New Update 9/4: Social Features: Player Directory, Expanded Player Profiles, LFG Tool Overhaul

Pleinair Allaprima said: earn achievements Cancerous gaming culture where everyone needs their hand held and recognition for petty tasks is spreading to what I thought was one of the few bastions of gaming not covered in memes, edition wars, and armchair *** who think everything is sexist. How do you disable those consolation trophies from crapping up your own profile so people don't end up using them as weapons against yourself and other users to create a hostile circlejerking community? The second a website starts keeping score is the same second it starts to go downhill. Look at Reddit for god's sake. Calm down they are just a bit of fun.

Let's all cool this down a bit, lest we are forced to halt the discussion.

push to talk on the speech program would be awesome and stop echo on people not wearing headsets

+1 to being able to filter the directory by timezone in the same way it can be done with the campaign listing. A way to find players by searching the Bio might help solve the issue where lesser-played games aren't in the list. I agree that the list should be kept to those showing gamer activity, but I think you need to provide an alternate field in campaign setup to the Playing field. This now only accepts games from the list, so if I want to play, say, The Laundry RPG I can no longer enter this in the field. That's frustrating. An 'unlisted game field' where you could enter your own tag would additionally allow you to track which games are bubbling up to 'should be entered in the main list' status. If possible I think it should be linked to the  Other Games entry in the main list, and only be active if that is applied, which should help cut down on the 'unlisted' field being used for version numbers and variants that replace use of the main game tags.

josh f. said: I'd like to be able to list *any* game.  I have a hankering for old school runequest but it's impossible to find players. +1 I think the LFG seems to be helping people narrow down the possible players for the 'popular' games/systems but not helping those who want to drum up interest in new/niche games/systems. These may be conflicting requirements and it may be asking a lot to satisfy both in one go. I am always going to want something that helps find the 1 in 1000 that wants to try something else.

@Riley, I agree with the other games tab to avoid mass over population, the only thing I would suggest is somehow being prompted to enter the name of the other game so that it only shows when browsing. I.e. when you search under others, the results displayed are "Other Games-title". Not sure how feasible that is though to implement. Edit: Think I figured out the perfect way. In the LFG there's a match keyword. Perhaps add that to the Seeking tool?

I would like to see Gumshoe as a searchable system, this includes a few good games that I run regularly.

Would it be possible to change the sort order of the LFG listing to be the Next Game time, or to provide an option to sort like this? That would make it easier to see which games are coming up and would be the first step to a proper 'convention' calendar.

Going to join the chorus and say it would be great if we could enter a name or tag for our "other games" if they aren't available on the list. I'm going to be starting a With Hunter game, but there's no tag for that. I'd love to list 7th Sea and SAGA among my influences, but they aren't on the list. Rather than keep up with all of us weirdos, why not just let us add our own tags?

what about a friends list ? ( unless there is one im not seeing )

Riley, I love the updates and this website (Will go Subscriber soon too). Thanks a million. Great work. The D&D listings in the drop-down menu are strange.  I see listed in my profile choices: AD&D D&D 1st Edition D&D 3.5 D&D 4e Old School Revival. The problem is mainly "D&D 1st Edition". This term is not commonly used and could refer to 2 very different games (old school D&D, or AD&D 1st Edition).  A game called AD&D 1st Edition is very common on Roll20, probably the most popular old-school Dungeons & Dragons edition on here (pre-3.5), however it is usually called "AD&D" with little need to say 1st edition.   The related problem is the dropdown listings currently fail to accommodate "AD&D 2nd Edition", which is almost equally popular on here to 1st Edition albeit stands in the shadow of 1E.  Anecdotally I have played in 3 campaigns of AD&D 2E on here, and perhaps 4 campaigns of AD&D 1st Edition on here, in the last year. 2nd Edition also called 2E is my top choice system and seems somewhat popular on Roll20, at least I can show you a community of players who are looking for 2nd Edition.  Riley take a peak at my 2E tavern campaign on here, that has 20 people, and one of the Zombie games that used to come up under "2E" searches, that is probably getting deleted from LFG now, it was 2E and had 50+ people asking to play but DM stopped answering.   Perhaps "D&D 1st Edition" is talking about the years collectively called "D&D" (never published with the title "1st Edition" that phrase was mainly only used in AD&D 1st Edition).  If so it should just say "D&D" or "Original D&D" not "D&D 1st Edition".  What's more commonly called OD&D (original D&D), or BECMI also called "Dungeons & Dragons" also later re-released as "D&D Rules Cyclopedia", is all close enough to be in the umbrella of the name "D&D".  This is a popular game no doubt.  In that category there were several editions, more than 4 editions, and they were not called "1st edition" "2nd edition" etc yet.  Sorry if this is TMI.   The point is the game is called "D&D" or "AD&D 1st Edition" not "D&D 1st Edition". In conclusion I would like to suggest the listing should say: ------------------- AD&D (1st Edition and 2E) OR AD&D 1st Edition AD&D 2nd Edition ------------------- AND D&D OR  Original D&D (Basic Expert Companion Master Immortals, etc) ------------------- The rest is ok as-is, D&D 3.5 D&D 4e etc Old School Revival. Thanks for considering.

