Rename the chapter forum boards...

[Davion]

So, one thing I've always found confusing was the chapter's forum boards. There's no clear indicator of what you're actually looking at. I propose that all the chapters have their forum boards renamed to this format.

"State (City if desired), Dominant land"

Dominant land would be whatever appears on the chapter's tags. A few examples,

"South Minnesota, Land of Gaden"
"Pennsylvania - Headquarters, Land of Ashbury" (listed because it'd be an exception)
"California, San Francisco, Land of ??twinspire??" See, I don't even know the name of this land. If somebody visited and said their lands name, chances I'd have no idea what they meant and would basically have to take it OOG if I really wanted to know. (Which state is that?)

Also, right now, the forum structure is that when you look at the board index, Ashbury is listed as Headquarters, but if you click on chapters, it is listed as Ashbury.

Formatting is flexible, of course. The main idea here is that both the land and place are listed for each chapter, instead of the either/or format we have.

 

[Inaryn]

San Francisco has two campaigns.

There's our main campaign, The Maelstrom, and our secondary campaign, Twinspire. The Twinspire campaign takes place on the island nation of Trevaelia. The Maelstrom campaign takes place in a land that's been over-run by elemental forces, so many of our PCs don't even know the actual name of the land they're in.

Which name would we go with? We have two campaigns, and our main campaign changed to a completely new setting last year when the chapter changed hands. Then, couple that with the fact that California is easily large enough in land mass to have 4 or more chapters if people wanted to open them, and suddenly things would get really really complicated.

For logistical purposes, Alliance SF prefers to remain San Francisco.

IMO, it would actually be easier on the logistical staff to just have the names and logistics emails be alliance<real place> rather than an in-game name which may change as the story changes.

 

[Paladin of Chaos]

Sliding this over to General Discussion, as it doesn't pertain to rules-y things.

(Edit: moved from Rules Theory to Chapter Staff Network's General Discussion to OOG General Discussion. Rasafrackin identically named boards in the drop down menu inch: )

 

[phedre]

If a chapter wants its forum boards to have its IG name present, all they have to do is send a request to Jeremy and he can change it. HQ/Ashbury is set up that way because they had an alternate campaign planned a while back and wanted to separate the two (it never took off.)

It might be neat if someone wanted to compile a list of IG locations and what chapters they correspond to, but some chapters contain multiple kingdoms, and there are certainly multiple locations inside each kingdom/territory that gathers are held... it would end up being pretty extensive if you got into details. I'll bet someone might even sticky it if its done/maintained the right way.

I moved from CT to CA, so I'll use phrases like "Oh, the Deadlands, it's north of Caldaria, which is north and east of Ashbury, far on the eastern side of Fortannis. The Deadlands is the northernmost continent in that region of the planet." If someone doesn't know that New Hampshire is in the northern border of the US, north of CT, which is northeast of HQ (or doesn't transfer from IG reference to OOG reference) they'll usually ask me out of game. Or if they're unaware of where the current chapters are. Usually I watch the eyes unfocus a little as they go "Ok, so HQ is in Pennsylvania, northeast of that is CT, so north of that is NH. 'Kay."

TBH, if someone made a list of where all the chapters were and the IG vs OOG information, I'd still have to ask people who came from chapters I wasn't passing familiar with (and I've regularly played in 7 current chapters at one time or another, so I'm going to guess that I'm in a minority of people who've done the same) where they were referring to OOG. For people who've played fewer than that, I don't know that the change would make a significant difference, either. And for chapters like the Deadlands, you'd need to also note that it contains Eire (and it's bastions), Sadeen Moor, the Black Keep, etc. so it'd make for a really long list.


(Sarah, it might not be a bad thing to do with Twinspire and Maelstrom, at least for IG boards and OOG announcement boards so players readily know which messages go in which place.)

 

[Jim]

I think the idea is would look something like this-

California, Hollywood - Land of a Thousand Stars
California, San Francisco - Maelstrom and Twinspire
California, Tahoe - Lakeview & South Lakeview
California, Yreka - The Siskiyou Dwarven Empire

However it ends up being formatted, consistency is most important to me.

Also, it would be awesome to have a Hollywood chapter! Think of the special effects and costumes!

 

[prashka]

Oh man, I love this idea.

Also, this times a million:

IMO, it would actually be easier on the logistical staff to just have the names and logistics emails be alliance<real place> rather than an in-game name which may change as the story changes.

 

[Mike Ventrella]

I have no problem with a chapter doing that if they want so long as they keep the official name so people can find them easier.

HQ is planning a secondary campaign next year as well.

 

[Jim]

Oh man, I love this idea.

Also, this times a million:

IMO, it would actually be easier on the logistical staff to just have the names and logistics emails be alliance<real place> rather than an in-game name which may change as the story changes.

I second this being seconded.