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Just like they raised over $170,000 for HAITI after the earthquake - RPGNow.com and affiliate publishers are now offering over $700 in RPGs for a $25 Donation to go to Doctors Without Borders for the Pakistan Flood Victims.

Click the link below for more info.

A FREE COPY OF OPEN GAME TABLE, VOLUME 2 (among dozens of other books) is included!!!

Nevermet Press Now The Official Publisher for Open Game Table

Well... it's a happy marriage that was bound to happen eventually.

Get the full dealio over at NMP's site.

Open Game Table, Volume 2 - AVAILABLE NOW

Well - as you might imagine - I'm super stoked to announce that the print version of Open Game Table, Volume 2 is available NOW. There are three ways to pick up a copy of the book too! First, if you are going to GenCon, swing by Studio 2 Publishing's booth and pick up a copy directly there. Second, the book will also be available at your local hobby shop later this month; let them know you want a copy and pre-order through them (thus also supporting your local game store). And finally, it can also be ordered directly online from the Open Game Table storefront on Lulu.

It get's even better:  a PDF version of the book is available from RPGNow.com for under $10 bucks. Drop by the RPGNow.com page and download your copy right now!

Once again... thanks to everyone who contributed to this amazing project. With over 70 volunteers - how could it _not_ be awesome sauce!

LULU LOVE

Last week I talked about several problems I had with printing with Lulu.com. Well - another set of proof copies of Open Game Table Volume 2 have arrived -- and they look amazing; I'm psyched to say the least! Finally I have a book in hand that looks like it is supposed to!

Now... why the Lulu + Heart hyperbole? Well... they not only are re-shipping me additional (free copies) for all the misprinted copies I ordered; but they are also refunding me the the full amount for all the orders I made. WOHOO! That's awesome. Lulu.com often gets a bad rap from people on the 'tubes - but, my experience so far with their customer service (Yolanda - you rock!) has been great. I'm honestly super surprised, as I was expecting them to act like a giant faceless corporate Juggernaut. Well, they may still be a corporate juggernaut - but at least they are a nice one.

A print run for GenCon is being organized by Studio2Publishing next week -- so if you are going to GenCon this year; please stop by their booth and pick up a copy!

Question for TCM readers: Would you be interested in getting a preview of what Studio2Publishing will be releasing at GenCon this year before going? Let me know in the comments. If so - I'll see what I can do and if they are willing to provide me with some goodies...

Obsidian Portal donates over 70 Pre-Paid Ascendency Memberships

Today I recieved confirmation of some super-excellent news for the 70+ contributors to the Open Game Table, Volume 2 project. It turns out that the owners of ObsidianPortal.com are some pretty generous and classy guys - they are donating more than 70 pre-paid Ascendency Memberships to the Obsidian Portal, one for each and every contributor to the project. I was stunned - when I got the email from Micah Wedemeyer that said he was willing to sponsor the project AND donate premium memberships to the contributors I had to double check. "To the contributors"? That is over 70 people Micah... are you sure? And he wrote back:

I'm dead serious about offering free 6-month subs to all the contributors. Obsidian Portal only survives if the RPG community continues to grow, and initiatives like the OGT are a huge part of nurturing the community.

So - coocookachoo! Whoot!  The contributors to the project have been notified; but I thought the whole community should know how excellent these guys are.

Thanks for being Excellent, Micah. We all appreciate it! This is the type of "coming together" that I really enjoy about the RPG blogging community. It's great to be here.

So - head over to ObsidianPortal.com today and check it out. If you are already an OP user, let us know in the comments and share your experiences!

Lulu Printing Fail - Open Game Table Vol. 2 (Update; Fixed?)

