Chatty's blog 1/2 year in review.

In which Chatty DM rambles about the cool things brought on by blogging.

On July 24th, 2007 after 2 failed attempts on MSN Space and Live Journal, I finally made a jump to blogging using Google’s Blogger.  Having no clear idea what to actually talk about, I started rambling about my future campaign, online tools, a trip to Boston, RPGs. Magic: The Gathering, Meta-blogging and Webcomics.

Yan started commenting and I pestered some of my friends about this new blog thingie I was trying.

I rapidly realized that writing about RPGs helped me shape my thoughts around things that and allowed me tofocus on what I needed to do to make the experience better for all.

Then I stumbled upon the age old tradition of stealing stuff from other bloggers (linking them) and discussing their posts on your blog instead of commenting on theirs.

That’s when I made 1st official contact as a blogger with some of the blogs I was reading fervently:

• Bartoneous , Dave et. al. over at Critical Hits.
• Martin from Treasure Table
• Dante, Vanir and Stupid Ranger

One month after having started this Bloggy thing, I started posting my campaign log, which chronicled the harsh beginnings of our latest D&D campaign. It has since then continued and we concluded the 1/2 half of a very successful gaming season here. I’m particularly happy with my Post Mortem analysis technique which helps me summarized the good and not so good of each sessions.

On August 28, when I was musing on the hope that 4e would address some mechanics that hindered our games (grapple anyone?), Yax left the 2nd comment on the blog. I had commented on Yax’s excellent blog quite a few times (I think I scored top commenter in August). But getting someone to actually acknowledge your presence gave me quite a high.

At about the same time, Jeff over at The lair of the Evil DM and Dr Rotwang from I waste the Buddah with my Crossbow posted a link to my fledging empire of Crunch.

I was hooked on Blogging.

September rolled in and comments started coming in. I was participating on a lot of discussions between Yax and the Stupid Ranger crew. Especially on Vanir’s excellent series on Evil PCs. I felt like I was getting invited to join is a small community of people sharing similar interests. I was having fun!

Then I discovered the TVtropes wiki and the Rule of Cool…

It’s funny when you write something out of sheer enthusiasm, with no plan or idea where it will go. This 300 word text defined what the blog was going to be all about from that point forward. It also seems to be a point of entry for new readers.

From that point on, traffic increased, comments started appearing and I created a great ongoing series on RPGs and tropes. I couldn’t believe that people other than my friends and a few bloggers could enjoy what I rambled about. I’m was and still remain so thankful!

I also started other series on RPG group dynamics, the profile of my players and Adventure Preparation.

I even went a little crazy and started rambling about the Crunch/Fluff of RPGs and some stuff about being an Evil Overlord of Crunch. So much so that I actually got me an honest to goodness Industry Nemesis.

(Expect a face off at Gen Con, MWa HA HA HA!)

Things became so successful that I decided to level up my blogging package by creating my very own domain and moving to WordPress.  That’s where I was absolutely blown away by the niceness of people who dropped comments here. Chief among those was Graham (ve4grm) Poole who came to my rescue and helped me out with all that gibberish about php, templates, plugins and widgets.  You are a prince among humans Graham.

Others joined up my little operation and started co-writing a player-centric log of our D&D campaign (Thanks Yan) as well as an emergent RPG gamer sharing his ambitions to jump into the DM seat (yay PM!).

Lately the community grew so much, which such varied interests that I went ahead and created a forum to allow the growing community to voice the many interesting things they had to share.

While the membership is still quite small (24 members so far, come on join!), I’m amazed at the activity level and cool things everyone brings there (575 posts after 3 weeks, yeah about a third is mine).

I take a few instant to point out that there is one member only area that you can’t see as a guess because it covers DM-only stuff.  So do join if you want to see this also. It’s really a nice, very open and inclusive environment and I hope we’ll be able to maintain it as such.

Actually this is what truly and completely blows me away about it all. I can’t believe just how nice and open to frank, but respectful discussion, everyone is around here. I’m impressed by the fact that I see Storytellers mingling with Grognard, RPG theorists and D&D heads, exchanging tricks, tips and opinions.

Heck we even got 4e naysayers rubbing elbows with 4e optimists and everybody keeps a check on tempers, even when there is disagreement.

You guys made me renew my faith about the Internet… So far.  😀

So what do I take with me from this last incredible year (I leave out the personnal and professional stuff, let me just tell you it’s all good) before I revert tomorrow with my goals for the next one?

• RPGs are fun and you never cease to learn new tricks and ways of making it cooler, even after 25 years!
• Friends are precious commodities with little free time and have to be treated accordingly
• A shared-interests community is one of the most awesome things I’ve discovered. I’ve made friends with people I’ve never seen or talked to, yet I somehow feel they would come to my help if I needed it, and I would do the same.
• I might actually have the talent to do something more than blogging but I have the luxury to see it unfold slowly and see where this gets me.

Happy New year all and thanks for reading!