In 2025 I promised myself to spend more time on D&D forums and less on social media.
We all know the issues with social media, so I won’t go into them here. Instead, I want to highlight the benefits of forums for roleplaying games in general, and Dungeons & Dragons in particular.
Overall, I find internet forums a much better place to have discussions about my favourite roleplaying games.
There are a number of reasons for this and this post will go through them and hopefully convince you that your time is better spent on forums than social media platforms, or even on Discord.
See below for a list of still-active forums.
Quality
Overall, the discussions on forums are of a much higher quality than that on social media.
On social media you tend to get the same five arguments going around and around and they always end up the same way: in a toxic mess.
Discoveries
I cannot tell you how many times I have found amazing material in old forum posts that I can use for my own D&D campaigns. One of the most recent being a whole list of material from the early 2000s on making the Night Below Boxed Set campaign even better than it is.
Rabbit Holes
One of the great parts about reading forums, especially some of the older posts, is that it will lead you down multiple rabbit holes of interesting ideas, allowing you to discover new ways to do something or just something pretty damn cool.
Threaded Discussions
The discussions on forums are easier to follow along with. Especially when compared to the chaos of social media posts.
You can respond to any post, or part thereof, that you choose to, making it super clear what you are responding to when making a point.
Searchable Archives
Forums hang on to their posts and responses in an easily searchable format. If you have ever tried to find a particular social media post you know this pain. Forums make finding a lost post simple.
Focused Communities
Forums are based on a particular topic, so those who come to them are at least somewhat interested in, if not passionate about, that topic.
This creates communities that are focused on that one topic (and perhaps several sub topics).
Mix this with the need to sign up before you can access the forum, and you have a dedicated group of people who actually want to be there and contribute to the discussion.
Detailed Posts
Users of forums often write longer and more detailed posts, which is perfect for discussing play logs, complex rules and topics, and even homebrew content.
Formatting Options
Often the posts are much easier to read due to more formatting options for forum posts compared to what social platforms offer. In itself this isn’t a huge deal, but together with how forums are structured this makes life easier.
Dedicated Subsections
Broader topics can be, and often are, broken down into sub-topics with their own sections. This can be a boon to users as they can zoom in on the exact subject they are interested in.
Focused Moderation
Forums tend to have dedicated moderators that weed out spam and keep forums civil. Each has their own guidelines you need to abide by, but this keeps the forum a much friendlier and better place than most social platforms.
Reduced Trolls/Spam
The above reduces trolls and spam a great deal. Together with the fact that forums are not seen as high-traffic platforms any more, they are a much better place to be mentally and for the hobby you are interested in.
Play-by-Post Gaming
Forums can be used for play-by-post gaming, which is a great medium for a roleplaying game.
Speaking of gaming, have you signed up to my 1-hour long online sessions of OSE dungeon crawl yet? Dozens of gamers already have – come and join them! I would love to have you at the table.
Focused Audience
As mentioned previously, forums are built with a particular topic in mind, and that lends itself to having a very focused audience who has a love for that particular topic.
Collaborative Projects
Due to the scope of forums and how much you can write in them, it can lend itself to spawning collaborative projects between members.
Minimized Noise
Forums typically lack the constant stream of unrelenting memes, trending posts, or advertisements that are found on social media platforms.
The last point is super important. Forums are there for the members. Social platforms are there to benefit their owners by selling your data to advertisers. Not to mention, without ads, forums are just a cleaner environment.
Community Bonds
Bonds can form between members which forms into a wider community very easily within a forum setting.
Less Algorithm Influence
You don’t need to worry about any algorithm burying your post. Members decide if a post becomes popular or not.
Overall
Forums provide a structured, lasting, and dedicated environment that is better suited for the deep and focused engagement roleplaying games like D&D require.
A List of TTRPG Forums Still Active
The Piazza
Giant in the Playground
Dragonsfoot
RPG.Net
THE RPG Site
RPG Pub
EN World
Over to You
Do you still visit forums? Is this something you may do in the future? Let me know in the comments below.
While You’re Here…
Since 2021 I have been publishing d12 Monthly, a monthly zine, which has a ton of articles for any edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
Printed copies are available in my store. The PDF is available on DriveThruRPG and you can get both, plus support my work, via my Patreon.
I will also be releasing some more products in the near future.
Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or my contact page any time.