Customer Reviews

OPEN GAME TABLE: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Volume 1

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Many folks in the gaming community see the hobby as moving to a completely digital format. Indeed, almost all of the major publishers now make digital content available, and many focus almost all of their business on the digital market. Bloggers and fan sites create derivative works of their favorite systems and settings to share digitally online. But with Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, editor Jonathan Jacobs reminds us that no matter how much we gamers use the internet to expand our gaming experience, we still want the really good stuff in print!

Open Game Table is a true gift for gamers; gathering together the most popular content scattered across the blogosphere and organizing it into one print collection. Jacobs has done a fine job organizing the various articles into logical categories, and the table of contents provides readers with an informative reference to what is inside the book. An index might have been nice, if for no other reason than those moments when you want to quickly find the page that references the Tome of Horrors or if you wanted to note all of the pages that mentioned OD&D for reference later. But it's a minor issue.

The presentation as a whole is simple and clean, and in many ways feels like an "old school" game supplement. Several artists donated original artwork to the project to compliment the articles. To be honest, a lot of it has a somewhat cheesy feel, and yet it is precisely that cheesy style that gives the collection a certain geeky charm gamers will appreciate. (I have to ask artist Jennifer Weigel...exactly how many feet of rope did that little critter use anyway?)

The bulk of the book's content is Dungeons and Dragons(tm) specific, though considering the market share the system holds and the explosion of third party content available for D&D perhaps that is to be expected. However there is still plenty of non-system specific RPG theory to be enjoyed (including a really great piece written by Ben Robbins on what could in effect be considered the "origin myth" of the entire hobby).
Jacobs has done a fine job of making sure this collection has something for everyone. Both GMs and players will find articles catered to them, just as both new recruits and veteran gamers will find articles catered to them. Yet while each article caters to a specific demographic, the information in each article is still wholly accessible to the entire gaming community.

Of course, perhaps the obvious question is why would someone pay good money for a print version of articles they can find online for free? But as obvious as the question might be, the answers are just as obvious. Jacobs, with the help of an army of dedicated bloggers, artists, and volunteers, has done the hard work by culling through the hundreds of hobby-related blogs and pulling out the true gems. This is not just a slapped together print-out of assorted blogs. It's a gamer's primer of all that is good about the hobby in general and the online gaming community specifically.

Open Game Table is the reference guide equivalent of a Deck of Many Things, except all of the crappy cards have been replaced with 50,000 XP and a medium magic item...and you can draw from it again and again.

It's hard enough to keep up with all of the different role-playing game (RPG) blogs. And then, once you've found a good one, you either print it out, or it ends up getting lost online. But now, with the Open Game Table Anthology, you've got the cream of the crop - all of the best RPG blog posts for 2008, along with some fun artwork!

The articles range from "Old School" Dungeons and Dragons, represented by James Maliszewski's Gygaxian Naturalism, all the way to the newest 4th edition of D&D, represented by the "Musings of the Chatty DM". All of the posts are thought provoking, well written, and fun to read.

Looking forward to the 2nd volume!

This book is a wonderful compilation of many fantastic articles that have come out of the RPG blogosphere. While the Digital Age has been rough on pen and paper gaming, with the proliferation of its digital cousins the Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs, there has been an intellectual renaissance among the gaming community with the advent of the blog. Now folks can share their ideas with the world, and this book assembles some of the finest.

With illustrations from many upcoming artists like James Keegan and Hugo Solis, this book is a gem. The information is a wonderful crossection of the blogging community, and I learned about several websites I had never even heard of (and I am a hard-core gamer). Hats off to the editor Jonathan Jacobs, and I am looking forward to the next installment!

The Open Game Table Anthology presents a broad selection of 2008 blog posts related to roleplaying games: collected, edited, and set into print with original artwork added. Jonathan Jacobs and his volunteer editors have done an excellent job. Even for a habitual reader of these blogs, having these articles in print form is invaluable.

There are nearly 50 posts here in all, their topics ranging from the very first roleplaying games -- there's an article on Braunstein, the wargame that developed, more or less accidentally, into an RPG -- to the newest edition of D&D, released less than a year ago. The articles sift through history, mull game theory, provide helpful tips, offer new mechanics (including an entirely new homebrewed fourth-edition D&D character class) to plug into games, and even include how-tos on such topics as creating your own tokens (a cheaper substitute for the miniatures some games employ).

