My crystal ball tells me you need…more gaming blogs to read…or…more players. Either way, I’ve got you covered:
• Game On: Aleph Gaming: TT reader Aleph recently started a gaming blog with a twist: He covers a different aspect of gaming each weekday, from video games to GMing advice. In the GMing tips department, check out Everyone Should Run a Diceless Session, Picking Up On Player Cues and Expectations and yesterday’s Personal Rules for Narrating.
• RPG Theory Review: Online since January 2006, RPG Theory Review has two goals:
To provide impartial, approachable, and informative reporting on current public advancements in the field of RPG theory.
To provide the RPG theory community with perspective and continuity in their work.
Mendel and Matthew, the authors, are performing a nifty service with this blog. There are tons of gamers talking about RPG theory in different places, and the roundup and review format is a good way to keep track of them.
• NearbyGamers: Why I am I pimping NearbyGamers again? Because a few weeks back, it worked for my group. A local gamer contacted me via NBG, and he joined our group shortly thereafter. Most player matching sites suck in one way or another; NearbyGamers gets it right.
NearbyGamers rocks the house. Rocks it, good sir, I say.
RPG Theory Review is definitely getting bookmarked.It is hard to keep track of all the various gaming blogs, which ones are hit and miss, which ones are more hit than miss, etc. Doing reviews and giving the synopsis is a great way to glimpse what else is out there.
I’m always glad to hear success stories, and thanks for the praise.
I must be dense or something because RPG Theory went right over my head. It seems, I dunno, a tad pretentious, uninformative, potentially elitist, and more than a little centipede’s dilemma.
Take the Jeepform ‘discussion’ as an immediate example. It doesn’t actually tell me anything what this jeepform is and the linked jeepform website is little better.
Everyone else seems to be saying stuff that I’ve already figured out for myself, saying nothing at all, or over analysing themselves and others.
RPG’s are an activity not a branch of science or the humanities. If I was building a boat in my garage and I did a course in boat building I’d expect some classes of theory between the practicalities of woodwork and caulking. But of course there aren’t any courses on RPG Theory because it’s a hobby. If you spend all your time thinking about RPG Theory to the point of never actually playing, (and I know of some that do) does that render the theorising meaningless?
Here’s an RPG theory for you: Playing RPGs are a fun diverting way to spend your time. As long as you and your friends are enjoying yourselves then you’re doing it right, otherwise try doing something different.
PlanetNiles: There’s definitely some RPG theory stuff out there that doesn’t make sense to me, goes over my head or just plain doesn’t seem useful in any way. On the flipside, though, there’s also theory discussion that I’ve found to be very helpful.
In fact, I’d say that some TT posts could be considered theory, or at least strongly theory-related (although I usually steer clear of the term). 😉
Peter: It’s good to hear from you again. 🙂 NBG kicks ass.