Role Player's Forum - RolePlayCastle.com

[KuJoe]

This is my first attempt at my own forum/website (I admin multiple but none I can call my own). The site is mainly a house of all of my hobbies: writing stories, creating artwork, table-top RPGs, chat/forum based RPGs, MMORPGs, and pretty much anything else role play related. The current forums I admin for are most teenagers so my focus was for a more mature environment.

Please leave your honest feedback as this is the first time I've had experienced forum/site designers/admins look at it. Be brutally honest if you must, any advice, suggestions, and complaints are welcome.:D

RolePlayCastle.com (http://www.roleplaycastle.com)

[Calash]

I am not a huge fan of the skin, it is quite dark. The background is a bit too busy for my tastes and I find my eyes struggling to keep focused on the text. My first suggestion would be to drop the background to a more neutral color that will cause the forum to stand out more.

The logo should be worked on a bit more. You want it to stand out in a persons mind. I like the castle on the side. You may get a better effect by tying that to the logo words.

I like the types of forums you have, they keep the focus on your topics. However you may want to consider reducing the number, at least while you build the traffic. As more people visit your forum and the need for the other forums comes up then you can expand the number. As it is now it looks very empty, and that may have the effect of driving people away before you even get started.

[KuJoe]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I'm not very good with styles so I had to hire somebody to create the forum style and logo. I've had to go on other's opinions of it (I'm color blind so it looks different to me than normal people) and you're the first to be displeased with it. I'll see what others say before I contact the person who designed it and either have him redo it or create another theme to give the members an option.

I know what you're saying about the amount of categories/forums, I've been reading that to many becomes overbearing so I will hide a few of them until traffic picks up.

Thanks again!

[houseofpolitics]

the things are pretty difficult to read.

[KuJoe]

What's pretty difficult to read?

[houseofpolitics]

the words on the forum.

[KuJoe]

the words on the forum.

I meant which ones in particular? The links? The titles? The text in boxes? The text at the bottom of the forum? What?

[Krahl]

Hi. Looks decent overall. I can read everything fine.

Specific issues from my perspective would be:

1. The "castle" on the top right of the banner is very dark - almost to the point of melding into the background.

2. The site name in the banner conflicts with the buttons in the forum (new post, reply, etc.) They do not have a continuity.

3. The post icons are a bit dark as well. I "thought" it was a gate but only became sure of it once I scanned down and noticed the opened gate, which was brighter. I'd boost that a bit.

Those are the only glaring issues I personally have with it.

Great start!

[KuJoe]

Hi. Looks decent overall. I can read everything fine.

Specific issues from my perspective would be:

1. The "castle" on the top right of the banner is very dark - almost to the point of melding into the background.

2. The site name in the banner conflicts with the buttons in the forum (new post, reply, etc.) They do not have a continuity.

3. The post icons are a bit dark as well. I "thought" it was a gate but only became sure of it once I scanned down and noticed the opened gate, which was brighter. I'd boost that a bit.

Those are the only glaring issues I personally have with it.

Great start!

Thanks for the feedback. I will brighten the images up and see how they look. I'm not sure what you mean about the logo and the buttons, do you mean that they are different fonts and would go better together if they were similar?

[Nathanial Horn]

It looks pretty good, I like it. I had a d&d rp'ing forum, and coded in the whole d20 system including all the classes, races (and ecl), skills, and over 70 feats to select when leveling your character, and all was integrated into the forum. It didn't do much good as most new users shy away once they learn it is d&d. It is hard to get members, but when you do, they will post and definitly stick around for a while. I started a different themed rp'ing forum as I love writing and challenges. It is based on the pirates of the caribbean movie, loosly, and I am presently working on a pirate generator, lol, I guess I don't learn, :cool:

Good luck with your site, it is a cool setting and theme.

[KuJoe]

Thanks for the input. I'm currently working on an RPG for my forum using the Inferno RPG system (www.infernotechnologies.net) which should be ready for testing in a week or 2.

[Calash]

I played around with the Inferno RPG system back on my old invision board (2 years ago...give or take ;) ).

The system was good, but had problems with non-IE browsers. Hopefully that has been long fixed.

One thing I would look out for is the type of people such a system will attract. Having the system started drawing people in who did not care at all about the RP's or the forum, but just wanted to be the highest level and fight. In the end the system did not help promote the RPG's I had running at the time.

A friends site has been successfully running a RPG using a random 20 sided dice roller. The system is simple, but being simple does make it easier to focus on the story rather than the rules of the game.

Like I said, my experience is a few years old, so that it for what it is worth :)

[KuJoe]

The way I see it is the Inferno RPG system (which was completely redesigned late last year) is more than just an add-on. If people only visit my site to play it I won't mind, heck, when I'm at work that's all I do really. :)