[The Stronghold 'Zine} The Frugal DM Reviews Issue #1

Many thanks to Christopher over at The Frugal GM for his tremendous review of Issue #1. I'm really humbled and thrilled that he would give me such a great review. I apologize to him that it's taken me nearly a week to recognize his generous words; getting mom home from the hospital and dealing with sick kids for a week have been a little distracting. Please forgive me.

I had a long blog post all prepared explaining my anal-retentiveness and the justification for the quirks and flaws in the 'zine, but mercifully Blogger seems to have eaten it. Suffice it to say the following:

1. I'm extremely anal-retentive and have high production standards. Just ask +Tim Shorts, +Dylan Hartwell, or the guys over at Pathways Magazine. In short, anyone for whom I've ever proofread/edited.
   
2. To some extent, the quirks and flaws were intentional; they were an homage to old-school, Eighties-style 'zines painstakingly crafted on a Selectrix in mom's basement and mimeographed. It took some self-control to overlook these quirks adn let them pass in the name of "homage." There are a stack of "seconds" whose flaws were just too much to overlook; these will never see the light of day.
   
3. Some of the flaws were NOT intentional, however. The odd "photocopy" mark on the artwork frustrates me; it was not in the original and whatever error I caused in my software may detract from the awesomely gruesome piece donated to the 'zine. I really regret this error and am doing everything possible to figure out where it happened and make sure it doesn't happen in future issues. It's a lot like the missing apostrophe that jumped out at me as soon as I sent out the first batch of orders.
   
4. The article that Christopher called a "WTF Article": I knew this article would give some people pause. It was a re-print of a random generator that I first posted on this blog, a celebration of the purchase of my first "official" d2 determiner. This would be the "Nose Picking Tables" article. I realized when I included this that it wasn't going to be everybody's cup of tea. It wasn't intended to be that. It's simply a little bit of humor that may, somehow, find some usefulness at a table. Consider this to be the printed version of the ubiquitous Monty Python joke or Princess Bride reference at the gaming table. I know those aren't for everybody either, but they're almost inevitable and I, for one, welcome a bit of levity in my games. Wait until you see the next humorous generator/table. THAT one is all Tim Shorts' fault.

"The Stronghold is a bit of an ugly duckling . . . but you know what? I fricken loved it!" "The Stronghold had just enough rough-edges to remind me of those Zines [from back in the day] and clean & modern enough that I'll actually read it." "The contents of #1 vary a bit in usefulness, to me, but I really did enjoy reading it. I've been paring back on my physical collection of RPG 'stuff', preferring the digital, but I have just the spot for this Zine."
High praise indeed. Thank you, Christopher, from the bottom of my heart.

Let me reverse the recommendation: Christopher has some awesome stuff on his blog, not just links to inexpensive gaming stuff, but also his own great maps and gaming material. (My personal favorites are his underground river maps, taken from real-life rivers and transformed into useable gaming resources. These are truly brilliant!)

Printing Press Installed at the Stronghold

This post serves as the formal announcement. The Stronghold is about to see print.

Well, OK... "about" is a relative term. But it's in the process.

That's right. A 'Zine is on its way. Inspiration such as Christian Walker, Tim Shorts, Dylan Hartwell, and Matt Jackson has made me yearn to have my own musings put into black and white and mailed out to various and sundry parts of the world.

Or at least that's my hope.

There's going to be a definite 3.X Edition focus; that's just how I roll. Of course, there'll be some system neutral stuff, some fiction, some tables, maps, NPCs. Everything that you've come to expect from the Stronghold.

And that'll be it's name: The Stronghold.

Yeah, I was inspired by Tim's "The Manor"--I had a couple other thoughts for titles but he gave his thumbs up (and blessing) to "The Stronghold."

The first few articles are penned. I just need a little more stuff, some art, and then figure out how to assemble it all together. I REALLY don't need to try and learn new software right now. We'll see how it goes. I also have to figure out the whole OGL and copyright thing.

