Nevermore: Harry Potter 1980s RPG

[Kieran 15]

General review, the whole site, please. Competition in the genre/fandom is crushing, and I'd like to figure out how to attract active players despite of the unloved era.

 

Nevermore: Harry Potter 1980s RPG

Edited March 31, 2021 by Kieran

[PixieMegs 107]

To begin, I'm going to let you know I am also in this genre and my advice is not to hinder your site. I love the HP community and I want it to thrive with plenty of options for people to choose from.  I do believe we are on the same HP discord, which I joined to help support other site creators within our genre. I hope my advice helps in some way or at least makes you feel more at ease. 

 

At First Glance:

I am personally not a fan of forums linking to an opening page. I like to immediately see the board and have the ability to look at what is available for me. I also think letting your forum speak for itself is a good mentality. However, I don't think this is detrimental to your site's success. I would suggest cutting down the paragraphs and instead offering short details regarding the site. Almost an elevator pitch. 

 

Into the board index- my initial reaction was that the light yellow font is a bit hard on the eyes. The more I browsed, the harder it was for me to read. I would suggest a more muted tone, since abrasive font colors can quickly turn someone away from a site. I'd also suggest getting rid of the green line at the top of the skin, it is also hard to look at. You have a dark themed skin, so I'd stay clear of colors that are bright or almost neon against the dark background. This will help with accessibility. 

 

The overall structure of your forums is a bit confusing as first glance. Information and character development and applications are lumped together. I'd make separate categories, so people will see Basics, Plot, Site Canon first and quickly followed by site relevant announcements. Possibly move the guest friendly forum to this category. Then create a category for all character related things: apps, want ads, etc. If this is tricky on your host, feel free to ignore this advice. 

 

Your in-game forums are nicely laid out and easy to understand. The subforums work nicely. I'd link them in the main forum description so people know they are there. 

 

 

The Skin:

 

Skins are not detrimental to a site, but as stated above, I'd make adjustments to the font colors and remove the neon green. That being said, a skin is also a lot like a book cover. We are drawn to it regardless of the content it holds. Commission a new banner and reach out to someone with in the community about adding texture to your skin. You do not need to change much, but even slight adjustments can make a site look brand new and that'll catch people's interest. 

 

Content:

If you request it- I will do a thorough look into the actual content on your site. For now I'll let you know what I am seeing while browsing.  While templates are never a deal breaker, the information feels unstructured. This also relates back to the font color as well. It's hard to read and it's not neatly presented, which makes me not want to go over it. Chaotic text is not inviting. Use a simple template or adjust the formatting of your information so it is more pleasing to the eye. Right now the Basic Info looks like one block of text. I glimpsed what you had there and it's valid information to put forward. It just needs to be presented differently. I'd also ask around the rp community about the current feelings toward 'literacy level'. My site has completely removed that kind of language from our guides and only state we are not a beginner's rp. This is acceptable, as we don't have the time to help people learn the ropes of rp, but we do direct them to places that will. 

 

The rules are too long.  However, this is a personal preference. I'm a firm believer of 'admin discretion' and I like to think that the those that come by my site do not need hand holding. I'd also number the rules or bullet point them. 

 

If you'd like further input on the actual wording of your content, please let me know. This advice came from an honest perspective in hopes of helping you. Overall, I think you can do a lot with the era you're in. You offer a lot of freedom for the player which is nice. An unloved era doesn't need to stay that way. Marauder's and Riddle Era were not always as popular as they are now. I remember a time when most HP rp was Trio Era. I simply think that your site needs a revamp to freshen things up. There's a solid foundation, as would be expected from a site that has been around for a while. Also consider reaching out to your current members directly to see if there are things they might want to see on site. It never hurts to talk to those that are in this with you. ❤️ Good luck and let me know if you need more. 

 

[Kieran 15]

Thank you. I did most of what you suggested and I too think it's significantly better now. I'll be able to make a much better banner myself and add some texture too once I get the inspiration for it. I just wasn't feeling it back when I founded the board.

Oh, and the green line annoyed me for a long time, I knew it looked awful but I couldn't figure out what the heck it was and where so I could remove it but now I finally did and it's gone. Yay! (I'm self-hosting on mybb so editing templates and css is sometimes a huge pain in the neck.)

And I do listen to / ask what members want, for one the Fantastic Beasts era characters' time travel plot was suggested by one of our members, I only further visioned the details.

Yes, please. Do take a more thorough look into the actual content. After all it is the esssence of an RPG and the thing that people should care the most about when considering joining.

I'm aware that in addition to the unloved era my site has going against it the fact that I indeed have significantly adapted some of the canon lore whilst have shut out Pottermore. (Mainly because Pottermore has a lot of heavy retconning and book canon contradictions.) So, people can't just quickly jump in with what they know from official sources and they have to do some board-canon reading instead.  But I can't give that up, nor the era.

[PixieMegs 107]

I'm just letting you know I have seen this and will take a look at the content later. I didn't want you to think I bailed. 

 

Quick Edit: I went to check the skin. The font looks so much better and immediately made the site look more appealing! 

Edited March 30, 2021 by PixieMegs

[PixieMegs 107]

Sorry for the delay! Some stuff came up!

