Posting RPG Reviews?

[Easy e]

Greetings all,

I do not want to run afoul of the rules, so am looking for guidance.

I would like to post a link to an RPG review I did for Hard City by Osprey Games that I wrote up on my Blog.

Is there a place on the forums to post RPG reviews, and is there a preferred format? Typically, when I post reviews for Wargames on different boards, the opening looks like the below. Is that an acceptable format, or is it against forum rules?

Each forum is a bit different and I want to be a good forum member.

Thanks for your help!

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You, my loyal reader, know that I like to dabble in all sorts of game design. My primary focus has been in wargames, but that is not the only type of games I have worked on. I have built card games, board games, and other simple games for my own amusement as well. One area I have commented on previously and actively play is Role-playing Games (RPGs).

I actually started my RPG journey before my wargame journey. I learned how to play "Red Box" D&D from a friend's dad; a Lutheran pastor. I picked up all the boxed sets from a little bookstore in the local strip mall, the only strip mall within a day's bike ride! From there, I managed to scrap and scrape together the basic AD&D books, the Buck Rogers RPG, and the TSR Marvel Super Heroes game. As a teen, I played a lot of West End Games D6 Star Wars and Shadowrun. Many of the books have been lost to time, and I still lament the loss of my Masters edition boxed set. Shortly there after, an ad in Dragon magazine sucked me into the world of Warhammer and I have managed to juggle my two RPG and Wargame hobbies every since.

Now that I am older, having regular RPG nights and/or Wargame nights is much easier. I was able to get into a local RPG session much easier than I was able to get into the wargaming community! The wargaming scene had a number of starts and stops. Meanwhile, I have had a long running RPG group with a dedicated weekly game night, that was only interrupted by COVID, but has since re-grouped after vaccines became widely available.

The re-engagement with this group has rekindled my interest in RPGs. Thanks to this group I have been able to play and run a few more modern games such as Dune, Lasers and Feelings, Monster of the Week, Legend of the 5 Rings, Those Dark Places, and more. The group is primarily a Dungeons and Dragons 5e group, but we are not averse to spreading our wings a bit! Thankfully, we have several people who are capable of being game masters as well as players too!

However, this is going to be my first actual RPG review. It will follow the normal format my reviews take:

- Things I liked
- Things I did not like
- Meh and other uncertainties
- Final thoughts

Let's get into this with two-fists swingin' and snub-nose .38's blazing!
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.c...rey-games.html

[Rynjin]

IIRC the official policy on this is posting a review to foster discussion is cool, but cross-posting your blog post just to drive more traffic is not.

[Rockphed]

If you want to drive traffic to your blog, look at the rules regarding links in your signature. I don't know what they are off the top of my head and I wouldn't feel comfortable telling you how to abide by them even if I did, but the rules are up there in a link at the top of every page. My general understanding is that if you are creating a creative thing on the internet with at least some free content you can link to it without running afoul of the advertising rule, but you would also need to be beware of the "no spam" rule.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Thanks for asking first. That is truly appreciated.

What you've written there seems fine. It has avoided the two major pitfalls for reviews on this forum: 1) too much verbatim quotation and 2) copying images without the copyright. (Posting just the cover image is technically prohibited like posting any other image to which you don't hold the rights, but it's probably passable.) I think the best location for it would be the subforum of the Roleplaying Games section most appropriate to the game you're reviewing, but the Media Discussions is also reasonable. Pick one and we can always move it if it seems out of place.

The comments above are correct that posting here to generate discussion is great, but posting just to advertise your blog is less great. If your post doesn't generate any discussion, it'll probably closed. If you keep posting new threads that never generate any discussion, you'll probably be asked to stop doing that.

Our rules on advertising make an exception for works of art, available online, for which at least some portion is free. Free generally means without charge, but it's also possible that we might nix a post made to driving others to an ad-heavy blog site. Admittedly, this isn't the clearest line.

Finally, as noted above, don't spam. Don't bump threads to try to get more views or double post or post multiple threads or otherwise be spammy.