I posted earlier today that I had finally received a galley / proof copy of the new volume of Open Game Table. Despite a perfect looking PDF, the book Lulu sent me had missing fonts and garbled text on 12 pages in the book. Well, one thing that has surprised me is the "personal" service I've received. They have already refunded my order and, after I resent them the raw postscript file and a re-distilled version of the prepress PDF, they are shipping me a new copy of the book. They even suggested it was likely an error in their file server; or the offset that printed the book. Either way, the email I received indicated (again) that everything was looking good and I should have my book in a few days. I'll keep you in the loop.Although I doubt they physically checked the printing; at least they are responding in a short time during a holiday weekend (trying to stay positive!)

Once the proofs come in and they look 100% to specs - then I'll make use of all the EXTREMELY generous sponsorship funds and place a printing order for 75 copies. Once those come in, I'll box and ship them out to every volunteer who contributed to the project. Stay tuned!

I only pray I haven't run out of time; Studio2Publishing placed a deadline for mid-July for the book to be printed in time for GenCon. We shall see (fingers crossed!). I may have to deliver them myself...

Lulu Printing Fail - Open Game Table Vol. 2

After nearly 3 weeks (no kidding...) of trying to provide Lulu with pre-press PDFs of Open Game Table Vol. 2 that would _not_ produce a RIP Error; I finally had success on Monday (see more here how/why the RIP Error was occurring). I have been fortunate in that I've been working with the same representative from Lulu since the start when my first PDF would not print on their off set printers, so I contacted her again and she did a great job telling me that my PDF printed just fine and that it was in the mail etc. I was psyched! For a while I thought that the whole project was going to crash because (for reasons I couldn't figure out for a LONG time, see below) my prepress PDFs of the manuscript just would-not-print. I spent HOURS slaving over the document in Adobe Acrobat, trying postscript, downloading Ghostscript, using Adobe Distiller directly, paying for a few third party apps that claim to "fix PDFs" (even though I couldn't see anything wrong with my PDF on my screen or in my pre-flight analysis). The PDF was just broken; it was a mystery.. until I turned off Ligatures in my document. As soon as I removed font ligatures -- Lulu then reported that VOILA! My PDF was ready to go.

Since Studio 2 is the distributor of OGTv2; I'm up against a deadline. So I ordered my galley proofs from Lulu using their super expensive rush order (~$80). The book arrived in three days. It looks awesome. The cover that is. But once I open it up... and start flipping through it... it's a different story altogether...

Either there's an Alien at Lulu trying to communicate with the mothership; or something really weird is going on. There are 12 other pages in the book that look like this -- but none of those pages look the way they do when viewed on screen from the PDF. I'm sure I'll get this resolved... it's just insanely frustrating when these sorts of things happen.

Back to the drawing board...

I'll keep you all updated when I finally have a clean / good galley proof in my hands...

Another Last Minute Sponsor -- LOREMASTER.ORG

BIG BIG THANKS to LOREMASTER.ORG and MATT JAMES for stepping forward and supporting Open Game Table Volume 2 as a Legendary Sponsor! He's got a great track record as a freelance writer in the RPG industry, and runs a fantastic website that you shouldn't skip if you are looking something a bit more personal and down to earth than some of the bigger RPG forums.

BRAVO Matt -- and the LOREMASTER.org CREW -- a HUGE thank you from me to you!

Big Thanks to Obsidian Portal

Just a quick note for the weekend -- a BIG thanks goes out to Obsidian Portal! They came through on the red-eye express to deliver up an Epic Level Sponsorship for Open Game Table Vol. 2. What's even more - to show their added support - they are throwing in a complementary Ascendant Membership for ALL Open Game Table Contributors. WOHOO! They ROCK! THANK YOU!

BIG THANKS TO THE SPONSORS & The Cover of OGT Vol. 2

Once again - I want to give a big big thanks to all the individuals and supporting publishing groups that stepped up to support Open Game Table Volume 2 with a Sponsorship.

