I just started a roleplaying site that hosts my play-by-post game of Prometheus and want to attract players. The sites I've found that allow game advertisements want to be paid, they don't even allow me to put a little link anywhere without a constant fee.  I want to get a bunch of players together to play a fantasy/sci-fi game and I have nowhere to advertise it... How can I promote my game online without being charged for it?
3622
I'd really like to learn how to play pen-and-paper RPGs.  I know that it takes a few players to actually sit down and play, but I'm not at all sure where to find more gamers.  How do I find existing groups to join? Or, are there any resources online that may help me find existing RPG groups or players?
25412
I noticed that the reputation from the main site carried over to meta on Gaming (at least the first upvote), I guess that doesn't work the other way around, right?  Is it then impossible to have a meta reputation higher than the site reputation?
67430
I intend to write a D&amp;D module and publish it under the OGL (I know 5e itself isn't OGL, see note below) for use with both D&amp;D 5e and AD&amp;D. I know there are areas where I can't draw directly (copyrighted worlds, spells, characters, etc.), but can I include more generic information drawn from the major core books? For example, in an encounter where the party fights Zombies, can I include the 5e zombie stats like HP, AC, attack types, etc.? Would I need permission from Wizards of the Coast to include specific information like this? Or, since it is a generic monster, am I free to use D&amp;D stats from the Monster Manual or other books? Basically, if I have a party encounter a 'generic' monster like a Skeleton, can I include stats in the description of the encounter like so:  AD&amp;D: AC 6, HP 4, damage: 1d6 or by weapons (or other data drawn directly from the AD&amp;D Monster Manual) D&amp;D 5e: AC 13, HP 13, damage vulnerabilities: bludgeoning, damage resistance (etc., etc., drawn directly from the 5e MM)  So, can I draw in the exact stats and damage info from the D&amp;D manuals regardless of edition, without a license? If I keep it under 400 words, would this fall under the &quot;fair use&quot; clause of copyright?  Note: My understanding of the OGL is that it is not exclusive to the 3e ruleset. And while copyright law seems to indicate that the OGL isn't needed to publish add-ons at all, just about every publisher I've seen includes an OGL statement. And some publishers (such as Frog God Games) are making supplements for 5e while claiming use of the OGL. As I understand it, publishing my module under the OGL is independent of whether the edition of D&amp;D I intend it to be used with is also published under the OGL.
88555
According to the Meta  regarding , I am as I write this about 98% of the way towards reaching this privilege. After discussing here a bit, I've also discovered that the  even says that this is a perk I'm soon to receive. However, I currently don't see any ads at all, and I do not use any ad-blocking utilities.   Don't get me wrong, I don't mind at all not seeing any advertising!   briefly mentions missing ads from Meta, but it is an older question, and this site specifically was not really addressed in the answer.   If so, then why have so much information regarding the reduction of ads in the new user information? The answer in the just-mentioned link doesn't really answer this question to my satisfaction.   Why don't we just remove the ad reduction piece entirely from FAQs of this and/or these other sites? Does everyone else disagree and think that we should keep this in place?
22598
I've tried to focus my group heavily on Role Playing, perhaps too well given some of my recent problems, which are Orthagonal, and linked mostly to provide historical context.        A lot of the answers to these questions revolve around "have off the rail's multiple angles" and "don't make people roll for information they must have". That seems well understood to me at this juncture, in fact I have been doing just that, and I think it's causing some other problems.  I have only rarely made people roll for anything (combat aside) anymore, unless it's absolutely non critical. I try to get the players to Role Play their investigations and give them information when they look in the right places, and their are multiple right places.  This results in skills, especially social/mental, being completely inessential, and players not gaining important information because they aren't poking around the right area at all, or asking people who aren't interested in talking to them because they're currently a bunch of random Joe's.  The players aren't stuck at this time, I'm just trying to get better and not have functionally dead scenes, that don't rely on the players to play "what is the GM thinking" nor do I want to just give them every answer.  The reality is, I'm not sure when to make them roll to find things out. what criteria? or other advice, can I use to decide that the players are better off making a Roll to move forward than to purely use Role Playing?  update This question focuses on the Social and to a lesser degree Mental aspects, as it's usually pretty easy to tell when a Physical Roll is needed, even out of combat. It's harder to tell when to make people roll for things they can talk their way through.  I'm playing World of Darkness 2nd Edition, but answers not specific to that are welcome.