[Review] Tombstones of Terror: Curse of the Sin Eater

Well, my good friend Dylan over at Digital Orc has done it again, and just in time for Hallowe'en gaming goodness.

This time 'round he gives us a little adventure titled: Tombstones of Terror: Curse of the Sin Eater.

First: a disclaimer.

I was an editor/proofreader on this project for Dylan. Thus, I want to make it clear: I have not received and will not receive any monetary remuneration for either my proofreading work or this review.

Now that's out of the way, let's get down to business.

We're looking at 32 pages of Labyrinth Lord goodness. (No worries to those who don't play LL; I regularly use Dylan's adventures in 3.x settings and they translate well.) As usual we have Dylan's unique artwork sprinkled throughout. I particularly like his grey-scale setting images and his critter pics. I will confess that my wife saw one image and hollered at me, "WHAT are you reading?!" I told her it was grown-up stuff for grown-ups and not to worry: the kids wouldn't see it. That didn't help my cause, of course. Once I told her it was Dylan's latest, she was mollified because she knows his work. (In hindsight she agrees that the picture wasn't all that bad; it just took her off-guard.) YMMV.

soapbox
The adventure is not graphic, it's not James Raggi grown-up stuff, but it's not intended for the little ones. Definitely PG, or maybe PG-13, based on some of the thematic elements. This is not a critique or a complaint, just a warning to my more sensitive readers and the parents out there. As with most things: if you have a concern with your kids seeing something, take the time to look at it first rather than complaining later.
/soapbox

The premise of the adventure is intriguing: the death of a village "sin eater" causes a curse to descend and sets the stage for some interdimensional doom and destruction. In order to lift the curse on the town, the adventurers must unlock riddles on seven different tombstones, each one a magical portal to a different and unique dungeon. Each dungeon has its own creatures and settings; each dungeon has its own boss. All seven dungeons must be overcome and each of the eight bosses Dylan gives us must be conquered in order to lift the curse.

As usual, Dylan gives us some interesting souls (literally in this case) to populate his world: lost sailors, grieving bards, and lustful priests. He also gives us some familiar monsters to battle, but adds in some new ones of his own. And yes, we have another spider. A wonderfully, gruesome spider. One that makes my skin crawl, and yet I cannot wait to unleash it on my own players.

[Aside: Dylan knows I'm an arachnophobe. (I know better, but...) I swear he lays awake at night thinking up something new and creepy to do with spiders just so that I can proofread their stats and text-blocks and get the heebie-jeebies. He's even threatened that his next work will be: Boric's Basement Book of Spiders -- 20 Arresting arachnids for your old-school games! Written & Illustrated by Dylan Hartwell. I told him that I may not be able to handle the editing work on something like that. (Shudder) I wanted to tell him that I didn't think he could come up with 20 new ones, but that sounded too much like a gauntlet being thrown down so I resisted. End aside.]

Dylan also gives us seven new maps, one for each dungeon. The text accompanying each dungeon is just detailed enough for most DMs: giving enough detail for some DMs to take it as written and run with it, while leaving room for other DMs to add/subtract details of their own. I think he strikes a good balance with the detail, myself. I will say this about the details, though: Dylan likes his Easter Eggs. He sprinkles little bits of continuity from his other adventures throughout. It's a nice nod to those of us who have/enjoy the other adventures, plus it gives an opportunity to expand from a quick adventure into a campaign.

If I had one complaint, it would be this: I want just a bit more. I'd like a bit more flavor about the town, a few more NPCs and townspeople with whom to interact. I realize I can do this myself, but sometimes I'm lazy. It certainly works well without the extra flavor and NPCs. I just think it would be even better. (But then, I collect NPCs, so I suppose it's not that difficult for me to pull a few out of the file drawer.)

Really, then, my one complaint comes down to pure, unadulterated selfishness.

I'm going to give this 4 battle-axes out of 5. I'd highly recommend it to anyone; as I said above, I think it could make a nice one- or two-night adventure for a group, or it could form the basis of an entire campaign. Great content, period. Currently it's available at RPGNow in PDF format for $3.99. He's anticipating the print version to be available soon for $4.99 -- if you'd rather the print version, just keep an eye out over at his Digital Orc blog.

