I admit I haven't been here very often

[Libertad]

Looking at my previous posting schedule I noticed that I only posted here a few times a month at best. And when I did it's been mostly politics and writing schedules.

I feel that part of it is due a variety of factors: I really enjoyed the content, Handbooks, and casual conversations I had with many posters here, from Raineh Daze to Kuroimaken. A few I still keep in regular contact with elsewhere, such as Steam and Roll20.

However, when it comes to Min-Max itself I've been rare at best. This has happened a lot with websites and message boards I've been to; in some cases it's a declining lack of interest for the subject matter, in a few cases the forums themselves became so toxic that I had to excise myself for my own sense of sanity. But I can safely say that most of my memories here are positive; it's just a case that a lot of the most active boards and topics aren't things that I go for much.

I pretty much exhausted 3.X D&D of new things to talk about, and in regards to homebrew most of that energy is spent on self-publishing. I liked the idea of play-by-posts, but as I'm in 4 live games on Roll20 my gaming schedule's full. A lot of RPG games I'm more into now are video games such as Final Fantasy and some D&D alternatives such as OSR retroclones and Pathfinder, which from what I can tell aren't as popular here. The 5E board's rather active, but as I don't subscribe to Unearthed Arcana and don't own any of the adventures I feel limited in conversation.

But like a lot of things, it's hard to give up something which you've been part of for a long time, even if you feel your interests have diverged in places. I still plan on hanging around here from time to time, but I may not be part of the "major" topics, and as of now I'd rather take a break from talking about US politics. Perhaps a Final Fantasy thread's in order in Off-Topic Fun...

[Amechra]

Unearthed Arcana is not a subscription, for what it's worth.

And I'm really in the same boat - sometimes I go dumpster-diving on dndtools for old time's sake.

[Nanshork]

I've taken to reviewing homebrew to keep me connected to the boards...

[SorO_Lost]

Eh, I'm probably as absent as I normally am.

Interest comes and goes, it happens. Like I've spoke of before, D&D is old and as superior optimization choices become prevalent the faster stagnation comes. And yet I like it better than say the concept of "Monkday" or other possible forms of trolling to keep topics going. Through, maybe if it helps we can move to having a bigger media discussion place to kind of keep people more engaged.

[Libertad]

I've taken to reviewing homebrew to keep me connected to the boards...

I used to do this here, but given that my reviewing style tends to be rather intensive, I don't have time for that when self-publishing.

[Unbeliever]

Interest comes and goes, it happens. Like I've spoke of before, D&D is old and as superior optimization choices become prevalent the faster stagnation comes.

Mostly this.  And, I just haven't been playing much D&D/Pathfinder lately.  It's funny, there's some strong combination of either nostalgia or rekindled interest in the intricate, sometimes bizarre settings of older games (e.g., Planescape) among people I talk to, but not a ton has come of it.

The other thing is that I get turned off by the amount of bookkeeping involved in D&D/Pathfinder.  It's not that I mind the complexity a ton -- although I could live without the fiddly modifiers for every old thing -- but it's the resource management that irks me.  And, a lot of the so-called simpler systems aren't a ton better in that regard.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

  ... and there are some rather (ahem) un-savory*  characters around here.


* my kitty avatar's Tail  is un "savory" at the outset.   But it is less filling.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

2nd-ing Amechra , each UA is a free pdf ---> http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/kits-old


from April ...

Hello everyone! I'm not actually sure why I started not being on this forum anymore, but now I've stopped not being here! It's nice to see y'all again.

Happens to the best of us.

[TenaciousJ]

The 5E board's rather active, but as I don't subscribe to Unearthed Arcana and don't own any of the adventures I feel limited in conversation.

Right now 5e is mostly a playground for DMs with an active imagination.  There's only so much PC content and most combinations have already been discussed.  All there really is to do on the PC side is invent interesting character personalities and quirks.  I homebrew monsters about as much as I use stuff from the Monster Manual just because I'm so used to the wide variety of creatures in 3.5 I used.  There's nothing like the Magic Item Compendium and the various methods of compounding properties onto magic items, so I've been making sort-of-legacy-weapon-like items for my players so their experience playing in my games will be unique even if they have played or will play their current classes again.

[Libertad]

Sounds like someone should take more about the third party stuff out. Normally I'd nominate myself, being an owner of several works, but I don't have the energy and time to review stuff like I used to.