117036
Right now, the group that I GM for is very, very tactical-combat focused. To some extent, we may as well be playing a dungeon crawl board game for all the role-play we manage.  Now, in and of itself that's not bad, and I enjoy progressing the story that we're telling, but I would like more "theatre of the mind" than we're achieving right now.  The one bit of advice that I always seem to come across is to have the villains and other NPCs in the fight invite role-play by taunting and otherwise engaging in banter with the PCs, but unfortunately I've tried and failed at that - largely because quick witted banter is not my forte, and so it comes across as strained and less than engaging.  What I would like are other play-proven tactics that I as a GM can employ to lead my players towards more role-play during combat, without taking them away from their (and my) roll-play comfort zone.
80429
I just saw this ad on the side of Stack Overflow:    I currently work for stealth.travel.  It even shows it when I click on the link!    How is it possible that the system does not link 2 + 2 together and not show me the company I already work for in the banner ad? (not that I am looking for a new job, just curious how my own company showed up there)
65474
For a while now I've been thinking about trying my hand at creating a game similar in spirit and execution to Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and offshoots. I'd rather not face the full bulk of work in implementing my own RPG system - I'd like to use D&amp;D rules.  Now, reading about the subject it seems there is something called "The License" which allows a company to brand a game as D&amp;D. This license seems to be exclusive, and let's just say I don't have the money to buy it :p.  Is it still legal for me to implement and release such a game? Commercially or open-source? I'm not sure exactly which edition would fit the best, but since Baldur's Gate is based of 2nd edition, could I go ahead an implement that?  in short: what are the issues concerning licensing and publishing when it comes to D&amp;D?  Also: Didn't see any similar question...
2075
As the younger members of our group get older, they are going off to college or {gasp} getting on with their lives.  We still game but are finding it harder to get together as distances increase. Since they all have computers and are tech savvy, what software is available for virtual table top play?    Being a webmaster and database administrator I have access to all the technology I could possibly need.  So be sure to include system requirements.  I just need to know what my options are.  One thing I need to add.  Some of the players will still be at the physical table and 1 or 2 will be remote.  This means I need to accommodate both types in each game session.  Also having the ability to do Non-D&amp;D is a plus as our group plays many different systems.  For me there is only one answer.  I can try each of the systems since I'm webmaster/DBA  and have that kind of a setup, but I will in the end choose one.  (There Can Be Only One!) As a service to the group I will give a full 'review' of what I did to evaluate and what/why I choose a particular solution.  I think that in the end the fantastic answers here will help others regardless of what I do. Isn't that the best thing?
84591
I'm sad to say that I have absolutely no friends who would like to play D&amp;D with me however I would love to play. I know about Neverwinter Nights and I've played quite a bit of it, but I'm looking for more of the pen &amp; paper experience.  Is this even possible?
106842
Hello guys I'm try to make some games that have more to it than just simple high score scrolling shooters etc.  I'm trying to design my own systm of handling narrative. I want to be able to place NPC's in the game world, with scripts attached to them. Some of the NPC's would just have n random greetings. Others will be mission givers and will offer you a quest of sorts. (The quest could be go speak to Bob in the pub, or it might be bring me the Holy Grail and Crown Jewels, or something in between).  I've wracked my brain for a long while over this but sadly keep slipping back to the only way I know how, which is to manually code all the strings that people can say and have a horrible web of if statements and other such insanity to give me a rudimental dialogue system. Its not good enough even with just a few characters, but if I had dozens/hundreds of characters it would be even worse.  I've read lots about it already but I'm still very confused when I start trying on my own project. I've read that Json/XML might be the way to go and that I can add custom markups in the Json text to call methods in my code, but I dont even know if this is right and if so how I can do it.  The back of my brain is screaming at me that there is a simpler way to do it, but I've sat here for a very long time without managing to think of ideas.  Here is a diagram I drew which pretty much shows the flow of how I want my NPC to behave. If anyone can see this and then tell me how they might do something like this that would be fantastic!! (note: if Json is the correct advise, please give me a exact example of how exactly to format the Json in order to check the bools I mention in my flowchart - thanks!):    note: The circles denote an output from the data as Text for the dialogue system. The bools will need to be checked against by the data file to see which output to give (hope that makes sense and is possible)
103788
I'm in the middle of planning a game built using JavaScript and HTML5.    I'm having trouble understanding how you could prevent someone from simply copying the JavaScript from the web server and either making their own game with it (not my biggest concern), or substituting their own JavaScript functions and dashing any hope for reliable clients in the wild if the game was to eventually support multiplayer.  Can anything be done to prevent just anybody from reading the JavaScript?    If not, should all game processing be taking place on a server somewhere with the client's only responsibilities being capturing user input and drawing graphics?