 

Joining Guide:

I don't have much to say here. It's clean and straight-forward, which is good. For continuity, I'd have all members make an OOC account or just use their character accounts. This will make it easier for prospective members. I'd go with which ever is more popular on site. 

 

Basics & Plot:

You don't need to have the site name at the top of the basic info. Anyone who is on your site will know where they are. I'd also consider taking that info and turning it into a blurb and put it in a quotes box, if your platform has that: 

Quote

Nevermore was founded on August 17th, 2015 and is run by the admin Kieran. Over the course of six years, the majority of the player base is between the ages 25-40 years old. Our primary method of communication is the discord, however feel free to step into our chatbox if that is what makes you most comfortable. Etc. etc. 

 

Something like that. 

 

Playable characters: Canon and original characters are accepted, as are all canon races within the Harry Potter universe. - state if you do not accept certain subgroups or things like mixed species (veela/vampire for example, because someone will try). 

 

Base: Nevermore is based solely on the canon from the seven Harry Potter books, the complimentary books Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, and our own site-canon. We do not accept lore from Pottermore or the Fantastic Beast movies, nor do we accept lore from the Harry Potter films. Please use the information found on site first and foremost. If you have any questions or suggestions, contact Kieran. 

Timeline: looks good!  I'd link the calendar directly here if possible or the forum it's found in. 

Plot: The main plot is a little confusing, simply because I think it's over explained. I would consider rewording it a bit. Something along the lines of: Nevermore takes place during the 80's and early 90's, exploring the world during a time of relative peace before Lord Voldemort resurfaces in 1992. 

Side Plot: I would remove "Any characters from the Fantastic Beasts movies time period could suddenly find themselves in the 1980s." Simply because you state you don't use the canon or lore from those films. I'd replace it with: Any character from the Grindelwald Era could suddenly find themselves in 1980. The rest looks great. 
 

 

Canon List:

I'd sort them by student/adult and bold the names and adjust the formatting a bit. Otherwise it looks good.
 

Bell, Katie
Age- House- Blood

 

Characters:

There's some broken code, but I don't see anything else wrong with this list. The legend you created for the houses and blood types and etc is very nicely done. 

 

 

Play-By List:
Some of these characters are not listed in the Characters forum. If they are on site but not listed, I'd update the forum. If they are not on site or no longer on site, I'd remove those play-bys so people don't think they are claimed. 

 

 

Rules:

I think you've made adjustments since I last looked. It looks a lot better, there is some broken code though. 

 

The World:

I read through the entire thing and it is very well explained and detailed. I will say most people don't bother with guides, but they're good to have (I have one myself). So I think this is an excellent section on your site. The formatting is good and I appreciate the links at the top so it's easier to get to certain sections. I don't have any additional input, as you were very thorough and clear in your statements.  

 

Other:

The spells and everything else in 'Plotting and Planning' is also well explained. I also like the ideas for muggle characters, as it is one of the least popular groups on HP sites. As this is the bulk of site content, I will leave you with this: It's well done. I'd run each section through a word processor like Word or Google Docs to check for spelling or grammar errors. We all do them. I've made plenty in this post alone. I caught a few but forgot to note them, so I don't really remember where they were. I took a look at your discord event idea, I think events in general would be a good idea to help get things moving. I've also noticed you don't have a site to site advertising area. I might suggest doing so, because you'll be able to post your own site across other HP sites and get more people looking at the site. however, I absolutely hate advertising, so do what you will with that piece of advice XD

[Kieran 15]

Thank you ever so much. 🙂

Again, I did most of that. But I won't bother with the age, house and blood of canons as anyone who's considering a canon most likely knows such info about it already. Plus, I prefer keeping that list simple and easy to check at a glance if a specific character is available. But I did devide the General section into adults and children, also corrected the other sections to be alphabetized by surname as well, and splashed some color in there. ^^

As for the Play-bys, yes of course I would remove any that aren't on the site anymore but all of those are. Some of them are for side characters that don't have their own individual profile but have been told a little bit about in a main character's profile and are heavily featured in game events. Ie. a child character's parents. I see I'd forgotten to mention that above the list. But then I might as well just add those side characters to teh Characters List and just link to the main character's profile. Probably would be least confusing.

The World thread isn't a guide, it's essential site-lore / world info that needs to be read before applying for a character. Hence, why I put the reading of it alongside the plot and rules as part of the very first step of joining. So I certainly hope people aren't skipping it.  That's why I've tried to point out in the Base section and in ads that we have adapted site lore.

Yeah, I don't do advertising forums.  It's way more trouble than it's worth. Chances of getting a new player through such means are not that great as ads quickly get drowned under newer ones. I don't even do affiliation anymore, except with my Old West RPG eand The Lion KIng RPG but even them with only other Old West/Historical sites and DIsney/Lion King sites as their genres are so tiny I feel it's good to be connected with others in the genre. But certainly not worth it with Harry Potter sites. One pathetic tiny button among tens of others at the very bottom of a huge board isn't going to do anything.

Besides, anyone who's looking for a new site most likely will go browse a Directory site where ads are categorized and everything listed is guaranteed to be an active site. I'll just keep advertising to people who put up site searches, and bumping my listing on directories and posting wanted ads and stuff.

Thank you again for your time and effort! This was very helpful. I certainly feel better about the site now, even if no one new ever joins at least I can say I tried everything I reasonably could.