Digital Orc: Verloren (Review)

I have a whole slew of potential posts that are bouncing around in my head, including a recap of Free RPG Day loot-gathering. Unfortunately, my personal and professional life was turned topsy-turvy last Friday when my boss decreed that, in two weeks, he was shutting down the law firm and I'd be "self-employed."

My head hasn't been in the game since then, although I'm getting a bit more emotionally stable with the passing days.

But I was heartened this morning when I slipped over to the Digital Orc's blog to see what Dylan had in store. Lo and behold! Dylan's newest offering for Labyrinth Lord is up for sale!

(Disclaimer: I was an editor/proofreader on this project. I am not being compensated for this review, but will receive a copy of the final product for my proofreading services.)

I have not yet seen the final, finished product, but based off of the preview copy I saw as part of my proofreading? Wow. I should say up front that I do not play Labyrinth Lord, but all of Dylan's stuff has been fairly easy to port over to my 3.x campaign(s). My players have been known to recoil over some of his monsters. (Hello, backpack spider! I'm looking right at you, buddy!) This is more of the same.... From the evocative settings to the weird mutants, from the death-gamblers to the manipulative alien beings, from the sexy werewolf sirens to the hive-mind giant rodents....

Well, Dylan has done it again. This is some great stuff. He self-described this one to me as "weird" and it is. But that's not a criticism. It's weird stuff, but a cool weird. I liked what I saw and I think you will too. I can't wait to hold Verloren in my hands and let the ideas germinate for my own campaign.

You can buy the PDF on RPGNow.com for $3.99 or the limited run print version for $4.99. That's a small price to pay for 32 pages of cool gaming content. In fact, the only page I saw that was of little-to-no-use was the OGL page. Everything else had great content, maps, hooks, or images for in-game use.

From his own ad copy:

Verloren is a city hanging in the balance. Either it will fall to an ancient evil or triumph based on your actions. Enclosed are city details, maps, nine original monsters, and interesting non-player characters for encounters in and out of Verloren. In this fantasy supplement, players will face powerful monsters and explore a decaying city to discover the secret of The Change and save the thousands of inhabitants.

• 9 Original Monsters
  
• Over 20 Original Illustrations
  
• 3 New Spells
  
• Lots of NPCs and Story Hooks
  
• 2 Maps

So take a moment if you would and jump on over to the Digital Orc: he's got purchase links for each option there. Verloren--GET IT NOW!

The Thing in the Basement

Dylan Hartwell, the Digital Orc had a post last week that I somehow missed until this morning. It brought to mind a memory from the past.

Some may call it a memory, others may call it "emotional scarring." Tom-ay-to, to-mah-to.

The home where I grew up had a partially unfinished basement. There was the family room at the bottom of the stairs, then the room doubled back, following the stair-wall to a bathroom and my oldest brother's bedroom. Then there was a door that led to the hallway under the stairs. This area, nearly two-thirds of the basement area--was known as "the messy room."

Immediately inside that door on the left was a series of built-in shelves, attempting to make use of the space under the shelves. On the right was the "fruit room." Straight ahead was the furnace, water heater, water softener, and the laundry. The rest of the space was piled with boxes, clothes, old toys, dad's table saw, etc. There were two pathways through and around "the mess" which led to my father's study.

That room freaked me out.

The whole basement did, actually. The family room was where my oldest brother dragged me on Saturday night to watch "Thriller Theater" or somesuch program with him. It's where I was exposed to great, bad horror movies. It was where I later peeked over the couch as I watched my brothers watching Alien on our very first Betamax. (It was rated 'R' of course so I was restricted from watching it.) But it wasn't just the movies. I was convinced that there was something that lived down there...somewhere. (Actually, I KNEW where it lived. It lived under the stairs, in the space behind the folding chairs and card tables. It lived back there between the decades-old cocktail napkins and paper plates. It lived back there and KNEW, somehow, when you were alone in the basement.)

