Are we sure DNDBBS is a video game?

Question

SSD just closed this question as off-topic because it's about a video game.

The question is about DNDBBS, which appears to stand for "Dungeons and Dragons Bulletin Board System." This site describes it as "An attempt to bring Dungeons and Dragons to the BBS Experience." That makes it sound more like a setup for doing traditional (non-CRPG) role playing over a computer system, which would be on topic.

However, DNDBBS appears to be ancient (can only be run via DOSBOX these days, according to its creator), so finding reliable info about it is proving somewhat difficult. The question makes it sound like its own system, with its own stats and rules, which would be weird if it was just BBS software; that makes it sound more like it is a video game.

Has anybody actually used this software, or is anybody familiar enough with it to tell us definitively whether DNDBBS is a video game (off-topic) or a system for doing traditional role playing online (on topic)?

(SSD, if you already know the answer to this and that's why you closed the question, then apologies in advance for questioning you!)

Update: A conversation with the querent has revealed that:

• He's the creator of the software.
• It's "not a video game, and it IS a multi-node traditional campaign-type game."

I'm not gonna lie, I'm still confused and unsure whether the question is on topic.

Answer 1

Personally, regardless of what kind of a game "DNDBBS" really is, I feel that the OP's actual question:

If there is stats for Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Piety, should there be one for Charisma? Is this standard DND?

would probably a better fit for RPG.SE than for either Arqade or GameDev.

That said, as currently asked, the question also seems to be either way too broad and subjective and/or missing some essential context that would be needed to make it a valid and answerable question here (or anywhere else on SE).

In particular, the OP has not said whether their "DNDBBS" game tries to follow the rules of some specific tabletop D&D edition, or whether it's just drawing inspiration from D&D but not always using the exact same rules.

In the former case, this would essentially be a valid (if rather basic) rules question about classic D&D, and IMO technically on-topic here, with the whole DNDBBS thing being little more than a red herring. In the latter case, the only real answer we could give (at least without a lot more details about what the OP wants to achieve with their game) would be "it's your game, do whatever you want", which would pretty much make the question too broad and/or subjective for any SE site.

In any case, I agree that the question in its current form is not a good fit for this site, and should remain closed. If it's edited by the OP to turn it into an on-topic RPG question (e.g. about the stats used in early D&D editions, or something), then it might qualify for reopening. But until and unless that actually happens, there's not much point in speculating about it.

Answer 2

After some further conversation with the querent, it sounds like it's probably sufficiently video game-ish that it's a better fit for Arqade than here.