TGG Guide to Great Game Mastering Coming Soon!

Jun 9, 2012

A lot of folks have asked Elliott and I how they can donate to The Gaming Gang. Our reply has always been mainly about our game plan, when we launched the website, which was to be unlike many other sites out there and never ask our visitors or listeners for anything other than helping to spread the word . Honestly, some folks seem disappointed that they can’t send a few bucks our way to help keep the lights on. For this we are truly grateful but we really want to stick to our guns about making everything we provide completely free to our friends in the ether.

We’ve done a lot of growth in the past twenty months and with that comes additional costs such as website hosting services (bandwidth especially), travel expenses to cover the cons, as well as Elliott’s ever expanding Nerds addiction. I think he may alone be keeping Willy Wonka in business…

Of course I kid about the Nerds but the rest is true.

For the past few months we’ve been running below the breakeven point as far as keeping the website afloat since our operating costs come from our advertisers. We also turn away some advertisers who inquire simply because we feel they might not be a good fit – mainly because we might be overly concerned with the quality of their games. Since we aren’t the sorts who go banging on company doors asking them to advertise with us nor do we want to solicit donations from visitors we came up with another idea.

Oh, and don’t take this as a post about how we’re closing up shop or anything of the sort; we’re not going anywhere and we’re striving to become bigger and better. We’re just looking at ways to help keep our out of pocket costs within reason.

First, I’m currently working on bringing back The Gaming Gang polo shirts – those of you who currently have one really do have sort of a unique item – and looking to possibly provide T-Shirts as well for those folks who dig tees. That’s probably around a month away or so.

The other item, and the subject of the post title, is the upcoming The Gaming Gang Guide to Great Game Mastering. And, yes, the title is meant to be a bit of a tongue twister as it sets the tone for the book. The tome (Ha! Yeah, tome…) will run about forty odd pages or so and I’m certainly not going to present it as amazing literature or an end-all-be-all about how to run a better role playing game. Rather it’s a very light and conversational collection of my thoughts regarding how to have more fun and truly create memorable gaming sessions with your friends and family.

I seriously believe I’ve picked up a few things in over thirty years involved with RPGs. Now, I won’t promise any earth shattering revelations but I do swear it will be entertaining at the least.

I felt this would be a good way to offer something to our visitors they can’t find anywhere else while also giving people an opportunity to donate to the website without it really being a donation per say. I know many of our visitors aren’t into RPGs but if they’ve ever thought about getting into the genre TGGGtGGM (I just love that abbreviation!) might help quell some fears about getting started. If someone has no interest in role playing but dig what we do around here, it will still help us tremendously if they give the book a buy anyway.

Right now, we’re bouncing around a pricing of somewhere around $4 or so for either the pdf or audiobook version (Yep! An audiobook) or $6 for both. I’ll no doubt have more info about the project later next week.

We’re also thinking outside the box on other little projects as well to offer unique items as well to people out there, so stay tuned for more updates.

Thanks again and I obviously welcome any thoughts!

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...