Hello everyone! I think Mark’s articles are excellent, excellent; but since we don’t want a newsletter that’s just written by mark, that means we need you guys to send me some stuff, too!
What do we need? Short articles should be about 500 words (mark’s gollum’s grotto) and long articles shouldn’t push 1000 words (roughty 4 double-spaced pages in a word processor), although I’m still getting the hang of formatting the newsletter so I’m not sure what our length requirements might be. I listed the complete list of columns below, but your piece doesn’t need to fit a column. Here are some specific “shout-outs” to some of you on the list:
A) Wolfgang, can you write a short article about some aspect of Tolkien’s life?
B) Chad, do you want us to publish the COE Rules Digests in the newsletter? It would be nice to have them in “print.”
C) Jambo, how about doing something for either a play of the month or a card of the month?
D) Since we have two tourneys this month (America and… what was the other country? Sweden?) and one in September, could somebody please, please do a “Shire Calendar” for these tourneys? This isn’t a real article, but basically, you would need to find an image of a calendar for August and September (or at least the week) and fill in the spot where the tournent is starting, the full dates, location, and website for more info. I’m sure such calendar images are online somewhere. I’ll add an image of the Shire-region for flavor next to it. Please? Anybody…
Finally, I would need all articles by Tuesday August 15th, posted here and emailed directly to me at
joebisz@verizon.net. This way we can get the issue out two weeks before North American Nationals. I encourage you to use hyperlinks in your articles; remember, we are partly an email format; but make sure your hyperlinks show up when you send me the document.
Thanks!
--joe
MECCG Newsletter Ideas
The Newsletter would be a beautifully designed, full-color (since electronic), packed with information, card image-based and metaphorical gazette of great information. The title for the newsletter shall be “THE RED BOOK: THE COUNCIL OF ELROND OFFICIAL MECCG NEWSLETTER.” Here's my starting ideas:
1) PIPPIN'S NEWBIE CORNER: (image: Pippin playing with palantir) This section would address newbie concerns and perhaps "teach" some basic element of the game in a paragraph or two.
2) GOLLUM'S GROTTO: TIPS&TRICKS (image: Gollum playing riddle game) This section would briefly talk about two to three advanced Meccg game “tricks” that not everyone necessarily knows about, like being able to play Marvels in the untap phase.
3) WIZARD’S VOICE: COUNCIL OF ELROND RULES DIGEST (image: wiz’s voice) Unless Chad doesn’t like this idea, we could published the COE Digest in the Newsletter, even if it’s long. Think about it: the newsletter is from the Council of Elrond, right? Well, the COE Digest is basically our only official piece of literature! It should probably be in here.
4) ????? :SAMPLE DECK LISTS TO TRY (??) Here we’ll publish one sample deck list, either “super fun” or “tournament-level”.
5) THE SHIRE SEASON: UPCOMING TOURNAMENT CALENDAR
6) MIRKWOOD PROJECTS-IN-THE-WORKS
7) HORN OF ANOR: CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR PROJECTS (image: Horns, Horns, Horns) Here we, the COE, will list a bunch of practical projects and dream projects that will serve the MECCG game and openly ask any interested players to contact us to execute said projects. We have hundreds of players playing this game, right? Well surely we can get a few dozen to do stuff like work on GCCG improvements, website stuff, Unified Rulebook, Color Underdeeps Map with Sites, etc. etc.
DENETHOR’S PALANTIR: THOUGHTS ON THE PLAYING FIELD (image: Use Palantir) Here some decent player will make his or her observations on decks to fear, up-and-coming-ideas, good haz play, etc.
9) ?? SIMPLIFIED RULES CORNER (image: ?) Maybe this can be combined with Newbie Corner. Basically, take a tough concept like what can be played on-guard, and break it down nice and simply. Who knows, maybe we’ll all actually learn something!
10) THE FELLOWSHIP: COMMENTS FROM COE
11) ?? TOLKIEN FACTS: Here we’ll actually present some cool info on Tolkien himself, or on the books!
12) WORMTONGUE SPEAKS: WHERE TO BUY ALL THINGS TOLKIEN (image: wormtongue) After we publish a few issues, we can apply to places and host their ads and actually make some advertising money to be applied for Worlds prizes, site maintaince, etc. I know some people feel weird about ads, but we’re not talking about website banners here. We’re talking about ONLY things relating to this card game, or anything middle-earth or tolkein-related at all, including figurines, collectibles, other strategy Tolkien games, etc. Remember that many of our readers will definitely be interested in where they can buy cool Tolkien stuff, ESPECIALLY packs of meccg boosters.
13) CARD OF THE DAY (or rather in the case of the newsletter it could be Card(s) of the Month). One or more CoE members could write an article on one or more of the many MECCG cards, as was happening on meccg.net once upon a time before it dried up. Each review could come with a score. I remember when I was getting started in MECCG, the card of the day archives (Trevor Stone's page?) were a wonderful source of information.
14) PLAY OF THE MONTH. Someone's story of a great comeback or conversely pulling defeat from the jaws of victory (as I did very recently vs Valarauko (Alfons) Wink ). With GCCG, there should be no shortage in obtaining these.
15) Popular scenarios and / or optional rules (official and unofficial).
16) Competition(s) to encourage regular MECCG gamers to participate? Don't know if this would be worthwhile, and it may depend on whether they're able to funded with (minor) prizes, but they could take the form of producing an MECCG related article or for providing the most inventive deck, etc...