Please go read the rules for review submission, and fill in the blanks.

Thank you.

Note: I'm a random person not affiliated with rpggateway, i'm just giving my impression.

The digital art at the top is very attractive. Right away I could tell someone has some good artistic talent and colour choices. There's no doubt that the banners at the top are pretty. I'm not sure about the background outside of the column. This http://www.canticleofheroes.co.uk/bg1.jpg is somewhat distracting on pages that are already full of a lot of colours.

The first thing that would turn me away as a player is the rules and overview. It's a wall of text. It's very big and it doesn't get to the point. If I'm just glancing to see how the rules work I don't want to read all that. It could be edited for brevity and spaced or otherwise formatted for readability.

The other thing that would turn me away is the forum system being used and the way it's accessed. I don't like the board2go system. Any forum system, phpbb, simplemachines, yabb, etc, would be preferred. If I'm going to dedicate myself to writing in a forum that fits the description of your site (Kyasor is an advanced, innovative text-based RPG), I would want a more robust system to keep track of my characters and writing.

- - - - - - - - Do not use dotted lines - - - - - - - - -

Some thoughts from me:

1) Lovely colors for your background, off the beaten track. Well done.

2) Your rules. Well. Very chatty, I agree that you should cut down on the text and keep it simple. Clearly identify the issue, why it is a problem and that is that. I would also not refer to yourself and your friend all the time, but adopt a simple we, or "the administration" or "the moderators" or what have you. It sounds more business like.

3) While I understand your frustrations I also want you to consider the content of some of those rules. They come off weird and controlling. You cannot control what your players do except within your own community, which basically is your online living room so you determine the house rules (if they don't like they can leave). They can always chat in some chatroom or over MSN or whatever, so telling them not to communicate or even stating you considered it.. its ridiculous and it suggests you expect your players to do something foul, a punishing attitude that might turn potential new players off. Instead foster an open and honest atmosphere and there will be less cliques because they feel less of a need to hide or plot. It will also tend to be friendly to newbies and that to helps with growing your game.

4) Love your use of a map to select a forum to play in. Seriously. We thought of doing it for Tazlure once but considered it too much work. It is well done, gives your players a sense of where is what. So, have to disagree with Frug on that. You could of course offer an alternative with a full forum listing, so that players can use both ways.

5) I have to concur on my dislike for your forum system once you get down to posting. It made me blink. Suddenly all the colors become distracting to reading the story. Plus I find the thread listing a bit chaotic. A bit more order and lining out to the left would help me find my way.
Also, it was difficult to find my way back to a higher up level.

Short review. Hopes it helps!

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