Why is anyone here?

[Trill]

Veni, Vidi, Remansi
I came here because I'm running 4e with The Ends and wanted the newest version, clarifications and a place to discuss it.
I saw the relative openness of discussion and tone.
I stayed for the OSSR and occasional non-shitflinging discussion.

This, pretty much. I get more interesting discussions from 4chan of all places, plus they cater to my goblin fetish.

Eh, you and I must go to different 4chans then.
Because the 4chan I currently see is full of Generals, Shitposting and pornposting. With the occasional interesting thread inbetween.

[Heaven's Thunder Hammer]

I came across this forum a LONG time ago in the late 2000's I think, around the time 4e was being created. The discussion was refreshingly critical. I forgot about it for a long time until I got banned from RPG.net for trying to talk about the manosphere around 2014. (Because even TALKING about it might pollute you.) But more generally, that I had differing views than the majority of the Tangency forum there.

I like RPGs. I also, as pointed out, have noticed a shit ton of flaws in them over the years, and after discovering how much corruption at RPG.net hid that I looked for other boards to post on.

[Whipstitch]

Much of our vibe comes from so many of us being wizened homebrewers who have more in common with DIY auto restorers than enthusiastic brand fanboys. For example, when the OSSR for GURPS Goblins hit the boards my take away was that Goblins is a rusted out relic AND that I desperately wanted to strip it for parts in order to slap together something that would amaze and confuse my friends. Ironically, I'd argue that the willingness to make something out of nothing is both the saving grace of the hobby and exactly why the standards for "professional" product in this hobby are so low; the fan boy types will defend things to the death and even us asshole grognards are used to wading through a waist high moat of shit if it means we can fish out one good idea and bend it to our own purposes.

[violence in the media]

I come here mostly for the catharsis of seeing people speak and argue openly, even if I don't contribute much to the discussions. Plus, this place doesn't really tolerate any alt-right bullshit in the way a lot of other forums do.

[Dogbert]

I originally came here on recommendation from an old acquaintance in OpenRPG. He said your analyses were "right on the money."

Plus, this place doesn't really tolerate any alt-right bullshit in the way a lot of other forums do.

It is the fact that this place embraces calling a spade a spade that makes it conductive to the most basic tenet of peace: Keeping peace requires the immediate confrontation and rejection of bullshit.

Nazis weaponize civility, which has allowed them to conquer this modern world so deathly afraid of being seen as "confrontational," except that shit won't fly here.

[Libertad]

I originally came here on recommendation from an old acquaintance in OpenRPG. He said your analyses were "right on the money."

Plus, this place doesn't really tolerate any alt-right bullshit in the way a lot of other forums do.

It is the fact that this place embraces calling a spade a spade that makes it conductive to the most basic tenet of peace: Keeping peace requires the immediate confrontation and rejection of bullshit.

Nazis weaponize civility, which has allowed them to conquer this modern world so deathly afraid of being seen as "confrontational," except that shit won't fly here.

I don't know if he is still one now, but Frank and some other prominent Gaming Denizens were some pretty ardent Communists when I was lack on the site around...2010 to 2014 I think?

[phlapjackage]

I come here to read stuff mostly 90% NOT related to RPGs, the other 10% being SR/ED/maybe a few other games. There's interesting discussion to read even if I can't contribute, although I'm trying to contribute more to a) not just be a consumer and b)improve my written communication. And as others say, I appreciate the lack of needing to worry about "civility".

As a thought I've had, I think part of the appeal of boards is a similar one to why people like watching sitcoms and soap operas (the same thing?). It's that imagined connection you're making with the characters, you begin to feel these people are a part of your life even though they aren't. "Tune in next week to see what crazy thing <poster> will say!"

Nazis weaponize civility, which has allowed them to conquer this modern world so deathly afraid of being seen as "confrontational," except that shit won't fly here.

I'm reminded of this quote, emphasis mine

Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.?—?In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols.We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

I prefer this version:

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Eh, you and I must go to different 4chans then.
Because the 4chan I currently see is full of Generals, Shitposting and pornposting. With the occasional interesting thread inbetween.

There is literally nothing wrong with general threads. Stop being a British cigarette.

[Trill]

Generals are a necessary evil. You don't want every single issue to have its own thread.
But on the other hand you want some discussion that's more system agnostic. And the state of generals encourages a lot of in-group behaviour (see pfg, srg, pf2g).
Plus, there's too many Generals there. Do we need 5 different Generals for MtG? 6 Different Generals for Warhammer, instead of 2?

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Jesus christ, what a fucking cesspool that place turned into. Generals are a sign of stagnation. Apt, given the state of the hobby.

[Mask_De_H]

Came for the Tomes, stayed for the discussion of mechanics and improving them.

Also, generals aren't the problem, the violent intolerance of culture mingling is the problem. Quests getting ran off the board was a chilling effect for cross-culture posting that isn't bait. Also the /pol/ chuds.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Imageboards are a dying format anyway. I dunno about 4chan, but everyone outside is well aware of that fact... or just in denial. Internet consolidation is fucking real and it sucks dick. Maybe we should be outside playing tabletop games instead of bitching about them on the internet.
Shame bitching is so much fun.

