Fabletop is NOT dead

Hello Fabletoppers,

I wanted to create a contrasting forum thread to another thread with the opposite name. Whilst that other thread is a bit sombre and reflective I would like to try and make this one productive, positive and forward-thinking!

The main purpose of this thread will be to brainstorm and discuss ideas of how we can increase levels of activity and player engagement across the site. All thoughts and inputs are welcome from simple suggestions to big blue-sky thinking ideas.

I will post some of my own thoughts as a reply to this thread and look forward to talking to everyone :)

My initial thoughts: what can we do?

Simple and doable;

1) Appear more active: say 'hi' - let's all try to lurk less and say hi to each other on the glade more. I'm worried there may be a 'downward spiral' where no one is in the glade because no one is in the glade! If we try and be more active on there it will be a start! Also, if you host games, no matter how sporadically, put something about it in 'upcoming games' - these two steps should make the front page look more active.

2) host and host regularly: the more we all host, especially quick 'pick up and play' games with core / light rules the more active the site will appear!

3) community calender: I was thinking about making some sort of shared Google doc calender with everyone's sessions on it? This might make it easier for people to see when there are games running so they know good times to check back. It will also help avoid sessions clashing with each other as our user base is currently quite small making it a problem when two or more GMs want to run sessions at once

4) Advertising / word of mouth: Tell your friends about Fabletop! We could also mention the site on platforms such as Reddit or other forums for people looking for TTRPG games. We once had a 'Reddit player boom' where thousands of accounts were made, but very few stuck around we we were overwhelmed snd unprepared. If we made a group effort to advertise at the same time and then had several GMs ready to host lots of games over a 'welcome week' we could take better advantage.

Blue sky;
5) since the death of flash gaming I think browser-based is an increasingly unpopular way to play games. I think Fabletop would do well as a steam game or mobile app. But, I'm not a game developer so this might be too costly or difficult to implement.

Your ideas are great. I really appreciate that people are still willing to boos this website up again. Fills me with determination.

Appearing more active and hosting regularly is easily implementable right at this moment, which I will do from now on.

I can also try and come up with some sort of a community calendar, and give full rights on editing the document to the moderators. It will make seeing the activity of the site much easier for users.

However several problems arise with this: how will it be seen? We can't really pin the forum threads to the forum page, only Frost can do it. How would people be reminded to check it? If Frost is open to it, perhaps it could be linked on the homepage or an easily accessible forum post?

I want to add some more ideas of mine too:

1) Thematic Game Nights - Having a "Cyberpunk Night" or "Mystery Night" with scheduled one-shots could create a sense of event-based excitement and make the community feel more united.

2) Encouraging Player Retention – Your post focuses on getting people to join, but what about making them stay? Maybe a forum thread like a “Player of the Month” could help keep engagement high.

Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this thread

Regarding a community calender, as a site moderator I can actually sticky a main forum thread - so that's probably the best way to do it. I also think for consistency in moderation it'd be best if i am the 'owner' of the Google doc - I would however really appreciate your input on how best to do it :)

Having a themed night could be a good idea - it would take a lot of coordination to make sure the sessions don't overlap too much

A player of the month is a good idea. Again it's Frost's area not mine but there used to be a pxp leader board on the main page. Maybe we could have a new iteration of this where it tracks the most xp earned in the last 30 days - showing currently active players and GMs?

The new iteration of the leaderboard sounds brilliant. Not sure what we can do as players, however, without Frost.

I'd love to help you with the calendar. If you want to be the owner, then you can start getting the overall view of it up, and then I'll join in and give my input on things

Another idea me and Tara had while chatting on the glade: 'Saturday Dungeon'

This wouldn't necessarily have to be on a Saturday but the idea is we pick a time and day e.g. 7pm GMT Saturdays and get a group of GMs to organise so there will always be a game to join at that time.

These games should be as open and easy to join as possible so I'd suggest they all be core fabletop games that are dungeon of the week / monster of the week in format. It would be even better if they were compatible with the built in traits.

So far Tara and I have agreed we would host games of this type, but I think 3 or more GMs would work best to avoid burn out. We could then have a chat all together and how best to run the project - drop me a message of post on this thread if you're interested :)

Thank you for such a thoughtful post, Oman. I've got a few ideas I could share:

Simple & Doable Additions:
"Looking for Game" (LFG) Mega forum thread – A pinned thread where players and GMs can post when they’re looking for a game. This makes it easier for people to find each other instead of relying on chance encounters in the glade.

Discord (Unofficial Community Server?) – If the forum is too slow for real-time discussions, a Discord server could work as a hub for scheduling games, chatting about campaigns, and keeping people engaged between sessions. We can also post upcoming games as 'events' there which will sit at the top and people can mark if they are interested in playing.

"First-Time Player" Nights – Aimed at making Fabletop more welcoming to new users. GMs can run low-pressure intro sessions to help them get used to the system. - This could be advertised on the aforementioned discord, or a facebook page perhaps?

Larger Community Projects:
"Fabletop Monthly Challenge" – Every month, GMs could get a loose prompt (e.g., “Time Travel,” “Desert Adventures,” “Post-Apocalyptic”) and run games based on it. It would be interesting to see how different games are, and they would only need to be one off or small campaigns, which would reduce the pressure of GMs having to come up with something huge and long term.

GM Mentorship Program – New GMs might feel intimidated about running games. Experienced GMs could mentor them by co-hosting or offering advice.

Ideas to Keep Players Coming Back

"Achievements" or Milestone Badges – Players and GMs could earn in-forum badges or recognition for running a certain number of games, playing in themed events, or sticking around for a set amount of time. I'm a big fan of badges! Even if it was just an unofficial "you can add X award to your profile description".

More Social Engagement – Weekly polls, Q&A sessions with veteran GMs, or short creative challenges (like making a new trait for a setting) could keep the forums active.

I hope some of these ideas could help, and I would be more than happy to get involved with any of it, like Discord for example.

Also a quick follow up that I forgot to add - we could also advertise the site on Reddit, and create a subreddit for it.