If you play or run roleplaying games, there's something here for you. The material's as good as anything you'd find in an official sourcebook, and most of it is applicable to a wide variety of games. This is an impressive first volume featuring some very talented authors.

I can't wait to see volume 2.

[...]

Above is the link to my gaming blog, wherein I reviewed this wonderful tome. I will be brief so as to not repeat myself too much.

This book is a must have, and if it is any indication of the direction this series will take, The rest will be as well. A snapshot of our gaming culture offering everything from campaign design advice to a fan build of a beloved and sorely missed 4E class.

Add to that the best part of all, it's a real, honest to god book! Barely contained within the cover, are the gems of knowledge and wisdom plucked from the tree of RPG Blogging knowledge.

I bought my copy, where in the h3ll is yours?

When I today crawled out of bed I found my copy of "Open Game Table - The Antholohy Of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Volume 1" in my mailbox. And I have to admit it looks great in print! The faux tome cover has a certain steampunk feel to it, which I like very much and the quality of the printing is top notch.

The book you get for your hard-earned money is worth every cent, you can trust me with that! Jonathan Jacobs and his assistant editors and the members of the judging panel have chosen only the best of the best roleplaying blog posts.

The translation from the blog posts to the book format works surprisingly well and if you want to check out the original posts, you can just point your browser at the URLs provided. The appendix of the book also contains a list of all members of the RPG Bloggers Network, so you get a good starting point if you want to delve into the world of RPG blogs yourself.

The "Open Game Table" contains ten chapters and a foreword written by Wolfgang Baur (www.koboldquarterly.com):

Chapter 1: Play Style
Chapter 2: Game Play
Chapter 3: Characters & Players
Chapter 4: Monsters & NPCs
Chapter 5: Encounters, Settings & Location
Chapter 6: Adventure Design
Chapter 7: Campaign Setting Design
Chapter 8: Classes, Action & Equipment
Chapter 9: RPG History & Commentary
Chapter 10: The RPG Tool Box
Especially Chapter 8 is a bit heavy on D&D 4th Edition material, so if you don't play the latest edition of D&D you wont get too much out of this chapter but the rest of the book contains great articles that can be used with every roleplaying game. But if you are using D&D 4th Edition you get a complete class, a warlock pact variant and rules for firearms and additional ranged weapons!

One of my favorite articles in the book is Berin Kinsman's "Get Your Dice Off My Lawn!" on page 110. It's a very humorous posts that I actually missed when it was posted at his blog. And there are a lot of other articles that I never read on the web although I try to keep up with things on the forum. So even if you read the RPG Bloggers Network member blogs from time to time, you should get this book.

If you want to spend $[...] on any RPG book this year, make sure it's the OGT. You'll never get so much RPG goodness in one book for less money! And don't forget to spread the word and tell your friends, family, neighbours etc. about it. The more copies Jonathan can sell the higher the chances are, a Volume 2 will see the light of day! So, don't hesitate and order your copy now!

I have also posted this review on my blo www.stargazersworld.com!

In these tough economic times, it's hard to know where to spend money. For those who's favorite hobby is Role-playing games, it's becomes increasingly hard to justify spending any money. More so, since this is a collection of entries that you could just find on the web. However, I think those that think this way are missing out on two important factors. This is something you can read without a computer and can hold in your hands. The other being that the hard work of find the best of the best has already been done for you. I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a better collection of Role-playing material. If you play RPG, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this excellent material today.

It's about time RPG literature was collected in such a legible format--especially so much of it, and of such quality. I can't wait for volume two!

This book will quite simply give you the tools to get what you want out of an rpg experience whether as player or DM. It's not that it provides a strict set of rules on how to run a great game- in fact some of the articles flat-out contradict each other. But all of the articles provide good explanations and analysis of their advice so that you can get a better understanding of what you want and how best to get it.

Reading the book will also help you identify your assumptions and help you talk to others about their assumptions, so that the whole group can communicate about expectations. And that's just the first half of the book.

Then you get some interesting characters, weapons and classes that you can use as they are or as a spur to further creativity. And if all that isn't enough there's a great series of articles on the history of D&D that would be worth it all by themselves.

I do know that before I join another campaign I want the DM and all the other players to read this book.