The Role of Post Labels on Dungeon Fantastic

I try to avoid admin posts on this blog. Blog posts about posting blog posts just doesn't feel like something I should be doing . . . however, I think I need this one.

I use the labels for posts quite extensively.

I posted something yesterday in the comments on this subject, and I didn't want it buried:

"Actually and just one further note, not really aimed at you but rather at everyone. I've very careful about my post labels. This one is GURPS, and assumes you're using GURPS rules. A lot of "Wandering Monster" encounters are not purely up to chance, but depend heavily on things like Survival skill rolls, player-decision-dependent modifiers (either positive or negative), PCs stats, and even very specific issues like transport mode (no one falls into pits when using everyone is using Levitation to move) or approach method (how fast are you traveling relative to max speed.) So it's not just "I rolled a 1 on a d12 this turn, then I rolled some damage." I'd implement this a bit differently if I was doing it in, say, 1st edition AD&D or 5th edition D&D, or Star Frontiers, or whatever else.

So I'm really coming at this from the narrow angle of "why I do this in GURPS.""

That clearly refers to yesterday's post specifically.

But it is something that is true in general.

I am very careful, thoughtful, and thorough with my uses of post labels. I've been careful to use the same labels over and over. I've equally been careful about adding new labels after getting a bit label-happy on my S&C blog.

Posts about minis get a minis label - but unless they're painted or about painting, they don't get a painting label.

If I'm talking about Ye Olde Days when I used to play, or my current games, I tag it with war stories.

Posts about GURPS get the GURPS label. Even if they are also about other game systems, I put in GURPS because it also applies to GURPS players. If it also applies to Rolemaster or Swords & Wizardry or some other system, I'll put in a post label out those, too. But if write a post and it's about GURPS only, or I'm only really considering it from the angle of GURPS, it's going to have a GURPS label . . . but not those other labels.

I'll put both DF and DFRPG labels on posts that concern both systems, or my game (which runs primarily on DFRPG, but drawing a lot from DF). But if I only put DFRPG, I'm really thinking, "But not DF" or "But not GURPS in general." Sometimes the reverse - I might post something for general GURPS that wouldn't fit in DFRPG or DF, or maybe in DF but not DFRPG, or whatever.

I don't always call this out in the actual text. But I'm very aware of what I'm doing. I'm quite intentional about the labels I use. I use them to call out what I'm talking about, and what I think the post is about.

Sometimes this shows in my responses to comments - a lot of "yes, but" or "no, because" responses. Or how I respond to "You didn't think of this" when "this" is something from a system, or approach, I wasn't trying to cover in the particular post. Or why my GM-centric advice doesn't advice players, or my player-centric advice doesn't consider things from the GM's view. I put labels to make it clear what I'm doing or what where I see that topic attached to or filed under.



I suppose something I could do would be to call out what game systems I'm talking about, or other post labels, right from the start. But honestly, I'm not going to do that. I like labels for what they do - they let you see what I'm thinking about as I post, and find similar posts where I have the same considerations in mind.

So that's how I use labels on my blog. It's not an afterthought, it's part of how this whole thing is organized.