[jt]

/tg/ is in such a sorry state because when it comes to media nazis only care about determining a cannon that they can venerate. They want to consume culture in the most correct way from the most approved creators. Homebrew and critical discussion are antithetical to the nazi ethos. They're also the most important parts of an RPG forum, so an RPG forum overrun with little nazi shits is going to be completely lifeless. The proliferation of general threads are symptomatic of this; they're little islands of different ideas of what the approved RPG experience is supposed to be.

On the bright side; I routinely go on /pol/ to fuck up their recruitment tactics, and I've barely had to post anything in months. The place is falling apart; hardly any newbie nazis asking questions about how to better hate Jewish people. Now it's mostly old-guard nazis trying to troll each other into being enraged about what their various targets are supposedly up to, with very few responses.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

That sounds like a hollow way to spend your internet time.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

So basically:

-Threads dedicated to the discussion of a specific game instead of creating a new thread for every question asked = BAD

-Threads that had nothing to do with traditional gaming where assholes would LARP as 14-year-old japanese lesbians = Best thing on the board, it's all downhill from here now that they have their own containment board

Yeah, okay. <insert brainlet Wojack here>

[WiserOdin032402]

Doesn't /tg/ do thread cleanup to delete old threads? I would think that isn't conducive to homebrewing in the first place, considering the onus of archiving is on the user, rather than just some feature of the board.

Beyond that, the homebrew scene of 3.5 wasn't all that good outside of the TOMES, and the TOMES themselves aren't widely well-known, meaning that a lot of people who played 3.X and got exposed to homebrew got exposed to bad homebrew. That usually causes them to immediately stop thinking critically when you put homebrew in front of their face. So instead of thinking 'Ah yes this is a fighter engineered from the ground up to participate in 3.5 and contribute to a group, balanced around being rogue tier' they go 'B-buh it's g-good at something other than c-combat! It shouldn't do that!' while also turning around and going 'Yes, wizards and clerics are overpowered, you shouldn't play them at all.'

It's a very common affliction, because while people can have system mastery, it doesn't translate into actually making a new class or revising an old one, they just know how to play the wizard/cleric/etc good and make the enemies drop in one round. They don't know the full level of mechanical failing within the system and how to make a class to address that. It takes a lot of time that people generally don't have to get good at homebrewing for a TTRPG, which, may I remind everyone is a niche hobby.

[Trill]

Doesn't /tg/ do thread cleanup to delete old threads? I would think that isn't conducive to homebrewing in the first place, considering the onus of archiving is on the user, rather than just some feature of the board.

Threads that fall off the board (either because they aren't bumped or because they reached autosage) get archived by the board. this Archive stores them for I think 7 days, after which they are permanently deleted.
There are also a lot of archive sites (desuarchive, fireden, 4plebs, warosu, etc.) which automatically save stuff

and the problem is less the cleanup and more the general atmosphere. Stuff that's nice is ignored. Stuff that's bad is endlessly made fun of. So people wanting criticism are ignored or ridiculed.
Plus the cringe culture, where everything that's remotely fun or unironic is "cringe".

Beyond that, the homebrew scene of 3.5 wasn't all that good outside of the TOMES, and the TOMES themselves aren't widely well-known, meaning that a lot of people who played 3.X and got exposed to homebrew got exposed to bad homebrew. That usually causes them to immediately stop thinking critically when you put homebrew in front of their face. So instead of thinking 'Ah yes this is a fighter engineered from the ground up to participate in 3.5 and contribute to a group, balanced around being rogue tier' they go 'B-buh it's g-good at something other than c-combat! It shouldn't do that!' while also turning around and going 'Yes, wizards and clerics are overpowered, you shouldn't play them at all.'

It's a very common affliction, because while people can have system mastery, it doesn't translate into actually making a new class or revising an old one, they just know how to play the wizard/cleric/etc good and make the enemies drop in one round. They don't know the full level of mechanical failing within the system and how to make a class to address that. It takes a lot of time that people generally don't have to get good at homebrewing for a TTRPG, which, may I remind everyone is a niche hobby.

From what I've seen a common position is "Casters manipulate the very fabric of reality. Of course they should be gods."

[Count Arioch the 28th]

That is a drawback to the image board format, inadequate archiving. There are a lot of really good things that I didn't save before it fell off the board/got deleted that I was not able to find later.

From what I've seen a common position is "Casters manipulate the very fabric of reality. Of course they should be gods."

I've literally never met anyone who thought that. I've seen random shitposters say that, and there was that one guy on the Wizards boards that I was mean to because I didn't know what autism was and didn't realize he couldn't help it, but no one in real life.

Also, I'd say that Tome is bad homebrew. It's got too many fiddly little bonuses to keep track of. "Wear this armor to get DR 2 against nonlethal attacks!" Who the fuck cares? It was a nice effort and better than a lot of other terrible homebrew 3.5 games but it isn't great.

[jt]

Homebrew on /tg/ was at its best when it was small silly systems or brainstorming about gonzo settings. Something Tome-like would never fit on an image board with transient threads, but there's more to RPGs than serious additions to rules heavy systems.

I always enjoyed the anonymous, transient nature of the board, it's less intimidating than permanently attaching your pseudonym to something. But if course that's undermined by a board full of people seeking to mock or codify.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

That is a drawback to the image board format, inadequate archiving.

You're making it real fuckin' hard to take anything you say seriously.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Lol calm down

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Oh, go get lost in a forest of cocks.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

OK

[Libertad]

Oh, go get lost in a forest of cocks.

Fun fact: 50% of TGD arguments end up unintentionally homoerotic.