how to easily check for new posts in all the interesting threads without searching through each forum and subforum to find what I'm looking for. Any help there?

My first bookmark to the Paizo site is the blog where I can read the new news and on the right see the most recent thread activity. I also bookmark sections that I find myself visiting often and visit them in order. The timestamps on the posts help me keep up. If for example I didn't check the boards much last night because I was hanging out with my lovely lady, I'll know that I didn't see any posts since X'o clock on Tuesday. I'll then scroll down and see what I missed in the topic listing and do the same within that specific thread. Lather, rinse, repeat with other sections I follow. When I've exhausted my usuals, I click on the 'messageboards' link in the topic tree and scroll through them all to see what interests me. I don't follow as many areas as I used to since the traffic has picked up, (and I've gotten busier) so I'm sure that I'm missing some things. Then again, each time we do one thing we're missing something else. Silly singular existence.

I came for the pie. But stayed because I'm an insomniac and this gives me something to do at night.

Live bookmarks are your friend.

The pbps are a riot.

I've been here since last April. I actually missed the first two rounds of the contest as I was busy with other things and hadn't really visited much in the months of November and December.

Live bookmarks are your friend.

They always squiggle out and make me lose my place. Maybe nightcrawlers and garter snakes have been bad choices. Suggestions?

Kruelaid wrote:

Live bookmarks are your friend.

They always squiggle out and make me lose my place. Maybe nightcrawlers and garter snakes have been bad choices. Suggestions?

The worm or the X-man?

Daigle wrote:

Kruelaid wrote:

Live bookmarks are your friend.

They always squiggle out and make me lose my place. Maybe nightcrawlers and garter snakes have been bad choices. Suggestions?

The worm or the X-man?

Oh the worm, of course. I'd have given Kurt the common decency of capitalizing his hero name. *Though, he'd be a squirrely page-minder as well.

Cool. I'd hate to think you'd be disrespecting a mutant.

Worm bookmarks, while tricky, do have the added benefit of letting you go fishing when you finish the book.

Win. Win.

This thread got off track fast. ;)

This thread got off track fast. ;)

We do that around here. :P But usually someone cracks the whip to get things back on track.

*passes out cookies and beverage of choice*

Mmmmmm.....cookies.

Please return to your regularly scheduled thread. my cookie ploy worked.

I first heard about this for the contest, made the top 32, then got DQed for word count. Oh, well. I'll stick around for the contest, and see what happens after that.

The problem I see is somewhat of a lack of organization.

I was looking for an 'epic' thread in the main Paizo board area, but just saw hundreds of threads all under D&D (at least that's the impression I remember leaving with).

If there were a bit more of a hierarchy I'd probably spend more time; there's no way I have time to read every post. I can't even keep up with the RPG Superstar ones.

... I'm not sure how to easily check for new posts in all the interesting threads without searching through each forum and subforum to find what I'm looking for. Any help there?

Click those little orange-and-white icons at the upper right corner to get the feed for your favorite threads and boards, compatible with your favorite RSS-enabled browser or aggregator!

mythfish wrote:

... I'm not sure how to easily check for new posts in all the interesting threads without searching through each forum and subforum to find what I'm looking for. Any help there?

Click those little orange-and-white icons at the upper right corner to get the feed for your favorite threads and boards, compatible with your favorite RSS-enabled browser or aggregator!

Yeah, I saw those but I have no idea how they work. I barely know what RSS is much less how to use it. The messageboard FAQ is useless on this topic. I'm too lazy to try to dope things out beyond that. :)

I'm used to phpBB and similar boards with a handy "Check for new posts" button. Granted most of the boards I frequent have a lot less traffic, and that probably wouldn't work well here.

Hmmm... Yep.

I did just come in for the contest and do come back regularly although I mostly lurk. In the past few months I've been introduced to Boomer's PSA's, IronDM, and lilith's DM Tools (and deviantArt - thank you Lilith).

