Whither Grognardia? (Part II)

It’s been almost five years since I brought Grognardia back from its extended hiatus and, in that time, I’ve worked hard to stay true to its original spirit as a space for reflection, commentary, and celebration of the history and legacy of roleplaying games, especially those we now call “old school.” That guiding purpose hasn’t changed and it won’t. However, after more than a year of mulling over how best to balance this blog with my ongoing RPG design work, I’ve come to a decision, one that affects how I’ll be handling Grognardia from now on, as well as the future of the two games that have increasingly claimed my creative attention: Thousand Suns and Secrets of sha-Arthan.

Starting today, I’ll be moving all my RPG design work – new rules, setting development, playtest notes, and related commentary – to a separate Substack newsletter. This will be the new home for all things related to my ongoing RPG design projects. My reasons for doing this are partly practical and partly experimental. Substack offers tools for managing subscribers, tracking readership, and organizing content, tools Blogger doesn’t provide but that are increasingly important to me, especially as I prepare to release material for both games commercially.

Like Grognardia, the newsletter is entirely free to read. There’s no paywall, no locked posts, just another outlet where I can share ideas and progress, hopefully in a more focused and consistent fashion. That said, I do maintain a small Patreon, which I plan to continue for the foreseeable future. It doesn’t generate much income, but I’m immensely grateful to the readers who’ve chosen to support me there over the years. Their generosity has helped me fund art and other resources for Secrets of sha-Arthan and related projects, expenses that would otherwise come entirely out of pocket. I don’t expect anyone to become a patron, but I do genuinely appreciate those of you who do. It makes a real difference.

Just as important, splitting these projects off to their own platform will help me stay focused. Right now, things are more scattered than I’d like. I often find myself juggling work across multiple trains of thought, which I suspect has hindered my ability to make as much progress on either Thousand Suns or Secrets of sha-Arthan as I would have liked. I’m hopeful that this change will help bring some order to the chaos and allow me to be more productive overall.

That said, Grognardia isn't going anywhere. The blog will continue much as it has since its return, with daily posts (more or less), musings on the history of the hobby, looks at old gaming materials, and the occasional detour into obscure corners of pulp literature or genre films. If that’s why you’re here, nothing will change. If you're interested in my RPG design work, I hope you'll also subscribe to the Substack, where I’ll be posting a couple of times a week – one update each for Thousand Suns and Secrets of sha-Arthan (perhaps more, but I don't want to be overly ambitious just yet). 

This division of labor is an experiment, like much of what I do. If it works, I hope it’ll benefit not only me but you, the readers, by giving each project the attention and clarity it deserves.