[indent]This forum provides advice from, to, for and by your fellow Dungeon Masters. Give or receive help on table management, adventure planning, and player relations, or use the forum as a sounding board for any and all ideas you have for your Dungeons & Dragons campaign! Your peers await![/indent]
[indent]Whether dealing with a sticky in-game situation or a difficult out-of-game scenario (and everything in between), this forum allows D&D players to seek guidance and advice from their peers. No problem or question is too difficult![/indent]
I'll probably edit that during the day; it's only a first draft.
Here's the current text:
[indent]Character creation, resolving problems with the DM or other players, and general advice on how to be a better player.[/indent]
I'm happy with that as-is, if that's OK.
This is acutally forum related business and not just "community". It should detail that this is the place to look for and discuss the forums itself. This very thread being a prime example.
WotC Staff Blogs:
Get rid of it. It is just a ghost/shadowed link to another forum. include it in the footer below the actual forums as a link to the forum that actuall contains the staff logs, or include it in a forums site map. The amount of landscaping it takes up at the top of the page is more than it needs to with the already oversized banner, and forums header.
Future Releases:
Again some wasted landscaping due to the size of the "?" graphic. the current description seems sufficient.
GSL:
What is it for? Is it for asking questions of WotC staff about the GSL? Is it just for user opinons about the GSL? Without knowing the purpose of the forum it is hard to say how to describe it.
Character Building:
Trash it or rename it. If this is the place to discuss player characters, then just call it the PC forum to discuss all aspects of PCs. Otherwise it just sems like a duplication of the forum below.
Character Optimization:
trash it or rename it to Min-Max Characters. That is the only thing it is ever for. If the game system works, then there should be no possible way to make "broken" characters. Also there is no way to optimize a character. Every player does not want to play the best set of numbers, that is what video games are for. So be honest in both the name and description. The forum in the past has been a place to min-max a set of numbers into the best collection of rules to "play" the game with the least possible chance of combat failure. Since the game is not only about combat, then you cannot "optimize" a character by only dealing with those aspect of the game. Maybe using "Combat" in the forum name itself would be appropriate. "Combat Statistics Optimization".
Monsters:
I think it is self explanitory. Monsters as a term means anything that is not a PC. Now oddly, that even would include traps, and terrain for encouter purposes. So maybe renaming the forum to Encouter design would be beter to encapsulate all the aspects of it, or creating one for encounters would work for it. Otherwise the forum says for itself what it is for, those creatures you meet that come from the Monster Manuals.
Equipment & Magic Items:
It is where you discuss your adventuring gear and treasure.
Rules Q&A:
Currently the description seesm to imply you would get official responses to rules questions. Does this actually mean WotC designers will be answering questions posed in this forum? Is this forum a place where users ask each other opinons on how to interpret the rules? The purpose,again, is needed to know how to describe this forum.
General Discussion:
~insert canned spam~
"If it doesn't fit anywhere above then it goes here."
But there are other forums below it.
So something along the usual idea is all it should take to explain it is a catch-all forums for everything else.Dungeon Master Advice:
Are only other Dms allowed to post in this forum, and how to you prvent non-Dms from posting? The current description implies this.
"Here you can ask advice on DMing."
Probably best to combine the two forums, this and the one below as advice on DMing often requires knowing how players feel about the way the game is being DMed, and vice versa the players need advice based on how a game is DMed and how to play in it. They go hand in hand and don't really need seperation, unless full-time moderation exists to manipulate threads into the proper one of the two.
Player Advice:
(see above)
House Rules:
"Think the game doesn't work the way it is writen, or would like to introduce a new idea for something? That is what House Rules are, and here is where they find a home in the D&D Community forums. Join and discuss you own variants to D&D."
Playful, but informative.
Campaign & Adventure Workshop:
Is there actually people who are supposed to help and guide some actual workshop on how to create these things or develop skills in creating them, or is this another use of a catchy term (workshop) just to draw attention? Again without details on the actual nature of this forum it is difficult to give it a description.
Astrid's Parlor:
"Sexism at it's finest!"
or better yet!
"It doesn't matter what gender you are to play D&D but we will stress gender views here."
It really doesn't matter what sex/race you are to play D&D, anything discussed here could be discussed anywhere else. People not wanting to talk to a female about gaming,...well I wont say, but we don't need to have the female point of view suppressed to a single forum, that view needs to be expressed openly against other views.
"Women do play D&D!" -Maybe that will be a good description for the forum.
Off-Topic Tavern:
(see the forum itself for my opinon on this one.)
D&Di Announcements:
If it is ever unlocked then maybe it will have a use. It is for discussing announcement made about Insider, or is it actually where annoucnements are made so people can read them without a lot off excess chatter? If it is for information distribution then it probably needs to be located in an announcement section nearer the top of the porums page.
