Trask

Now…

As for the site design itself… I’ll be honest, it’s not my favorite. I didn’t see the old design, before the overhaul that you mention, so I’ve nothing to compare it to. However, to me, aesthetically, it comes across as blocky; Also, I don’t think the brown/blue meshes well. Navigation is easy enough, but so many of the articles are in DM, Player, and Writer categories that I’m not sure I’m getting much from clicking on one over the other.

Just my $.02.

In general I like the things you write that encourage players and DM’s to be creative and unusual, as well as the things that reveal just how certain rules work and how we can bend them to our will. I use the LJ feed (thank you!) so the layout doesn’t affect me, but when I *did* read on the site it was fine in my opinion.

The random plugs for magazines kind of put me off, though, and I’d like to see less of the balance comparison articles. I get that balance is good and lots of games do it. :P Nobody Cares About Your Character felt kind of like griping to me, as did Dumb Rules: Dragonhide.

Overall I love your blog and I would even be satisfied to see nothing change if you get too many contradictory comments. ^_^

I kid. Just keep doing what you do.

But, a variety is important. If all you did was flawed rules, I’d get bored quickly. It’s nice to be occasionally reminded there is stuff outside of paper RPGs :)

One 4ed article per month is enough for me…

The only blogs that get taken out of my reading list are ones who don’t post. I’m after news/opinions/ideas I haven’t found/thought of. It doesn’t matter if every(or any) blog post is super awesome best evar! Just that it’s there and is more than “oh hi, I dyed my hair today”. Content is king.

This blog has been a great re introduction to a game that has changed remarkably since the day I saved my pocket money for months and finally purchased the little red box from TSR. I’ve read the PHB from cover to cover. I’ve memorised the page numbers for key tables, read a few snipits on various blogs and resources of building characters so that the 1st level character we rolled up last year don’t suck. So if I say I like X then you write more about X and I never get to read more about Y or other stuff that I don’t know about. It’s because you cover lots of ground that I have you in my feed reader.

What’s missing generally is hints on being a good player. There is a heap of material on GMing, on MinMaxing and builds. Resources such as “The Power Gamer’s 3.5 Warrior Strategy Guide” are fantastic (dear DM, if you are reading this I have never read nor would I ever conceive of importing and reading said book, cross my heart, *cough*). But what can I do as a player to really make it fun for myself and my mates??

Links to content would be helpful. That is, if your eye catches a well-designed hook or map or monster on some other site, a link to it would be nice as my blogrole for this hobby isn’t very long.

I hope this helps. In general, let me say that I appreciate the time that you spend, and know that it does help another 50+ players somewhere in the world enjoy a few hours a week on their favorite game.

I was indifferent about Description, Description, Description because I thought that I probably disagreed but since there was not enough concrete consequences it seemed like all I could say was “I disagree” — not enough for a comment, Socratic Design because I wasn’t interested in the topic.

I didn’t care too much about articles that seemed to make a simple point but were too long in comparison with what they tried to tell me: Balance of Team Fortress 2 because it lacked some in-depths insight that I might apply to other uses, Who Wants Free Dice? because it lacked a review of KQ or otherwise insight that separate it from an ad, Get Out of the Dungeon because it didn’t seem to offer enough concrete advice, What Do You Use For Miniatures?.

Hope that helps. :)