I will be making a virtual appearance at Dice Con in Lviv, Ukraine.

RANDOM GM TIPS W/JUSTIN ALEXANDER
Saturday, August 30th – 7 pm

Check the convention program for location and other details.

I had a ton of fun doing this last year, and I’m excited to be returning this year!

I hope the stars align so that I can visit all of you in the Ukraine in person very, very soon!

UPCOMING CONVENTIONS
ArneCon 3 – Minneapolis, MN – October 10-12, 2025
Gamehole Con – Madison, WI – Oct 16-19, 2025
GM Academy @ Tower Games – Minneapolis, MN – Nov 15, 2025
Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo – Oaks, PA – Jan 15-18, 2026

Over the past several days, you may have noticed the Alexandrian website periodically disappearing or appearing with broken menus.

Here’s what’s going on:

My hosting company, which has hosted the site for 20 years, has gone through a whole series of acquisitions over the past few years. A few months ago the company that bought the company that bought the company that bought them ended up getting bought by Endurance International Group (EIG), which has recently changed its name to Newfold Digital.

The enshittification has now begun: They’ve significantly reduced the specs of my hosting plan and are now trying to upsell me all the stuff they removed. (“Do you want to have the server’s PHP upgraded to a version that doesn’t have security flaws? That’ll cost ya!”)

The main problem is that they’ve reduced the number of MySQL queries the site is allowed to make each hour. When the limit is reached, the MySQL database stops responding to queries and WordPress stops working. But, good news! For just $500 per year they’ll increase the MySQL limit!

It took me a while to figure this out, because the customer service reps will just lie to me when I talk to them.

My “favorite” interaction so far was when they swapped from trying to upsell me an add-on package to trying to upsell me an enterprise-level private server (for even more money). I told them I still wasn’t interested in the upsell, and their honest-to-god response was, “Me? Upsell?! Perish the thought! We don’t even offer these servers! You’d have to contact a different company, like Bluehost or Network Solutions! I’m so sorry you thought I was trying to upsell you!”

Bluehost and Network Solutions are, of course, owned by Newfold.

If you’re looking to host your own website, avoid all of these Newfold Digital brands:

• Network Solutions
• Bluehost
• Markmonitor
• HostGator
• register.com
• domain.com
• CrazyDomains
• Reseller Club
• iPage
• Big Rock
• Sitebuilder.com
• Vodien
• Yoast
• Yith
• iPower
• BuyDomains.com
• Snapnames
• NameJet
• Typepad
• Web.com
• FastDomain
• Homestead
• LogicBoxes

Newfold has since reduced the cost of their bullshit add-on from $500 to $57 to $36 per year (it’s a “special discount”!), but I’ve decided to go for the alternative solution of bailing on these fraudsters and finding a new hosting company. If for no other reason than who knows what essential part of the server they’ll turn off next.

I’m hoping this will be a fairly quick process. I apologize for any difficulties you have in using the site in the meantime.

So You Want to Be a Game Master has been released in a hardcover Polish edition from Black Monk Games!

I was in Poland last week to celebrate the release of the book at Pyrkon, and you can now order it from Black Monk Games directly or find it at your favorite local gaming store in Poland!

It’s an absolutely beautiful edition of the book. It was truly thrilling to be able to hold a copy in my hands for the first time!

BUY NOW!

JUNE 13-15, 2025
Poznań, Poland

I’ll be appearing at Pyrkon in June to help celebrate the Polish language release of So You Want to Be a Game Master!

Friday 06/13
14:00-15:00 – Meeting Justin Alexander

Saturday 06/14
13:00-13:30 – Autograph Session w/Justin Alexander, the Alexandrian
16:00-17:00 – Let’s Cook a Book!

Sunday 06/15
11:00-12:00 – Three Clues to Success
13:00-14:00 – Book Signing @ Black Monk Games Booth

This will be my first convention appearance in Europe since 2019, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back again. So I hope to see you there!

APRIL 25-27, 2025
Bloomington, MN, USA

I’ll be a Special Guest at DaveCon later this month! The convention celebrates “all the Daves who were there at the beginning,” including Dave Megarry (designer of the Dungeon board game), David Wesley (creator of Braunstein, the game that inspired Blackmoor), and, of course, Dave Arneson (creator of Blackmoor, co-creator of D&D, and the father of modern roleplaying games).

Breathing Life Into the Wandering Monster  – Friday @ 4 PM
Book Signing – Saturday @ 2 PM
DaveCon Q&A with Special Guests – 4:00 PM

MAY 1-4, 2025
Knoxville, TN, USA

You walk into a tavern… and see all your favorite GMs beckoning you to their table!

I’m returning to Green Dragon Fest as one of the Legend GMs. Play games with your favorite TTRPG creators in a vacation resort themed like a fantasy village, then feast on thematic meals while socializing with the GMs and other players.

This event was amazing last year, and I’m so thrilled to be returning this year.

See you in May, Dragonraiders!

GM SEMINAR – May 24, 2025
Minneapolis, MN, USA

I’ll be presenting at a GM Seminar event at Tower Games in Minneapolis on May 24th. This is a fun event organized by a great local game store which features talks from a bunch of different GMs and game designers, focused on creating and inspiring new and experienced GMs alike.

JUNE 13-15, 2025
Poznań, Poland

The exact details of my appearance are still being worked out, but I’ll be appearing at Pyrkon in June to help celebrate the Polish release of So You Want to Be a Game Master!

This will be my first convention appearance in Europe since 2019!