Talk: Community Portal

Talk[]

A Suggestion[]

Hello, I've recently joined RPG Wiki, and I would like to give some suggestions on how we could coordinate our efforts to build a useful, lively and open ressource for gamers everywhere in the world (please note that these are only suggestions, feel free to discuss and modify them).

Many people spend a lot of time collecting and creating information for RPGs (epochs, places, towns, characters, machines, etc). Unfortunatelly all this information is dispersed accross the internet, and is often hard to find and re-use, because written with a specific game in mind.

The end result is that many people end up reinventing the wheel, instead of cooperating and adding on what other people already contributed.

To avoid this problem, I would suggest the following:

collect info on a wiki under a open licence (done in RPG wiki)
present setting info as much as possible independently of any specific game system, using instead an abstract stating system
write conversion keys to easily translate the "abstract" stats into each one's favorite system

So let's give an example:

Different gamers could be interested in a late medieval period setting, to play Ars Magica or Vampire Age of Darkness. Instead of each one duplicating efforts in writing settings and stating stuff, both contributors could write texts for this late medieval period, using this abstract system, and later on use and convert what they need to their own game system using the appropriate keys. If we don't do this, most players of Vampire wouldn't even check, neither contribute to Ars Magica pages

What would the abstract system be? It should be as simple as possible. People, engines and creatures would be characterized by a few critical skills/flaws, along a geometric scale

1 - weaker than average (flaw)

2 - average (like the majority)

3 - very good

4 - world champion

5 - super human

6 - god-like

From this scale it would be very easy to produce stats for Falkenstein, Heroquest, Wushu, and probably also DnD, Rolemaster and others (but I don't know these games to be able to confirm it). One could even design excell macros or scripts to automate this process.

In the case of a pirate setting that I want to write, I would list weapons, ships, people, and give simple stats to describe their capacities. It should then be easy to convert them to gurps, D20 system or whatever.

Of course, somme setting elements are specific to a certain game world, but even that is not a problem. What I want to avoid is having info specific to a game mechanics, not game setting.

Please let me know what you think of it... AlexS 13:36, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

That's quite an undertaking which you are suggesting here. I have to think about this. Please give me some time on that. BelniFore 14:03, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
- By all means, take your time. Of course, I don't expect you to change everything you did on the german wiki overnight. My plan is to simply start adding stuff using this system, get your feedback, and develop something solid enough that we can extend to the whole wiki. AlexS 14:15, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
as BelniFore mentioned above it is an enormous undertaking but in the end i am sure it is worth the effort. but before we get too enthusiastic about general rules we should consider this: kay eriya has more than 200 characters worth to mention. more than 2/3 are npcs and were encountered by pcs over a period of fifteen years. by far many characters are outlined only basicaly at best, most of them only named and linked to different topics waiting to get alive by words not yet written. so you see Kay Eriya is huge but only a small part of ideas we have construceted and played in the past fifteen years is written down so far. our main goal is to write it down top to bottom and get a clearer picture for ourselfs. the next step in the far future is to convert it into something someone else can easily handle as background for an advanture. so far for Kay Eriya as i see my part in it. - so many games so little time

cheers --MaWelt 21:15, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

- Hi MaWelt, actually I should make clear that converting Kay Eriya to a new/different format would really be a very low priority project, because it's a lot of work without clear immediate benefit (unlike adding new material). I am thinking much more about how to enter new material, and new projects to the wiki. For those there would be no conversion effort and it would be easier to coordinate it. Like I mentioned before, I would start by myself, get your feedback, and go on from there. The issue about Key Eriya could be easily settled by giving a key that converts stats to the general system. That should take about one hour and should be enough.

What is RPG now? What should RPG be in the future?[]

Well, AlexS it's great that you're here and it seems to me you have some serious amount of spare time on your hands ;-). I can only tell you what I've observed so far in our and the others' use of the wiki, what my idea of the wiki is and what I envision it to be in the future:

The Kay Eriya Project a collection of data from a ten-years-long rpg campaign (Tempus Interiectum), in the course of which we developed its setting, several countries on the continent of Kay Eriya. The same setting is now used as a background for the still ongoing campaign of Mutualis, set some 25 years later. We are using the wiki for several other projects, but they are always connected to an ongoing game.

