alternative. independent. roguelike.

ANNOUNCEMENTS and PRESS RELEASES

Updated 2/12/24

Rascal’s announcement section is free to the public, and we are open to receiving submissions from across the TTRPG industry. We accept submissions of all kinds, such as crowdfunding campaigns, new actual play seasons, charity stream announcements, job openings, and new edition releases.

We want to offer the announcements as a free public service, but in order to do so we need to implement a system that creates the least amount of friction for both us as a three-person team and the general public. With this in mind, the best way for us to receive announcements is to create a contributor portal for interested parties to submit announcements to us directly, rather than through email.

We know this seems like a lot, but it’s genuinely very easy, and Ghost.io’s CMS is super simple to use. I’ve over-explained it here, because my love language is documentation, so don’t be intimidated.

If you’re interested in becoming an announcement contributor, first, please email press@rascal.news and we will set you up with a portal.

Upon receiving your request, you will receive an emailed invite to contribute to Rascal News.

If you log in, you will see the contributor dashboard:

Whatever you write in this dashboard will be automatically placed into the drafts in the backend of the Rascal content management system. You will not be able to post from your dashboard—that’ll be up to the rascals on the other end.

Before you upload your press release, go into the profile section, accessible via the panel on the bottom left. Fill out the contributor profile as much as you like—this will all show up on Rascal, so the more complete it is the better it looks.

Back at the contributor dashboard you’ll be able to upload and format your press release. Click on New Post and begin to cut and paste your PR into the CMS.

If you are unfamiliar with a press release, we recommend a short direct header and a high quality cover image. We will adjust the image to fit our size requirements, but 16:9 is standard. You can also quickly adjust this in the CMS. Upload your photo, hover over the photo, and click the edit pencil in the top right corner. Next, click on crop shape and click 16:9, which will automatically crop to the right proportions.

We will also be filling in a small callout block that will include the disclaimer “This is a community submitted press release.” Feel free to add that in yourself if you feel inspired.

Next, fill in the press release! If you’ve written PR before, you can skip ahead.

A press releases should include basic information, direct and lightly editorialized sales copy, and all relevant links. Information will be different for each type of submission.

For a New TTRPG Release, describe the system, setting, ideal group size and any other unique elements like soloTTRPG, GMless, etc - anything to help give a clear idea of what the game is for potential players.

For a new AP, describe the show like you’re describing a trailer for a TV show or movie - focus on character and plot. Provide other info like system, format (podcast, pre-recorded, livestream, remote, in-studio, etc), sponsors, episode length, season length.

For Charity Streams or itch bundles indicate what cause you are raising money for, what your method of fundraising is, your fundraising goal, and any other significant information.

For Award Submissions, Nominations, or Wins; indicate what the award is for, what organization is hosting the awards, and if nominations/wins, the names of nominees/winners.

For a Job Posting please include job description, job type (contract, full time, part time) hiring manager contact info, pay rates (which are legally required in New York, where we post from).

For anything else (such as grants, non-AP shows, book announcements, etc) please use the information above as a framework for important information.

You can use the CMS however you want, to add links, dividers, buttons. Go Crazy!

At the bottom of your write up, we recommend putting a call to action within a “callout” block.

Next-open up the side panel—post settings!

Edit your excerpt to include a short sentence that sums up your project. Keep this short! This is how it ends up looking on the page.

Once you’ve previewed your announcement and you’re happy with it, double check to make sure all the links work, all the images are included, and you have it formatted the way you like. We will not be editing these releases, we will simply be reviewing them to make sure there are no egregious errors. We reserve the right to not post an announcement, but we’re not really planning on doing it too much. Unless you’re like… really fucking bigoted or horrible or something.

So after you’ve done all that and you’re happy, you should put DONE in the title.

For example: “DONE A short, pithy title goes here”

We will review these within two business days and publish them immediately.

If you want to submit an announcement but want it to go live on a certain date, instead put EMBARGO in the title, alongside the date/time you want it to go live. Don’t forget the time zone!

For example: “EMBARGO May 27, 10 AM ET, 2027 A short, pithy title goes here”

We know this is clunky, but contributors cannot set a publication date or post for security reasons.

Thank you so much for your interest in putting your announcement on Rascal. We deeply appreciate your help and cooperation in keeping this community service accessible and available for everyone, and making it easier on our very small and very overworked three-person team! We are fully aware this is a few extra steps for you guys, but we genuinely hope this system works out for everyone.

If you have  any questions or run into trouble, you can email press@rascal.news and we’ll help you out. Thanks everyone!