EvolvingRPG may be getting a fresh start, but the site itself is not new.
Before EvolvingRPG, I ran a site called RPG World. It lived on one of those free subdomain services that were common at the time, where every so often you had to confirm that you were still using the name so they would continue holding it for you.
RPG World was a place to talk about role-playing games in the broadest sense. News, stories, gaming advice, riddles, reviews, ideas for the table—if it had something to do with RPGs, there was probably room for it.
Around 2008, that site effectively disappeared out from under me. Someone took over the address, left much of the old material in place, and turned it into what was essentially an advertising page.
That was when I finally decided to stop relying on somebody else to hold the address for me.
On February 26, 2009, I registered the EvolvingRPG domain, and EvolvingRPG came online later that year.
Why “EvolvingRPG”?
The name turned out to fit better than I probably realized at the time.
Role-playing games never really stop changing. Rules change. Editions come and go. New systems appear. Technology changes how we prepare and play. Players change, Game Masters change, and sometimes our own ideas about what makes a good game change with experience.
EvolvingRPG was meant to be broad enough to change along with the hobby.
Tabletop role-playing games have always been at the center of the site, but they have never been the absolute boundary. Over the years that has meant everything from Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons to conventions, novels, RPG-inspired stories, technology, and even the occasional role-playing video game.
If it connects back to the role-playing hobby in an interesting way, I have always felt like there was probably a place to talk about it.
It Was Never Just a Blog
One of the things I want to preserve from the older versions of EvolvingRPG is that the site was never simply a collection of articles.
We had message forums, and for a time there was a real community carrying on discussions well beyond the individual articles. I do not currently plan to bring traditional forums back—the moderation alone can become a full-time hobby—but I still want conversation to be part of what EvolvingRPG is.
Other people contributed as well. One of the regular reviewers, Greytome, became especially known for his reviews of fantasy and RPG-related novels. On more than one occasion, authors found those reviews and joined the discussion themselves. One even told him that he had understood what the author was really trying to say with the book.
That kind of interaction was always one of the coolest parts of running the site.
EvolvingRPG also moved beyond written articles. We produced podcasts about things like Gen Con, gaming advice, and what it is actually like to sit behind the GM screen.
Eventually we experimented with video as well. One series took scenes from movies or television and asked a simple question: What would this look like if we translated it into game rules?
A scene from Game of Thrones could become a Dungeons & Dragons rules discussion. A scene from The Boondocks could be broken down using Top Secret. It was part rules analysis, part entertainment, and mostly an excuse to look at RPG mechanics from a different direction.
Tools, Experiments, and Strange Ideas
Some of my favorite parts of the old site were the things that did not fit neatly into the category of “article.”
One of those was Rate Your GM. Players could enter their GM’s email address and anonymously give feedback about the game session. It ended up being used quite a bit.
I also experimented with interactive guides. One project, inspired partly by the way EverQuest approached character choices, asked a series of questions and then suggested the type of character class the player might enjoy trying.
Those kinds of tools are something I would like to explore again.
Not necessarily those exact ideas in exactly the same form, but the philosophy behind them: EvolvingRPG should be able to do things, not just publish things.
The Rebuild
EvolvingRPG stayed active in one form or another for more than fifteen years before a hack took the site offline in 2025.
That is why the site you are looking at now has been rebuilt.
But I do not think of this as starting over.
The old site taught me what worked, what did not, what people enjoyed, and how much the hobby itself has changed since 2009. Some things will return. Some things probably should stay in the past. And there will almost certainly be things on the new EvolvingRPG that I would never have imagined building when the domain was first registered.
That seems appropriate for a site called EvolvingRPG.
What You’ll Find Here
Today, the site is centered around a few major areas: Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, RPG culture and the wider hobby, and technology at the table.
But those are starting points rather than fences.
There will be rules discussions, reviews, GM advice, convention coverage, campaign stories, technology experiments, beginner guides, and probably the occasional strange idea that does not fit neatly anywhere else.
Because historically, those strange ideas have often been some of the most interesting things to work on.
The Conversation Still Matters
One of the things I remember most fondly about the earlier versions of EvolvingRPG was the discussion.
People did not always agree with me, and they did not need to. Some of the better conversations came from people looking at the same rule, game, or problem and reaching completely different conclusions.
I want that spirit to remain part of the rebuilt site.
I will have opinions. I will tell stories from my own tables. I will sometimes look at a rule and wonder what the designers were thinking. But I also want to separate opinion from fact, acknowledge other reasonable ways of looking at a subject, and correct things when I get them wrong.
If something here gives you an idea, makes you reconsider something, helps your next game, or simply makes you want to talk about RPGs for a while, then EvolvingRPG is doing what it was built to do.
Pull Up a Chair
EvolvingRPG has been changing since 2009.
I expect it will keep changing.
That is kind of the point.
So look around, read something that catches your attention, and join the conversation.