The other users that have joined the wiki later (Joshmaul and AvianSavara for example), have developed their own projects. So far, the wiki is a collection of mutually independent projects in different games, different settings, different languages and different game systems. I think that's ok. Also, I have seen little "reinventing the wheel", precisely because the projects are so different, the people don't know each other, they don't game together and last but not least they speak four different lanuages.

However, I think it would be great to share resources where it makes sense. For me, that is not so much on the part regarding the game systems (I've seen too many "universal game sytems that are really universal", I think the next one isn't any better). When you look around on the german content you will see relatively few game-system-specific things. Most of the content is text that can be used regardless of the game system you prefer.

Where I see the potential for collaboration is in developing templates and categories. From those everyone on the wiki can benefit.

To make a long story short: We use Ars Magica, others use Star Trek, DnD or whatever. Everyone can read our pages and contribute if they feel it makes them better. But I don't mind if a Vampire player doesn't contribute to Ars Magica pages. He'll very likely start his own project for Vampire and contribute to that. What is useful for everyone is the ideas one gets from reading the other contributors' stuff and the elements (templates, categories, etc.) one can "steal" or reuse for one's own project. At least that's what I think. I'd be interested to read what your thoughts are. Cheers, KainNiemand 22:05, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi KainNiemand,

Like everyone, time is in short supply for me too, and I certainly do not intend to waste time re-inventing the wheel (read devising game mechanics). Personnally I dislike losing time with game mechanics. My problem is that although one can read Vampire (or whatever) scenarios to get ideas, all those usefull background bits are dispersed and hard to find, and thus of little practical use.

Consider a Pirates setting. I can read scenarii about pirates, but I will waste a lot of time before finding what I want to create my own pirate adventure scenario. It would be just better if I had directly the pirates setting described in an orderly and easy to reference fashion, so that I can quickly pick up what I want. I want weapons? check the weapons chapter. I want boats? check the boats section, etc.

Basically, my idea of gathering and ordering background information seems to correspond to what you call in your thinking templates. So for instance if you play Ars Magica, you might be interested in what kind of weapons were used at those times (-> template medieval weapons?). If you are more interested in political intrigue, you might want to check the political structures of the time (-> template medieval political structures), and so forth. Both Vampire and Ars Magica would use these elements, and if I would want to make an Ars Magica scenario, I would not have to put up with Vampire scenarios to get my info (a very innefficient way).

To sum it up, I would like to have a resource that helps me to easily and quickly build an interesting adventure, because it provides me with background, plot ideas and hooks specific to the setting I am interested in.

Let me know if I was a bit clearer...

Also, I also started an "Adventure Incubator" section in the french wiki. Hopefully people who want to cooperate to build adventure scenarios or campaigns can do it there. AlexS 19:34, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Collaboration instead of isolation[]

Well, AlexS now I see where you're headed. I agree with you that it's the background material, the characters, story hooks and plot ideas that get other roleplayers interested and that can be easily scavenged for one's own campign, setting and player group. And I think we've gone a long way in this direction already with the characters for our fantasy setting in the german section of the wiki.

What Kay Eriya doesn't have so far ist ready-to-use scenarios, weapons lists, plot ideas and so on. I think it's a good idea to go in that direction and provide campaign information and a "toolbox" for gamemasters to use in creating their own scenarios. We could create templates for "travelguides" to certain regions (check out Irinas, Isador, Krethalbanstin and the Template:Reisehandbuch to see what I'm talking about).

--Regards, KainNiemand 21:13, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Hello, I'd like to join the people contributing to this wiki. I have a couple of questions though:

is the mailing list working?
how are the different contributors communicating?

