Blackmoor Vituperative

Thinking about starting a YahooGroup to discuss new homebrewed rule systems, modifications and house rules for existing systems, and so on. A game design workshop, if you will.

On the one hand, I’m not sure there is much interest in that, despite what people are prone to say. On the other hand, I am not sure YahooGroups is best suited for that sort of discussion nowadays. My perception is that most substantive discussions have moved elsewhere, and what remain on YahooGroups are relatively insular islands of thought. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not the environment I’d be looking for.

If you are aware of a venue for lively but civil discussion of practical game design (as opposed to theoretical navel-gazing, which again, is not necessarily bad, but not what I am looking for), feel free to mention it.

I suppose I should clarify what I mean by “lively but civil”. Here are a couple of benchmarks:

1. Conversation is focused on game design, not on politics or controversies. (There are plenty of other places to discuss evolution or the Tea Party or Justin Bieber.)
2. Critique of ideas is accepted and encouraged: critique of people is not. (It is sad how many people can’t tell the difference.)

Ideally, this is the sort of interaction I would have with my local game group. Sadly, real life has taken its toll, and my local game group is no more.