What would you like to see in a RPGNow Monthly Magazine?

[rpghost]

It's getting much harder for customers to navigate the RPGNow.com site and it's only going to get worse with the usual heavy flow of new products.

Anyway, I'm trying to think of ways to reach more people (we'll be running a Dungeon ad shortly) but also ways to get our current customers to know more about quality products we have for sale. One of the ideas that has popped up is a monthly PDF
E-Zine from RPGNow or sponsored by RPGNow. Something that is about 1/2 vendor promotion (reviews, sneek peeks, etc) and 1/2 editorial (tips, PDF industry, etc). Something that is in the form of a magazine with a collection of meaty highlights for RPGNow.com products that is FREE to download.

So, I was interested in knowing everyone's thoughts on the subject. Sure it's self-promotion but it's not being billed as anything else so I think it'll be well recieved. I'd like to spotlight decent products so they stand out in the overly crowded online system we have now. Plus, I'd also like to dedicate a section of this E-Zine every month to non-d20 products.

Lastly, is there anyone out there interested in joining the staff of such a project? In short, I don't personally have the time to do this project, but I'd like to have a team setup to do it and give them something for the trouble. We already have several good canidates for Editor in Chief, but we can always use help with article submitions and editing and crunchy bits.

Most of all though, this magazine will be about product sold at RPGNow and what's worth buying there and more indepth reviews of the stuff there. We're not trying to compete with the many other e-zines doing crunchy d20 stuff.

Here is a rough summary of the magazine... I welcome creative titles for any of the columns or the magazine itself. It won't have any fixed page length but my guess is around 10-20 pages. Brett from Politically Incorrect Games (who also runs digitalrpg.org) had the great idea to present the magazine as a billboard style top hits magazine. Anyway, I welcome any input / comments on how to assemble this all...

TENTITIVE NAME: RPGNow Publishers Monthly


REGULAR COLUMNS:

- What's New

- What's Hot

- What's Old / Editors Choice

- Top 40 Billboard
- Top d20 RPG
- Top non-d20 RPG
- Top non-d20 Product

- Reviewer's Desk

- Non-D20 World

- Microtactix Free Paper Mini Page

- Comic Strip


Content Supporting Vendors (as of 1 day since announcement):

Eilfin Publishing, Politically Incorrect Games, Terraferax, Split Eye Productions, Team Frog, Flying Mice LLC, Golgotha Games, WorldWorks, Kismet Games, Darkfuriesm, Sundered Blade Games,
Spectre Press, Heathen Oracle, Philip Reed, Creech Enterprises, Silverthorne Games

James

 

[jezter6]

How about a 'publisher of the month' where one of your staff picks a publisher and does a short 1-2 page 'd20-questions' (yeah, cheesy title, but i like it dangit!) with the publisher about new products, current products, and some industry topics?

I'd be happy to be a part of it if needed.

 

[Alzrius]

I think the idea certainly sounds interesting. While the idea is self-promoting, as you said, not trying to be anything beside that would help to dispel the notion of an unfair bias in the magazine. After all, if you admit up front this is to draw attention to yourself, the bias is hardly unfair.

I'm interested in being part of the staff on this. Do you have an email address to which further replies and such along this topic can be directed? I have some caveats and inquiries before I say I'm 100% confident that I want to throw my hat in the ring on this.

I'll mention one such question here though since it's of general concern: Looking through the list of article titles you're proposing, anyone doing such an article would have to be familiar with the newest/hottest game products out there, as well as quite a few others besides. This seems something of a burden for people who cannot, for whatever reason, purchase the majority of the new products coming out. How do you plan to handle that for prospective staff members?

All in all, the idea looks good, and I look forward to hearing more about it!

 

[rpghost]

I can be reached at webmaster@rpgnow.com

I already have a pretty good volunteer team from just the vendors themselves as they too want to see their products get promoted.

But we can always use editors and article submissions and stuff.

We have permission from many of the vendors on RPGNow.com to use their PDFs for review copies. So you won't have to buy your own copies... that's not to say anyone on staff has access to a ton of PDFs, just that you won't be expected to write about something you don't know.

I suspect much of the "what’s new" section will be capsule reviews. You know stuff like you'd find in a computer gaming magazine. We'll have some full blown reviews too. That and some general PDF industry articles.

Well at least that’s my general thoughts at the moment. When I finally choose an Editor in Chief (have 4 very qualified applicants), they will add their own vision to the mix.

I whipped up an example cover (as it was fun to do): http://www.RPGNow.com/RPGNowDec02.jpg

Still looking for a catchy name for the magazine.

James

 

[Emiricol]

My top tier request would be to see short articles by publishers or leaders in the community (like the one legged naval feline), and the articles detail a particular product, how it is intended to be used, what makes it "so cool" that I should pay money for it, and their ideas on how to bring that content into an existing campaign.