Cheers, AlexS 10:25, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Hello AlexS, I answered your questions in part on Talk:Accueil. The Mailing List works, but except for me and Angela no one has subscribed to it and it hasn't been used so far. We've been using the wiki's Talk Pages to communicate. Regards, KainNiemand 11:04, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

to sort out[]

Ich hab folgendes Problem: Ich hab eine neue Seite angelegt (http://rpg.wikicities.com/wiki/Hauptseite) aber sie wird auf der Titelseite von RPG nicht angezeigt. Bitte um Abhilfe! Belnifore
Wird doch eh angezeigt (unter German)- oder war da inzwischen ein Heinzelmännchen am Werk? KainNiemand
Schauts, Burschen, wir werden populär ... HaraScon 03:21, 12 Apr 2005 (EDT)
Science of the Soul... Haus Molanwy lässt grüssen. BelniFore 04:07, 12 Apr 2005 (EDT)
Vielleicht auch Aristoteles - wies Griechisch heißt, muß KainNiemand beantworten - Lateinisch ist es: Ars Longa, Vita brevis! HaraScon 05:59, 12 Apr 2005 (EDT)

the Awakening[]

Nu, Belnifore - wie wärs mit einer Meistersession Deinerseits ? Titel für Abenteuer hab ich da schon:

Cleaning things up
Mind over Matter
Players of Pawns
Project Deadline
To have an issue
Shuffling the paperwork
The Great Unmaking
To gamble a world
Straigthen things out
The balance does not fit
When fire meets water
Forges of Fate
Redefining the parameters
Crossing the red lines
Dust of Destiny

HaraScon 09:13, 6 Sep 2005 (UTC)

To gamble a world --> dein lieblingstitel, zumindest kommt er sooft, dass du bereits ein copyright darauf hast. das bedeutet, dass ich mir mal eine spannende session unter diesem titel erwarte ;-) BelniFore 11:07, 6 Sep 2005 (UTC)
- Stimmt, hast ein gutes Gedächtnis. Klingt auch auf Deutsch gut: "Eine Welt verspielen". Ursprünglich hatte ich sogar eine Idee davon, geht aber Richtung Vampire. Es war die Geschichte von eine paar Neonaten im Vorfeld der französischen Revolution.Der Sabbath brütet im Hintergrund, die alte Welt schwankt, aber die Herrschenden wollen das nicht erkennen - und in den kalten Marmorhallen von Versailles erklingt das Lachen von Francois Villon, Madame Gui, Datura und Grimgroth ;) HaraScon 12:42, 6 Sep 2005 (UTC)
hab ich vor, am besten du liest mal meine statements auf User talk:KainNiemand. da hab ichs näher ausgeführt. betrifft dich nämlich auch, da ich ganz gern den jasper-gold-flaire in "tales from the hard side" rüberholen würde in mage. da könnten wir dann, nach muster mutualis, abwechselnd meistern. das team könnte auch wechseln, falls man charakter wechseln will. BelniFore 11:07, 6 Sep 2005 (UTC)
- Coole Idee. Würde Jasper Gold dann einen Akashi Magier spielen ? Oder Order of Hermes ? Ich habe schon eine gute Idee für ein Sanctum: in einem schäbigen Innercity Park hat vor 80 Jahren ein obskurer Millionär eine kleine Sternwarte errichtet, die von einer kleinen Stiftung weitergeführt wird. Die Sternwarte hat ein bißerl Uraniacharakter, mit ein paar verstaubten Schauräumen drinnen, in denen ein paar Führungen veranstaltet werden. Aber in Wahrheit - eine Node/ eine Riesenbibliothek und ein Blick durchs Teleskop - IN ANDERE WELTEN. Enter the Void Engineers....ups, das ist eine andere Baustelle, böse Technocracy....;) HaraScon 12:42, 6 Sep 2005 (UTC)
Hab eine Seite eingerichtet : Crisis Team 7 (gefällt mir besser als 17). Plaudern wir dort weiter? KainNiemand 12:59, 6 Sep 2005 (UTC)

The Main RPG wiki?[]

Angela seems to be under the impression that this is a wikia about Roleplaying Games, and thus the main RPG wiki. It seems that you have a fairly specific focus though - user created content rather than information about roleplaying in general, publishers, published systems, links to games on the net, links to other roleplaying wikis on wikia, information about roleplaying organisations and clubs, etcetera.

