First, no, I don't mean actually doing a Kick Starter campaign -- aren't there enough of those already?! What I mean is that Pen & Paper Games has been coasting along as it is for a couple years now with not much in the way up updates, innovation, or to be frank, involvement from myself to move it forward.

And, I want to change that. But, I think P&PG needs to figure out what it is going to be. A lot of the focus of the original site was on connecting players through the Player Registry, but this in and of itself isn't enough to create a vibrant and active community. So, I tried to create a place for gamers to not only meet, but a space where they could chat and exchange ideas through our forums. Since I started up P&PG though, social media has changed a LOT. Facebook has become one of the biggest sites (maybe the biggest?) on the planet, and "tweeting" has become an integral part of our collective lexicon.

The way we communicate online continues to change -- enough so that I'm not even sure what role traditional Forums such as this one have... I looked down this barrel a long time ago when things moved from local BBS's -- some of you are probably too young to even know what that is -- and now I find myself looking down that barrel again. As I see it, P&PG has two choices if it has any future. It has to embrace the old and become the best at it that it can possibly be; competing for audience among sites like RPG.net and ENWorld. OR, it has to evolve, and to be honest, I'm not really sure what that would look like.

So, I put the question to you. Though we have many, many members, if you are reading this, you are probably among a much smaller group that visits these forums on a regular basis. So, I am wondering, what is it that brings you back? What is it that you feel like P&PG offers that you can't readily get elsewhere? And, what do you think this site could do better? ... If this was your site, what would you do with it?

I'm open to any ideas you all have. Hit me with it, because I do want this site to succeed and not simply fold up and disappear into the digital ether as so many others have.

Check out this article by Mike Mearls. I think we all pretty new this was coming sooner rather than later. What amazes me is that this news rose to the level of being covered by the NY Times. Impressive!

What are your thoughts about a new edition? Love it, hate it? Personally, I'm just glad they are keeping the brand alive.

I kicked off a new campaign about a year and a half ago called "The Gatekeeper," and I have had the extremely good fortune of having a published WotC designer and author at the table with us, Mr. Erik Scott de Bie. Erik, I have come to find out, is a tenacious writer. In the first few weeks of our game, he actually sent me more post game followup than all my players combined have sent me in the following year.

So, I asked him if he'd focus that insatiable pen of his towards chronicling our sessions so that we'd have a place our players could go back and reference past games. Erik, of course, took this to the next level and made more of an adventure log that anyone could follow. Now, if you're interested in reading about our bi-weekly paragon tier, planar adventure, you can check it out on Obsidian Portal at http://www.obsidianportal.com/campai.../adventure-log. Maybe it'll give you an idea for your own game?

If you enjoy it, please drop a note and let us know, and be sure to become a "Fan," so that you will be automatically updated when new logs are available... By the way, he's written up all our sessions to date, but the published content so far is only up to the first 10 games. That is to say, there's a lot more to come.

Oh! And you can also follow our sessions live via Twitter on Erik's feed.