To Stargazer's World, Gnome Stew, Engine Publishing, Silvervine Games, Sarah DarkMagic, Sea of Stars RPG, Tyches Games (a great FLGS in Athens, GA), Dragon Bones, Unconventional Dice, Chaotic Shiny Productions, Tabletop Armory, The Welsh Piper, Nevermet Press, Brian Fitzpatrick, Tony Hoffart, and Dan Swenson: THANK YOU!!!

We managed to raise over $500 towards the costs of providing all the 70+ authors, artists, and volunteers that worked on Volume 2 with complementary copies of the book. Printing and shipping is expected to run about $700 - but this is close enough. I think with the generous help of the existing sponsors, sales of OGTv1, ad and affiliate revenue from this website, and some extra help from my own funds I should be able to cover it. Thanks again for your help! The generosity of this community never fails to impress me. Bravo everyone! 

And here's the new cover design of the book. Aside from minor changes - this is what you'll get in August when the book is published and released at GenCon! What do you think?

(click for a bigger view)

Have any questions? Leave a comment and let me know!

New Sponsors For Open Game Table ! (and LAST CALL)

I'm very happy to announce the addition to two new Sponsors for Open Game Table,. Vol. 2

The Welsh Piper

publisher of Chimera RPG and The Welsh Piper RPG Newsletter.

and

Chaotic Shiny Productions

publisher of Martial Flavor, Martial Cultures, and tons of free accessories for your game.

These sponsorships for Open Game Table, Vol. 2 were supported by a generous gift from Brian Fitzpatrick of Moebius Adventures! Hooray, and THANK YOU BRIAN!!!

Add these sponsors to those from our previous announcement, and that brings us up to thirteen (13!) sponsors for the book.

So - today's the last day. If you want to sponsor Open Game Table, Vol 2 - then please jump over to this post for the details. It's really for a good cause: i.e. printing of copies of the book to send out to the 77 volunteers that helped make OGTv2 a reality (something I can't afford to do without some help). AND... for your support you'll get some advertising space in the book. I'm doing the final layouts this weekend and sending it out to the printers for galley proofs. So, I'll need any last minute would-be-Sponsors to speak up as soon as possible.

Hope to hear from you soon. I'll keep you all posted on the progress next week.

Stay tuned! -- Jonathan.

OGT Sponsorships - Again? Yes, because this community rocks!

By "this community" I mean the community RPG blogs, indie publishers, fans, blog readers, and general awesome gamers out there. I wanted to post again today to add a BIG BIG THANK YOU to several people who were the first to step forward and add their support to Open Game Table, Volume 2, by becoming Sponsors of the project. A big shout out to

Michael Wolf, the author of Stargazer's World, for his continued support of OGT! He was the first to Sponsor the project!

Dan Swenson, David Martin, and Tony Hoffart  for being the among first to support OGT as individuals!

Martin Ralya and John Arcadian - and their associated companies Silvervine Games, Engine Publishing, Gnome Stew, and Con on the Cob - for their Legendary and Paragon Level Sponsorships!!!

Sea of Stars RPG designer and Tyches Games owner Sean Holland, for his Paragon Level Sponsorship!

Thank you everyone for your support, trust, and enthusiasm for Open Game Table! You have no idea how important it is to me that this level of support came so quickly! In ~24 hours I've managed to raise about 50% of the funds I need to cover the printing costs of the complementary copies of the book. So we are not out of the woods yet. I still have a ways to go!

I've sent inquiry letters to a half-dozen game companies that you probably have heard of - asking them to support the project. Hopefully I will hear back from them soon and get the added support we need.

In the meantime - if, as an individual or as a company, you would like to support the volunteers who helped make the next volume of Open Game Table a reality - then please jump over to Monday's post and check out the offerings we have set up, and why we are asking for the community to pitch in. There's a wide range of sponsorship levels available - from Community Sponsor all the way up to Legendary!

Cheers! -- Jonathan.

Triple Your Value - Johnn Four's Roleplaying Tips & Open Game Table Sponsorships

Johnn Four, the man behind the long running Role Playing Tips eNewsletter, has offered to give the first five Heroic Tier Sponsorships of Open Game Table Volume 2 free adspace in an upcoming issue of his eZine - a $50 value!

