Okay, not really mucho importante, but I thought I’d take this opportunity between our RPG Site of the Year award and our Snakes Theme Week to tell you about… our Snakes Theme Week! And other stuff!
Next Week
A while back, we kind of stumbled into a theme week involving Lizardfolk (Brian Liberge is the man). It went pretty well, and we decided to do it again – this time with Snakes! All next week we’ll have several articles covering ideas and thoughts surrounding the snake theme to help inspire your game.
- Serpent Student – Brian Liberge brings us a Heroic-tier set of snake-inspired Primal powers for your 4E character.
- Minion Madness – Guest writer Alton from 20 ft Radius brings us a snake trap for your Heroic-tier characters.
- The Cult of Eternity’s Path – Anthony Laffan from Reality Refracted brings us a snake-worshipping cult that can pretty much fit into any game.
- Snake Plisskin, the Role Model – Charisma Keller goes into what makes Snake Plisskin such an iconic character, giving ideas for your own Mr. Badass.
- Playing with Fate: Creating a Giant Python – We continue our series of Playing with Fate, in which we show you how to create a monster using Strands of Fate.
- Minori, Mistress of the Unseen Serpent – Jonathan Baldwin from Powergaming for Dummies provides us with a nice assassin for the Mutants and Masterminds game.
- Plot Heavy Patrons – Brian Liberge finishes off the week by bringing us a few new snake-themed deities for your characters, and how they can be used in-game.
Last Week
Last week we saw the award for our now annual RPG Site of the Year contest go to Critical Hits. Really, a great site and well-deserved. Thanks to the judges, and to all those who participated.
Site Look and Navigation
Thank you to everyone for being patient as I tweaked the site’s look and features. I simply want the site to look nice and clean, and be easy to navigate. I think after all the tweaks, we’ve finally gotten there. All of our content is clearly categorized, and easily accessible through our main navigation bar. Our Table of Contents was the solution we’d been missing, so it’s finally good-bye to the clunky old format. Also, our slider (on the front page) is working out well, acting as both our news reel and portal to our featured content.
There are a few more (small) cosmetic changes coming soon, but for those I’m going to be enlisting the help of a friend.
Our Store
Our Store is still doing well (it’s what pays our writers and funds most of our contests). If you haven’t been there, you should check it out (fair prices, free shipping, fast delivery). I’m very proud of the products there, and promise that we will always only sell stuff that is cool and useful.
What does the future hold?
Lately we’ve had a few posts offered up as PDF downloads, specifically a few of our Steal This… posts. These PDFs make the content more useful and convenient, enabling you to copy them to your computer for easy reference, and even printing them out for your game. It’s my intention to make all of our future Steal This… material available as PDF, as well as all of our previously posted content (now that’s going to be an undertaking).
If you haven’t taken a look at Brian Liberge’s 9-page Epic level one-shot adventure, in which the PC heroes stand alongside gods while storming Asmodeus’ fortress, do it now. Also take a look at The Id DM’s fantastic NPC (with four pages of useful material to go with him). Both are available as downloads.
My group is very big on 3D Terrain. Very soon we’ll begin offering 3D Terrain sets and pieces as a licensed Hirst Arts retailer. I know I announced this a while back, but it’s a slow process – mainly because I want to do it right. There are other sites out there that offer Hirst Arts / Castlemolds products, but ours are going to have our own distint style, be truly well-crafted, and be available at the best prices (that’s our goal, anyway).
Another project that I’ve been waiting to get off the ground is a series on “how to set up and run your own gaming website.” I’m waiting on a single change from my hosting server before I get started, but I think it will be worth the wait. I am – in no way – an expert on setting up and running a website, but I like to think that I’ve learned a thing or three. The series will cover everything you need to know from start to finish (the basics), but will differ from other instructional series in one important way – I’m going to show you what to do, step by step, as if you have never seen a computer before. I’m definitely looking forward to it, because we can’t have enough gaming blogs!
Final thoughts…
I like running Stuffer Shack. It’s fun. It’s challenging. And it’s rewarding. It’s also a pain in my wife’s butt, but I’m slowly converting her. I like pulling up my dashboard and seeing that there are new comments and links pointing to our site. I like pulling up my email and seeing that someone has sent in an article, asking to have it posted on the Shack. And I like meeting people and making new friends. The online gaming community is fantastic, and filled with gamers just looking to enjoy a great hobby. That’s the kind of crowd I enjoy.
Thanks for reading, an take it easy.
-Tourq
Chris Stevens
In Chris's opinion, the very best vices are dirt bikes, rock music, and gaming, while the very best medicine is fatherhood. If he could just learn to balance them all, he'd live forever. He's much more creative than intelligent, often wakes up belligerent, and ponders many things insignificant. Lastly, in an effort to transform his well-fed body, P90X, Roller Blades, and Food are all laughing at him. And the pain continues.