The forge was an influential rpg forum run by a weirdo pervert named Ron Edwards. He was a pretentious twat who said that vampire the masquarade caused brain damage.
https://lumpley.com/index.php/anyway/marginalia/3777
Originally it was started in 1999 as Hephaestus's forge.
https://old.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/ppmt00/tabletop_rpgs_the_fall_of_the_forge_how_a/
They discussed the design and making of tabletop rpgs and developed the gns theory or big model theory .
It's outlined here
https://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/system_does_matter.html
Forgeworld produced some great games like Apocalypse world and Dogs in the Vineyard which is Mormons fighting 
demons who want to molest children
https://writeups.letsyouandhimfight.com/binarydoubts/dogs-in-the-vineyard/
https://writeups.letsyouandhimfight.com/professorprof/dogs-in-the-vineyard/
but also bullshit like Bliss Stage which was made for demons who want to molest children
https://writeups.letsyouandhimfight.com/purplexvi/bliss-stage/
https://systemmasterypodcast.com/2019/04/08/bliss-stage-system-mastery-145/
It was essentially Neon Genesis Evangelion but not the Neon Genesis Evangelion of the anime or manga adaptions but the Neon Genesis Evangelion of the pornographic doujins found at every Japanese con.
https://old.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/353js6/bliss_stage/
That is not a link for those. Look up your own "Shinji chad " or "Shinji cuck" porn ya sick frick.
The Forge defined all players as wanting one of three things: narrativist, which wanted story, simulationist, who wanted realism, and gamist, who wanted to have fun and play the game. They hated the latter two and worshipped narrativism as the one true god.
Certain g*mers compared it to an evil cancer or a cult
https://verbus.livejournal.com/1649.html
The Forge was controversial even when it was still going
https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads%2Ftell-me-about-the-forge.355613%2F
Here is the Forge in all its glory
https://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/20/
Osr or "old school roleplaying" is another weird rpf cult that is either diametrically opposed or partially overlapping with the Forge
https://livingmythrpg.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/rpg-theory-living-myth-vs-forge-theory/
Ron Edwards compared gms running railroady games to child abuse.
https://www.indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=18707.0
The forge closed in 2010
https://stargazersworld.com/2010/11/03/the-end-of-the-forge/
Reaction was mixed
https://www.enworld.org/threads/what-is-the-forge.159851/
Ron Edwards claimed it had fulfilled its purpose.
https://indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=25257.msg244501#msg244501
He was coping
Many fans and detractors still exist and still hate it
https://www.wizardthieffighter.com/2019/a-bad-turn-of-words-fantasy-heartbreaker/
https://refereeingandreflection.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/remembering-the-forge/
My own thoughts on their theory is that it's far too narrow. Every player has his own agenda that might include aspects of all three and other motives. It's a radical simplification of a hopelessly complicated muddle. Most of the forge alumni agree.
Also while Ron Edwards is an butt he's not a male feminist and didn't make a game for male feminists about playing a male feminist . Unlike Black Hat Matt Mcfarland and Beast the primordial. How can you hate Ron Edwards or Byron Hall, the author of fatal the worst rpg ever made,
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/315746/fatal-and-kiwifarms-a-match-made
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/169760/review-of-fatal-rpgnet-rpg-game
when neither of them are actual male feminists?
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/314992/beast-the-primordial-good-lord-above
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/273950/beast-the-primordial-is-the-game
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/272482/reddit-dive-into-beast-the-primordial
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/271029/what-did-people-actually-want-from
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/223552/beast-the-primordial-is-a-bad
https://rdrama.net/post/109832/fresh-beast-the-primordial-on-tg
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/200508/beast-the-primordial-or-trans-lives
https://rdrama.net/post/32502/4chan-daicusses-beast-the-primordial-the
The best link in this post is these two:
https://rdrama.net/post/23466/beast-the-primordial-is-terrible-or
https://rdrama.net/h/traditionalgames/post/255495/fatal-friends-review-btp-books-whitewolfrpg
Live by social justice die by social justice
A forge alumni learned this lesson far too late.
Let that be a lesson to you all: be a chud.
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The forge put out some good stuff and the split of game types is sensible and would be good advice for making TTRPGs. Even the crunchy OSR people have been influenced by the forge and a lot of OSR games are really good because of it, the idea of focusing on what you actually want from a TTRPG and making the mechanics fit that is great
Unfortunately none of it matters because everyone in the world just buys D&D, instantly realises it doesn't work for them, and then does shitty play-pretend without opening or using the books, then buys more D&D merch they don't use
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The great thing about RPGs is you can just fudge it all. There's no real need for any new ones. Just adapt whatever system you already like to the setting.
It's an inherent problem with RPGs as a business in that most of the work is done by the DM and everyone hates learning new systems
Why learn the weird Westeros RPG system as opposed to doing DND in Westeros?
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See this was the problem the Forge was trying to solve, and often succeeded at. If you're going to fudge it all, why buy a book? Conversely, what if you don't know how to fudge it, or how to fudge it the way you want? What if you want something a bit more structured than just playing pretend lasers? Many forge games nailed the answers to that and the games that got made were legitimately good while ranging from crunchy fun mechanical stuff for OSR fans that's nearly a board game, all the way up to imagination-time laser tag but with just enough structure that it makes it easy and fun.
The thing about "oh new systems suck, the DM does everything anyway and the books are useless" is cope from people who's brains were poisoned by how abysmally bad D&D is. You don't have to play D&D!
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Okay.
Then do WoD, Pathfinder, or RPG of your choice. There's no meaningful reason to use a different system after you have chosen one you like.
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pathfinder is literally d&d, like the entire thing for pathfinder is that they took 3.5 and slapped a different title on it
as for wod, despite what rdrama would lead you to believe, some people are not gay
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I almost put the caveat that I know pathfinder was 3.5+ but figured people wouldn't be so neurodivergent and r-slurred that they'd still get the point of Pathfinder being a stand in for any system you want, and not hyper fixate on the fact it's dnd. I overestimated this site.
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"d&d is uniquely bad, people would be happier with other systems if they'd try them"
"uh but what about literally d&d?" <- guy who's acting like he's not a moron
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Read, neighbor read!
I'm saying use whatever system you like there's no need to learn a new one for setting reasons. Play My little pony RPG but have the setting be fricking auschwitz. RPGs mechanics are almost entirely irrelevant to the world you're running so you don't need more than a single system that you like.
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and you should read my posts because you're literally wrong, you think that mechanics are irrelevant because you've been brain poisoned by D&D. you're like someone who says all board games are pointless because they've only ever played monopoly and it sucked therefore it's impossible to have a good board game so everyone should just play tag instead
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