This forum seems to be the most congenial I've ever seen; there's more intelligent and creative interaction and less petty bickering. That's enough to keep me here even without the contest. You all are a great group to know.

I visited sporadically before the contest. Now, I check regularly.

Ditto. I've found the contest fascinating, and the people who post here too.

Vic Wertz wrote:

mythfish wrote:

... I'm not sure how to easily check for new posts in all the interesting threads without searching through each forum and subforum to find what I'm looking for. Any help there?

Click those little orange-and-white icons at the upper right corner to get the feed for your favorite threads and boards, compatible with your favorite RSS-enabled browser or aggregator!

Yeah, I saw those but I have no idea how they work. I barely know what RSS is much less how to use it. The messageboard FAQ is useless on this topic. I'm too lazy to try to dope things out beyond that. :)

Check out the first couple of posts in this thread.

This forum seems to be the most congenial I've ever seen; there's more intelligent and creative interaction and less petty bickering. That's enough to keep me here even without the contest. You all are a great group to know.

I am mortified by your suggestion that we are not petty. Make a typo and see what happens.

And... congenial? Congenial! <has a conniption, whisked away in an ambulance>

I am mortified by your suggestion that we are not petty.

I heard that Tom Petty posts here.

I was wondering how many of you fine message board brothers and sisters recently came to these boards due to the contest? I'm sure some of this has been discussed before somewhere on the boards, most likely in nineteen or so different threads, but I was wondering out loud and thought it'd be interesting to see y'all sound off in one centralized place.

Came here to buy Ars Magica PDFs; was shanghai'd by the contest; am now posting on the PBP because the contest's got me all fired up for some proper D&D action.

Will

I got an email once about the contest, thought 'I could go pretty far in that!'. Did you know far can be described as Maybe Not Top 70?

Anyway, I'd never been to these boards before this contest, and now I'll never leave.

So stop asking.

I got an email once about the contest, thought 'I could go pretty far in that!'. Did you know far can be described as Maybe Not Top 70?

Anyway, I'd never been to these boards before this contest, and now I'll never leave.

So stop asking.

And you hooked us up with the irondm connection.

If I ever get out to GenCon, I might have to see what I can do. It sounds like a blast.

Iron DM is a real highlight of Gen Con. It bugs me that I have to work the show so I can't watch the whole thing (or better yet, participate). You really owe it to yourself to check it out if you get the chance.

Erik - I have thought about IronDMs running some sort of charity event where industry badasses get to play, and a gallery gets to watch. I wonder if there'd be any interest in that from said badasses. Hopefully it would be one of the most entertaining games available: good DMs and famous authors/publishers, and for five or ten bucks (straight to a good cause), people could watch half or all the show.

There's never enough events at Gen Con, and this would have the interest of a huge number of people who didn't get the events they wanted. And might give guys like you or Wolf or Clark (you know, just to throw out ranom names) a break.

It might take a couple of years to organize, but do you think there'd be any interest from said badasses?

Erik - I have thought about IronDMs running some sort of charity event where industry badasses get to play, and a gallery gets to watch. ...

(snip)

... do you think there'd be any interest from said badasses?

I suspect there'd be a lot of interest. I bet the problem would be time. I help out at three of the local cons each year, and even if I'm not running, I'm busy.

Now, if we could also create a vast slave army at said badasses beck and call, then perhaps we might generate both time and interest.

"Yes sir, Mr. Mona sir, I'll fetch you another water. And your slippers? Certainly, right away, sir."

:-)

I was on the boards before, mostly in the Campaigns section, but not with any regularity. My post count has doubled, if not trebled, as a result of posting in relation to this contest.

Okay, I hate to sound like a newbie, but what's this Iron DM thing I keep hearing about? In 30 years I've never made it to a con (Not for lack of trying, though. Darned work schedule!) so I've never seen one.

Here is an at length description to read at your leisure.

But a short description is that it is a contest where, competing GMs are given random events/items that they have to work into an adventure they make up on the spot.

