Long Overdue

Almost two months?

Wow.

The blog seems to have been steadily winding down for a while. Looks like it petered out on its own.

Too much real life. Work. Depression. No real gaming going on. It's kinda killed my energy, enthusiasm and desire to do a lot of RPG reading and reviewing.

It's okay, though. There's lots better bloggers out there.

I'm probably not taking this blog down, and I'm not 100% saying I'll never start posting regularly again, but I don't see it happening for a good long time. Trying to write comics again, handling real world stuff, all that.

Sorry to anyone that was hoping for a new review. In the meantime, absolutely check out blogs like Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque, Wine & Savages and Life and Times of a Phillippine Gamer.

Their stuff is worth your eyeballs.

No Top Six and No Giveaway

Just in case anyone was planning to stop in today for the annual tradition:

There is no Tommy's Top Six this year, and no Birthday Blog Giveaway.

This is due in part to my pathetically low review output and in part to the incredibly low number of entries last year.

I do hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year. Many of you seem to have had a very hard time in 2016, and I sincerely hope that changes over the next 12 months.

State of the Blog

So, I haven't posted in a minute or two...or close to two months, which is about the longest stretch I have ever gone without posting since I started this thing.

I've been a little busy, finishing a freelance gig I can't say much else about, then started working on a couple of other freelance gigs I can't say much else about.

Turns out, I only have a limited amount of time in the day, meaning something has to give. As of late, it has been game reviews. Combine that with how entangled I have become with multiple game companies, and - though I have always been honest about any conflicts of interest, even before "Ethics in Game Journalism" became a thing - I feel like my reviews would begin being put under an exhausting microscope.

I don't actually know when - or if - I will resume regular posting at the blog. Obviously, I do have to go where the pay is, so that stuff comes first, and the truth is, Reality has Ensued over the last couple of months due to a life decision or two on my part, and it is very likely I will be unable to continue many of my side activities due to financial reasons (I somehow failed to do the math and realize that making more money is great, but if it's also noticeably less hours, you make less money in the end. Oops).

To those people that I still owe reviews to, I will try to ensure that I eke them out down the line, but I make no guarantees to that effect. Even if I never come back, the blog isn't going anywhere until Google decides it is, so there's that.

Anyway, just wanted people who did not follow me on social media to know I'm not dead or dying, I'm just not blogging, with no timetable set for a return.

What Do You Want In Reviews?

I am in a bit of a quandry. I am rapidly reaching the point, at least right now, in which I am unable to keep up the pace of my reviewing (right now, anyway), certainly at a deep depth, but I am loathe to abandon my Tuesday-Friday schedule which has proven to be great for blog traffic.

So I am now in the process of revising my review procedures, and I thought it would behoove me to ask: When you read a review, what are you looking for? What information are you trying to glean from the review? More importantly, what are you hoping to get out of a review I post on my blog?

This applies to consumers and publishers alike. Are you looking for a chapter by chapter breakdown of the book? Are you interesting in what I believe are the high points and low points? Do you tune out when I write too much? Do you feel cheated when I write too little? Are you interested in more board game reviews?

Help me out here. I want to know what you want to read from this blog. Do you even want to read my reviews anymore? Is there something else you would rather see when you visit here? Are you just here for the free stuff? I will consider all honest, constructive feedback. You can post it in the comments below, or you can email me at tommybrownell(a)gmail(dot)com. If you follow me on social media, feel free to let me know what you think there. I am not threatening, implying or hinting that I am closing the blog, but as I have more opportunities in front of me, and more outside projects on my plate, I want to make the energy spent here to be as fruitful as possible for as many people as possible, myself included.

Thanks for your time.

The Most Unread Blog on the Internet. Ever. and GeektheNews Join Forces!

Just a real short announcement for today's post, as I'm running dangerously into a deadline as it is: Effective, well, yesterday, GeektheNews.com is carrying my articles as well! Read them here or there, I'm good either way...but they are also chock full of other geeky news.

I'll aim to get back on the ball next week, as I have a few books in the review queue that I'm actually kinda eager to get to, as well as a few other articles.

Have a good weekend, and game often!

A Little Behind

I know, I was doing so well, too.

I'm running behind on blog stuff, because of stuff with my newborn, and crazy work-related junk.

