What I love about this list, and the list of all the nominations, is that there are just as many popular blogs as there are "new discoveries".
The professionals make an appearance this time. I'm very happy to say that the blogs written by Mike Mearls, Justin Achilli, and Monte Cooke are excellent examples of industry professionals who also love to blog about games. They -get- the (often scrappy) RPG blogging community too, and it should go without saying that we are stoked (!) that they will be included in the Anthology this time around.
There are also the extremely popular RPG blogs such as Kobold Quarterly, Critical-Hits, Dungeon Mastering, and Gnome Stew. Everyone wants to take these blogs to the Prom. They represent pinnacles of RPG blogging and have huge followings because the writing is excellent, on topic, and just plain fun to read. Honestly, the peer reviewers picked out more than a couple articles to print from these blogs, so the editors were tasked with making the hard choices and cutting some of these articles out.
What was a real surprise were the blogs that I (we?) didn't really follow before they popped up in the nominations list, made it through the peer reviews, and landed on the final list of 72 posts. These were an absolute pleasure to read both because the writing was excellent and entertaining, and because there's this inherent underdog quality to them. I'm referring to blogs such as Buried Without Ceremony, This Way Lies Madness, Kingworks Creative, The RPG Athenaeum and a few others.
It's really a great mix. And now we have the task of putting it all together for you. Art included. Hopefully we'll be done in time to print by GenCon. Wish us luck, and stay tuned.
- You can help Open Game Table too by getting the word out. We are still looking for artists who are interested in contributing. See here for more info -
In the meantime, enjoy this list of old and new favorites, all of them will feature articles in the upcoming Open Game Table, Volume 2*.
Until next time -- GAME ON!
* Well, technically I still have to receive formal permission to reprint material from 2 or 3 outstanding blogs. Nearly everyone else has given us permission to include their material in the Anthology; which is a good thing!
Just in today - Dungeonmastering.com has confirmed their participation as well!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great collection of voices! Can't wait to see this at Gen Con. (Fingers crossed.)
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