RPG Blog Anthology: Kudos

A long-overdue nod to the Open Game Table RPG Blog Anthology, today.  Jonathan of The Core Mechanic has done yeoman work getting this thing together, and it’s nearly ready for print.  He’s got a cover design now, and it looks… well, it looks damn good.  It looks like a book I wouldn’t be surprised to find on a shelf sitting next to some other roleplaying game books.  Which is, of course, a big part of the point.

Recently Indie Press Revolution picked up the Anthology, meaning that distribution is a possibility.  Which means I might actually see the Anthology sitting on that shelf alongside those other books.

I have three articles in the Anthology (and thank you to my readers for nominating them, and to the judges for finding them worthy), including my version of the Monk for 4e.  Which will have changed at least a little by the time the Anthology goes to print, but it’ll still be gratifying to have it published.

But if you need other reasons to pick it up, I had a chance to preview a draft copy.  I didn’t read the entire thing in depth — I’m saving that pleasure for the physical copy, because there’s just something about a book — but I saw enough to know that the editors have chosen a variety of quality articles on a broad range of topics.  The articles I skimmed are fascinating, useful, or both.  And the artists have done an excellent job of illustrating them in a variety of styles.  It’s an amazing project, and the speed with which it came together, given its scope, deeply impresses me.

The best part?  That “Volume 1″ on the cover.  Given the increase in the RPGBN membership toward the end of last year, and the activity it’s seen this year so far, I can only imagine what a Volume 2 might end up looking like.  I’d love to see it.

The Anthology won’t be available for order for a little while yet, but I encourage all of you to pick up a copy.  To support the project, of course, but also because I firmly believe that the collected posts inside it are easily worth as much as a random rules supplement.  And if you’re like me, it’ll be even better to have it in the form of a physical book, neatly organized for your perusal.

I’ll be posting about it again, once I’ve got my hands on a hard copy.  Until then… thank you, Jonathan, for everything you’ve done to make it a reality.

ABD Reaches Milestone, Gains Action Point

We interrupt musings about guns in fantasy roleplaying games for this bit of vanity:  today marks six months since my first post here at A Butterfly Dreaming.

Since June 10, I’ve written 93 posts (94 including this one), averaging around 1,000 words each.  I’ve received 296 comments as of the time I’m writing this, or around 3 per post.  I’ve got 54 different tags and 15 categories.

And a hell of a lot more readers than I ever expected.

I’d like to thank you all for taking an interest and helping kick things off.  Here’s hoping you find the next six months equally intriguing or entertaining or whatever the case may be.  I’ve got some articles planned.

Back to the guns shortly.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you’re all enjoying the holiday.

I’m out of town for a couple of days.  Regular posting should resume by Monday, perhaps sooner.

CommentLuv

I heard from the Dice Bag that the author of the CommentLuv plugin is hosting a contest. To enter, all you need to do is post a relevant comment on any participating blog (including, as of this posting, this one). I presume that you may need to allow some scripts to function, too, if you use a Firefox addon like NoScript.

CommentLuv.com has details, including registration information.  From that site, in case you were curious:  “The prizes will range from cash via paypal to electronics such as noise-reducing headphones, memory cards, ipod speakers, and more.”

I really like the idea of CommentLuv, and I’ve been using it myself for some time.  (Although it cut out for a while after I accidentally changed something I shouldn’t have… oops.)  I know quite a few other blogs on the RPG Bloggers Network do, too.  Even if you’re not interested in the contest, give the site a look.

One other thing:  please don’t spam in an effort to win the contest.  For one thing, Akismet’ll probably catch it all anyway.  For another, you’ll just end up disqualified.  See the part about “relevant” comment, up there?  Yeah.

Pardon the Stray Electrons…

I’m playing some more with my CSS — toying with the idea of rewriting my theme from scratch, as it’s sort of cobbled together at the moment, and I’m sure it could be more efficient. Things may be changing in appearance somewhat over the next week or so. I’m working on the comments section first, so please excuse the minor variations in style while I find something friendly and aesthetic.