I even had a review calendar set up and everything. I'm going to try to beef up my schedule until I get caught up, just bear with me, please.

Up next are:
Sertorius by Bedrock Games
Sovereign Stone by Timeout Diversions
Cold Steel Wardens by Blackfall Press
Rapture by Storyweaver
Lowell Was Right! by Flying Mice
Spooks! by Nightingale Publishing

Hope you're still reading and as eager for these reviews as I am!

T.

And The Winners Are...(2013 Edition)

Folks, I will not lie to you: This is my favorite part of the year, blogging wise. I lovelovelove when people get to try awesome new games due to the kindness and generosity of publishers. I love it love it love it. This year, I'm only sad that I wasn't able to provide more prize support. If I could have, everyone that entered would have won something. As it is, we had five great prizes and now we have five lucky winners. And the winners are...

1. Bob Huss - Dragon Age Set 1
2. Daniel Walsh - Dresden Files: Our Story
3. Alexandre Zuin Alegria - Heaven's Shadow
4. Jay Peters - Monster of the Week
5. Peter Bogdasarian - Volant: Kingdoms of Air and Stone

Thanks once again to our WONDERFUL sponsors, and to everyone that sends me an email saying "Hey, I was on the fence about this game until I read your review!" and, of course, thanks to everyone that makes their purchases through my affiliate links, because that helps keep me deep in games that I can turn around and review.

I am striving to give you compelling reasons to come back and read the blog (like my sweet new banner), and I hope I'm succeeding.

Let's make 2014 the Year of the Gamer!

Let's make a deal: I keep writing, you keep reading, and we'll both keep gaming. Sound good?

Tommy

The GM's Day Sale Is In Progress!

Sorry for not giving a heads up sooner, but I have been crazy busy with the day job, editing and injuring my wrist.

March 4th was GM's Day, and RPGNow is running a massive GM's Day sale through March 12th, so pop on over there and take advantage of some great deals! There is a TON of fantastic stuff on sale right now, including Top 6 picks like Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer's Edition, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Wu Xing and more!

And obviously, I'd appreciate any purchases made using my RPGNow affiliate link, because that gives me store credit at RPGNow, which in turn helps me buy more books to review. Pop on over and take advantage of the sale!

At Last...Winners!

Through the delays of a dead hard drive and using the magic of the Invisible Castle online die roller, the winners of the contest by our wonderful sponsors are ready to be announced! And they are:

1. Joe (Mutant Epoch Print and PDF)

2. Jonathan Rose (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying)

3. Bifford the Youngest (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying)

4. Tim Razler (Savage Worlds Deluxe)

5. Emlyn Freeman (Marvel Heroic Civil War)

6. Adam Baulderston (tremulus)

7. Stephen King (Little Fears Nightmare Edition Bundle)

8. Jimmie Bise Jr (Reclamation)

9. Pat Estes (Cyberpunk Locations Set)

10. M L (Cyberpunk Locations Set)

11. Greg (Cyberpunk Locations Set)

The winners and the sponsors have been notified! Thank you once again to everyone that entered, all the sponsors that supported the contest and everyone that compelled me to push to get things back on track when the computer went down.  With any luck, we'll do this again next year!

Tommy

Birthday Blog Giveaway - Let's Try This Again

Okay, folks...I have contacted my sponsors for the Birthday Blog Giveaway, and told them that since I lost most of the entrants in a hard drive crash but I'm back up and running now, I want to extend the contest.

To that end, I need all entrants to PLEASE resubmit their entries to tommybrownell(a)gmail(dot)com so that I can award great prizes to my wonderful readers.

And now, the prizes:

One (1) Little Fears Nightmare Edition PDF Bundle (Little Fears Nightmare Edition Corebook, Little Fears Among the Missing, Campfire Tales #1).
One (1) PDF copy of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.
One (1) PDF copy of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.
One (1) PDF copy of Marvel Heroic Civil War Premium Edition (includes the Civil War Event and Marvel Heroic rules).
One (1) PDF copy of The Mutant Epoch AND one (1) print copy of The Mutant Epoch (awarded together).
One (1) PDF copy of Reclamation.
One (1) PDF copy of Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition.
One (1) PDF copy of tremulus, to be awarded upon the commercial release of the book.
One (1) PDF bundle of Fabled Environment Cyberpunk Locations Maps Set.
One (1) PDF bundle of Fabled Environment Cyberpunk Locations Maps Set.
One (1) PDF bundle of Fabled Environment Cyberpunk Locations Maps Set.