Not for the weak of heart GMs. ;-)

But a short description is that it is a contest where, competing GMs are given random events/items that they have to work into an adventure they make up on the spot.

heheheh

Sounds like half the events we run at cons. Hell, sounds like half of my home campaign :)

I mean no disrespect, I just want to be accurate. But this event is nothing like anything going on anywhere else - although it should be.

I mean no disrespect, I just want to be accurate. But this event is nothing like anything going on anywhere else - although it should be.

You think it is like nothing anywhere else.

But improvisation is nothing new, and factors heavily into many of the events we run regularly at cons.

I'm not saying what we do is the Iron DM contest. I'm just saying that we don't run Living Greyhawk ... our events at cons tend to be ... unstructured, to put it kindly.

My favorite was when I got about halfway through a mod and encounterd the (now infamous) "Burt, there's no mechanic for this, you'll have to make something up." Written into the event. In bold red text.

So thus was invented mechanics for the plane of dreams and 2 hours worth of challenges in order to fill out the slot until they reached the final encounter.

It was a blast.

Heheheheh.

Erik - I have thought about IronDMs running some sort of charity event where industry badasses get to play, and a gallery gets to watch. I wonder if there'd be any interest in that from said badasses. Hopefully it would be one of the most entertaining games available: good DMs and famous authors/publishers, and for five or ten bucks (straight to a good cause), people could watch half or all the show.

This, too me, is the coolest idea in the world.

I remember reading a thing about a "Celebrity D&D" television show a while back - the idea was that Wil Wheaton helped pitch the concept to Comedy Central and/or G4. From Wil himself, found here:

"No joke: I helped some guys from Upright Citizen's Brigade pitch this to Comedy Central. We did a live version for them at the Comedy Central Workspace earlier this year.
It was AWESOME, and hilarious, and I got to sit close enough to Paget Brewster to pretend that she was in love with me, but CC didn't pick it up.
There's a tape of it, that should /really/ find its way to the internets."

Now, the reasons I imagine that Celebrity D&D wouldn't get picked up by a network are pretty obvious: too small a demographic, too much "nerd" stigma, and it's a non-zero-sum game, unlike poker, Jeopardy or billiards. I mean, how can the average TV exec wrap his head around a game where the point is "have fun" and there's no way to lose - except "not have fun"?

But these are trivial concerns for GenCon - we GET it.

Other celebrities who play or have played D&D - and who might be willing to show up for such an event - are Stephen Colbert, Rob Cordry, Vin Diesel, Patton Oswald, Brian Posehn, , John DiMaggio & David X. Cohen (the voice of Bender from Futurama and the creator of Futurama, respectively) the guys from Weezer, the guys from My Chemical Romance, Joss Whedon (or a bunch of the writers from his shows), and Barack Obama.

Add in the guys like Dave Chapelle, William Shatner and Mr. T, who play WoW, and provide them a a pre-gen character with a simple class like Warlock or Fighter plus a charming sidekick with heavy knowledge of D&D for them to reference, and you've got a great show, the sort of thing that I would give a kidney to see live and in person.

Ancient Sensei: "Joss, give me a Fortitude save."
Mr. T: "I don't like the sound of that jibba-jabba. T needs the cleric to come heal him."
Erik Mona: "We're not looking good, gentlemen."
Joss Whedon: "Don't I know it. Sixteen. Great, blood goes out of every orifice I own. Wolfgang, get over here and help me."
Wolfgang Baur: "Fine, but these orcs aren't going to fireball themselves. I checked."
Shatner: "Colbert, you better have something up your sleeve."
Steven Colbert: "Eh . . . what ho!?! Do I hear a cry for aid from . . . Colbertron, yon Paladin of Lawfulness?"

*a cheer goes up from the crowd: "SMITE, SMITE, SMITE!"*

Colbert (standing): "I smite thee!"

Tsk, tsk Boomer.

