We take a break from the random generators and interviews for a quick look at Rand Roll, where it's at and where it's going.
Rand Roll is moving to a new blog platform soon so I thought it was a good time to review things.
Serving Random RPG Blog Posts Since May 2018
I started the blog as a way to expand the community of rpg random tools, to publish some random tables and increase knowledge (mine and others) of the tools and tables out there.
3 and a half years doesn't seem so long ago, but it also seems like an age. That was before the rpg_generators subreddit, before I quit working for others, before losing all the gens created using EN World OGRE, before my country stupidly left the EU, before starting to publish on DM's Guild, before losing a loved one, before chaosgen.com, before Covid, before gaming became my main income and before deciding to move to another country.
But then it's been a time of change for all.
What has Come Before
The First Post was in May 2018 on Enhanced Encounter Tables (it's been updated since) and was soon followed by the first interview with Emily of Fantasy Name Generators and 60 more.
Since then there have been the Tools of Legend (now aborted), Generator Guides (still going strong) and lists of free and paid random pdfs on DriveThru RPG and DM's Guild.
Also the first Generators Challenge (Quests in Aug 2019) based over at the subreddit, the Potion Generator Building series using Perchance and Chartopia (which needs finishing off)
More Recently a stuttering start of solo, the start of tables theory articles and Using Generators in the Game articles.
And of course over 170 articles of random tables.
What I'm Happy With
I'm happy with the Generator Guides and new exploration into Table Theory and Using Generators in the Game. The guides need updating and re-organising which is an ongoing challenge.
The Creating Generators series was fun and I might try some more in an updated format.
The random tables series will continue mostly as is, branching off into more system-neutral fantasy tables.
My monthly Rand Roll and Chaos Gen Newsletter will also continue as is. There should be a big Subscribe to Newsletter for those interested.
What Might Change
Interviews will stay but will be expanding beyond RPG Tool Creators, still within the realm of random generators though.
The Generator Challenges will continue over at the subreddit but we might play around with the format a bit.
Exploration into solo play will continue as it has heavy use of random tables, generators and oracles. I've yet to figure out what this exploration will look like.
I also need to up my game on images and the look of the blog. But hopefully that will be easier with a new blog platform...
More Rand Roll
There will still be weekly Fri (or Sat) rpg tools articles and Mon (or Wed) random tables.
But next time I'll look at my highlights and the changes that are a-coming.
Let me know what you like or what you'd like to see more of!
Here or on the Rand Roll discord.
Happy Yule Season!
Duncan