This was very unexpected and super cool of him to step forward this way and offer his support.

So... at the Heroic Tier Sponsorship level, not only will your company or blog's logo appear on the back cover of Open Game Table Vol. 2 as a sponsor of the project - but you will also get to triple your value by reaching out to tens of thousands of subscribers of Roleplaying Tips (currently in it's 489th Issue!). BRAVO Mr. Four - and thank you!

More generous sponsorships include interior ad space for you blog or company as well. Individuals, who lean towards random acts of kindness, are also encouraged to support the project. Jump over to the Sponsorship post to see more details.

Open Game Table Sponsorships - Now Available As Statblocks!

There is this one issue that I have not yet resolved. In creating the first volume of Open Game Table in 2009, each and every volunteer who contributed to the project was provided with a free copy of the book once it was published. These free copies, coupled with the two dozen copies I sent out to people for reviews, amounted to over 70 copies of the book printed and shipped at my expense. I knew what I was getting into, and I knew that it was a cost well spent. With the help of a few sponsors (Thank You Otherworld Miniatures & Rogue Games!)  last year, I was able to foot the bill for the printing and shipping of these comp' copies. But this year, the financial outlook is not as bright and I'm simply not in a position to make the same gesture. However, my desire to provide each of the contributors with comp copies of the book remains the same: I think this is the right thing to do, and they should all - at the very least - be provided with a copy of the book that features their work!

This is where you come in - I'm hoping that the fans of this blog, and of Open Game Table, can help.

So - beginning today - and starting right now - I am making an open call for sponsorships of the project. I've applied for a Kickstarter.com project ID, but until/if/when that happens I'll be working to arrange for funding myself. I need to raise $750 to cover the costs of printing and shipping the comp copies of the books to the contributors. So - to do that, I've put together a sponsorship proposal below. The jist of it is basically - any game company, publisher, merchant, blog, or individual who wants to sponsor Open Game Table can do so by purchasing sponsor space inside the book. In addition, anyone who contributed at least $25 will have the option to include their logo or name on the back cover of the book, in full color, under a heading that will read something like "Open Game Table, Vol. 2 was made possible by these generous sponsors..." [with the logo's covering much of the back of the book instead of just two spots]. I've put together a bunch of options for people to choose from - and hopefully some of you can dig deep and make a big impact.

click below to see the full size image

Please choose your sponsorship level from the diagram above - and then click the button below to become a sponsor. I will be in touch by email within 48 hours to make any further arrangements and to give you my personal thanks for supporting the project.

And yes - the sponsorships are statblocks - becuase I know that we gamers would rather things to be in statblocks whenever possible... =D

Introducing Open Game Table Volume 2

It's 1:17 AM - so I'll make this quick. The next volume of Open Game Table is going to be available at GenCon 2010. Retail distribution of the book begins in September. And YES (to those who are wondering) an eBook/PDF version will be released at the same time (instead of months later). And yes - that artwork down there is from Rob Torno - and it's awesome.

Now go, and enjoy the awesome cover that is coming your way soon!

A final note - we WILL be looking for Individual Sponsors and Corporate Sponsors for this project. Our goal is to raise $750 to offset the printing, packaging, and shipping costs associated with provide each of the writers, artists, editors, peer reviewers, and other volunteers with complementary copies of the book. I'll be making an official call for sponsors later this week - but for now; just know it's coming.

Thank you! -- Jonathan

Thank You Justin Achilli

Well folks, I have some great news to report today!

I just received word from Justin Achilli that he has accepted our invitation to write the Foreword for Open Game Table, Volume 2!

Who is Justin Achilli? Well, for one he's a 20+ year veteran of the gaming industry and is currently the Managing Editor at White Wolf Publishing. He previously was the line developer of Vampire: The Requiem and Vampire: The Masquerade. Check out his LinkedIn.com profile if you are interested; but basically he is someone who really knows games. That he is willing to lend a hand to support the OGT project is a great honor indeed.

