| May 12, 2009 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
Today, Gnome Stew turns one year old — we launched on May 12, 2008.
We’re rocking our anniversary with a contest, which has its own article. Check it out and enter for a chance to win a set of Battlegraph combat tiles.
At the close of 2008, when I did the last State of the Stew, we were going like gangbusters. After 12 months, we’ve passed every milestone I hoped for in the first year, and then some. It’s humbling and crazy-exciting all rolled up into one.
- 1,100+ registered users (12/08: 625ish)
- More than 2,100 RSS and email subscribers (12/08: 1,230)
- Over 188,000 unique visitors (316,000 total visits)
- …of those 188,000, nearly 128,000 visited more than once
- 619,000 pageviews
- The gnomes have posted nearly 400 articles
- …which have attracted more than 5,200 comments
We’ve also redesigned the site, assembled the top 30 articles page, ramped Gnomenclature: The RPG Glossary up to 290 definitions, written Gnomes Gone Wild (the worst adventure in existence), and written a host of articles based on your suggestions in the Suggestion Pot.
So…quite a bit has changed — but what hasn’t changed is what we’re about: GMing, baby.
We started Gnome Stew because we believe that GMs are under-served in the RPG community. There are few websites and even fewer books dedicated to game mastering — GMs usually get one chapter in a larger work, and that often doesn’t address a lot of what we actually do at the gaming table.
Many of our articles address practical GMing topics from the trenches. We’re all experienced GMs, and we love sharing our knowledge—and learning new GMing tricks and techniques from our readers.
In just one year, we’ve built that mission into what is conservatively one of the largest repositories of game mastering material in existence — in print or online — and one of the best damned communities on the web.
We love GMing, we love to write, and we love giving back to the gaming community that’s given us so much. I know that sounds clichéd, but it’s true: you, our readers, and our love for the hobby are what keep us coming back to write new material every day.
Thanks for a great year. We’re not going anywhere, and we hope you won’t either. From all of us gnomes, we wish you happy GMing.
About Martin Ralya
A father, husband, writer, small-press publisher, RPG industry freelancer, and lifelong geek, Martin has been gaming since 1987 and GMing since 1989. He lives in Utah with his amazing wife, Alysia, their awesome daughter, Lark, and their neurotic beagle, Charlie, in a house full of books and games.
12 Responses to The State of the Stew: Year One, May 2008 to May 2009
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May 12, 2009 at 5:22 am - Link
Congratulations! As a long-time eater of the Stew and Gnome friend, I’m very happy to see the success you have achieved. Keep it up!
May 12, 2009 at 7:29 am - Link
Congratulations Martin.
I raise a glass of Gnome punch to your leadership and inspiration.
Thanks for bringing me along for the ride.
May 12, 2009 at 8:40 am - Link
When Martin mentioned this on GnomeGnet (our super-secret gnetwork), it completely took me off guard. It’s been a year already?
And what a year! GnomeStew growing beyond our wildest dreams, two Gnomelings born (hatched, really), and at least one more on the way. There will be a next generation of gamers! (/sidetrack)
Congrats, Martin! You’ve been the driving force behind the Stew, and deserve the lion’s share of the praise for everything you’ve put into it.
Congrats to the rest of the Gnomes! I’m constantly challenged to keep up with the quality of your work.
And a tremendous thank you to our readers! Without y’all, we’re just a bunch of babbling geeks with funny little red party hats.
May 12, 2009 at 9:14 am - Link
i have to say, that cat looks an awful lot like the wicked banana of waterdeep.
May 12, 2009 at 9:26 am - Link
It is nice to see the stew doing so well.
I find most of the articles here to be useful, and even the ones that aren’t very useful to me usually make me stop and think about my own games. This is a good thing.
May 12, 2009 at 9:31 am - Link
Thanks for being our gnomish ringleader Martin. I look forward to another year of scribbling and insane laughter. Wait, we’re not svirfneblin, right?
May 12, 2009 at 9:50 am - Link
Gnome Stew is my number one blog when it comes to GMing. The writers are responsive, the frequency is high, the advice is system-neutral, and the humor is light and enjoyable.
Here’s hoping for more strong years!
May 12, 2009 at 11:37 am - Link
Awesome and congrats to all the gnomes. And please remember no gnome was willingly harmed during the making of this site.
May 12, 2009 at 1:32 pm - Link
Gnomes!
Year One and counting…
May 13, 2009 at 9:36 am - Link
Congratulations! And thanks so much for giving me such awesome advice.
May 14, 2009 at 7:55 pm - Link
My congrats to the entire Gnome Stew team. We would not be here, one year later, without each and every one of you.
Thank you all for the kind words.
May 14, 2009 at 8:03 pm - Link
congrats on the b-day.