It also didn't help that the stairway itself wasn't square. One wall gradually slanted inward, so that the bottom of the stairway was narrower than the top. It wasn't really noticeable except to your subconscious mind.

The lights to the entire family room and hallway "complex" were controlled by light switches at the bottom of the stairs, but on the family room side of the wall. Very early in life I mastered the art of hitting ALL the light switches at once as the sprint upstairs began. Just typing this, I can feel on my right arm the sensation of "something about to grab me" that I was always convinced was just about to happen. And you know the worst times? When you'd MISS one of those lights and have to go back downstairs to turn just the one off. Because then, you know, the creature was AWARE that you'd been down there and AWARE that you had to come back down and he was closer to the stairway than he normally was and....

Well, you get the picture.

The basement was finally finished nearly two decades ago. I have a wife and kids of my own. The "messy room" no longer exists. Dad's gone now, but mom still lives in the home. And do you know, even now, some 40 years later, I still feel like my 3-year-old self, fighting the desire to sprint up the stairs as I hit all four light switches with my "about to be grabbed" right hand?

[Review] Menagerie of the Ice Lord

I'm excited to announce the release of the Digital Orc's latest offering: Menagerie of the Ice Lord!
(In terms of full disclosure, I will say that I was afforded the opportunity to assist in the editing process on this project. I will not, however, be receiving any compensation for my work or review beyond a copy of the finished product.)

Synopsis: Lord Venator lived in a remote mountain top family estate castle overlooking the snowbound village of Nix. An accomplished and enthusiastic hunter, he bored of stuffed trophies and took to keeping his prey alive in a growing menagerie in his expansive abode. A recent malfunction of the magical cages resulted in widespread escape. The Venator family castle is now overrun with vicious beasts and Lord Venator is thought dead. A brave party of adventurers, suspecting the Ice Lord is dead, hurry to loot the icy abode that resembles the valuable magical crystals with which it may be filled. (from The Menagerie of the Ice Lord)

Short review: This product looks terrific!

Longer review: I can't wait to sit down and run my players through this. Although designed as a one-shot adventure, there are sufficient hooks on which to base a pretty good campaign, including hooks to Dylan's other adventures: The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz, The Horrendous Heap of Sixteen Cities, and The Veiled Invocation. I've decided that the Menagerie will provide a good gateway for my campaign to include these other great Digital Orc adventures.

As with all of Dylan's works, there are some terrific custom creatures. I'm not sure what twisted part of his psyche some of these come from, but bless that little chunk of grey matter. There are some artifacts and treasures to tempt adventurers as well.

The product is filled with Dylan's own artwork and comes well-mapped. The DM running the Menagerie is provided with a custom character sheet. The Menagerie is compatible with Labyrinth Lord rules, but could quickly and easily be converted to another OSR rule set, as well as 3.x, Pathfinder, and (I suppose, if you really have to, I guess) to 4E.

I'd highly recommend this to all of my readers. At $2.99 for PDF or $3.99 for print, it's a great bargain and a welcome addition to any OSR bookshelf. Grab your copy of the Menagerie of the Ice Lord today!

[From the Mailbag] Son of The Manor! A Review!

One day after the postal worker brought me the twin happiness of Barrowmaze and the d30 DM Companion, I returned home to find that our personal postal worker (or would that be "mail distribution facilitator"?) had left another present for me.

Yup. I had an envelope with the scary moth. Inside was the lovely mug of Hugo staring up at me. The envelope had a laugh-inducing personal message from the Author himself, Tim Shorts. Unfortunately, my laughter meant explaining the message to my wife.

You see...I like 'zines. I'm sure this comes as a surprise to my long-time readers. Yeah. Really. I like 'em. I get excited about a good product too. So when the two sources of excitement combine in one? Well, loss of reason isn't out of the question. I was so eager for The Manor #2, I went and purchased my copy mere minutes after the PayPal button went live over on GM Games. Within minutes I had a confirmation e-mail from Tim thanking me for my purchase, but advising me (what I had apparently forgotten) that I had purchased a subscription when I bought issue #1.