Dragon:
There only really needs to be one forum. There aren't that many articles to need two forums, and still each part of the Dragon, and dungeon as well will be discussed in the proper D&D section. The only thing it will serve as is a place to gripe about the condition of Dragon, or Dungeon, and each f them only really needs one forum, not two for each.
Technical Discussion:
Isn't this a duplication of the Community Business forum? Again what is it for? Maybe to discuss Insider problems? Then it should probably be properly named as such otherwise you will have both forum problems and insider problems there making it confusing to figure out which part of the website is having problems. Unles Insider users will not be considered a part of the community and supposed to post there only rather than the forum we are currently in.
D&Di General:
Again what is it for? Is this the catch-all for everything not already having its own forum and related to Insider?
D&D Worlds:
Well these shouldn't be that hard to describe.
I just wonder does the Other Published Worlds also include the OOP section, and if so why does it appear twice in the listings of forums?
D&D Out of Print
Hop to this Other Worlds board to discuss vintage gaming with older editions and classic products.
Related Topics:
-D&D Previous Editions
-Other Roleplaying Worlds
-D&D Out of Print
Seems like there are 4 forums dedicated to the exact same thing which was in the above section Other Published Worlds
d20 Design:
Does this belong in the D&D forums? d20 games may be related to D&D by similar systems, but are they D&D? Is d20 Modern some new-age version of D&D?
RPG Forums:
I thought this was exactly what these whole things were, so what could they be? A link to the forum itself? Or Maybe is this "Gleemax RPG Forums"?
Play by Post Forums:
PBEM/PBP, yup pretty self explanitory. Include int he description any rules for using the forums if you intended people to be in character in specific threads, and OOC in others, or some other rules that may help people finding them form here.
Legacy D&D Forums (closed):
Archived threads.
"Closed because administration no longer wanted these topics discussed and didn't feel like sorting through them to find any discusion that still had value."
Maybe not exactly what you wanted, but some more information is needed about the purpose of the forums, based on their name to be able to provide proper descriptions about them. Odds are when you have the purpose for each forum figured out, then you will pretty much have its description right there.
Off Topic Tavern:
Kick off your shoes, let down your hair and get to know your fellow posters.
Technical Discussion:
Having problems with the D&Di? Tell us here.
Wrecan: DM boards and the Campaign & Adventure Workshop, but it's minimal.
It doesnt seem like "minimal" overlap at all. In fact, it seems like DM Advice has swallowed up Campaign & Adventure in toto, and has stolen ALL of its traffic.
Dungeon Master Advice
Give or receive help on .. adventure planning, .. any and all ideas you have for your campaign!
Campaign & Adventure Workshop
Discuss any plans you might have with designing your own encounters, adventures, campaign arcs, or even home-brewed campaign worlds!
These two forums seem absolutely identical.
"Give or receive help on adventure planning" = "Discuss plans with your adventures"
"any and all ideas for your campaign" = "any plans with your campaign arcs or campaign worlds"
One forum has completely swallowed the other whole.
If a DM wants some advice on how to plan out a game session or series of game sessions,. they can go to the DM board. If they are looking for advice on how to make an internally consistent world that will be challenging to players, they go to Campaign & Adventure Workshop. Some questions could be asked in either. I think that's fine.
Or a user could post in both locations. Cross-posting to two forums is permitted, specifically because there can be some overlap; even the old boards had that.
It doesnt seem like "minimal" overlap at all.
I guess it depends on who your audience is. The DM forum solicits advice form DMs. The Workshop solicits advice from people interested in world-building and design.
That's why the DM Forum description begins: "This forum provides advice from, to, for and by your fellow Dungeon Masters"
I'll add the following sentence to the Campaign and Adventure Workshop description to make the distinction clearer: "If you're interested in designing worlds, campaigns and adventures, then this is the forum for you."
That will emphasize that the difference between the DM forum and a Workshop is the audience, rather than the discussion topic.
I'll add the following sentence to the Campaign and Adventure Workshop description to make the distinction clearer: "If you're interested in designing words,..."
I love designing words! It's crazy fun!
You should use the Campaign & Adventure forum "for adventure planning and as a sounding board for any and all ideas you have for your Dungeons & Dragons campaign!"
The description for the DM Advice forum should remove the words "campaign" and "adventure".
I disagree. A Dm can discuss his nascent campaign or draft adventure in the DM forum if he wants the advice of self-identifying DMs, or in the Campaign and Adventure forum if he wants the advice of self-identifying designers.
Overlap is not a bad thing. Embrace it!
(Though I'm curious why you're not equally upset that the Player's forum description drafted by Zherog references "sticky in game" situations. Aren't all in game situations handled in D&D Fundamentals? (Of course, since I embrace overlap, I don't care -- just curious why you don't have a problem with that.)