RPG BLOG CARNIVAL #1 DONE!

Today is the closing day for the RPG BLOG CARNIVAL #1, "Character Death, Resurrection, and The Undead". I announced this new carnival earlier this month as an open event for all the bloggers in our burgeoning RPG blog community. So far, I think this has been a great success - especially since I am so new to the 'scene'. Frankly I wasn't expecting anyone to take me up on my idea, but much to my surprise we received over ten entries! OK, that might not be earth shattering, but its definitely a solid start to something good. If you are an RPG blogger, please link back to this post from your own blog so that people can find links to these great articles that were contributed to this carnival. The more noise we make, the better this carnival will become.

Now, before I (briefly) summarize the posts from each of the participating blogs, I have two things to say:

1. THANK YOU! and HATS OFF! to all the bloggers who participated. The participating blogs included: Tenletter, MadBrewLabs, Greywulf's Lair, Imaginary Vestibule, Fantasticate, Netherworld Stories, Malevolent & Benign, Paper & Plastic, and of course The Core Mechanic. Each of their posts are summarized, and linked, below. CHECK IT OUT!
   
2. DONNY_the_DM WILL BE HOSTING THE NEXT CARNIVAL. The whole idea behind a blog carnival is to stimulate your blogging community to all write one, or a few, post(s) about the same topic; then sum them all up at the end of the event and spread the "link-love" around. For this event to continue to be a success, a new host is selected for each carnival. Thus, RPG BLOG CARNIVAL #2 will be hosted by Donny_the_DM at his blog The Art of the TPK. The topic for the blog carnival is completely up to Donny too; so... keep you eyes peeled for his announcement. The third (#3) RPG Blog Carnival, we have Bryant signed up. After that .. it's open to anyone who wants to host it.
   

SUMMARY: RPG BLOG CARNIVAL #1
Character Death, Resurrection and THE UNDEAD.

1. Tenletter's entry titled "Who Wants to Live Forever?" discusses the careful balance between GM/DM vs. Player expectations of Character Death. He writes, "... DnD is game that is inherently filled with danger and the threat of death. If it wasn’t, then we wouldn’t need the dice..." A good point; often forgotten.
   
2. MadBrewLabs' contribution to the carnival is likely the most comprehensive. He covers nearly all the topics suggested by the initial announcement. My favorite section? Fossilfungus as a "fungus that has evolved into a near symbiotic relationship with the undead, specifically zombies." This is just simply so cool.
3. Greywulf's Lair offers up an entry about "Death & Superheros". While I've never played an RPG about superheroes, his closing remarks hold true for all RPGs: "when a character dies, it’s a world-changing event, at least for the folks around them." True dat!
   
4. Imaginary Vestibule sent in a post titled "The Wages of Death are Sin" where he provides an interesting game mechanic that could be used to increase the significance of a character's death in the game.
   
5. Fantasticate's blog contributed "D&D: Handlign a Character Death" where he suggests that a good course of action is to make the death "part of the story", even if its not something the DM planned/expected to happen. So often - this is the case. There's also a funny Roll or Die d20 graphic...
   
6. Netherworld Stories writes about the undead in "Blog Carnival: There Goes the Zombiehood" and makes an excellent point: "Why are undead things near-universally assumed to be evil?". Its always good to think of bad things in good ways - makes ya think, eh?
   
7. Malevolent & Benign presents the Zombies of Vanth in "Now We're Feeling Zombified", part of the Encounter Critical project. Play a Zombie character with these d20 (?) rules. This wins the Most Unexpected Contribution Award - its like Lovecraft meets the Jetsons. Awesomeness... chuckled about 100 times.
   
8. Paper & Plastic adds the Rotten Carcass and the Upper Carcass as two additional zombies usable in 4E. There's also a nice discussion about Minion experience points in 4E in the comments section.
   
9. The Core Mechanic wrote a three part series titled The Dead Queens of Morvena, detailing two sister-queens who were betrayed by their king and died to rise again as a pair of liches. Part 1 has backstory, Part 2 adventure hooks, and Part 3 statblocks for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Enjoy!

Well, that wraps it up for the RPG Blog Carnival #1. Altogether, these post produced 45 comments from blog readers following the carnival. Heck.. that's almost as many comments from one post by The Chatty DM or Critical Hits! Wohoo! The power of 9! Heh... (/wink)

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and I'm really looking forward to Donny_the_DMs announcement and NEW TOPIC for RPG Blog Carnival #2!!!

Let's keep this thing going... so let us know if its going to be you...