That is eleven big prizes from seven great publishers, helping me say THANK YOU to each and every one of you for reading this blog!

To enter, simply send me an e-mail to tommybrownell(a)gmail(dot)com, with the subject (minus the quotes) "Happy Birthday Blog", listing your order of preference for the prize. Once I have closed entries by 11:59 PM Central Time on February 14th, I will use a randomizer to determine the winners...#1 gets their first choice, #2 gets their first available choice (their first choice if it wasn't taken, second if it was, and so on).

Please Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself

I just swiped this from Timothy Brannan's The Other Side blog, because it seems like the perfect time to reintroduce myself to my readers.

Howdy.

My name is Tommy Brownell, the guy behind The Most Unread Blog on the Internet. Ever. I got my start in in RPGs back in the 8th grade, when I bought the Uncanny X-Men Campaign Set for the Marvel Superheroes Advanced game, having no idea what I was actually buying. A year later, one of my Freshman classmates had a set of AD&D 2nd Edition rulebooks that I borrowed and eagerly learned, becoming the Dungeon Master for our group.

I have played many RPGs since then, and read and reviewed even more, falling in love with RPGs like All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Deadlands, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and sister game Angel), Marvel SAGA (which I maintain is the best supers RPG ever made) and, most famously, Savage Worlds.

I got my start reviewing RPGs several years ago on RPG.net, when I reviewed Don't Rest Your Head and Vs. Monsters for Horror Week. Eventually, I started doing more reviews and this blog came along about three years ago.

While I had done some work for Eden Studios (for comp copies), this blog did also lead into work for Savage Mojo (as a creative consultant and, for a time, Social Media Manager), Daring Entertainment (as an editor), Third Eye Games (savaging some API monsters and helping massage the Savage Worlds rules) and Basic Action Games (some editing).

Even better, thanks to this blog I have been exposed to much wider variety of RPGs, and I like to think that I have helped many of those RPGs become exposed to a much wider audience.

I am also a comic book writer, doing most of my work for Equinox Comics, where I write The Chronicles of Rachel Strand (drawn by my amazing partner in crime, Johnnie Johnson).

I recently suffered a horrific hard drive crash (as documented on this blog), and am now picking up the pieces with a new PC and the loss of a LOT of work and e-mails.

So, I hope you have enjoyed the blog to this point, I hope I have helped you find a new game or two that you love, and I hope that you stick around to see what happens next.

Tommy

Back So Soon?

About four days ago, I sadly announced the death of the blog.

The outpouring was, in a word, amazing.

I had people offering to mail me computers, people offering to donate money to buy me a new computer, and I had people tell me many wonderful things about this blog, and how important it is to them that it keeps going.

As of today, it looks like it will.

I have a new computer, and it is nearly set up as I need it. Not quite there, but almost there. That means the blog will continue in some capacity.

I am a little behind on review material, however. I did have some products downloaded that I intended to review, but I lost a great many of the RPGNow reviewer codes I had amassed to review. If you are a publisher and you are looking for reviews, drop me a line at tommybrownell@gmail.com.

I aim to contact the seven publishers that offered prize support for the Birthday Blog Giveaway, and ask them if they mind me extending the contest deadline in the hopes that everyone that previously entered will re-enter so I can finish the Birthday Blog Giveaway properly. I hope that becomes a reality.

Most of my digital RPG collection was amassed via RPGNow and is replaceable. A few pieces were not, gained from direct e-mails from publishers, or playtest files that are no longer available. I had made massive updates to the Marvel SAGA roster files that had not been shared with anyone in ages, and are now completely lost. As well, every one of my game session notes that wasn't posted on this blog were also lost. That is quite disheartening. A TON of e-mails are gone, too, but I've now synced my ISP e-mail with my Gmail to hopefully prevent this from happening again.

All of my comic work was lost, but I am piecing much of it back together via e-mails with my collaborators. There is work that will need to be redone, but I think I can get my projects back on track.

