Hello everyone!

Me and a friend of mine have recently started a gaming-first OSR tabletop Discord server.

The community is very relaxed, with a lot of discussions around mechanics how to run an OSR game and the worldbuilding that goes with it.

We have some prominent creators, and we hope to get more soon!

Discord Link

Apologies but I'm painfully allergic to Discord. They always end up infiltrated by people of alternative genders who ruin communities and cause drama. And I'd rather not participate as it makes me sneeze.

I have people on Reddit saying it will be a right-wing cesspit and you are saying it will be a left-wing cesspit.

So I guess it will just be a cesspit.

I'm on this discord and it's crazy active for how recent it is. The rules are succinct, clear, and logical. I have a feeling it's got a lot of people who left reddit in disgust.

The Hyperborea discord has had much success and keeping politics out. I've been there a year and I can only recall one obvious ban (a he/they who had a long political screed that you had to agree to to join his/their little game). Gone and not missed.

So it is possible.

I have a good feeling about this new OSR discord.

My 2 cents.

You actually can keep it from becoming a cesspit, but it requires very active moderation.  I read a thread here yesterday that discussed a discord that was doing it right, but I can't recall which one.  Good luck in any case

Quote from: King Tyranno on November 08, 2023, 12:42:03 PM
Apologies but I'm painfully allergic to Discord. They always end up infiltrated by people of alternative genders who ruin communities and cause drama. And I'd rather not participate as it makes me sneeze.

You're definitely in the wrong rooms!  fortunately, I rarely experience that!

Hrm.  I haven't joined this discord yet, but my first instinct was to call you out as a bad actor. 

Here's you on reddit right?
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOSR/comments/17ngiqb/a_new_osr_discord/

https://www.reddit.com/user/ScholarchSorcerous

But whatever.  Anyway, I'll check it out some day I think.  Discord hides discussion and keeps it from being properly archived and referenced though- imagine if dragonsfoot was a discord, imagine how bad that would be for older games today.

Discord is a nightmare to use. I've tried with discussions and scheduling for my various gaming groups, and every time I get pissed off and stop using it.

Good luck with your new server!

I don't have a problem with Discord in the servers that I participate in (mostly about gaming, 3d printing etc.), and indeed use them for gaming in general.

OSR on the other hand? Less of an interest in that, though I did recently buy Cities Without Number (that's OSR, right?).

Yep, a totally pointless post by me. Except the bit where I say good luck with the new server, because I do mean that.

I'm kind of puzzled by the folks with bad experiences with discord.  I haven't used it to try to play an rpg, but I've used it for plenty of other things, and it was always easy.  What were the problems?

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

I find the majority of Discords overwhelming, as a jumbled sensory overload.

You can turn it into more of an IRC-esque experience through the settings menu: https://discord.onl/how-to-change-discords-appearance-theme/

Quote from: Venka on November 08, 2023, 06:32:03 PM
Hrm.  I haven't joined this discord yet, but my first instinct was to call you out as a bad actor. 

Here's you on reddit right?
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOSR/comments/17ngiqb/a_new_osr_discord/

https://www.reddit.com/user/ScholarchSorcerous

But whatever.  Anyway, I'll check it out some day I think.  Discord hides discussion and keeps it from being properly archived and referenced though- imagine if dragonsfoot was a discord, imagine how bad that would be for older games today.

That is indeed me.

I completely agree on the archival problems. I highly recommend starting a blog or thread on your forum of choice if something needs to be long-term.

Discord is good for faster paced conversations.

Quote from: Mishihari on November 08, 2023, 03:28:40 PM
You actually can keep it from becoming a cesspit, but it requires very active moderation.  I read a thread here yesterday that discussed a discord that was doing it right, but I can't recall which one.  Good luck in any case

Discords with relatively strong "no politics" rules:
The Arcane Library / Shadowdark - https://discord.gg/thearcanelibrary
North Wind Adventures / Hyperborea - https://discord.gg/jpbJU7W
Autarch / Adventurer Conqueror King System - https://discord.gg/cRpNcse2kv

Discords that allow political discussion but with reasonable moderation:
Necrotic Gnome - https://discord.gg/YprM5nq
Tenkar's Tavern - https://discord.gg/fReGmuD

Quote from: Mishihari on November 09, 2023, 12:20:06 AM
I'm kind of puzzled by the folks with bad experiences with discord.  I haven't used it to try to play an rpg, but I've used it for plenty of other things, and it was always easy.  What were the problems?

Speaking for myself, some quick examples-

I used Discord for raid scheduling in my WoW guild. The plugins they used kept changing, and the ways to get accepted changed. I'd sign up for a raid, never get invited, and found out months later that I was getting some kind of query from another... something that I was not seeing and never clicked to confirm my spec for the raid, thus never getting fully signed up.

Using it recently for organizing our Twilight Imperium sessions (IRL board game) I went to the site, and it's just channels and never ending scrolling text on those channels. I can't find anything I go to look for. It's frustrating because people will ask questions or join up for a session, and it will be on Discord and I can't find what they're talking about.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on November 09, 2023, 04:16:34 AM
Speaking for myself, some quick examples-

I used Discord for raid scheduling in my WoW guild. The plugins they used kept changing, and the ways to get accepted changed. I'd sign up for a raid, never get invited, and found out months later that I was getting some kind of query from another... something that I was not seeing and never clicked to confirm my spec for the raid, thus never getting fully signed up.

Using it recently for organizing our Twilight Imperium sessions (IRL board game) I went to the site, and it's just channels and never ending scrolling text on those channels. I can't find anything I go to look for. It's frustrating because people will ask questions or join up for a session, and it will be on Discord and I can't find what they're talking about.

We are set up as a community server, so you should have the option to hide channels.

I joined your Discord. Looks good so far.

A quick rule that works for me with new Discords is to open the member list. If you see a bunch of pronouns listed by people's usernames, then the politics of the server skew heavily leftwards.

Quote from: Mishihari on November 09, 2023, 12:20:06 AM
I'm kind of puzzled by the folks with bad experiences with discord.  I haven't used it to try to play an rpg, but I've used it for plenty of other things, and it was always easy.  What were the problems?

Discord is its own private universe, and there's a central authority that can use it to enforce their will on you.  Why is no one making like, a matrix instead?  Sure, Element or whatever isn't as powerful as Discord, but at least it's your own thing instead of some central authority having veto power.

If you don't care about that, and the fact that Discord is just one company with a huge amount of power, then yea, it's fine.

Anyway, don't you think it's strange that there's all these leftwing discords and subreddits, with mods  that deliberately do a march through anything with enough users, and the competition is always "here's this little place where we discuss just gaming, no politics"?  That's weird to me.  Because those little places never add up in user totals to the places the political guys took over.  A regular guy is gonna land on /r/OSR before /r/TheOSR or /r/openOsr or whatever.  Just odd.