I’m not sure where I heard this…maybe NPR…but somewhere I got the impression that bloggers (and the “bloggees” that follow them) like lists. Or that blogs’ content is often stuffed with lists. Or maybe it was just that Americans love lists. Or maybe it was just an impression I got from the number of lists I see posted to blogs.
Who knows? But it occurs to me that I don’t have any lists yet posted. Oh I have some lists of options (like some ideas for making B/X magic-users more magical) but I’m speaking of Top Ten lists. I got zero.
And there’s plenty o inspiration out there to choose from! Just in the OSR blogs I see top ten lists for Best Adventure Modules, Best Monsters, Worst Monsters…hell, Favorite TSR Products. Now THAT’S fairly specific.
Anyway, I like lists (I’m an American, a blogger AND a bloggee) so perhaps I should offer some of my own. The problem is I have so many “favorites” in so many categories...I’d be hard-pressed to list 10 films (no ranking!) that I consider The Best In My Humble Opinion. I can find value in most anything (you’re reading the blog of a guy who rarely throws things away…I’ve got scraps of RPG notes from 25+ years ago…that’s a QUARTER-CENTURY!).
It’s tough for me to pick favorites, bottom line.
Just going through the book shelves this morning, I quick hand-counted 47 different role-playing games I own. 47! And that’s not counting different editions as separate systems (for example, I counted B/X, AD&D D20, Hackmaster, BECMI/RC, OD&D, and Labyrinth Lord as ONE). Plus these are only print RPGs I own, I’m not counting the PDFs, nor the wargames of Games Workshop, nor games I’ve sold/unloaded, nor games I’ve played that I’ve never owned. Add those to the mix and…well, it’s a lot.
When I first started this blog, one of my intended entries was going to be my Top Ten list of magic swords. Still haven’t gotten to that one yet…it’s just so hard, so hard…
Anyway, I am going to start doing ‘em. It will help me focus my thoughts as well as help me categorize some things, possibly for later use. Here are some possible “list ideas:”
- Top Ten RPG Systems
- Top Ten Adventure Modules (D&D)
- Top Ten Adventures (any)
- Top Ten Monsters (D&D)
- Top Ten Spells (D&D)
- Top Ten Characters
- Top Ten Game Writers, Designers
- Top Ten Magic Swords/Weapons
- Top Ten Magic Items
- Top Ten Works of “Speculative Fiction”
I could probably go on like this for awhile, getting even more specific (non-D&D fantasy games, games of the 1980s, superhero games, superhero powers, comic books, horror films/books, pulp fantasy tropes, anecdotes, players and player antics, genres, plot archetypes, villain archetypes, femme fatales of RPG, OSR Blogs, reasons to avoid World of Warcraft, etc.). But you get the idea.
More to come!
It was one of the "must do" steps in the 30 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge. Top lists are almost guaranteed to produce conversation as well as being more likely for someone else to link to on their blog or message board.
ReplyDeleteI try to do a top 5 list every Sunday. I've done "5 Licensed RPGs I want to see", "5 great games from the d20 bubble", "Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic RPGs" (one of my most-read posts ever), and since I'm focusing on military stuff this month I did "5 military RPGs I cut my teeth on" and "Top 5 Games for the Firearms Fetishist".
Huh...in all honesty I did not know that. Though I have read YOUR lists, and never made the connection.
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