You forgot one of the other key D&D player celebreties I know of:

Robin Williams.

Who has got to be one of the best improv lunatics I've ever seen.

I think I can handle everyone mentioned except Robin Williams.

But I'd sure as hell try.

Oh, I know there's spontaneous gaming going on, and some quality gaming at that. WHat I relaly meant was the atmosphere that develops,as the DMs compete against each other and Nick counts down the clock with hilarity. The pressure and the competition are unique.

Oh, and there's the introduction of the DMs..that's a crucial beginning to the best event at gencon.

You all have more than six months. Preregistration is 3 Feb. Get in early so you can get your hotels. :}

Other celebrities who play or have played D&D - and who might be willing to show up for such an event - are Stephen Colbert, <snip> and Barack Obama.

Your kidding, right? I've never heard that Obama played DnD. That would be cool, though.

El Skootro

Your kidding, right? I've never heard that Obama played DnD. That would be cool, though.

meh.

Your kidding, right? I've never heard that Obama played DnD. That would be cool, though.

El Skootro

Being a small-town liberal from Illinois, I'm a total Obama-Fanboy - and I have been for years. Heck, I liked the man (and campaigned for him on a local level) even before Jack Ryan, the former Republican Senator from Illinois, dropped out of the race against Obama, effectively giving him the position that Obama currently holds.

. . . admittedly, Illinois Republicans very NEARLY ran Mike Ditka, "Da Coach," which could have turned into a real nail-biter. Instead, they ran Alan Keyes, which was a less interesting campaign to watch.

I think I met ONE person in my town who supported Keyes.

A little nerd-related aside: Ryan dropped out of the race when his ex-wife, the actress Jeri Ryan (who portrayed Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager) made it public that one of the reasons for their divorce had to do with . . . well, stuff that we probably shouldn't talk about on a family-friendly board like this one.

Anyway: I've met Obama, shaken his hand, shared a coffee with him, whole nine yards. He's quite a brilliant guy - as are most people who serve as president of the Harvard Law Review, of course - and the impression I got was that he'd been a D&D player in High School and during his Undergrad years.

Admittedly, most of our conversation had more to do with the DNC, where he had recently given a pretty major speech, so . . .

Well, if it's NOT true, I'm starting the rumor now.

*grin*

Not even Alan Keyes supported Alan Keyes in that race. He made the statement that he is generally against shopping candidates out of their homes to fill a senate seat. I'm not sure why you'd ask a guy to run when you know his heart's not in it, but it is what it is.

And there I stop talking, because I am still pretty miffed about what happened to Jack Ryan.

This is not to say I can't play DnD with Barack Obama. I dunno. But in any event, I originally meant industry celebrities like Erik, Clark, Monte, Wolf, Skip Williams. And I would really like to kill one of Andy Collins' characters in retribution for never answering a single question I have ever asked the Sage.

Tell me about that chameleon class, Andy, and all will be forgiven.

Not even Alan Keyes supported Alan Keyes in that race. He made the statement that he is generally against shopping candidates out of their homes to fill a senate seat. I'm not sure why you'd ask a guy to run when you know his heart's not in it, but it is what it is.

And there I stop talking, because I am still pretty miffed about what happened to Jack Ryan.

This is not to say I can't play DnD with Barack Obama. I dunno. But in any event, I originally meant industry celebrities like Erik, Clark, Monte, Wolf, Skip Williams. And I would really like to kill one of Andy Collins' characters in retribution for never answering a single question I have ever asked the Sage.

Tell me about that chameleon class, Andy, and all will be forgiven.

I indirectly had Andy Collins do something for me... or perhaps TO me. I played off and on years ago in a campaign with Gwen Kestrel while running a 3.0 character who disgustingly abused the 3.0 charging rules, she happened to mention to her hubby certain rules loopholes, which the scurvy knave then quite cruelly 'fixed' in the 3.5 rule set. *sigh* It was fun while it lasted...