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Once again we bring you the best and the brightest from the
information superhighway. This issue, we're looking at collective sites -
sites that rather than contain a single thing of the owners' design,
contain a thousand things from all over the net. Links, articles, humour,
more links, information, directories, even more links, columns, reviews
and perhaps a few more links. These sites below are some of the best
of these conglomerations, and are good resources that no decent
net-surfing role-player should be without.
A list like this must start with the ultimate in this category: RPGNet. We mentioned them before, but they
deserve another tip of the hat because they are quite simply the
quintessential RPG web site. Given how many RPG sites there are nowadays,
you cannot go past RPGNet; it should be every gamers first port of call if
you're looking for something on the net. Unbeatable and
indispensible. After RPGNet, The Role-Player's
Guide is possibly one of the best RPG sites I've stumbled onto since
I've been doing this job. Though it is small at the moment, it is very
well designed, professional to look at without being pretentious, and covering a much more varied range of stuff than most other links/resource sites out there. It's small size also means that the information you want is easier to pick out, and it is a more managable and enjoyable read. The content is good quality AUSTRALIAN stuff that makes for a fun and informative visit. I have a feeling this one is going to really take off! Another equally small but equally charming collection of links,
articles and humour is to be found at Juha Vesanto's site.
Juha is Finnish, so not all of it is in English, but there's more than
enough here to keep the avid surfer happy. There's plenty on world
builiding, discussions from news groups, links to mags and RPG resource
sites and some great mythology and literature links. Of particular note
is Juha's "You
might be a gamer if..." list, which has now grown quite large as more
and more people contribute and is hysterically funny. Also included is a
link to the "Game
of SATAN" page, a hilarious satire of fundamentalist rampage. All
role-players should check these two out - and Juha's page, of
course. When speaking of great link collections, we would be remiss not to
mention these very big players in that arena. Quite well renowned is the
very nicely done Woodelf's
RPG Index, which is very authoritative and very professional, and would easily be the best choice after RPGNet for gaming links. Unfortunately, at the time I was writing this, the site was down. However, Woodelf seems to be working in conjunction with The Big Black
RPG Index, which also offers smoothly presented, easily accessed and
quite extensive lists of RPG sites. So until the Woodelf gets back on his/her feet, this should prove a suitable alternative. Then there's the ultimate colossus of gaming links: The Great
RPG Archive, a site full stacked to the gills with more gaming links
than anyone could possible desire, sorted in half a dozen different ways.
Unfortunately, it is also incredibly ugly to look at, and not
particularly nice to use. Even uglier and more clumsily put together is The Legolas RPG
Index, another fairly expansive collection of sites. It also has the
biggest listing of RPG net-rings I've come across. Both good reference sites
if you can't find what you're looking for on anywhere more
user-friendly. Though it is not really a collective site, we must also give a
strong nod towards the Blue
Troll's Netbooks Web Page. This site has no links, articles,
humour...etc, but it is possibly unrivalled in its provision of gaming
resources. A Netbook is simply a (quite long and detailed) Word 6 file
that deals with some aspect of gaming. The Blue Troll has something like
over 70 of these books, and with the recent remodelling of the site, the
titles are a joy to peruse. To grab a few titles at random: The Infamous
Netbook of Riddles, The Great Net Spellbook, The Netbook of Alchohol,
Oriental Rules Conversion Netbook and Vampire-AD&D Conversion Netbook. So
if you're looking for some good hard stuff on magic, gods, demons,
weapons, equipment, drugs, monsters, plots, settings, stats, rules or even
gaming humour, it might be worth your while to check out Blue Troll before
hoisting out some cash for a new supplement. A great library of stuff
that all gamers should find most useful. And if you're looking for some more links/resources/list sites, RPGNet
has a most useful List of
Lists which is sure to get you to the list you desire in less time than it takes to say "Damn, this connection is slow!" A particularly impressive item on this list is the List of
every RPG ever made. Amazing what some people will collate, isn't
it? And we close by mentioning once again the illustrious website of the hottest new convention around: Conjure.
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