Free, Community-generated print & play games

[cmlacy]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to start up a new project that I think may appeal to some of you. I've set up a site at http://www.grassrootsgamer.com, where I am willing (and actively want) to host any free game or game idea (non-videogames, anyhow). Any language, any genre, any level of completeness - if it's free, I want it! All memberships are free, and any user is free to copy an existing game and make their own variant. If everyone collaborates, I think some great games will fall out.

Please give it a look!

[Rob Lang]

Crikey! This is a big project, cmlacy!Wish you best of luck with it.

May I recommend you put in the lion's share of the content to start with (for the first year) as collaborative communities need a huge and sustained push by a small core of people. Keeton's lucky here at 1KM1KT, he's got Chainsaw Aardvark, Kumakami and a host of regulars. It's taken Keeton a huge amount of push, effort and content over time to get 1KM1KT to this stage.

[cmlacy]

Thanks for the good wishes. I'm definitely expecting to have to put in the bulk of the content. So far, it's hard to convince people to throw things out there. Unfair judgements will be dealt with in kind! But that dedicated core is out there, I know it!

I'm thinking some sort of charity-benefit contest might help pull
people out of their shells? Though I haven't figured out exactly what the mechanism would be for that, yet.

[Rob Lang]

A contest is a good idea, but you might have to throw some money into it to entice the undecideds. Then you have to market like mad - enworld.org, rpg.net, the forge, storygames to name a few of the RPG places. If you can get traction from some of the big bloggers, either on their blogs or over twitter then that can help too. I was lucky for the 24 hour rpg contest because I had a number of blogger friends already who put in a good word. When you create your advertising logos, make sure they are striking, attractive and professional or other people won't carry them for free.

Do you have an analytics tool on your site such as ? Being able to see what sort of a user you have coming in (and from where and to which page etc) is very important.

Sadly, with all communities, it is not a case of 'make it and they will come'. You need to keep putting in regular content. Looking at it now, your front page's top article is 5 days old. It shouldn't be more than a day old. Unlike a blog, a community tends to be something someone needs to get into the habit of visiting and you need regular content for that. Also, it's worth noting that communities go in fits and spurts. If you have a high time of activity, expect a low to follow it. Keep the number of posts on the front page to do with the site itself down, new visitors want content, so get some up fast!

[Kinslayer]

There's a saying that "nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd." The inverse certainly applies to websites. It may seem daunting--even tedious--but try to add new content as often as you can. This way, a new visitor sees lots of content, and is thus more likely to stick around for a while.

I may be able to help with some initial content, for the RPG category. If you would like, there is the Dark Fantasy Core Set which was created for projects just like yours. It's the stripped-down version of the Midian DFRPG, and is in the Public Domain. Hopefully this will kick off some more ideas from other people. I also have ideas for capstones and unused mechanics. These need a good home, and are mostly potty-trained.

The Midian game itself allows copying and altering as well, but it's quite a bit bigger, and I wouldn't want to inconvenience you.

[cmlacy]

Thanks for the tips, everyone. More content is coming, but there's never enough time to work on these things, it seems. Kinslayer, I'd be more than happy to host what you've got, even if it's not complete. I'll take a look at the Dark Fantasy Core Set as well.

[Kinslayer]

I appreciate that, but Midian is about 130 megs right now, and only gets bigger. Plus, it's better for me (and the game) to have everything in one place.

I joined GrassRoots Gamer and added the DFCS just now. I still need to either re-tabulate some of the data, or find a way to make the screen-readable text file version work in its place (same content, slightly different layout).

[cmlacy]

Thanks for posting that! I feel like there's potential to use parts of thus as a core mechanic for non-RPGs as well. Perhaps wargames where real historical battles are potted over to this world?

I've been frustrated trying to make tables as well. I know some wikis support it, but the input filter I've got just doesn't seem to. I'll research it and let you know when I come up with something.

[Kinslayer]

You mean like Richard the Lion-Hearted's knights going up against a bunch of Highland Orck pikemen? Because that sounds pretty groovy by itself.

I checked on GrassRoots Gamers, and wiki-style tables don't work, and preformatting still condenses spaces. Html tables seem to work so far.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I recently learned of a a site called . According to their add copy, you just upload the images you want, chose some pieces, set a price, and they sell it for you. While I'm sure there is more to the process than they initially let on (such as how is the money split between you, and what does it cost to start the process in the first place?) I haven't found the catch just yet.

Paranoia aside, this looks like something you might be interested in.