I thank you all for the kind and generous comments and offers when the announcement went out. Fact is, I have had an awful year, and this was one more kick to the teeth I didn't need. I had no idea when I would get another PC, and I sure didn't expect it to be this soon, but I've had some good friends and some good fortune come through for me in the middle of the frustration and setbacks. I wasn't trying to be dramatic...just didn't want to leave anyone hanging if I disappeared for weeks or months at a time, especially with the giveaway in full swing.

The blog will live on...and I will never doubt its readership again.

If you wish to support the blog, the absolute best way you can do so is via purchases using my RPGNow affiliate links, which in turn gives me store credit that I can then use to purchase more RPG products that I can review.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for the wonderful offers and the kind words (like the ones Timothy Brannan offered over at his blog).

I'm back...and with any luck, I'm not going away for a very long time.

Keep reading, and I'll keep writing.

Tommy

2012: We Lived!

This time last year, I wrote a "Year in Review" post, so I'm doing that again. This is about more than just the blog, or gaming, but about me in general in the year 2012.

I said last year that I didn't feel wildly optimistic or pessimistic going into 2012, and I did experience several ups and downs. We had a few frustrating financial setbacks, while I plowed ahead at work and got a promotion, which had the very awesome effect of getting my wife health insurance for the first time in a while. We also moved, this time into the nicest place we've lived at since we've been married.

I released a couple of new comic books, rebranding Hellrazer to The Chronicles of Rachel Strand, and took on a new comic writing gig with another company called Plan B Comics. Johnnie and I ended the webcomic version of Rachel Strand, focusing instead on print releases.

I continued working for Daring Entertainment as a freelance editor, while moving into a bigger role with Savage Mojo, helping to guide the larger marketing presence. I was also recently offered a writing gig for another Savage Worlds licensee.

For the first time in a long time, I actually got to game again, as we resumed our Necessary Evil campaign and have taken it near its ultimate conclusion. I also began teaching my son Marvel SAGA, and we played in a couple of games with him as Spider-Man (his favorite superhero).

I made a couple of appearances on Mike Lafferty's BAMF Podcast, including playing a demo game of Fiasco (which I've never gotten to play a full game of, yet), and was supposed to make a couple of more appearances, but we've never gotten the schedule worked out for us.

The blog also saw its first guest post, a playtest report of tremulus by Jimmy Bise, Jr.

I still have not finished Max Monkey, the albatross hanging from my neck. Need to finally put that thing to rest once and for all.

I did get to be a guest of honor at SoonerCon, though, and that was a great experience.

As I look into 2013, here are some things I have in mind:

- Keep the blog rolling. A few months ago, I felt a bit upset at how...neglected...the blog had felt. The fact is, at the end of the day, of all the writing I do, the blog is the only thing that's really mine. I can't let that falter.

- Keep the comics coming. This one is harder to pull off, due to the fact that more than just myself is involved in the making of comics...but I still have to keep pushing forward.

- I plan to open a new fiction blog in January. The goal is 12 short stories next year...one a month. I won't post them on this blog, so as not to confuse anything too much, but hopefully they will be fun writing exercises.

- Keep gaming. Necessary Evil is almost finished, and we began working on porting our old Midnight game to Savage Worlds this weekend. We definitely need to get some Deadlands going, too. I bought me a tablet recently (an Asus Transformer), so hopefully I can use more of my gaming PDFs at the game table.

- FINALLY finish Max Monkey, and then figure out what the future holds for the character.

I hope you had more good than bad in 2012, and I hope 2013 brings you happiness and success.

Come back tomorrow for Tommy's Top Six and the biggest giveaway we have ever offered!

375 posts! A Look Back...

This is my 375th post on the blog, a little over 2 and a half years from when I launched it as an excuse to keep me writing on a regular basis.

How'd that work out?

Well...I haven't always been able to blog as much as I like, because I went from unemployed college student to warehouse worker/comic book writer/social media manager/freelance editor, those latter two gigs stemming entirely from this blog and my reviews (which came to dominate the blog).

This is actually the second "Most Unread Blog on the Internet. Ever.", the first one being much more personal and political, being referred to by the The UK Mirror as "A Liberal Read", where my tagline came from. My logo is about 14 months old, designed for me by my friend and colleague (every Savage Worlds product I've been credited on, so has he), Aaron Acevedo.

