Hey everyone, happy New Year! It’s been a great year so far here at World Builder Blog. Some of you have been here since the beginning, some of you came along later, and for others of you this might be your first post. Maintaining this blog is a lot of work, but your comments, likes, +1s, retweets, favorites, bumps, views, shares, and more have really kept me going. Thank you for encouraging me.
Here’s a quick look at what I’ve accomplished in the world of tabletop roleplaying in 2014 with your help and support.
- 300+ Pages of the Exploration Age Campaign Guide written
- 175 Blog posts here on World Builder Blog
- 57 Podcasts recorded, edited, and posted on The Tome Show
- 22 PDFs added to the Free Game Resources section of this site
- 11 Podcasts recorded where I appear as a guest or guest host
- 6 Videos of 3 livestreamed D&D games on YouTube
- 2 Campaigns in Exploration Age launched
- 1 Life goal of finally attending Gen Con achieved
So thank you for that. Here’s looking forward to more in the future. In 2015 there will be even more (including Gamer to Gamer interviews with Erin M. Evans and Ed Greenwood) especially if Wizards of the Coasts reveals their OGL.
Special Shoutouts
I need to throw some special shoutouts now. First of all I live with an incredibly supportive woman who is smart, funny, beautiful, passionate, creative, and (most importantly) the kindest person I know. Bonnie MacDonald is the greatest person ever, and if you like cooking or eating checkout her blog. She’s the one who encouraged me to finally go to Gen Con this year where I interviewed Mike Mearls!
Of course, I didn’t interview Mike alone. Rudy Basso is a man with big ideas, big humor, big fun, and a big heart. Not only did Rudy interview Mike with me, he’s a force of creativity and inspiration, constantly coming up with ideas to be used on podcasts, blogs, at the game table, and more. He’s also the one who pushed for more Round Table episodes at the beginning and is basically the reason the show is now a weekly podcast. My new favorite podcast is hosted by Rudy and his super amazing brother, Alex Basso. It’s called D&D V&G and you should be listening. Episodes of the hilarious and informative show can be found on The Tome Show’s website.
Speaking of The Tome Show, this blog and all the podcasts and livestream games would not be a thing if it weren’t for Jeff Greiner taking a chance on me and letting me produce The Round Table and later Gamer to Gamer and Bonus Action. He deserves a huge thank you and applause for running The Tome Show for over seven years as well! Of course I also have to thank Sam Dillon, The Tome Show’s editor, the host of Bonus Action, and all-around awesome dude as well. Sam’s putting up the episodes you love to hear and that’s no small task.
Another shoutout goes to Mike Shea of slyflourish.com. Mike is the one who told me I should talk with Jeff about podcasting and his own site served as inspiration for World Builder Blog. Mike graciously and masterfully DMed all the live games I put together and even invited me over to his house to play some D&D. I know, I’m jealous of me too.
Greg Blair is a great friend and one of the nicest dudes around. He’s a brilliant D&D player, wonderful podcast guest, and amazing editor. Greg is a huge help with this blog because regularly sends me emails informing me of my typos and grammatical errors. He also comments on the blog and provides a lot of cool insights and thoughts on the work. If you want to know a thoughtful, cool dude get to know Greg.
Speaking of great commenters, this year I got to know the blog’s top commenter personally, Joe Lastowski. Joe is super creative, funny, and has a sharp intellect. Talk about your nice dudes, Joe is right up there with everyone else in this post. A lot of Joe’s feedback has helped to shape the Exploration Age Campaign Guide, so thank you very much for the comments here and on all the podcasts Joe!
There are too many guests to list, but if you’ve ever been on a podcast with me thank you so much. I have enjoyed those immensely and can’t wait to talk to you again on or off the air waves.
Finally, since birth I have been the number one fan of a guy who gives the best advice, tells the greatest jokes, and lives his life in a way we all should emulate. My big brother Andrew listens to every podcast and reads every blog post. He hasn’t played D&D in years, but he did introduce me to the game so without him you get none of this. More importantly he sets the example for living I strive to follow every day. He’s honest, friendly, compassionate, and kind. A big shoutout to him for all his support and love.
Yeah, Yeah… But What Did You Get Me?
So to thank you all for this year, I went back to a popular post I wrote titled You Only Live Thrice. In this post I discussed making death have a little more of a consequence for PCs and presented a few rules modules. Well those rules have been added to the Free Game Resources section of this site as a downloadable PDF. That PDF is also available in the link below.
Based on the feedback I got in the comments and on the various sites and forums where these modules were shared I created an add-on to one of the modules suggested by fans. This idea actually came from top commenter Joe Lastowski and got a lot of support. Check it out in all its glory and thank you so much for reading this post on World Builder Blog! Here’s to another great year!
If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!
