The Farchives: RPG Blog Carnival Revisited

The Farchives is featured on most Fridays at The Core Mechanic. Its a series where I re-post a popular TCM post or revisit a hot-topic from the previous year. This week, we are looking back on the post that kicked off the first RPG Blog Carnival - which I'm very happy to say is still going strong in its ninth month. The original was posted August 7th, 2008. Hopefully you'll enjoy this revisionist history...

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The RPG Blog Carnival has included nine blog hosts covering a wide variety of topics. Below you'll find a linked list of all the carnival summaries, where the hosts close out the carnival and highlight what posts they really liked.

1. Character Death, Resurrection and THE UNDEAD (10 blogs)
2. HOMEBREW (32 blogs)
   
3. Super Heroes in RPGs (37 blogs)
4. Religion in RPGs (45 blogs)
5. Transitions & Transformations (27 blogs)
6. New Year's Resolutions (25 blogs)
7. Monsters & Maps (20 blogs)
8. WAR (?? blogs)
9. Humor & Gaming (in progress)

WOW!!! That's over 200+ blog posts, all organized and tidy under unified themes, in nine months! The carnivals are great too because they all interlink to each other and provide the RPG community with a connected network of topics. It just flows. I hope the blogging community keeps this up... anything, its a monument. Its testament to how a much of like minded geeks can organize themselves like a hive mind and churn out tons of high quality material. Think about it. For example, if you were a GM looking for some inspiration on how to revamp religion in your homebrew game -- there are two whole carnivals and over 77 blog posts right there at your finger tips. OK, some round ups are better than others -- but what the heck, these carnivals will be on the net for years.. decades. A permanent record of what the RPG blogging community was thinking, buzzing, and writing about during this past year. For some reason that just makes me go "Cool!".

When I first posted about the idea for an RPG Blog Carnival, I had no idea it would last thing long. I was thinking "OK... maybe one or two other blogs will pick it up for a month". I guess, in a way, the RPG Blog Carnival thing was the beginning of my thoughts about the RPG blogging community -- and what we might be capable of doing as a group. It wasn't too long before the idea for Open Game Table popped into my head. The latest in this RPG blogger hive mind is that we are developing our own campaign setting... as wacky as it may be, its true (props to NewbieDM for taking the lead on that!).

As I said it before, I'll quote myself and say it again:

"The RPG blogging community is no doubt a fantastic source for gamers across the globe. This community has brought together gaming minds from all over the globe - and is no doubt going to be a source of inspiration, tips, advice, concepts, mechanics, and material for game masters and players of PnP RPGs everywhere. Our blogs serve as a permanent source, for all time, of creative effort bent on making gaming better."

The goals were simple; but have we met them? Do you, as a reader of blogs, think that the RPG blogging community has improved your experience at the game table? How effective do you think the RPG blog carnivals are at improving your game? Do you enjoy following them?

Everything could be improved. Everything. So I guess, what do you think the RPG blogging community could be doing better?

What do you want to see more of?

There's a schedule for the RPG Blog Carnival that's already full for the next year -- so your comments here can go a long way towards helping the future of this monthly event reach new levels of excellence. Please share your thoughts.