I agree with Gold on most of what he says but instead of Original D&D just go with "OD&D" as that is how most commonly seen. I would recommend "AD&D" instead of the adding any editon marker on it. There was only AD&D 1e and 2e and the 2nd edtion was just an update and expansion on the 1e. Most if not all of those two editions was interchangeable with little to no effort. When it went to 3e they chose to drop the Advanced part in the title. So techanically the listing could be the following OD&D Old School Revival (this would cover systems like L&L, S&W, BFRPG, and others systems that are retroclones or rewites that attempt to keep the style while supplying updated rule systems.) AD&D (covers both editions) D&D 3.x (That would cover 3e and 3.5e) D&D 4e D&D next (soon to be 5e)

The problem for me with not saying "2E" is this is the search term people have been using to find my games.  If you start typing 2E or 2nd edition AD&D in the drop-down, nothing comes up, which is frustrating because you could always search for it before now. Experiment:  Go into the new Player Directory (Top Right in the blue), and search for AD&D Players on Roll20.  I find that around 25% of the players mention "2E" in their bios.  So it's pretty important.  By the way I agree it's roughly compatible with 1st edition and is meant to be, so I'm fine with them being under 1 umbrella name in the search, but you need to be able to find that search term by typing "2" or "2nd" rather than only starting with typing "A" to bring up AD&D. If the AD&D line said "AD&D 1st Edition Or 2E" as a nice catch-all, and you could find it by typing 2E in the search field , that would be fine.  The fact that 2E is completely non-searchable is bad for me though. "OD&D" would not be a good name unless it's a different category from D&D so both are existing (Dungeons & Dragons, aka BECMI).  A lot of people, like the Dragonsfoot site that is the quasi-official forum of old school editions, say that OD&D is the super-early editions.  If both need to be captured under one title it should be "D&D", which is the name it was published for many years before AD&D was invented.  OD&D is not a published game name at all, but is a nickname to refer to several early editions.  On another related point, a lot of people who call it OSR, the drop-down says this means Old School Revival, often this is OD&D players, however it can also mean clones of any early editions ranging from OD&D to D&D BECMI etc.  OSR is kindof duplicative, but on the other hand it's needed for all the clone systems like OSRIC, BFRPG, Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, all of which I've seen played on Roll20 actively.  I guess my main point is still that "D&D" should be listed and "D&D 1st Edition" should not, regardless of how OD&D and OSR are handled.  Thanks for replying Metroknight. Isn't D&D Next the published game title, 5E is just a nickname? That one doesn't matter to me either way but I think these games should be listed under published title as consistently as possible.  If it's nicknames then we'd want to incorporate all the nicknames (5E, 5th Edition, etc). On a different point I would like to suggest putting "Other Games" at the top of the list, instead of under the "O" in alphabetical order.  So people can notice it.

I have to admit I've never heard it called OD&D before. Basic D&D or just D&D, yes.

Actually, Mearls just wants to call the fifth edition of D&D just that... Dungeons & Dragons. Nothing else. No 5E, no 5th Edition, no Next.

Riley I am grateful for your attention to my request.  Also it's comforting to see a change made quickly in response to the forum. This lets us know, hey, even if the list isn't exactly perfect, it's in development and subject to improvements going forward.  My compliments again.  I have nothing else to add on D&D versions. I like how you've improved it today. Follow-up suggestion would be a few more terms for "Other Games" such as:  "Hybrid game" (the DM would select "Hybrid" and select 2 other listed systems, for example I would call my game Hybrid + AD&D 1st and 2E + Other Games. Another useful term would be "House Rules" or "Homemade game" or "House version", again this term could be paired with an existing game title, or can stand on it's own.  Drawing on my personal anecdotes, I would put something like "House version of Hybrid AD&D plus Old School Revival" for my game. You see I don't claim to play purely 1 system.

Spyke said: I have to admit I've never heard it called OD&amp;D before. Basic D&amp;D or just D&amp;D, yes. Mainly conversation responding to Spyke, nothing firm for the Devs in this post. Take a look on Dragonsfoot Forum. There are experts there on each version of D&amp;D before 3.0 came out. &nbsp;I also recommend that site as a good place to recruit old-school players who have not found Roll20 yet. &nbsp;Their subforums are divided into games. The amount of posts shows the relative popularity of each&nbsp; AD&amp;D 1st has 11,000 topics on DF, Classic D&amp;D combined with OD&amp;D has 4500 topics on DF. &nbsp; AD&amp;D 2E has 4000 topics on DF. They sub-categorize OD&amp;D under "Classic D&amp;D". &nbsp;Have you heard of "Chainmail" a 1970's game that came before D&amp;D and is an early precedent for the development of D&amp;D? &nbsp;Chainmail started this whole RPG thing and inspired the OD&amp;D edition(s). &nbsp;Another nickname for OD&amp;D is "0e" (comes before 1E, you see). There is some debate about whether the edition called "Holmes" D&amp;D is OD&amp;D or Classic D&amp;D. &nbsp;Doesn't really matter, just wanted to provide an answer for your research. <a href="http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=52" rel="nofollow">http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=52</a> Here is another forum dedicated entirely to all editions of OD&amp;D and defining what that means, <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/" rel="nofollow">http://odd74.proboards.com/</a> This site lists the following published game titles as OD&amp;D: Chainmail (1971) Men &amp; Magic (1974) The Underworld &amp; Wilderness Adventures (1974) Judges Guild And The Wilderlands (starting 1976) Holmes Basic D&amp;D (1978) "While Holmes isn't quite OD&amp;D, it's close" they say. So 1978 is about the point where OD&amp;D stops, and "D&amp;D" begins, which can also then be called Classic D&amp;D, or a catch-all name that's based on 1980's editions of D&amp;D, what we've got right now from Riley in the R20 games list: &nbsp;"D&amp;D BECMI (Basic Expert Companion Masters Immortals)."