So, wholeheartedly, a big big thank you goes out to him from everyone involved with the project. I can't wait to read his viewpoints on the blogging community and the future of RPGs.

In other news - editing of the raw manuscript (all the final entries) continues. Hopefully I'll get back the edits from the other members of the OGT Editorial Board this weekend and we'll have a real working draft ready by next week.

Stay tuned!

Open Game Table Volume 2 -Participating Blog List!

I'm amazed at the quality of the blogs that have been selected for inclusion into the upcoming Open Game Table, Volume 2. It seems the work we put into developing the new nomination and peer review system really worked out extremely well. As you will see from the list of blogs that will be included in the upcoming anthology, the editorial board had their work cut out for them. It wasn't easy, but we finally have narrowed the final list to 32.

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*.

http://arsludi.lamemage.com

http://at-will.omnivangelist.net

http://beneaththescreen.blogspot.com

http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com

http://bigballofnofun.blogspot.com

http://buriedwithoutceremony.com

http://critical-hits.com

http://dungeonsmaster.com

http://grognardia.blogspot.com

http://kingworkscreative.blogspot.com

http://mearls.livejournal.com

http://montecook.livejournal.com

http://newbiedm.com

http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com

http://rpgathenaeum.wordpress.com

http://rpgdiehard.blogspot.com

http://spiritsofeden.com

http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com

http://willowrants.wordpress.com

http://www.campaignmastery.com

http://www.dungeonmastering.com

http://www.gnomestew.com

http://www.justinachilli.com

http://www.livingdice.com

http://www.madbrewlabs.com

http://www.pathsofadventure.com

http://www.rpgblog2.com

http://www.stargazersworld.com

http://www.stupidranger.com

http://www.thefreerpgblog.com

http://www.vsca.ca/halfjack

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!

OPEN GAME TABLE Vol. 2 Update + CALL FOR ARTISTS

Well, the Open Game Table Editorial Board has finally finished going through all 900+ peer reviews of the 370+ nominations. We have picked about 72 articles from our list, but no doubt the final list will be shorter. Open Game Table Vol. 1 had about 48 articles included so we are probably going to cut out a few to get closer to that number. Either way though, it was extremely tough to make those calls, and all of us had to choose just 20 (!) from the top posts that were scored by the reviewers. I'm happy this part is over, and now we can focus on getting author permissions, artists to participate, and firming up the draft manuscript.
Which blogs articles made the "semi-finals"? Well, I can't spill the beans just yet - but just like we did for Volume 1; we will eventually release the list of blogs who were selected and who agreed to participate. I know, it's a process - but patience will be well worth it. The final list of articles has some simply incredible posts. In the meantime, feast your eyes on the complete list of nominations.

CALL FOR ARTISTS

Starting today, Open Game Table will be canvassing heavily for Artists to participate in the project. We already have a few who have signed up, but we are looking for more. Interested illustrators, painters, and graphic designers who have a love for table top role playing games should contact me (jonathan.jacobs@gmail.com) directly with any questions. Also, please include a link to an online gallery of your work.

What do Artists get in return for participating Open Game Table? If you are an artist - then please consider some of the highlights:

1. Exposure. Your artwork will be showcased in a printed book along side some of the most highly regarded writing in the RPG blogging universe. The printed book will enter retail distribution via Studio 2 Publishing, featured at their GenCon 2010 booth, and sold online at Amazon.com. The eBook version of OGTv2 will also be distributed by One Book Shelf, the company behind the RPG eBook selling sites DriveThruRPG.com and RPGNow.com.
2. Satisfaction. By participating you will be helping a completely grass roots project focused on bringing light to the best roleplaying game blogs on the the Net.Your work will enhance the reading experience of Open Game Table Volume 2, and bring a new level of enjoyment to everyone who opens the book. I'll also buy you a beer when I see you at GenCon. Free beer is the best kind of satisfaction.
3. Experience. Talented, early career artists are expected to be in the majority of artists who participate. By joining the Open Game Table project will be updated regularly on the project's progress, get to see how it evolves from nominations to manuscript to finished book, see the book launch into distribution, and connect with everyone else involved in the OGT project from start to finish. I know, that's laying it on a bit thick -- but you will get to participate in the process of getting OGTv2 out the door. The OGT volunteers are expected to play an active role in the creation of the Anthology. Give input whenever you want, and we do our best to accommodate, make changes, improve the book along those lines.

