Many publishers now use free or cheap mailing list services to provide mailing lists to support their games on the Internet.

I currently manage four mailing lists; one devoted to heartQuest, one devoted to Fuzz, one devoted to Seraphim Guard as a whole (mostly inactive) and a brand new one dedicated to the Ghost Tamer Miyaki campaign (for HeartQuest).

How many of the publishers here have so indulged, and what do they think the results have been in terms of customer goodwill?

I have a mailing list.

I don't use it.

Between my Forge forum and my LiveJournal, I really don't need it.

Yet.

If I did do a mailing list, I would only have one list for my whole game "thing" rather than one for octaNe, one for InSpectres and one for...uh, the Jay and Silent Bob RPG.

Hi there,

Sorcerer started with a mailing list, and I think it was the best possible thing I could have done. It generated a core group of berserk supporters whom I rely on to this day.

However, that was (geez) back in 1996. Things have changed drastically since then - we now have forums, active generalist sites (RPG.net), active specialty sites (the Forge), active publisher sites with their own (Apophis Consortium), active webzines, and more. Hell, we have Google now, which itself renders half the promotion techniques I used to use obsolete.

So I'm not as fired-up about the importance of mailing lists as I would have been five years ago. Now, I think a method like Cynthia's for Cartoon Action Hour or Jake's for The Riddle of Steel would be most effective - ie, get on RPG.net and be friendly and inspiring.

A mailing list would be very handy, though, to keep a running dialogue going among the "close group" of people who are committed to the success of the game.

If you do go with mailing lists, I agree with Jared that one-for-all is much superior to having separate mailing lists for each game.

Best,
Ron