RPG Blog Anthology - MAJOR UPDATE

In October, I announced the start of a new ambitious project: OPEN GAME TABLE, The 2008 Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs. Inspired by another successful blog anthology project, Open Laboratory, I was struck by the spark of initiative and decided to commit myself to publishing this book. Even though I knew, at the time, absolutely nothing about what it would take to succeed.

In November, I collected 135 nominations from blog readers, authors, and general RPG enthusiasts. The doors blew open, and dozens of blogs never before known to me were suddenly being offered up as the best in RPG blogging. The comments of support were inspiring and, honestly, many of those blogs are now my favorite daily reads.

THE REVIEWS ARE IN
In December, I released this private list to an independent group of completely volunteer Anthology Reviewers who I tasked with reading, scoring, and reviewing all 135 nominated blog posts. All month long, as the New Year approach, I watched an increasing volume of reviews pile into my Wufoo.com account. Then, my account reached its maximum record number, so I upgraded it. Then, on New Years Eve, it hit another cieling. By New Years day, I had received 761 reviews from a dedicated team of reviewers. The individuals no doubt share the same vision I have for this book, and spent hours upon hours reviewing the best, and the worst, RPG blogs in our community. They all worked hard, some more than others, and it is now my pleasure to reveal them to you.

Please accept my greatest thanks and appreciation for your dedication to this project. Your reviews are the bedrock that this Anthology will be judged by, as only the best blog posts will make the Short List. Thank you Tommi Brander, Michael Brewer, David Chalker, Erika Hoagland, Jeffery Horn, Zachary Houghton, James Iben, Kristi Jacobs, Tony Law, Stephanie Weigel, and Chuck Wilbur. Without your help, this project would have been impossible. You have my deepest thanks. -- Jonathan Jacobs.

Many of the above names you may recognize as RPG bloggers, a few others as readers RPG blogs. Whatever the case, if you see any of them, please THANK THEM! Or leave a comment here thanking them.

ARTWORK
December was also the month in which I made a call for Anthology Artists. Four volunteer artists were selected to share their talent with the community and help make this Anthology a visual success as well. Their work is not yet done, but I have received many excellent examples of their art, and concept sketches for internal illustrations and for the cover. I am pleased to have been given permission to provide you with a few of these examples below.



Finally, with all the reviews in, I've had several days to tally the results and decide on a short list of blogs that may be included. I still have yet to receive print permissions from the many of the authors of these blogs, but I am exceedingly hopeful that I will soon. Once I have all the permissions in line and the blog posts finalized to be included, I'll definitely be posting here about it to keep everyone updated.

FUNDING - SPONSORSHIPS & ADVERTISING
Thus far, four people people have stepped forward to support the project's funding. I've announced their kind generosity before here. The latest sponsor is Jeffrey Horn who recently donated $40. THANK YOU JEFF!!!

This brings the total funds donated to the project to $140, plus an additional $50 (expected) from Otherworld Miniatures for an advertising spot (see pic at left). The main expense I'm expecting is that, once the Anthology is published, I want to provide at least two free copies of the printed book to every author, artist, and volunteer who helped make this project a reality. This will take several hundred dollars to do; even though I'll be purchasing the books at-cost I'll still need to pay for shipping and packaging, etc.

So, that being said - if you might be interested in being a sponsor for the Anthology, please donate to the project using the PayPal link below.

Several advertising spots still remain within the Anthology, so if you represent a RPG game company, developer, or merchant and would like to sponsor the Anthology via advertising - please contact me by email at jonathan DOT jacobs AT gmail DOT com.

Thus far, Otherworld Miniatures has already joined forces with the Anthology to help support us - and if you don't know who these guys are you must check them out. They have simply the coolest miniatures I've seen in recent memory.

DIRECT SPONSORSHIPS WELCOME!