To those who surf the Dragonsfoot forums... (2025)

It used to be a fairly friendly place, it seemed as if they didn't want me there after a while, and I rarely went there thereafter. The only reason I go over there now is to check up on the occasional C&C post.

I'm just sorry that the atmosphere there has changed so much; even the more negative posters helped me address WHY I like various things about 3E, as well as remind me of some of the things I liked about earlier editions.

Oh, well. to each his own beer.

<<Heavy sigh>>

I'm really torn on the direction of DF the last year or so. The poor guys running the site can't seem to keep everybody happy, and I really feel for them. They want to have a site open to everybody, but it seems that no matter what, a proponent of either the new stuff or the old stuff will eventually come in and stir up trouble. So they've had to make some tough choices. In the end, I think they've managed to tick off both OOP and 3e fanatics in equal degree. Which probably means they've done as well as can be expected.

Some of the indignation by 3e'ers is a bit out of place, given that the more fanatic proponents share equal blame with the fanatic 1e'ers in changing the nature of the boards over there.

As it stands now, the Classic D&D boards are the best non-Advanced, non-3e boards on the Net. More traffic than the Guild of OD&D. Mortality and Wizards OOP boards tend to be more focused on 2e, with their posters less informed on the subject. DF's Classic D&D board has a nice core of really intelligent posters that know what they're talking about and are really enthused to help someone out when they have a question about the game.

Unfortunately, the 1e boards have been more hit or miss lately, with many of the best posters spending more of their time elsewhere. And the non-D&D boards (Cthulhu, Hackmaster, etc.) have slowed to a crawl, since EW and 3e were closed.

It's a pity that so much attention goes to the forums, when DF has a bunch of nice free downloads for OOP games. I wish more of the OOP proponents would stop getting into Internet arguments, and start submitting material to DF (myslelf included; I've got about three projects that I need to finish and submit). That's what would help the cite immensely.

R.A.

(this is my first enworld post)

Dragonsfoot has changed more then once. The recent big changes followed a spat of ridiculous fighting by a body of folks that either argued too much (that certainly included me) or were trying to keep Dragonsfoot from being a place where folks that enjoyed the earlier versions of D&D could discuss all the different versions of D&D and rpgs in general.

The silly fighting encouraged me to be a more useful and less argumenative poster over at Dragonsfoot others complained and left. The Moderators silenced the edition wars and the 3e forum because nastiness had leaked into the other forums but at the time of that change many of the nastier folks moved on leaving a damaged dragonsfoot in thier wake.

The recpetion that C&C tidibits recently recieved over at dragonsfoot disgusted me.

JDJarvis said:

(this is my first enworld post)

Click to expand...

Welcome to EN World

The recpetion that C&C tidibits recently recieved over at dragonsfoot disgusted me.

Click to expand...

I'm also surprised of the reaction there. The irony is that TLG themselves have directed people to Dragonsfoot as outlet for news on the C&C project and Castle Zagyg.

Please be kind to Dragonsfoot, folks.

The site's founder passed away and then Edition Wars almost destroyed the place.

There's no "hate", "extremism" or "Taliban-ness" in refocusing the site on its original mission.

Merric, I think the truth would be better served by saying "If you want to discuss, evangelize or troll for 3e, or compare it to OOP editions solely to demonstrate its greatness, you don't belong there."

I can't speak for Stuart & Co. but I'll bet a whole dungeonful of loot that everyone who wants to discuss and explore OD&D, BD&D and AD&D belongs there.

Gutboy Barrelhouse said:

There's no "hate", "extremism" or "Taliban-ness" in refocusing the site on its original mission.

Click to expand...

I agree 'AD&D Taliban' was an inappropriate comment

Merric, I think the truth would be better served by saying "If you want to discuss, evangelize or troll for 3e, or compare it to OOP editions solely to demonstrate its greatness, you don't belong there."

Click to expand...

Don't want to speak for Merric but I'll say I think that the current atmosphere goes beyond that to some extent, though I haven't surfed extensively at DF lately.

Of course, it's natural for DF to have a 1e bias. That should be expected by visitors.

As Henry said, to each their own.

Hello.

There are some good points raised here, so I'll try and answer a few.

DF has had a rather rough 6 months. Mark, the founder (and a close personal friend) passed away in November. Soon after we were ravaged by a number of flame wars, which left a lot of bad blood.

We thought very carefully and decided to return DF to it's original focus, 1E AD&D and other OOP D&D. So we closed the 3E and EW forums. I will be the first to admit that the transition could have been handled better.

Our hope was that the energy being used in these arguments could be redirected into submissions. (hah!)

3E is not a rude word, DF is just no longer a place for the discussion of 3E versus older editions. Our visitors wanted a sanctuary and we try to provide one.

As has been already said, what we seem to have done is alienate both the 3E visitors and OAD&D visitors. Obviously this was never our intention and is a very sad situation.

We hope that we can return DF to it's former glory, and it is the place to go to discuss OOP (A)D&D, but not in comparision to 3E.

DF tries to be open and friendly and edition (and system) bashing in any form is frowned upon.

As for C&C, well the thread in question got quite heated, but stayed civil, and there is nothing wrong with good debate. I am happy for C&C topics to exist in the General Discussion forums, and made sure that a sticky was placed in the GD forum concerning playtesting (this was many months ago).

Regards

Steve

If you are interested in OD&D, Basic/Expert/&c., OAD&D, or AD&D2e; please don't let anything you read dissuade you from visiting DF. Yeah, it ain't a perfect place, but what is? Ask questions, answer as you can, discuss, & try to avoid the temptation to feed the trolls. Just like any other online forum. While the operators & moderators certainly have a hand--in the end--an online forum is what we--the users--make of it.

If you're looking for material to use with older editions of (A)D&D, or stuff to adapt to whatever game you play, check out the main DF site.