RPG.NET
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RPGnet is one of the oldest and largest tabletop role-playing game web sites on the Internet. It was founded in 1996 by Emma and Sandy Antunes, Shawn Althouse (etrigan) and Brian David Phillips, as a way to unify a number of transient game sites. In 2001 it was purchased by Skotos Tech (http://www.skotos.net), but maintains creative and editorial autonomy. Currently it is being run by: Shannon Appelcline (site oversight, programming); Allan Sugarbaker (editorial oversight, operations); Michael Fiegel (articles & columns editorial); and a variety of forums moderators and administrators.
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RPGnet Services
Forums
The site's most popular feature is its very active message forums, which have thousands of active posters. Tangency, the sub-forum created to house off-topic discussions (i.e. not directly concerning roleplaying), is usually the most active in terms of posts per day. The forums have recently shown some growth: there is now a computer and board game forum spun off of the main RPGnet forum; an "other media" forum that covers TV, comics, movies and books that spun off of Tangency; and a few topical categories on photography and other specific interests.
Like most large forums, the site has spawned numerous in-jokes, taglines, and long-running flame wars. The forums follow strict guidelines (see link below). Moderation was formerly very loose but is now somewhat stricter. Some game designers post on the forums regularly, and many are occasional contributors.
Reviews
Reviews have been an important part of the site since its inception and today RPGnet has an active archive of approximately 7,500 reviews. Most reviews are of RPG games and supplements. In the last few years numerous reviews of board and card games have also appeared. Reviews of movies, books, comics, and other topics also appear, though less frequently.
The entire review system was considerably revamped in early 2003 and since then reviews have appeared with numerous cross-references, to try and improve navigation of the large review archive.
Currently, reviews appear at RPGnet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with Monday and Friday being RPG review days and Wednesdays being everything else.
Columns & Articles
RPGnet currently has approximately 20 regular columns. Theoretically one is posted each day from Monday to Friday but in actuality there are 3-4 a week. Most columns cover gamemasters offering advice on running roleplaying games to other gamemasters, but there is some variety.
Notable columns have included: 52 Pickup (http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/collists/52pickup.html) which promised to offer a new game every week for a year (it got to about a dozen before the initial author gave up, then another dozen before the second one did); Behind the Counter (http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/collists/counter.html) which continues to detail the runnings of a gaming retail store; and Freelancing is Not Free (http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/collists/counter.html) which describes how to freelance in the gaming industry.
The software used to generate many of the columns web pages still seems circa the late 1990s and could use a substantial facelift.
Wiki
This is one of the newest features at RPGnet, added in early 2005. As such, it has yet to mature. Other gaming Wikis on the Internet have failed due to lack of interest, but this has the possibility of leveraging the large membership of RPGnet.
The original purpose of the RPGnet Wiki was to offer a place for people to jointly design roleplaying supplements and game systems; there has been some work on this, but others have begun to use it as a place to assemble an encyclopedia of roleplaying terms. Its ultimate usefullness in one direction, the other, or both, is still to be seen.
The RPGnet Wiki is built on MediaWiki, the same software used by Wikipedia.
Other Features
RPGnet once offered a place to post press releases (http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/press.phtml), but currently it simply reprints releases from other sites such as Ogre Cave and Gaming Report.
RPGnet maintains a RPG store (http://shop.rpg.net), though it's actually a clone of RPGShop (http://www.rpgshop.com).
The site has a wide spectrum of registered users and also offers a membership program which gives subscribers early access to reviews, a few forum privileges, and online access to some Days of Wonder games.
External links
- RPGnet Main Page (http://www.rpg.net)
- RPGnet Forums (http://forum.skotos.net)
- RPGnet Reviews (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/)
- RPGnet Columns (http://www.rpg.net/columns/)
- RPGnet Wiki (http://wiki.rpg.net)
- RPGnet article clarifying ownership issues (http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/soap10apr02.html)
- RPGnet rules and guidelines (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=90683)ia:RPG.Net