Thanks, --James 05:35, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Hello James, you are right about your observation. And here's why we are what we are: Why are there no general infos about roleplaying games? Why are there only campaigns and campaign-related background infos? Well, it just happened that no user has - up to now - published a generic page about a specific rpg system. It also happens on Wikia that there are loads of XX.wikia.com-sites concerning about specific roleplaying systems. So we saw it fit to narrow down our perspective to one specific focus and so we are now some kind of resource-network for rpg-enthusiasts and -gamemasters who are looking for a space to manage and publish their campaigns. If you like to contribute somehow or to broaden our horizon with links to other sites, you're always most welcome on our site! Cheers, BelniFore 17:03, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Computer RPGs[]

I'm not sure when this wiki decided to be about only paper RPGs, but since that's what you seem to be focusing on now, I'm going to make a new wiki at computerrpg.wikia.com. Is there any content here which ought to move to that wiki? Angela ^talk 20:42, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi Angela, thank you for opening computerrpg.wikia.com. I will search through our user's pages but I think there are no computer-rpg-pages there at the moment. PS: Our wiki was concepted for pen-and-paper from the beginning on. I am sorry for any inconvenience resulting thereof. If we should change our focus or if we should improve somehow, your advice is always welcome. BelniFore 21:59, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Requested change to the sidebar[]

Could someone add Strona Główna (the Polish main page) to the sidebar? Thanks! Bl a st 07.04.07 2250 (UTC)

I have done. How do you feel about keeping all the different language versions on this one site? Is it working, or would it be better to have pl.rpg.wikia.com for the Polish site? Angela ^talk 05:45, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Subdomains might not work for multi-language RPGs, like Tales from the Hard Side, so I vote we keep it on one site for the time being, and use the various language cats (Category:Languages). It isn't a perfect system, but I think it's better than splitting THS up. Bl a st 08.04.07 1309 (UTC)

hi there, should be no problem for THS. i could change it into single-language. no problem with that. i would suggest that the next new language opening on rpg.wikia.com should get us started with subdomains. until then lets keep it as it is at the moment. Belnifore 09:39, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

New skin[]

Hi!

Several months ago, Wikia released a new site skin called Monaco. The new skin features tools which make it much easier for visitors to find content and edit it. You can read all about Monaco here. As you can read on that page, while you will still be able to select Monobook (this wiki's current default skin) as the skin you personally use to view the site (via Special:Preferences), we are no longer able to support Monobook as a default skin for anonymous visitors. So, we need to change the default skin to Monaco.

There are a number of pre-built themes for Monaco. Check out how the homepage looks in Sapphire, Jade, Slate, Smoke, Beach, and Brick, and let me know which one you like best. In addition to those pre-built themes, you can build your own custom themes as well. Check out the custom themes on the Shaiya Wiki and the Diablo Wiki. You can learn about customizing the theme, menus and other aspects of Monaco here.

Take a look at that information, and let me know which theme you think might work best. We need to change the skin by Friday, October 31st, so I am here to make that transition as easy as possible. Let me know if you have any questions, or if I can help in any way.

Thanks! --KyleH (talk) 18:23, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

I set the theme to Sapphire for now. If you would like to change it to something else, an admin can do that via the option at the bottom of the Skin tab in Special:Preferences. --KyleH (talk) 18:05, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Kyle! We'll leave it at that and see how it works out. If I get a lot of feedback from our users requesting changes to the skin I'll get back to you with questions. Thanks for asking! I have something else on my agenda, and that's getting hold of some decent statistics for the site with Google tools. I've seen that there's Google Analytics Code already on the pages (urchin.js) and Angela has promised to add our code snippet to that, but I haven't heard back so far and our code element hasn't been added. Also, I'm waiting to hear if it's possible to verify subdomain ownership for one of our admins via a metatag, so we can use the Google Webmaster tools. I'd be very happy to hear any news about either topic :-) Best regards, KainNiemand 11:25, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Let me check in to that for you, and I'll get back with you soon. --KyleH (talk) 21:29, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Great, thank you! Looking forward to your findings :-) KainNiemand 08:38, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

recent arrival :)[]

Hi!

I'm discussing with my roleplaying group about bringing our content here. We had our own site elsewhere, but service has become very bad and we agree with the CC-BY-SA license.

Howerver, most of our content is in portuguese, and I noticed there's a "pt-br" wiki already. But that wiki is silent since 2008, and I don't get why we should use a separate wiki from this one, since multilingual seems not to be a problem. So I would like to know if it would be ok to include our content here.

For now, we started a few things, you can check that out under category Category:Zumbae

If you have any suggestions or objections, we'd be glad to hear!

Hugs,

Quã (Solstag 05:22, September 23, 2009 (UTC))