78952
I would really like to hear how other independents generally approach marketing their game with limited resources. I know how critical marketing is since I've seen it first hand on several fronts. I've been part of teams that didn't put an ounce of marketing into their project and didn't come close to meeting expectations. I've also poured a lot of time into visiting forums to discuss our previous title which resulted in minor bumps over time.  I really think  is doing some amazing grass roots marketing with the way they are managing their community around their Blog. They've massed a following that is willing to pay (far in advance) them for their game before they finish it to help support them. That's awesome.  But how many people are really willing to divulge such information that early? Should that be a concern? Should I start talking about my next project before I really have anything implemented?   What has worked for you? I would be particularly interested to hear how people approach Apple's iTunes store. I believe we're looking at around 33,000 games on the store these days.
96047
A friend of mine recently got MTG for the XBox and is talking us into getting real cards.  I'm all up for starting but I dread the idea of playing the same two people over and over with no change epically since one of them is over competitive and exploits every loophole he can to win.  Does anyone know of any a reliable (not just google it) way to find places where people play MTG?
116477
While happily browsing  I suddenly noticed this:        Curious, I clicked and landed . Appears to be ordinary Area51 proposal, one out of hundreds.  Do all proposals get such ad at some point? What is the criteria? Any way to ask for such ad?
29769
I actually have two situations but they are interconnected. Our group is currently playing a Dresden game. The GM and one of the players are married. Along with that, he is a new member to the group. I can understand her (the GM) wanting to make him feel welcome but it has gone into the the realm of blatant favoritism. A few examples:   Every idea he has is deemed fantastic, wonderful, awesome and is always successful. Most of the time he doesn't have to roll to see if he succeeds; he just does. After a series of major setbacks to the other player's characters, I joked that her husband was the only one left to mess with. Her answer to that was that she would absolutely not be messing with him in the game. He and his character were safe from that. In the last session, he and another player had to make the same roll using the same skill for the same information. He needed a fair to succeed. The other player needed a great. Not the first time that has happened.    The second part of this has to do with him as well. As I said, he is new to the group. When we were discussing a game to play, it was made clear that it would be cooperative. We would all be working together to a common end. However, he will not- I mean ever- share any information with the rest of the group. No matter how vital or needed that information is to advance the story, he just smiles and says he's got nothing. To try and get around this problem, a group aspect was created. That way if a situation or information that everybody needed to know came up, a fate chip could be played and anyone who wanted to be a part of it could be present. He is totally abusing it. Now, instead of just not telling us anything, he adds give me a fate chip and maybe I'll tell you something. It's like he is trying to beat us at the game and that is not the way it was set up.    So, the question to these two situations is what do I do? How do I handle this in a rational and sensitive way? To complicate things further, the GM is my best friend. He is her husband. I don't want to put her in the middle but I am about ready to quit the game. I am tired of it being his game and everyone else being bit players. Should I talk to her or should I talk to him? If anyone has had experience with this, any advice would be appreciated.
116022
I'm playing around with a native (non-web) single-player game I'm writing, and it occured to me that having a daily/weekly/all-time online highscore list (think Xbox Live Leaderboard) would make the game much more interesting, adding some (small) amount of community and competition. However, I'm afraid people would see such a feature as an invitation to hacking, which would discourage regular players due to impossibly high scores.  I thought about the obvious ways of preventing such attempts (public/private key encryption, for example), but I've figured out reasonably simple ways hackers could circumvent all of my ideas (extracting the public key from the binary and thus sending fake encrypted scores, for example).  Have you ever implemented an online highscore list or leaderboard? Did you find a reasonably hacker-proof way of implementing this? If so, how did you do it? What are your experiences with hacking attempts?