This is my 50th blog post! Huzzah! This is a milestone if there every was one! Time to celebrate. Normally for these types of things, you're suppose to do a big event or something special. I originally planed on doing a blot post about making a F.A.T.A.L character as a ridiculous promotional stunt. My experience on the internet taught me that doing things that are torturous to yourself always draws a decent crowd. However, to get the F.A.T.A.L. rule set, I need to use a torrent. I’m not comfortable using torrents so I decided to not do it. Another reason is that it’s the F.A.T.A.L. rule set! It’s considered the most horrible RPG game ever to be created! Forgive me for not wanting to subject myself to reading it. That means I’ll have to do something else.

First off, I can make a few announcements. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been making a few additions and changes around here. I added an intro page and new categories to make navigating my blog easier for you. Expect more improvements to randomly pop up in the future. Making these improvements means that the blog have been too meta-ish lately. Sorry about that but rest assured, more RPG-related stuff will come soon.

Now I would like to give you some random and pointless statistics about my blog. As of Augest 28, 2009, my blog is Enword’s 6th largest blog (in terms of number of blog posts). That means my blog is larger then about 97 percent of other Enworld blogs. Off the 232 blogs here on Enworld, about half of them have less then 5 blog posts. All my blog posts take up about 2.7 percent of the total number of blog post here on Enworld. Isn’t math fun?

For those of you who managed to get this far (or managed to just skip here), you efforts won’t be in vain. I also decided to celebrate my 50th blog post with a contest! This is your chance to win some RPG related material! Here are the rules…

1. Make a comment here on what I should do for my 100th Blog Post Celebration. If you can’t think of something for that, a suggestion on what else you would like to see on my blog will be fine as well.

2. At the end of October, I’ll select some winners. Winners will be selected by random selection (aka I roll some dice) and/or by the suggestion I like the best.

3. I’ll make a Blog Post announcing the winners. The winners will PM me their addresses (since I’ll need to know your address to send you your prizes) as well as what they want from the prize pool. I only got one copy of each listed prize, so it’s first come, first serve. The lower you place, the more alternatives you should have. I then mail what you picked to you.

4. The prize pool currently is: The Advanced Player’s Guide, Khyber’s Harvest, Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel, Hearts of Choas/Immortal Heros, Pathfinder’s Bonus Bestiary, and The Village of Hommlet (4th Edition Version).

5. I’m playing this by ear, so expect changes as they are needed. This includes changing rules, upgrading/changing prizes and other adjustments. As this point, I don't think I'll need to change much but you never know. Note that I don’t exactly have a large budget for this so expect modest prizes at best.

Lastly, thanks to all of you who read my blog so far. It’s nice to have people read what you wrote. I hoped you all enjoyed yourselfs so far. I’m looking forward to the next 50 blog posts.
　

MichaelSomething

In terms of the Enworld blogging community, I imagine that I have roughly the same position as Vigilante in the old Justice League Unlimited show. Of a colorful, if minor, member who contributes his talents in useful ways but is in no way the main attraction. Well that ends today! I read The Huffing Post Complete Guide to Blogging recently and I am prepared to utilize the blogging advice it contains to become a BLOGGING GOD! HAHAHAHAHA!

At the very least, I can gain some useful tips to improve the blogging experience for both you and me. Some of the advice is obvious. Regularly producing great content is always a good idea but easier said then done. It’s also suggest I do more communicating and promoting. I guess no matter what you do, shameless promotion will always be needed. It also has some nice suggestions that I will use to make some adjustments and tidying up (FYI, expect a few changes in the future). I’m not gonna tell you what those suggestion are thought (if you’re that curious, read the book yourself).

If you plan on reading the book, then good for you! It’s a book that lives up to its name. It really is something you should read if you’re serious on being a blogger. If you’re interested in learning about blogging, you’ll find good stuff too. Of course, the technical advice should be obsolete in about five years but that’s technology for ya.

MichaelSomething

The purpose of this Blog post is to be my links page, where I post links to all sorts of cool stuff. Think of it as a resource guide or a Blog roll-type thing. After each link, I’ll write a few words about what the site is and/or my opinion about it.

I also complied this huge list of links as a potential tool for my FLGS, The Games Keep. More will be added as I come across them/think of them.

Dungeons and Dragons links

Enworld - Enworld is one of the largest (if not the largest) D&D websites there is. It’s a message board plus reviews, blogs, groups, marketplaces, news, and so much more.

MichaelSomething's Blog - A totally awesome RPG-themed blog you should really see (and tell your friends and family to see!).

Goodman Games - The leading third party publisher of 4th Edition D&D. They also have a ton of adventures and stuff for 3rd Edition D&D as well. Their Dungeon Crawl Classics line is a good source for adventures.