Nice info Gold. I was told that OD&amp;D just stood for "Old D&amp;D" and that covered everything from around chainmail till BECMI but you are more correct in it's usage. Learn something new everyday and you wont be bored.

why can't people just use the game field as a free text and type in whatever they want.&nbsp; I am running a game that I wrote myself so it will never appear in the list and I don't really care if anyone can find it in a search since its invite only and I already have enough players.&nbsp; I understand why you want a drop down list, so there is consistency among games that can be searched, so why not allow both? also, a friends campaign has "DC Heroes 3rd Edition" in the game field, but, I don't see it in the drop down, how did he do that? he says he just typed it in.&nbsp; I tried typing in my game and it would not take.&nbsp; its kind of frustrating. showing all my players that the system I spent 10 years designing is called "Other" is kind of a let down...

Solaris, could you pm me the profile link to your friend? I'd like to see what you mean.&nbsp; - Gauss

Just for the record ive played ODND in the last year and have a print out of all the rules provided by my friendly dm. It is an edition all of its own. Even if it feels like playing dnd lite.

I agree with Matt S regarding a controlled vocabulary, just simply limiting the list is a kind of crappy solution.&nbsp; Having such limited choices makes looking for group mostly useless to me.&nbsp; It's quite possible to have a large list and keep it standardized while making the ui friendly and easy to use.&nbsp; Also I feel like the current way you kind of play favorites (based on player interest) leads to an inconsistent and probably confusing experience for some.&nbsp; If I were new to roll20 I would be very confused as to why there are entries for both "Dark Heresy" and "Warhammer 40K" and yet no entry at all for "Deathwatch" or "Only War".&nbsp; This pick and choose approach, based on popularity, simply leads to less user friendly experience in the end.

Thaddeus R. said: I agree with Matt S regarding a controlled vocabulary, just simply limiting the list is a kind of crappy solution.&nbsp; Having such limited choices makes looking for group mostly useless to me.&nbsp; It's quite possible to have a large list and keep it standardized while making the ui friendly and easy to use.&nbsp; Also I feel like the current way you kind of play favorites (based on player interest) leads to an inconsistent and probably confusing experience for some.&nbsp; If I were new to roll20 I would be very confused as to why there are entries for both "Dark Heresy" and "Warhammer 40K" and yet no entry at all for "Deathwatch" or "Only War".&nbsp; This pick and choose approach, based on popularity, simply leads to less user friendly experience in the end. I think its far more user friendly than it was and no matter what the odds are games will get missed and someone will complain, because everyone knows that Riley is directly informed of every game ever made by some sort of big red phone (it may be orange) and that he only leaves games out to personally spite the people who play them. &lt;/sarcasm&gt; But really they have to draw a line somewhere. I think they could do with a bit more organisation, for instance different editions for games should be under a subheading or something, but then again i also understand that would require a more complicated menu.

Alex L. said: &nbsp;because everyone knows that Riley is directly informed of every game ever made by some sort of big red phone (it may be orange) and that he only leaves games out to personally spite the people who play them. &lt;/sarcasm&gt; Board/RPG Game Geek has a somewhat limited API that could be extended for better use in other places like roll20 exactly for this. &nbsp;It's a shame that Library of Congress authority and genre headings don't list games in a way that you would really want for this site. &nbsp;Otherwise you could tap into their APIs for the authorities. &nbsp;I know you were joking about the big red phone but such a thing more or less exists for a lot of things. &nbsp;Definitely for anything with an ISBN. &nbsp;This is a major aspect of library science. It's pretty common and extremely useful. edit: Just as an example for the curious, here is some documentation from the configuration files for Collective Access which, among many other things, is a web based open source cataloging tool that access Library of Congress or other controlled vocabularies for reference so you don't have to build your own:&nbsp; <a href="http://docs.collectiveaccess.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress_Subject_Headings" rel="nofollow">http://docs.collectiveaccess.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress_Subject_Headings</a>

If you want to have list control you could have thinks like 'Science Fiction games'...'Superhero Games' Really niche stuff like 13th Age is in the dropdown though...so a little odd.