As of this writing, my blog's had 184,947 hits (which isn't 100% accurate, I'm sure, but it's probably close), and despite being increasingly busy, it's managed to top the previous year's traffic month to month. In fact, every month this year except June has doubled the One Year Ago stats. I attribute this to "Evergreen" posts like Savage Worlds Characters Are All The Same, which prop up traffic even when I'm not posting often.

To my annoyance, my most read post on the blog is my take on The Walking Dead season one, due in no small part to the Emma Bell pic inserted in the article.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ICONS posts draw more traffic than any of my other RPG posts, though I'm convinced that's more to do with TMNT than it is ICONS.

The most read RPG review I've written is, interestingly, Leverage.

My audience is primarily American, with Canada pulling in a distant second. To my surprise, Poland makes up the third largest segment of my audience (with Canada only supplying about 500 more hits than Poland does). The UK provides a sizable fourth, and then it's a pretty big drop off in readership.

My highest traffic month was this past January, which isn't a surprise as my Top 6 giveaway got plastered around the internet, with Pinnacle posting a front page update about it, among other things.

Speaking of...I'm moving the  Top 6 cutoff date to November 30th this year, so I have an extra couple of weeks to contact the publishers of the selected products before everyone disappears before Christmas.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope to continue posting much, much more. I aim to continue my Half Dozen Heroes articles, I'll probably post more about D&DNext, I have another slew of RPG products lined up to review and I'm working on scanning my adventure notes for one of my Necessary Evil adventures through an OCR program to post up for your consumption.

Thanks for reading, and keep the dice dizzy!

Tommy

AetherCon Update for August 5th, 2012

Here are the latest updates for our event from the past three weeks:

We’d like to welcome Ethan Parker and Jon Gibbons to the AetherCon staff. Mr Parker, the organizer for KantCon, has signed on to take the position of GM Coordinator. Mr. Gibbons (AEG, PEG) has been named to the Art Directors post.


The following games have been added to our schedule:
William T. Thrasher - Call of Cthulhu Tournament - "The Wounded Sky"
Julian Constantino - Pathfinder - "Justice For All"

William has also been recently tapped by Paizo to do some writing on an upcoming project.

The following games and GMs have recently been confirmed:
Greg McClendon - Dark Heresy
Roger French Jr - Macho Women with Guns
Sherman Sheftall - Runequest 6th Ed


The following game publishers have been added to our supporters by either contributing prize support, guests for the Fest Hall, or taking a booth in our Vendors Hall:

4 Winds Fantasy Gaming
Chapter 13 Press
Crafty Games
d Infinity
Silver Gryphon Games
Thistle Games
White Haired Man

You can see the growing list of companies adding to our prize list by going ‘To The Victors’

We would also like to thank DriveThru RPG for stepping up and facilitating the prize bundles for our event.

At this time we can also confirm that Ennie nominated Chapter 13 Press, Skirmisher Publishing, and The Design Mechanism will be among those featured in our inaugural convention program.


Among the latest artist news Bradley K. McDevitt has been commissioned by Goodman Games for illustration on an upcoming release.

Our latest wallpaper Grendorey Hu Maggrath by Canadian Will O'Brien has just been released.

Coming Soon:
Izael 'Deeds' McBride by Patrick McAvoy
Billoby Windwarble by Fiona Meng
Kruultok Azgratugaar by Eric Lofgren

You can find all of our free downloadable wallpapers here.


The following RPG blogs have joined the Bell & Scroll:

Campaign Mastery
Dice Jockey
Geek Life
Mind of the Geek
The Iron Tavern

The following Conventions have joined the ConCentric Circle:

BashCon
Great Falls Gaming Rendezvous


Current games confirmed for AetherCon include:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten
A Thousand and One Nights
Atomic Highway
Call of Cthulhu
Castles & Crusades
Dark Heresy
Dresden Files
Eclipse Phase
Fantasy Craft
Labyrinth Lord
Legends of the Five Rings
Leverage
Macho Women with Guns
Mouse Guard
Mutants and Masterminds
Palladium RIFTs
Paranoia
Pathfinder
Pathfinder Society
Runequest 6th Ed
Savage Worlds
Shadowrun
Star Wars (D6 WEG)
Swords and Wizardry
Time Lord


Top five cities in North America for unique visitors to our main site to date: Chicago, Ill; San Francisco, Cal; New York, NY; Houston, Tex; Austin, Tex.