Paizo - Paizo began as the second party publisher who produced the Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Today they’re known for their online store, excellent customer service, great adventures/fluff books, and now the creators of Pathfinder; the (hugely popular) rebirth of the 3.5 D&D rules.

Wizards of the Coast presents Dungeons and Dragons - The official page of the latest edition of the world’s most popular role playing game. There’s tons of stuff here if you’re willing to look for it. The pod casts, RPGA, and the Test Drive of 4th Edition are good places to start.

Kobold Quarterly - A print magazine for Dungeons and Dragons. If five ENnie nominations and praise from Ed Greenwood can’t convince you that this is good, then you aren’t the target audience. Also the home for Open Design, where patronage and D&D adventure writing cross over.

RPG Bloggers - This is a massive network of RPG Blogs. There’s more RPG stuff then you can fit in a Bag of Holding!

RPG.net - Where you can find info on practically every RPG ever published; including D&D.

Magic: the Gathering links

Star City Games - A very large and popular Magic site. It’s had an extensive online store, subscription-fueled in depth strategy articles, and they host huge tournaments too!

Wizards of the Coast presents Magic: the Gathering - Let me assure you, there is plenty of cool content once you dig through all that multi-media intro junk. The “Making Magic” column is especially worth reading if you have any interest in game design.

The Magic Show - The best weekly show on the Magic card game you can find on Youtube.

Board Gaming links

Board Game Geek - If there’s a larger/better website for people who like board games, I’ll be very surprised.

Boardgame Players Association - Another website for board game lovers. They host the World Board Gaming Championships.

Webcomics

Order of the Stick - A popular webcomic that creates a world based on the 3.5 D&D rules set. There's also a nice forum and a few articles to read.

ErfWorld - A webcomic based on SRPG conventions.

Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth - A webcomic based in the World of Warcraft MMORPG. This is one of the funniest thing I ever read. Be sure to read the sequel too!

MichaelSomething

Greetings! Welcome to MichaelSomething’s RPG Blog! If you’re looking for a place to kill time by reading stuff, then you’ve found the right place! The post you’re reading now is the intro page, which will explain what this blog is about.

Obviously, this is a Role Playing Game (RPG) blog. Here I post and store (mostly) RPG related articles you can read. Most of the time, the specific RPG is the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Sometimes, I’ll write about a different RPG or something else all together. I'm also a big believer in having fun and not taking things too seriously. Thanks to cool internet technology, I can organize everything into categories.


General Posts - This is the catch all category for all the all the blog posts that don’t strongly relate to RPGs.

Dungeons and Dragons and Stuff - This is where most of the RPG-related stuff goes. Like many subjects, there can be a lot of different things to consider. That is why there is another division into smaller sub-categories. (more to be added later)

Editorials - This is the internet. Of course I post my opinions about RPGs!

Fiction - Short stories relating to D&D in some way.

Homebrew D&D Stuff - Since everyone else homebrews stuff, I might as well too! Here you’ll find custom D&D material created (mostly) by me.

The Man without a plan - Read about my misadventures as a Dungeon Master here.

Meta Posts - Blog posts about this blog.

These categories are a rough separation as best. I can‘t be very specific due to the random nature of my blogging (or of blogging in general). The subject could be anything from song parodies and food, to waging edition wars and even fear itself. Let me recommend some of my best posts to get you started.

My Link's Page - This isn't my best stuff. This page serves as my Blog Roll; where I link to places that I like. Look a little lower to get to the good stuff.

My Most Popular Post - This has the most page views of any post I written! That means it has to be worth reading!

My Greatest Moment - With a name like that, it has to be good!
　
Using Verbal Components - I like this post and I hope you will too.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. I hope you come back on a regular basis to enjoy my material. Be sure to check out the achieves and tell your RPG playing friends to check this place out! I NEED MORE PAGE VIEWS!!!!!

MichaelSomething

Enworld 2 is mere hours old and I already like it more then Gleemax. Yeah, I know saying Gleemax sucks isn't original at all but it's still true, to some extent at least. For one, I'm blogging here. The blogging system here is easy to understand and use. When I first tried blogging on Gleemax, I just couldn't get into it. Sure they were giving away mini booster packs to the best blog posts but that doesn't matter if the blog tools are hard to use. I may be wrong in not being a believer in Gleemax but I find myself very comfortable over here in Enworld. This is where I'll be blogging.

Now what to blog about? I can always review stuff. I can also write opinion articles and watch the heartless internets tear it apart. I can post Homebrew stuff and whatever else I can think of. And craziness. You can’t have enough craziness. Hopefully, this will be the start of a long and fruitful blog.

MichaelSomething