Yep. That's what I did. And I told Tim that he was free to not let me live it down. And now my wife won't let me live it down either. At any rate, it was a nice personal touch that I certainly wouldn't have gotten from someone like Wizards of the Boast. (Full disclosure: To be honest, I HAVE actually received something similar from Paizo's customer service on one occasion, but I digress.)

So, what did I get for my $3.50? 24 pages of gaming goodness. First, The Manor #2 has a nice, striking yellow (is that Canary?) cover. It looks great on the shelf next to the red cover of Issue #1.

The title page has a few humorous touches--a great disclaimer, for one, that my attorney-side appreciated. These are the kind of things that I love about 'zines. The personal touches, the inside jokes, the foibles.

The introduction contains, in part, a nice piece of software pimpery. I actually wanted to go out and buy a copy of Office Publisher myself, even though I hate Office products. Then a nice personal note from Tim about the contents and the history of Issue #2.

Now for the meat: 14 pages devoted to [u]Hugo's Healing Potions Shop[/u]. Honestly, I feel like it should be "Shoppe".... But Hugo's feels real. We have mechanic generic bios of Hugo and his staff. We have a nice map with a detailed key. Tim also gives us a random customer table for the Shop as well as adventure hooks. Great fluff that really makes the place come alive. I particularly love the little touches Tim adds to his descriptions; they add atmosphere and realism. I mean, "During business hours, the door is held open by a rock." I love it. I have a player that WOULD ask how the door is being held open, and would probably take the rock and use it for nefarious ends.

The next 8 pages are devoted to Smugglers Inn and the surrounding environs. Jason Sholtis contributes to the cause with a table of "things you might find under the cot at Smugglers Inn." Great stuff.

The inside back cover gives us a rampaging orc (pig-faced, of course) and a Poetry Slam by the Rusty Battle Axe. Any poem that can work in 'cockroaches' and 'destruction' pretty much gives the poet my nod for Poet Laureate.

More than anything else, I think I may like and appreciate about Tim's work is that it is SO mechanic- or game-generic. One could easily use the Potion Shop and the Smuggler's Inn in a Labyrinth Lord, DCC, Pathfinder, 4th Edition game, not to mention
Call of Cthulhu, d20 Modern, or whatever your flavor-of-the-month may be.

Finally, the back cover. Here we have something that, to me, epitomizes so much of what I have found in the RPG blogosphere. Tim has included an advertisement for The Horrendous Heap of Sixteen Cities by Dylan Hartwell over at Digital Orc. The advertisement was, according to Dylan, completely unsolicited and unexpected. Maybe because it's so rare in my professional life, but I really enjoy the comraderie and brotherhood that RPG gamers share in the online world. I've been touched in the past month by some outreach from some fellow bloggers and gamers; that's a topic for another, well-overdue post. Suffice it to say, it's a nice refreshing change from real life for me, to know that there are good, honest, and caring people that just want us all to get along, have fun, and promote a good, fun hobby. It makes it even better to see these same people band together and try to help the fellow gamers in real life situations, concerns, hiccups, tragedies, etc.

So...back to the Manor #2. If you couldn't already tell, I would recommend it to anyone who games. Period. Anyone can use this material; if you can't, you're really not trying. Excellent work, Tim.

Wait...I take it back. There IS a major problem with The Manor #2. I just discovered it. It's nearly insurmountable.

The problem is this: now I have to WAIT impatiently for The Manor #3. This makes me... unhappy.

[A to Z April] Reflections

I'm pretty sure that somewhere I mentioned how crazy my April was going to be. Well it was. Oh yeah, it was last week. Let me give you a brief recap, since I'm reflecting on the month of April anyway.

• I had a heap of religious commitments come up throughout the month as I am a member of the lay clergy in charge of my congregation. To make matters worse, another member of the lay clergy has become quite ill, laying a heavier-than-usual load on my plate.
  
