Pen & Paper Games

First, no, I don't mean actually doing a Kick Starter campaign -- aren't there enough of those already?! What I mean is that Pen & Paper Games has been coasting along as it is for a couple years now with not much in the way up updates, innovation, or to be frank, involvement from myself to move it forward.

And, I want to change that. But, I think P&PG needs to figure out what it is going to be. A lot of the focus of the original site was on connecting players through the Player Registry, but this in and of itself isn't enough to create a vibrant and active community. So, I tried to create a place for gamers to not only meet, but a space where they could chat and exchange ideas through our forums. Since I started up P&PG though, social media has changed a LOT. Facebook has become one of the biggest sites (maybe the biggest?) on the planet, and "tweeting" has become an integral part of our collective lexicon.

The way we communicate online continues to change -- enough so that I'm not even sure what role traditional Forums such as this one have... I looked down this barrel a long time ago when things moved from local BBS's -- some of you are probably too young to even know what that is -- and now I find myself looking down that barrel again. As I see it, P&PG has two choices if it has any future. It has to embrace the old and become the best at it that it can possibly be; competing for audience among sites like RPG.net and ENWorld. OR, it has to evolve, and to be honest, I'm not really sure what that would look like.

So, I put the question to you. Though we have many, many members, if you are reading this, you are probably among a much smaller group that visits these forums on a regular basis. So, I am wondering, what is it that brings you back? What is it that you feel like P&PG offers that you can't readily get elsewhere? And, what do you think this site could do better? ... If this was your site, what would you do with it?

I'm open to any ideas you all have. Hit me with it, because I do want this site to succeed and not simply fold up and disappear into the digital ether as so many others have.

Grab your virtual dice bags folks and mark down November 16-18, 2012 on your calendar, the AetherCon Online RPG Convention is coming to your computer.

We will be featuring tabletop RPGs of all types throughout the weekend highlighted by four three day tournaments of Pathfinder, Call of Cthuhlu, Savage Worlds, and Shadowrun.

Additionally vendors, industry guests, and artists are also in our plans. We will be releasing free downloadable wallpapers throughout the months leading up to the con. You can see them find the first two, Gormic ‘Pretty’ Nangalmaar as done by White Wolf featured artist Brian LeBlanc and Klandeggin Moltenfist illustrated by Andre Freitas Cardozo here.

All of our events will be run using the Traipse next generation virtual tabletop and its companion browser-based web-client. Both are currently under development with the Beta version of Pious Paladin having been already released. These programs will make it possible for a player to simply click on a link on the event website and ‘sit down at the table’ as it were as opposed to having to download, install, and boot up a separate program as was the case in the past. We are also planning for voice chat games using Skype technology for some events.

If you’d like to be involved in AetherCon send an e-mail here: stephen@aethercon.com

Be sure to visit our websites and show your support for AetherCon via Facebook and Twitter.

Website: http://www.aethercon.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AetherConRPG
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/AetherCon

Michael Chumbler
RPG Community Liaison - AetherCon

Check out this article by Mike Mearls. I think we all pretty new this was coming sooner rather than later. What amazes me is that this news rose to the level of being covered by the NY Times. Impressive!

What are your thoughts about a new edition? Love it, hate it? Personally, I'm just glad they are keeping the brand alive.