Tabletop Gaming instead of other forums

Buceph

I'm a big tabletop gamer, and I'm on a fair few forums that discuss them, however boards doesn't have that much activity when it comes to the hobby. There are forums to discuss it, there's the Toys and Boardgames forum, the Tradable Card Games forums under Strategy, there's the Miniature Gaming forum and there's the Roleplaying forum. The thing is, none of these forums individually get a lot of traffic.

Would putting them all together, simply under "Tabletop Gaming" boost traffic? I think it might, seeing as reaching a critical mass of posting is important for a forum to become active.

I know there would be a bit of hassle with some forums, like the ones under the Roleplaying designation, and the Toys part of the Toys and Boardgames section. However, if a solution were to come up for those, I think it could create a viable forum for the "hobby game" people.

Overheal

Like.

Tabletop Gaming could encompass Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Magic the Gathering, LIFE, Monopoly, etc.

There's a good tie-in there, because if you can get the forum together as a community you have a good place to find people and arrange meet-ups. Because all you need after all is a table. And beer.

The only offshoot is probably Miniatures, because therein you are getting into the Hobby portion of it with all the painting and crafting minutiae.

Buceph

The thing about miniatures is that it crosses over into the other games as well. Most purely miniature games are wargames, but not all wargames are miniture games. But you've also got the miniatures in RPGs, which end up being bought from most of the same suppliers as the wargaming miniature players. Of the last three RPGs I've played two of them have had miniatures in them, and one of them involved the hobby aspect of the craft with the painting and board making. With board games a portion of the board gamers play games with quite good miniatures, and some of them end up following the hobbyist route and painting the miniatures themselves (with games like Battlelore and Descent.) Then you have the games from the big miniature producer, Games Workshop, who are putting out a lot of non-mini games through Fantasy Flight. And you've got a few board game like miniature games like GWs Blood Bowl, and Privateer Press' Grind. Then you've got things like Monsterpocalypse, the Clix system (which is coming back, especially with the Star Trek system coming out) and stuff like Arcane Legions which pop up every few years, and those are more akin to the CCGs than to what people have traditionally put in the miniatures section.

I think all the forums I mentioned are struggling at the moment, and could benefit from being put together. Especially as once you go to conventions, (university) gaming clubs, and gaming shops, you find them all together, under one roof.

Edit: So, it's decided, the forum is to be called Tabletop Gaming and Beer Forum.

LoLth

only problem with that is that the RPG forum that currently covers things like D&D also covers things like D&D online and other online RPGs. If you split the forum by the location where the game is played rather than the genre of game, then you'll end up with more overlap between the fora.

Combining them could make sense but then you run the risk of a forum that is too wide ranging and loses focus.

Buceph

First off, on what the RPG forum covers, I'd think that's too broad, and that's part of why it suffers. If you ask most people who play CRPGs about Tabletop RPGs they wouldn't have a clue. They might be able to tell you that Neverwinter Nights is based on Dungeons and Dragons, ask them what game Vampire: Bloodlines is based on and I'd say most wouldn't have a clue. Even fewer would know who Gary Gygax is. If you asked tabletop RPG players about CRPGs, they'd see that as very distinct from their weekly RPG game. If you're worried about the RPG subforums, the RPG Threads section hasn't had a real thread in months, the last two are about tabletop threads. And the Elder Scrolls and JRPG forums I think would be better under the Computer Games sections. I just don't think there's an identifiable, play link between CRPGs and Tabletop RPGs.

As for the other forums losing focus if they were put together... I think they're already underutilised. If they weren't in existence already and were just newly proposed I don't think they would get approval (a guess based on the level of support needed to approve a forum.) And if you go to any gaming club, convention or shop in the country you will find all those games under the same roof.