Top five cities in Europe for unique visitors to our main site to date: London, U.K.; Nuremberg, Ger; Helsinki, Fin; Moscow, Rus; Hamburg, Ger.

Top five cities in ports abroad for unique visitors to our main site to date: Wellington, N.Z.; Brisbane, Aus; Sydney, Aus; Melbourne, Aus; Florianopolis, Bra.


Finally, a question: Which of our latest games would you like to play the most? Check out our poll on Facebook and have your say.


Help us get the word out about AetherCon by liking and sharing on our Facebook event page, following and re-tweeting via our Twitter page and adding us to your circle on Google+.


We are currently looking for GMs to run the following games:

Pathfinder
Savage Worlds
Shadowrun
Call of Cthuhlu

As well as these cult favorites:

Barbarians of Lemuria
Cyberpunk2020
Gamma World (Pre-D20)
GURPS
Halcyon
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
Spycraft
Star Frontiers
Traveler

All Flesh Must Be Eaten
Atomic Highway
Dresden Files
Eclipse Phase
Fantasy Craft
Legends of the Five Rings
Macho Women with Guns
Mutants and Masterminds
Palladium
Paranoia
Runequest 6th Ed

Dark Heresy
Serenity
Star Wars (D6 WEG)

If you have a cult favorite you’d like to see or run, let us know!

If you have a game yourself that you would like to run use our handy-dandy [url=http://www.aethercon.com/GM%20Pre-Reg/GM%20Pre-Registration.html]GM Pre-Registration tool[/url] on the site.

If you want to play in one just fill out our Player Pre-Registration Tool.


All of our Game Tables and Booths are now linked to Roll20 making it easier than ever for you to try out the engine of AetherCon.

You can also check the menu bar across the top of our website for Roll20. The corresponding submenu shows has a variety of useful links.


If you would like to inquire about other volunteering possibilities let us know by sending an e-mail here: stephen@aethercon.com

Stephen J. Holodinsky
Event Manager – AetherCon

Find us here:
AetherCon

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

May RPG Deals at RPGNow

Hey folks...been crazy busy with multiple projects, but I did want to take the moment to drop a line and point out that you can get a slew of PDFs at RPGNow for 20% off using the code DriveThruApril (yes, they have been told that it is, in fact, May). These offers are good until June 14th.

Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion [Pinnacle Entertainment] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64257/Savage-Worlds-Fantasy-Companion&affiliate_id=15975)

Realms of Cthulhu [Reality Blurs] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/77953/Realms-of-Cthulhu&affiliate_id=15975)

Karma Roleplaying System Core [Bards and Sages] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/58683/Karma-Roleplaying-System-Core-Rules-Book&affiliate_id=15975)

FantasyCraft [Crafty Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/63884/Fantasy-Craft-Second-Printing&affiliate_id=15975)

Fat Dragon's Dragonshire Deluxe [Fat Dragon Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64254/DRAGONSHIRE%3A-Deluxe-Edition&affiliate_id=15975)

Paths of Power (Pathfinder System) [4 Winds Fantasy] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/65792/%5BPFRPG%5D-Paths-of-Power&affiliate_id=15975)

Spycraft: Real American H.E.R.O.es [Crafty Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/65785/Real-American-H.E.R.O.es&affiliate_id=15975)

Fellowship of the White Star Campaign Book [Thenodrin Presents] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/59997/Fellowship-of-the-White-Star-campaign-book&affiliate_id=15975)

Ninja Burger RPG (2nd Edition) [aetherial FORGE] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/11881/Ninja-Burger%3A-The-RPG-2nd-Edition)

Heavy Gear Blitz! Locked & Loaded [Dream Pod 9] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/12646/Heavy-Gear-Blitz%21-Rulebook&affiliate_id=15975)

Hero's Handbook: Dragonborn [Goodman Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/59034/Hero%27s-Handbook%3A-Dragonborn&affiliate_id=15975)

Splicers RPG [Palladium Books] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64205/Splicers&affiliate_id=15975)

Noir Knights (Savage Worlds) [Savage Mojo] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/80633/Noir-Knights-%28Savage-Worlds%29&affiliate_id=15975)

I particularly recommend Noir Knights, Realms of Cthulhu and the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion.

Working on some new reviews to share with you over the next week, so look for those!

