What’s New for 2013
By Aaron T. Huss
The business of presenting tabletop RPG news to the world is a fun one, but it is a business. Roleplayers Chronicle strives to be a professional media outlet for all of the news covering the entire industry. It is as much a “job” as it is a labor of love. This means we have expenses to cover such as the cost of the website, coverage for conventions, and whatever other tools we use to present what we can. We attempt to cover those costs through the Roleplayers Chronicle magazine, our new swag store through Cafe Press, and of course, advertising. This last one is quite important as not only does it help cover costs at Roleplayers Chronicle, it provides publishers with a targeted audience for their advertisements. However, publishers won’t utilize this outlet if we cannot provide the audience. Thus, traffic numbers and fanbase are extremely important to maintaining Roleplayers Chronicle as a professional news provider and advertising host.
The final result to all this rambling is that we must continue growing Roleplayers Chronicle’s fanbase and increase its traffic and worldwide visibility by providing our readers with better content, website, or opportunities as the years go by. Each year something new has to come or something needs to change to keep the website fresh and continue attracting a wider audience. Last year we gave the website a facelift, launched the yearly Indie RPG Giveaway, and performed a lot more interviews.
2013 is no different, and this year we plan on making some changes to increase our fanbase and audience as follows:
- Starting this month, Roleplayers Chronicle is reaching out to more industry professionals to arrange for interviews and Designer Diary articles. These articles will post on the Friday Featured Article slots and should arrive in two – three per month alongside our regular Letters from the Editor and Letters to the Industry articles.
- Mondays are designated as Pathfinder Review Day with our Featured Articles containing a Pathfinder or Pathfinder-related review.
- Tuesdays are designated as Non-Pathfinder Review Day with our Featured Articles always a review for any product not released to support Pathfinder.
- Wednesdays are designated as Support Day with our Featured Articles containing a Tales from the Gazebo article, Guest Articles, Convention Reports, or Games and Mhor article.
- Thursdays are designated as Accessory Review Day with our Featured Articles containing some type of accessory for RPGs, such as battlemaps, paper miniatures, or playing cards.
- Fridays are designated as Industry Voice Day with our Featured Articles containing an interview (A Word in Edgewise), Designer’s Diary, Letters from the Editor, or Letters to the Industry article.
- Saturdays are designated as Featured Product Day with our Featured Articles hosting the new Featured Product article series (see below).
- Sundays are designated as Mechanical Day with our Featured Articles containing an Under the Hood or Users Guide article.
Using this defined scheduled helps us to better plan our weeks and find where the gaps are.
The next big announcement to make is the launch of our new Featured Product article series. Editor-in-Chief Aaron T. Huss has been doing reviews since Roleplayers Chronicle inception (and technically before that) and is handing that task over to the appropriate correspondent. Instead of being another review series, the Featured Product series will feature a multi-article look at a product from multiple aspects in the eyes of someone reading and using the actual product. This is akin to reading a detailed report of a new car within an automotive magazine. In other words, each product will be taken for a detailed “test drive” and given a thorough report. Sometimes it’s not enough to review a product, as a much more thorough delve into the workings of it is necessary. Each product will be given a 1 – 2 month span for the Featured Product series with no more than 1 product being featured each month (if a product goes 6 weeks, the last two will be given over to other articles).
This method of presentation really gives the reader an in-depth look at the games they may want to play, and provides details a GM can present to their players to help establish what type of gaming experience they may have. Additionally, a collection of pre-generated characters will be created and sent to the publisher for release as a download on their website or distribution outlet(s). This helps spread the word of these Featured Products and brings more traffic to the website.
As a teaser, we have another new project being put together by The Warden, but I won’t spoil it until he’s ready to announce it.
Thank you to everyone for being a fan and supporting the website in every way you can!
Aaron T. Huss
Editor-in-Chief
Roleplayers Chronicle
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