Intro to the RPG Blogger Community: A Guest Post from Shinobicow

           Today I'm a guest on the blog of Alex J. Cavanaugh where I'm talking about the origin of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.   Be sure to check that out, but before you go make sure you check today's post from my special guest from Japan.   When I noticed all of the bloggers from the gaming community signing up for the challenge I wanted to know what these folks were all about.  My guest today is going to educate us about the RPG Blogger Community.  


Intro to the RPG Blogger Community

          You may have noticed that the A to Z Blogging Challenge has attracted more than just folks from the writing and reading crowd. The Roleplaying Game community has decided that the A to Z Blogging Challenge looks like a lot of fun. Hello! I’m one of those bloggers. My name is Greg – I live in Japan and teach English at a High School near Mt. Fuji, but when I’m not educating young minds, I’m rolling dice and either playing or writing about D&D or one of many other RPG’s.

        I got my start in gaming in high school when some friends of mine introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. I got in deep. I became the fabled “Dungeon Master” pretty much overnight and ended up running D&D adventures for the next four years, often at the friendly local game store where I worked. In college, I didn’t play nearly as much as in high school, but I got back into the RPG world when I studied abroad in Japan. During my time studying Japanese, I started writing an RPG blog called The Dump Stat. I write reviews of old and new games, advice for players and gamer masters, and I also develop and publish my own content for existing games, as well as my own RPG’s. I am not alone.



       The RPG Blogger Community is wide and diverse. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of RPG Blogs out there spanning several continents and representing a truly international group of people all bound together by a singular common interest – picking up some polyhedral dice and having a fun time with some friends. Roleplaying Games are more than just games though – I know that my skills at public and extemporaneous speaking have definitely improved as a result of my “hobby”. Mark, from the Literary Roleplaying Game Society of Westchester, a fellow RPG Blogger, likes to focus on the idea of “What can RPG’s do for me?” when trying to introduce new people to our world. RPG’s offer you the chance to hone your skills in leadership, teamwork, tactical and strategic thinking, improvisation in both speaking and acting, and not surprisingly writing. Blogging on The Dump Stat has improved my writing in a number of different styles. I get a chance to write advice columns, reviews, fiction, guidebooks, and a whole lot more.

         But, like I mentioned earlier, I’m not alone in this at all. The RPG Blogging community is a vast, strange and amazing place. There are numerous network out there which link these bloggers together – I am a member of the RPG Bloggers Network and the Roleplay Media Network. Blogs in the RPG Community cover games ranging through the ages; a host of bloggers stay faithful to the original rules of D&D and are hard at work revitalizing old school gaming. They spearhead the OSR (Old School Renaissance) and keep the original feel of the original roleplaying game alive and well. Lots of people focus on new trends in RPG’s, choosing to play and write about the new stuff making waves in the hobby.

          So, why is any of this relevant to you? Why do you care? Well, chances are, that among you, are at least a few RPG players, even if you’re not blogging about them (or reading blogs about RPG’s). If you fall into the category of RPG players that simply haven’t found the RPG Blogosphere yet, we welcome you with open arms. Jonathan Jacobs, the head of Nevermet Press, a RPB Blogger, gone publisher, has put out two volumes of Open Game Table which have compiled some of the best RPG related blog posts from the RPG Blogger Community over the last 2 years and has put them all into the same place. You might think about giving it a read through if you’re interested in finding a Blogger Voice that speaks to you (or you could just find the RSS feed to the RPG Blogger Network and go from there – the network puts out around 100 posts a day, so there is a lot of content there to read).

         But, what if you’re not into RPG’s yet, and don’t even know if RPG’s are of any interest to you; well, there is content on RPG Blogs which still may be very interesting to you as well. The folks on the RPG Bloggers Network tend to be a very creative bunch of people and have a knack for writing science fiction and fantasy. I know more than one RPG Blogger that has self-published his own novel and I am sure there are more out there that I’m simply not aware of yet. Many RPG Bloggers develop their own game worlds for their ongoing RPG adventures and a lot of these blogs are worth a read. They can be truly interesting and often bring truly new ideas to the world of sci-fi and fantasy.

         So, in closing, what are you waiting for? Go give some of the RPG Blogs a read. I could do a link dump of all of the RPG blogs I read, but that would take up several pages. Your best bet is to go check out the RPG Bloggers Network (though it hasn’t been updated in a little while) and see all the blogs that are out there. Also, if you happen to be on twitter, the RPG community is there in force. You can find many RPG Bloggers tweeting up a storm, talking about RPG’s and generally fun stuff all day long.

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            Thanks Greg!  I appreciate you having taken the time to give us this great post.  Stop by to visit him at The Dump Stat.  

            By the way, I checked with Greg after I got news of the earthquake in Japan.  He informed me that he and his family are fine.  This is a huge tragedy for the people of this great country and I hope you will keep them in your prayers and give whatever aid you can offer.

            Be sure to come back to Tossing It Out tomorrow and on Wednesday when I return with some thoughts on the subject of promotion and publicity as it applies to  the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  Please let us know if any of you are trying the publicity methods I've been suggesting and what the outcome has been.




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