The goal of Open Game Table Vol.1 was to bring the best in RPG blogging into the hands of gamers everywhere. With over 1,500 RPG related blog articles  written every month in the blogosphere...  the goals are the same for Volume 2.

So... for the love of games - please spread the word. Tweets and all the Link Love you can muster to support OGT will be extremely helpful. The more exposure we can get the better. Thank you!

-- Jonathan

Popular Topics In The RPG Blogosphere

The Editorial Board* of Open Game Table Vol.2 has been slogging though the nearly 1000 nomination reviews that were handed in by the Peer Reviewers last week. It's tough work, but extremely enjoyable to see all these amazing hidden gems of the RPG blogging community come to light.

Along the way, one of the things we asked the reviewers to do (in addition to commenting and scoring) was to TAG each nomination - in true tradition of blogging we didn't ask them to stick to any preset terms list either. We just wanted them to give each nomination at least two terms that described the post. Well... the graphic above shows all those terms visually.

It's a feast for your mind's eye. Over 500 terms are up there that the Peer Reviewers spontaneously came up with.

Not surprisingly... GM ADVICE was #1.

A complete listing of ALL the terms, ordered by frequency is available here (if you are interested).

---

* The OGT Editorial Board is made up of Jonathan Jacobs (me), Berin Kinsman, Kameron Franklin, Tony Law, and Ben McFarland.


** The above image was created using Wordle, a great little app for visualizing the prevalence of words.

Open Game Table Volume 2 - Peer Review Closed. Reviewers Revealed!

The peer review phase for the nominations made to Open Game Table Volume 2 has ended. As you can see from the numbers above - we recieved TONS of reviews from the peer reviewers. The average nomination recieved close to three score cards each, which is what I was shooting for. What remains are the 90 or so nominations (out of over 370) that didn't quite get the coverage they deserve.  So the OGT Editorial Board (listed below) is going to review these straglers over the next couple of days so that every single nominations gets at least two reviews. Once that is done, then the some serious heavy lifting is going to happen as the Editorial Board digs through all the data, cuts the nominations that scored low, and homes in on our A-list of top picks to be included in the anthology.

Please join me in thanking the Open Game Table Peer Reviewers. They have been immensely helpful in making OGT a possibility and a true community project!

Open Game Table Volume 2: Peer Review Panel

Aaron Broder

Brian Fitzpatrick

Cassey Toi

Enrique Bertran

Ben McFarland

James Iben

Jeffrey Horn

Mark Johnston

Michael Brennan

Michael Brewer

Page Bonifaci

Robert Sandlan

Steve Collington

Tommi Brander

Tony Law

Will Hopkins

Open Game Table Volume 2: Editorial Board

Jonathan Jacobs

Ben McFarland

Berin Kinsman

Kameron Franklin

Tony Law

Many of the above people you know as bloggers, authors, game designers and developers. It has been a privilege to work with all of them! I'm really looking forward to this next phase of OGT development: putting together the manuscript and finding artists who want to contribute. Our unofficial goal is to have everything done by GenCon 2010 so that Studio 2 Publishing can release the next volume of Open Game Table at the convention. So far - we are on track to meet that goal!

Now, for the more statistically inclined readers - follow the link below for some summary statistics of the reviews. Enjoy!

SUMMARY STATISTICS