Me, Savage Mojo and This Blog

So, effective yesterday or so, I came to terms with Savage Mojo to become their Social Media Manager. Essentially, I will becoming their public face, especially in the realm of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, game forums, that sort of thing). As many of you know, a while back I began a working relationship with them as their "Savage Campaign Guru", at which point I ceased things like doing reviews of Savage Mojo products (due to conflict of interest - even if I hadn't worked on the products in question).

I feel very positive about this step (especially as the sole working parent in the household, with my wife becoming a stay at home mom about a year ago), and I look forward to helping Savage Mojo grow into its rightful place, in my view, among the game publisher's pantheon.

What does that mean for this blog? Honestly, not much. Yeah, I'll talk more about Savage Mojo, but any time I have new projects coming out, you're going to hear about it (I mean, I'm going to beat you all to death with Hellrazer until you jump on the bandwagon, and I'm VERY pumped about the expected releases by Daring Entertainment this year). I'm still going to review games because, well, I love roleplaying games...I love playing them, I love reading them, I love informing people about them, and I do my level best to inform you of them without an agenda (at least until Tommy's Top Six rolls around every year).

I am very, very excited about the turns my life has taken, professionally and personally, over the last couple of years, and I look forward to sharing many more positive developments with you in the months to come. To that end, if you need to reach me for anything Savage Mojo related, drop me a line at community@savagemojo.com.

Stay tuned later this week for my review of Bedrock Games' alternate history RPG Servants of Gaius, but first, take a peek at the new Suzerain promo video we uploaded this weekend and swing by RPGNow right now and use the code WhenIrishDiceAreRollin to get 20% off of Caladon Falls until April 10th!

Some Early February Announcements

THE MOST UNREAD BLOG EVER GETS READ

Yep...last month was the highest traffic month in my blog's history, shattering the previous record of last January's traffic. This was due in no small part to Tommy's Top Six and the Birthday Blog Giveaway, which received a lot of extra publicity this year. For that, I thank you, and I hope at least some of you come back even when I'm not giving away stuff.

FEB-WU-ARY IS BACK

Third Eye Games has resurrected Feb-Wu-Ary, a contest in which you can win a free copy of Wu Xing every day this month. Pop on over to their website to learn all about your ways to win because Wu Xing is WELL worth it.

A PAIR OF KICKSTARTERS

Mike Lafferty, the guy behind some of my favorite ICONS material by Vigilance Press, and the host of the Bamf Podcast, has launched a new venture called Fainting Goat Games, and they are running a Kickstarter to provide a series of adventures for ICONS. Normally, I would say that adventure support isn't something ICONS really needs MORE of, but Mike wrote Wargames, so check out Improbable Tales on Kickstarter.

Also, the Rogue Mage Kickstarter is underway, and just over halfway to their goal. Rogue Mage is a post-apocalyptic (or very apocalyptic) fantasy RPG by Christian Stiles, Faith Hunter, Raven Blackwell and Spike Y Jones, based on Faith Hunter's novel series. The game system is based off of the Mutants & Masterminds second edition rules, tweaked a bit for the fantasy feel. I'm expecting a review copy any time now, and I intend on providing this blog's readers with one of the first looks at the game even before the Kickstarter is completed. Check out the Rogue Mage Kickstarter page to see the incentives available for those who donate.

And The Winners Are...

I move quickly. We have 55 entrants this year and a ton of blog traffic!

The winners of the Birthday Blog giveaway are:

Ned-Patrick Leffingwell - Ghostories Expanded
Jack McCrary - Realms of Cthulhu
Devin Curtis - Savage Suzerain
Marc Gacy - Savage Worlds Horror Companion
Bif Hammer - Sword Noir (print)
Robert Rosenthal - Complete Sword Noir PDF Bundle
Robert Slaughter - Complete Sword Noir PDF Bundle
Josh Bazin - Tough Justice

Congratulations, folks, and thanks again to Precis Intermedia Games, Reality Blurs, Savage Mojo, Pinnacle Entertainment, Swords Edge Publishing and Postmortem Studios for providing these great prizes!

Enjoy your games, guys!

Tommy

2011: Looking Back Before We Move Forward

2011 was an odd year for me, in that it wasn't wildly successful, nor was it wildly disheartening...and I neither feel wildly optimistic or wildly pessimistic about the new year.