• Work was intense, as the boss is worried about advertising; therefore I received a new assignment from him to sit in on all the advertising meetings as a witness to the various agreements and negotiations. Training had to continue on a new member of the staff, so answers to basic legal questions had to be dredged up out of my head on a more-often-than-usual basis.
  
• Family got crazy with some extended family nuttiness (we'll just leave that one alone).
  
• Then we had my questionable judgment to agree to participate not only in the A-to-Z Challenge, but also the One Page Dungeon contest.
  
• I had a commitment to the gaming group for at least one six-hour session.
  
• In addition, I had committed to paint one of the other guys' character's miniature for him.
  
• On top of that, the DM gave me the assignment to paint something enormous for him. No, really...the thing is gigantic. Easily the largest miniature I've ever had to paint. Right now I'm sworn to secrecy; hopefully I'll be able to fill you in on this project later.
  
• As for projects, my friend Dylan Hartwell asked for my proofreader's eye on his latest offering, the Horrendous Heap of Sixteen Cities! This project was truly the least onerous of anything else I had committed to do in the month of April, largely because of my sick, sick love for all things proofreading. I plan on offering a more detailed review of this product soon, but suffice it to say: BUY IT. It's a great setting, and I'm not just saying that because I helped to edit it. It's a unique setting and some amazing ideas that can be ported into a campaign. (Note: I have received and will receive NO monetary remuneration for my referrals, review, or any sales of the product. I just edited it. And enjoyed it.)

And most of all of this chaos fell into place AFTER I'd made a personal committment to participate in the A-to-Z Challenge.

Enough time has now passed from the Challenge, I think, to reflect on it in an objective matter. At least relatively objective. So....

• How did your journey through the alphabet go? Did you meet new bloggers with similar interests? Are there any you would like to feature and share with others?
  There was enough indication in mid-March that April might be a little hairy (I had NO idea) so I sat down this year with a calendar and first set out each "letter day." I then spent an hour or so with some different online random word- and name generators. I used those as creative sparks for NPC names, spell names, item names, and place names. Each one was assigned to a letter of the alphabet. In this way I was able to fill up about 20 letters pre-April and begin the idea machine percolating. I was even able to get about a week ahead before April began--a buffer that quickly evaporated.
  
  As far as other bloggers, there were several of my fellow RPG-bloggers that I had known previously who participated. Several more came out of the woodwork. Unfortunately, in part because of my busy schedule, I did not get a chance to visit as many other bloggers' sites as I would have wished. Certainly not as many as the Challenge is designed to send me to read. I was, however, able to find several new sites to follow.
  
  Confession time: my biggest reason for failing to visit a lot of other sites was a concern over plagiarism. I found out last year (and on one occasion this year) that after I visited a site and liked the idea(s) presented there, some idea, nugget, or heck--the entire subject--seemed to creep into my creative pool and demand attention. While that may be expected or anticipated, I don't like to see it happen to my work. I understand that it happens, and it IS supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery. But for the A-to-Z Challenge, I prefer to try and keep my posts based on my own ideas. (I should note: I'm not calling anyone out here. I appreciate that it happens and happens often, particularly among gamers, as ideas spread and build upon each other. I'm simply criticizing my OWN tendency to want to steal ideas during the month of April instead of relying on (what I believe to be) my own ideas.
  
  
• What were the highlights for you? (lowlights too...we want to hear it all)
  I enjoyed seeing my numbers go up on the first week of the Challenge. It was great to be able to expose people who were not familiar to RPGs (or those who hadn't gamed in a while) to the hobby. It was also great to see these aforementioned non-gamers appreciate the creativity and/or the ideas involved in my posts.
  
