General RPG Online Resources

Here is a list of general RPG resources including networks & forums, game design, worldbuilding, and cartography.  This list is by no means exhaustive, but I have tried to pick the best, limit genre and location specific resources and use updated material.  If you know of a useful online resource that should be included here, please make a comment.

Networks

RPG Bloggers – A wonderful network of bloggers I belong to
RPGsite – A very popular site for discussing RPGs without fear
RPGnet – Another very large forum and review site
RPG Consortium – A pretty popular forum for RPG discussion and play by post
EnWorld – A self proclaimed D&D forum, but still general enough
The Forge – Another heavily trafficked site for RPG discussions
Ladies of Hack – Forums focusing on women in gaming
Iris Gaming Network – A network dedicated to women in the industry
RPG Host Network (RPGLife, RPG Archive, RPG Sheets, RPG Objects) – A vast empire
Free RPG Community – A community dedicated to free RPG rules and content
Strolen’s Citadel – A resource for plots, items, creatures, NPCs, and settings
Roleplaying Tips – GM tips and role playing advice
Treasure Tables – From the creator of Gnome Stew – with 768 GM tips
Pen & Paper – A database of published RPGs, authors, artists, and publishers
RPG Resource – Another pretty good database of RPGs and publishers
RPG MP3 – This place has a ton of PodCasts of actual play sessions

Game Design

The Forge – Has some pretty good articles on RPG Design/Theory
Styles of Roleplaying – John Kim’s extensive site on RPG Theory
RPG Design Resources – A Squidoo page with many links

Worldbuilding

Campaign Builders Guild – A marvelous community of people creating original worlds
SpecFicWorld – A list of resources for writers and worldbuilding
Wikipedia’s List of Settings – A whole slew of settings to be tweaked and mashed
Rich Staats’ World Building Articles – A massive amount of commentary on worldbuilding
Worldbuilding Resources – A Squidoo page with tons of links

Cartography

Cartographer’s Guild -A community for map makers and techniques
Dundjinni – A very polished map creation application
Campaign Cartographer – The mainstay of RPG map apps, has plug ins for cities and more
Fractal Mapper – I’ve used this software for years, makes you maps look like D&D 2nd Ed
Irony Games – I think something has broke on their site, but use to generate random maps
Dungeons Unlimited – Maps & Minigrids
Fantasy Atlas – A decent collection of free maps
Fantasy Map Maker – Maps provided free for personal use
PlayWrite’s CrawlNotes – Drag, resize, pattern and colour rooms, and attach descriptions, monsters and items

Adventure Seeds

The Big List of RPG Plots – Self explanatory
Strolen’s Citadel Plots – Some pretty cool plot ideas
Wizard’s of the Coast Hook Generator – WotC’s adventures in a can
Forbidden Kingdom’s Seed Generator – You can get some pretty zaney stuff here

Atmosphere

Stargazer’s World – A fellow RPG Blogger with an excellent taste for RP music
Nox Arcana – Excellent music for a horror campaign
Midnight Syndicate – Another horror soundtrack producer, also made the official D&D OST

Organizational Tools

Freemind – A mind mapping software for brain storming and notes
NoteCase – A hierarchical (outline) note manager
MS OneNote – Microsoft’s tabbed digital notebook
CampaignWiki – A wiki for managing your campaign
Obsidian Portal – Allows you to create campaign websites

Let me know if you have a resource that should be listed on here!

Listening to: Coal Chamber – Coal Chamber – Loco

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