This time last year, my wife still worked in a women's shelter and I was pulling overnight shifts at a local hotel, while freelancing for financial services websites, reviewing games like crazy and working on comic book projects.

A few of those things have changed a bit.

- I gave up two jobs for one, leaving the hotel to go to work in a warehouse back in late May. This move ultimately allowed my wife to quit her job and become a stay at home Mom. This has been pretty successful thus far, as we are currently no longer reliant upon anyone else for child car, a burden we are happy to be free of. While I can't say my job is very fulfilling, and I have doubts about the future opportunities that are available to me there, I don't have too many complaints and it's paying the bills.

- Unfortunately, my reviews on the site slowed down quite a bit, as working in a warehouse in 100+ degree heat proved very taxing for me over the summer, and other projects have reduced my focus on this blog. I'm still working to keep the blog going, however, even if I have to get choosier with my subjects.

- This year saw me transition to freelance roles within the RPG industry, as I took over editing duties for War of the Dead by Daring Entertainment, beginning with Chapter 3. I also got brought on as a Freelance Savage Worlds Plot Point Guru by Savage Mojo, providing input on a couple of books that will hopefully see light of day in 2012. I haven't heard yet if any further work awaits me on the Savage Mojo front, but I am expecting Chapter 4 of War of the Dead and Hellspawn (also by Daring Entertainment) any time now.

- I wrestled my last match as a pro wrestler this year (though I didn't know it at the time). It was fun, but my time and energy is better focused elsewhere.

- One of my artistic partners, Johnnie Johnson, and I launched the Hellrazer webcomic this September. You can also follow it on Facebook, where I regularly post the links to the pages (every Tuesday and Friday), as well as previews and commentary on the pages. I have a Marvel SAGA draft of a couple of the characters that will make it on the blog eventually, and I hope to also have ICONS, BASH and - possibly - Savage Worlds versions as well.

- As I often do, I overwhelmed myself with promises of things I intended to do, and ran out of time and energy to do them. Hopefully, the Horror of Trevala will still happen, in some form or another...and I still have a very ambitious supers project (system pending) that I would LOVE to tackle this year.

- On the Hellrazer front, I am teaching myself to letter comics, which is...interesting. And time consuming, but hopefully worthwhile in the end.

- I didn't do any gaming to speak of that didn't involve a PS3. Hopefully that'll change this year.

- I spent many Thursday nights in the Beautiful Brains chatroom with Clint and Jodi Black, even guest hosting one week. I was also interviewed by Eloy Lasanta for his podcast.

- Captain America became my favorite comic book movie, and one of my favorite movies ever, this year. Saw it twice in the theatres, the only movie that I have ever bothered watching twice in the theatre. The second time was taking my son to see it. I've seen it a couple of times since then, and am still quite in love with it.

- Went to a couple of conventions this year, one in Tulsa and the other in Oklahoma City, where I met a lot of my fellow Oklahoma Comic creators and made some new friends. That's always a good thing.

- I discovered the joys of digital comics (Comixology is FANTASTIC)...and if Kryptic Games & More wasn't such a fantastic comic book store, and I owned a tablet, I would almost certainly be all-digital at this point.

- I was also blessed by some wonderful and thoughtful gestures that inadvertently(?) sparked a lot of self-assessment for me as a human being.

Going forward, I have some goals (NOT resolutions):

- Continue writing. I need to be more productive and prolific than I have been. That includes comics as well as this blog. I have some short stories that I would love to get out there, too.

- Build my credit up so that we can look into acquiring a more suitable home.

- Try to be a better human being in general. Be a little more generous and a little less self-absorbed.

- I think I've done a pretty decent job this year as a husband and a father, but I can do better. At least, I should always be trying to do better.

- Continue to take advantages of opportunities when they arise, and hopefully continue to impress others with my work ethic and performance.

- Try to get some gaming in this year. What would it hurt?

- Hopefully hang out with my buddies a little more than I was able to this year.

- Finish Max Monkey, Monster Masher so I can be done with Small Press Idol for good.

- Anyway, enough prattling. Here's to much health, wealth and success for all of you...come back tomorrow for Tommy's Top Six and the Birthday Blog Giveaway!

(My wife also provided her thoughts on the year, and a lot of those thoughts are certainly applicable to me as well. You can check those out at her blog.)