  
• Did you enjoy posting daily? What was your biggest hurdle? What was your easiest task?
  Frankly, it was difficult for me to post daily. My preparation in having a title or idea for my posts in advance made it a little easier. Some changed as the month went on because I found something more interesting to do with a letter. It was nice trying to keep a buffer, even though it didn't always work. I found that if I jotted something down, whether a thought, statistic, or even an entire post, in my spare time (sitting at court waiting for my cases to be called, sitting in traffic, sitting in front of the television) that I was able to keep at least a day ahead. It wasn't until the last five or so days that I was writing on the day OF the post. My biggest hurdle was probably finding something for some of the "stranger" letters such as 'X' and 'Y'. Oddly it was also difficult weeding out some of the ideas I had for letters such as 'M' and 'S'.
  
  
• Was time management an issue?
  Like I said above, time management was not an issue to begin with, having prepared many of the titles and ideas in advance. This allowed me to schedule a post the day before the letter was due. Time became an issue the final seven days or so when I hit a rough patch made up of 'no time' and 'letters for which I could develop few or no ideas' (such as the aforementioned 'X' and 'Y'). There were a couple of days--especially the final weekend--when I was posting late in the day ON the day in question rather than a day ahead.
  
  
• And what about your content - did you have a theme or did you wing it? Was it easy to come up with ideas for each letter, or were some harder?
  Wow. Another question I've already answered.... It seems I'm anticipating some of these. As I said, I didn't have a "theme" so much, unless you count RPG Gaming Material as a "theme." Because it's the theme of the blog, I'm not sure it qualifies. My pre-month prep allowed me to have a pretty good variation between spells, items, and NPCs. Some of the lesser-used letters were difficult. 'X' has given me trouble both years. So has 'Y' and, oddly, 'U' has well.
  
  
• How about commenting - did you stumble upon lots of sites still using word verification? Did this prevent you from leaving a comment? What worked for your blog?
  As I said above, I didn't get a chance to do a lot of visiting. I can only remember maybe two sites that still used word verification and I don't seem to recall having issues with it. I will echo some of my fellow bloggers' complaints: Wordpress was NOT user friendly for either commenting or for following. Certainly not as simple as Blogger.
  
  
• What will you do different next year?
  I will probably start a bit sooner than the end of March to pre-prepare titles and ideas. I will certainly try and resolve some of the other time consuming issues before and after April. I may even try and narrow down an actual theme.
  
  
• What pearls of wisdom do you want to share with the Co-Hosts of this event?
  I'm not sure there is anything TO suggest. It was a good experience for me. I appreciated seeing some of the Co-Hosts visit and comment on my blog. It showed to me that they had great buy-in into their Challenge and that they embraced the spirit of the Challenge that they were trying to impart to the rest of us.

In conclusion, I'd urge anyone who HASN'T tried the A-to-Z April Challenge to try it next year. I know there are a lot of bloggers--especially RPG bloggers--and readers who believe that it is forced, contrived, or simply downright annoying. It can be done in interesting, intruiging, and compelling ways. It can also be done in quite subtle ways; at least one of my acquaintances pulled off an A-to-Z without my realizing it.

Just like any challenge, you get out of it what you put in. You can make your theme(s) and posts as detailed or as cursory as you want. Creativity is the goal (at least for me) and exposure to new ideas a secondary goal. The reduced timeline is, for me, a good driving force for focus and creative stretching, much like NaNoWriMo is in November.

And not only do I have a bunch of new stuff to throw at my players, I also have a dozen more ideas that were named/brainstormed but were passed up as the month went along.

Cue Evil Laughter.

Blogger Level Advancement

I reached 25 28 followers today and celebrated because that meant a level advancement on this table!

Or so I thought.

Apparently I'd advanced a level a month or so ago when I hit 20 followers. In fact, it was one of my friends, Dylan Hartwell over at The Digital Orc, that put me over the top.

I am now, officially, a "commentator."

Last time, I paid some Joesky tax with an NPC. This time, I have no extra creative juices to do so...all of THAT is going toward my A to Z posting. But as an effort to appease Joesky, take a look at the Digital Orc's blog. In fact, go on out and pick up his adventure, The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz. It's a great product and some good fun. (In the interest of full disclosure, I did a bit of editing work for him on the original version of the adventure.)