Setting up a role playing site

[Senkusha]

As anybody who's read my previous post, I currently use SMF, and my hobbies involve role playing and anime. I'm looking to migrate over to XenForo, but I have a couple of questions, that I don't think belong in Pre-Sales, because this is a pretty specific conversation. I'm already sold on getting XenForo, I just lack the funds to get it right now.

I was searching the forum here, and found there are a few extensions that would be really nice to have. SubAccounts being one of them. However, I believe that XenForo has OAuth capability, and therefore, I can now directly connect with MediaWiki, which would be a godsend of not yanking my hair out with what I've attempted in the past (still not working, BTW). And then I saw somebody mention Pages. Is this the article system that I can purchase as an add-on? And, am I to understand this is kind of like TinyPortal for SMF, where I can create HTML, BBC content as well as PHP pages for dynamic stuff. That would be useful for character tracking and such, I suppose.

Also, themes. I guess XenForo uses a different term for the look of the skin or look of the site? Is there any place that I can see a preview? Are there any recommendations?

And another thing, I noticed that XenForo has an Android App??? Like that would be super cool!

I guess the TLDR of this is that I'm looking for recommendations? I'm looking for people who have run a role playing forum using XenForo for guidance. One final thing, how successful has your experience been?

 

[Mendalla]

And another thing, I noticed that XenForo has an Android App??? Like that would be super cool!

Native it has a PWA (Portable Web App) which is a way to package a site so it appears as an app on your Android desktop. There are a couple devs offering customs Android apps, or used to be. Never looked into it myself.

I'm looking for people who have run a role playing forum using XenForo for guidance.

Rpg.net, one of the biggest, uses Xenforo for their forums. They don't post here actively that I have seen but if you go to forum.rpg.net, you can see what they have done with it. FYI, I am assuming tabletop RPGs here.

 

[Senkusha]

Amazing that I missed that RPG.net uses XenForo. I haven't been all that active on that site, but I'm going to give it a look over with a fine-tooth comb now to see some of the possibilities. Thank you @Mendalla for pointing this out!

 

[chillibear]

I believe that XenForo has OAuth capability, and therefore, I can now directly connect with MediaWiki,

XF 2.3 can act as an OAuth server - so other pieces of software can use it to authenticate against. XF itself has some limited options for authenticating with third parties (think login via Facebook, Google, etc), there was a post not that long about adding your own (if you were authenticating XF using Mediawiki as an OAuth server), which suggested it might not be too much work to add your own if you are comfortable programming.

 

[Suzanne O]

You might like to start with the cloud. It might be cheaper for you in the long term.

Ask @Paul B to help you because he's really good with cloud stuff.

Get started with XenForo

Choose a solution to suit your needs

xenforo.com

There's also the demo that you might like to play around with first then look at either getting your own self hosted or as i said go with the cloud.

 

[Senkusha]

What about add-ons? Things like a Dice Roller may be helpful (and which one, there seems to be several of them available), and I'm still a bit confused by what exactly I can do with the Pages functionality (I'm hoping to receive a payment sometime this week so that I can finally afford my license!) Could I use a Page to build a dynamic database driven Character Sheet, for example, or can Pages only render statically defined HTML pages?

 

[chillibear]

You can try a demo out to explore things more: https://xenforo.com/demo/ probably worth doing.
I've only ever used pages for the odd static page here and there so can't really comment on how far you can push what is supplied.
You might want to look at https://xenforo.com/community/resources/vbresults-com-custom-php-pages.9286/ which I've got noted down as a "that looks interesting" add-on, which looks to allow another way of integrating XF into your own PHP code.

 

[CedricV]

What about add-ons? Things like a Dice Roller may be helpful (and which one, there seems to be several of them available), and I'm still a bit confused by what exactly I can do with the Pages functionality (I'm hoping to receive a payment sometime this week so that I can finally afford my license!) Could I use a Page to build a dynamic database driven Character Sheet, for example, or can Pages only render statically defined HTML pages?

There is a dice roller add on in the resources. I’d search for it, but the search here has been bugged for god knows how long. And they’re not fixing it until a later release version.

 

[Senkusha]

Ah! Okay, so that explains why I can't search all of a sudden. It's broken! I thought maybe I didn't have access to it because I don't have a license yet.

 

[chillibear]

X

Dice Roller

Feb 14, 2018

Simple dice roller

• Xon
• dice rpg
• Add-ons [2.x]

[cv6] Dice Roller

Feb 14, 2021

Manage Dice, and Systems and roll them in a post with calculation of fail or success.

• Hoffi
• dice play-by-post rpg
• Add-ons [2.x]

 

[Senkusha]

Ah! Thank you!

There's just two things I hopefully will find a solution for. My current forum uses SMF with TinyPortal (TP). TP allows me to do two things that I'm not seeing, but that doesn't mean the solutions not already out there somewhere, and I can't comment within the Resource Manager until I have a XenForo license, so...

1. TinyPortal allows me to define blocks. These can be BBC, HTML, or even Custom PHP blocks. I'm using one of these blocks as a nice place holder for any Affiliates, like an additional customized footer that I have control over. Many Forum Role Playing Directories require you add their button to your site somewhere in a static location. This is my solution to fulfilling this requirement.

2. I also have the ability to write custom scripts using PHP pages within Tiny Portal. With some global access to some SMF variables, I have access to database information, or I can just use PHP mysqli_query() to access data within my own custom database tables using a PHP Page. I did find this (Custom PHP Pages), but, as I mentioned above, I can't comment to ask questions yet. I wonder if this add-on would give me this additional functionality that I need? These custom PHP pages are wrapped inside of the SMF forum interface, so it's not jarring from a user perspective. I was hoping that Pages built into XenForo could handle PHP, but maybe not? I don't think I could test this fully until I have my own license and XenForo installed on my own server.

 

[Senkusha]

This is disappointing. I just found this particularly useful extension that could facilitate character sheets (I have questions for, but...) It appears it's no longer available.

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/ozzmodz-advanced-forms-deleted.133580/post-1745484

Maybe there's another alternative I could use?

 

[chillibear]

Ozzy47 removed his add-ons from this site, but he is still producing/supporting them. Head over to his site:

[OzzModz] Advanced Forms

Advanced Forms can be used for just about any type of form you need! Features Unlimited Form Types* Unlimited Forms* Unlimited Questions* Different Forms for each Form Type Different Questions for each Form Show Multiple Form Types in sidebar...

snogssite.com