Whew! Whoever had the bright idea to release the first issue of this e-zine the day after Memorial Day should be dragged out and shot.
On the other hand, maybe that's a bit extreme. Some of the staff might just be a little too eager to do that because, well... it was my idea. Heh.
So for future reference I'll have to remember not to set release dates at the end of a long weekend, particularly not one which I plan to spend hiking, attending plays and otherwise enjoying myself. It makes editing last-minute submissions and writing code much more of a chore. Next issue, we'll put this thing out on a Wednesday or something. Maybe a Friday. Who knows? I'm not ready to set a release date just yet.
Meantime, you didn't bring this page up so that I could ramble at you about deadlines.
Being the first issue of the as yet unnamed RPG Host newsletter, things are still a little rough around the edges here. I haven't finished deciding on a layout for the pages yet, and we're still a little short on material. Hopefully, these things will be ironed out within the next two issues.
For those of you who haven't seen it, there is a naming contest currently going on for this newsletter. Although a number of possible titles have been suggested, we're still looking for more. If you have an idea you would like to share, go to the message boards under the News section at www.rpghost.com and post your suggestions under the RPG Host Newsletter forum. A handful of the best names will be chosen for voting on by RPG Host's members, and the one with the most votes will be used as our name starting with Issue Two.
Besides a name, we could definitely use more articles. If you look at the submissions page, you will find our simple guidelines for submitting articles to be used in our newsletter. We are very open to new ideas, so don't hesitate to hit us up with suggestions for articles you would like to see or anything you might be interested in writing for us. As you can plainly see, our special features section is a little empty for this issue. This newsletter can only be as interesting as the articles we receive.
As it is, the staff worked hard on their articles for this issue (at least, I like to think they did). Some of that definitely shows through in the final product. The staff all do this on a strictly volunteer basis, so they deserve a lot of credit for the work they do.
Now, about what we have to offer and where we're going with this... your guess is as good as mine. This newsletter is designed to inform and entertain gamers in as many genres as possible. Admittedly, we're a little heavy on Shadowrun material in this first issue, but hey - I make no secret of my preference for that game. What happens when you ask a longtime Shadowrun player and GM to put together a newsletter staff? He gets his friends to help out, and they're going to be Shadowrun players, too. Next issue we will definitely expand into other games and other genres, but the extent to which we do depends largely on the number of other submissions we receive.
For this issue, just sit back and enjoy what we do have to offer. There is some very informative stuff in the News and Reviews section, particularly with Jester Deren's Crimson Skies review and Randy McDowell's industry news. The fellowship site reviews section contains reviews of some of the fellowship sites here at RPG Host, and can be used as a guide through the myriad of sites we host here. Each issue will include five or six more tongue-in-cheek reviews of randomly chosen sites.
Elissa Carey, our associate editor, has handed over the first part of her original story "Dirty Yellow Silk" to be published here. It's an excellent story which we will continue printing in intallments. Also in this issue, and in every successive issue right up until she kills me, Amanda Kilgore is playing the part of the sage. Her Adventuring With Amanda column offers game ideas for the GM in a creative slump (it happens to the best of us). Even GM's on a roll might take a hint from Amanda on how to keep players in line. Finally, we have my corner, where I will rant and rave from issue to issue about one topic or another and generally try to keep things interesting.
So that's it. Go on and enjoy our first issue, sparse though it may be. In future issues we are going to try and include a Question and Answer section for gamers who have a rules question for any game or just need a little advice from our sages about how to run a successful online or PBEM game. Most of our staff have years of online gaming experience under a variety of different systems, and would love to help out those in need of a little assistance.
For now, try not to trip on any bad links (I confess that I haven't checked them all), and if you haven't downloaded our font pack, I highly recommend doing so as it greatly improves the look and feel of the articles. Simply click the link above, unzip the files, and place them into your Windows/Fonts folder. You may need to restart your browser after doing so, however.
