Introducing the Warhammer Wordforge

That moment when a house becomes a home

Hey folks! Before I dive into what I’d like to talk about today, I first want to take a moment to talk to the Subscribers who are receiving this in their email.

First, thank you for Subscribing, for creators like us it really does mean a lot. At the outset I made a pledge to be very mindful of how much is getting sent to your inboxes, so when I do something irregular (like this with today’s exciting news) I want to acknowledge that I’ve done so carefully and deliberately- especially since you’ll be getting the next Black Library Weekly in your inboxes tomorrow, too.

Now, on to the main event!

Welcome to the Wordforge

Two months ago when I started this Substack, it was initially intended to be a place where I could continue writing Black Library Weekly, my beloved Monday column that was wrapping up on Tabletop Battles. I found a perfectly serviceable if uninspiring name I could like with, The Black Library Dispatch, which had an appealing old-timey journo feel to it and helped convey that this was going to be a source of steady, regular content. It wasn’t exactly a placeholder, but it wasn’t exactly not- just a shingle I could put in the window and get busy writing.

Since that time, I’ve also opened a second content front with a related passion of mine, which is Warhammer’s rich role-playing game landscape. Thus far it’s limited to the Warhammer RPG SITREP, a Friday equivalent to Monday’s Black Library Weekly, but I have plans, so many plans! Longtime readers may recall me occasionally playing in this space over on Tabletop Battles, including:

• Warhammer Wrath & Glory, an RPG Primer

• Lore & More: Shield of Baal’s Deathstorm

• Lore & More: The Nachmund Gauntlet Crusade Deep Dive

It became increasingly apparent that The Black Library Dispatch would increasingly be out of step with what I’m aiming to build here, and so I’m doing an early course corrective and renaming this Substack to The Warhammer Wordforge!

This comes with a few structural changes that are important to point out.

Here’s the menu you’ll see at the top of the page. Someday I’ll get around to making it look fancier, but for now it’s nice and simple.

Home. The home page. Shocking, right?

Notes. Substack content is either Articles or Notes. Notes are a bit like Facebook posts, smaller content bites that aren’t written like full features or articles. I post a couple of these a week about things I’m seeing or doing, but they never go to your email.

Black Library. All Black Library-related content can be found here. So if you’re here for that and don’t really care for the RPG stuff, this will put everything in one place for you.

Role-Playing Games. Similarly, if you’re here for the RPG stuff, you can filter out the Black Library content here.

Archive. This is everything from both halves of the site. Those who like both Warhammer fiction and Warhammer RPG’s should go here.

About. My about page. Simple!

Note that the core functionality of the site isn’t changing, and I’m keeping things as simple and accessible as possible for Wordforge readers to get the content they’re here for without having to sift through the stuff they’re not.

Now, there is one small change in site functionality that needs to be highlighted.

Let’s Talk Emails

With the site being mainly focused on Black Library content, as I’ve grown the RPG side I’d started to wonder about how to handle the emails for Subscribers. After all, I’d like the RPG column, Warhammer RPG SITREP, to be emailed out to the RPG readers just like Black Library Weekly is to the book lovers- but I didn’t want to bloat anyone’s inbox with unwelcome email, either.

Thankfully, Substack has an answer for this!

Since I’m now classifying all content as either “Black Library” or “Role-Playing Games,” you can easily opt in/out of the emailed content you want.

Here’s how.

Just click on your profile in the upper-right corner while you’re visiting the Wordforge, then click Manage Subscription.

Then you’ll see the different things you can subscribe to. If you ONLY want Black Library Content, then make sure Role-Playing Games is unselected. And if you’re here just for the RPG stuff, go ahead and deselect Black Library.

This should help make sure you’re only getting emailed content for the area that you’re interested in, and reduce any unwelcome clutter in your inbox.

Coming Soon

I’ve also purchased the domain WarhammerWordforge.com, which should be live and active soon. It’s just going to be an easier way to get there, nothing functional.

Since it can take a couple days for all the systems to update and handshake, they put up a hilariously bad placeholder image on the site if you go there directly: players playing Magic: the Gathering and “Forge Your Warhammer Story.” None of that was my doing, and it should disappear back into the warp that spawned it once the redirect to the Substack is completed. Until then, uh… enjoy?

Special Guest Appearance

One question I’ve gotten from a few folks is about being a guest writer on the site. As someone who has for a number of years been able to make my hobbies help fund themselves through writing, I’m quite keen to help others have that same opportunity. It doesn’t hurt that I enjoy being an editor as much as a writer, either!

While I haven’t out together any kind of contributor guidelines, if you feel this is something you’d be interested in feel free to shoot me a message!

I’d Buy That for a Dollar

Finally, I’d like to take a moment to talk about my plans for site monetization, which is another question I often get since Substack really pushes that model. And that’s great, for writers and authors looking to offer paying subscriptions for additional (or even standard) content.

Everything here has been free. Everything here will remain free. Subscribing to the site at the Free level gives you access to everything. To date only one person has signed up at a paying pledge level¹, and there are no plans to flip the pay-switch.

The change of name to Warhammer Wordforge cements that. After all, who wants to get a cease & desist from your own favorite hobby and games producer?

Thanks as always for your support, and please let me know if you have any questions or run into any issues with the above.

Jay

1. Love you, Ma!