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RPGnews:  I'm here today with Eric Noah of our first fan created site of the week, "Eric Noah's DnD Third Edition News." Tell me Eric, why did you decide to start your website?
Eric Noah: I had two motives -- one, to keep my self sane during the year-long wait between the "Big Announcement" at GenCon '99 (that WotC was developing D&D 3rd Edition) and the release at GenCon '00; and two, to make enough of a name for myself so that people would be interested in contributing to a library of conversion documents to help those of us with sizable collections of 2nd Edition and older materials for D&D. I think I succeeded on both counts -- I'm still (mostly) sane, and fans have contributed hundreds of files to the conversion library.
I assumed that when 3E was finally released, that would be the end of the "news" part of my site, and the site would mostly become a repository for those conversion documents. As it turns out, people have more questions than ever about the game and so the news is as relevant a part of the site as it ever was.
RPGnews: How long will you continue working on the site? Is there a line or a goal you've set?
Eric Noah: Doing the site is fun, mostly. There are times when it's a chore. When it's a chore more than it's fun, that's basically the end. My problem is that I'm an all or nothing type of person -- I'll do this full bore, and then when I sense that it's time, there will be a clean break. I promise I will not have one of those sites that slowly rots away. :) I honestly can't see myself doing this another year, but then I was thinking the same thing last year at this time...
RPGnews: When you first put the site up, did you expect this large of a response?
Eric Noah: No, not at all. I'm still a little baffled, particularly at the steady increase of traffic over the past year. I didn't anticipate that there would still be lots of secrets in store, nor that there would be as many clarifications and corrections to the rules needed as there apparently were. And I didn't anticipate what would happen with my message boards -- that so many people would find them to be as fun and vital as they are. Much credit to the message board community -- they're fun and mature, mostly, and they're the primary reason I've stayed around as long as I have.
RPGnews: How soon into your sites history did Wizards of the Coast contact you?
Eric Noah: WotC folk were in contact with me about the site within the first couple of weeks of the site's opening; in fact, I think my first "official" e-mail of that nature was from Ryan Dancey, who wrote in to correct some news bit he'd posted elsewhere earlier.
I think Ryan really tapped into the unique relationship between publisher and fan site -- he understood that there was value in collecting up all of the juicy rumors and tidbits and frequently asked questions; he understood that a fan could "preach it" better than the company suits ever could; he accepted that a fan site could be more nimble, perhaps, than the corporate site; he seemed to realize that I could say and do things the company could never get away with. And so he and others within WotC really helped the site flourish.
I was (and still am) grateful for that level of involvement, and in return I try to be as judicious as I can about what I post (I get more "playtester leaks" than I actually post, for instance), not using my site to get what I personally want, not using my site to complain about things I'm not happy about. Sometimes the temptation is there -- it is sorely tempting to use the site to nag WotC about the seemingly endless delays with regards to the errata for the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual, or to complain about the "information void" regarding Master Tools. Ultimately, though, those tactics would fail and that sort of behavior would hurt my relationship with them.
RPGnews: When you put the site up did you expect Wizards of the Coast to ask you to come to Gencon as an official guest?
Eric Noah: Oh, no, not at all. I got a call in early summer of 2000, and they wanted me there for the whole convention, at their expense, to report about GenCon on my site. At first I wasn't interested -- I'm not a "gaming convention" type of guy, I'd only been to GenCon once before and it was a bit too much even going for one day. But I thought about it, thought how neat it would be to meet the WotC folk and post news, so I decided to attend just for two days, which was plenty. Better than anything on that trip, though, was just getting to say hi to my readers -- lots and lots of people said lots and lots of nice things about the site, and that was very gratifying.
RPGnews: With the sudden flood of D&D products and so many d20 products on the horizon, do you see a new direction opening for your site or will you remain strictly Dungeons and Dragons?
Eric Noah: Well, I haven't been strictly D&D since March of 2000, when I did the big Ryan Dancey D20 interview. (Sorry, I still write D20 instead of d20 even after all this time.) After that, D&D and D20 were pretty much inseparably linked for me. I have a D20 System Guide on my site and regularly report D20 System news, with the assumption that  most D&D players will be interested in third-party products that can be used with D&D. Mostly I do stay pointed toward the Fantasy side of things, though when there sci-fi or other genres are involved I do at least mention them in the news. Still, there's no question that my site will continue to give D&D a more "royal treatment" than the other products -- to do otherwise would just be too much for one man.
RPGnews: As for the D20 or D&D system, how long do you think it will stick around? People speculate on it's staying power and some people only call it a passing fad. Will d20 be something we'll be talking about five years from now?
Eric Noah: I think it will have the same staying power that D&D has, which is considerable. That's not to say that the same individual third-party companies around today will still be around in five years, but the concept of third-party publishing makes sense from the consumer's point of view. And the D20 movement can only help D&D by making it a game that lots of people know how to play.
RPGnews: If I were to decide to create a fan site, what advice would you give me?
Eric Noah: Do the little things well.
Do what's fun for you personally.
Do it for the right reasons.
Know your limits and set realistic goals.
You get out of it what you put into it.
A good site will publicize itself.
RPGnews: Final thoughts?
Eric Noah: The past year and a half have been some of the best, most productive months of my life. Whether I keep on with the site for a few years or close down in a few months, I'll have all sorts of great memories of the experience and lots of new friends, and I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to be involved in D&D's history.
All pictures were grabbed from Eric's site and are copyright of the original artist
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