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2022: The Year That Was. 2023: Hang On To Your Dice

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Like everybody else, it’s time to do that retrospective and dream about plans for the New Year.

2022: The Year That Was

There’s a lot that went on behind scenes here. First and foremost the blog had great year. About half way through the year, I stopped posting to RPG Facebook Groups just to see what would happen. Basically, I learned that it was pointless. Not only did the traffic here not decrease. It actually increased. The blog ended up with twice the traffic in 2022 than it had in 2021. I still do cross post to the blog’s Facebook page and you can follow it of there if you wish.

And speaking of social media, I deactivated my old Twitter account because the place pretty much turned into a cesspool and like Facebook, it really wasn’t doing anything other than taking up time. But then with the change in management and gut instinct that maybe things could start going better in RPG sphere’s, I want ahead and created a new account. So it’s time to rebuild that network from the ground up. And I guess we’ll see how that goes. And you follow me on Twitter over here.

So now let me talk about the “bad”. I didn’t publish a single thing last year. Nothing. Nada. Nope. I have a long list of projects there I started but never finished. And there’s no one to blame other than myself.

And on the gaming front, that went well too. While I haven’t managed to make the time or locate a good gaming group in meat space, I have had a great running a game virtually with some folks of my pre-pandemic group. Folks moved away when things got crazy but it’s good to get back in touch.

2023: Best Laid Plans

So what’s up for 2023? Lots. Hopefully not too much.

The blog is going to keep on going the way it is. My Patreon is still going to be available if you want to support the blog in a small way. I set up as sort of revolving tip jar. If enough folks demand it then I might do more but for next year I’m going to focus on building the the Locals community. I have more options than with Patreon and it’s free join in for community members. I haven’t put stuff behind the paywall yet but I might starting the really juicy bits there eventually.

Maybe return to doing some videos. Part of me hates doing it but part of me enjoys it. Of course, I’m still debating on platform. Sure, Youtube is the most popular but I’ll have a heck of hill climb with algorithms and an ever shifting content moderation and pretty much very little chance of making some beer and pizza money. Maybe Rumble. They do own Locals now so there’s some easy integration. Monetization is easier but from what I can tell there ain’t a bit of RPG content over there. But then I might do both. I dunno.

I really need to get off my ass and get some of those gaming projects done and on the street. And part of getting stuff, I still to do over to Big Geek Emporium and get started with some over there.

And finally, it’s a New Year and that means I’m starting a new campaign shortly. It’s going to be a wild ride for my players. Mash up of Hammer Horror/Warhammer Fantasy with some good old other weirdness thrown in. I’ll be kitbashing the Deathbringer rules and ICRPG. And there’s a good chance that I’ll actually get to play too. But that’s a 5E game but at least no DMing. And I have a real urge to start messing around with Lamentations of the Flame Princess again.

And with all that. Let’s get the ball rolling on this New Year.

Adventures in Gaming, Magic Pig Media, My Gaming Projects, Playing It Wrong Podcast, Random Bits, The Gazebo on Locals, The Gazebo on Rumble

Join The RPG Pig Pen!

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Let’s get this party started. I finally did that Intro Video that everyone tells you to do. So just head on over and check it out. I know. Things will get better in the future.

Remember it’s free to join up. A place to kick back and have fun. Behind the scenes rants. Early announcements. Super secret house rules. Maybe a Live Stream. A may dust off a version of the podcast again. The more folks that join up, the more bandwidth for all that stuff. So I can post more stuff over there. And that means more fun.

And it’s an easy way to support the blog. I’m not to get rich. This ain’t the next Critical Role. It’s the Pig Pen. Things are down and dirty. And fun.

Roll dice. Kill Monsters. Take Their Shit. And Have Fun.

Magic Pig Media, My Gaming Projects, News, Rants & Reviews, Playing It Wrong Podcast, The Gazebo on Locals, The Gazebo on Rumble

It’s that time of year for Shameless Self Promotion

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I know I’m horrible at this so I try to go crazy once a year. And what time is that? When I get that reminder that the bill is coming up for web hosting.

I know I could get by without it. But it gets rid of ads. It gives more storage space to post stuff and a few extra cool options. If you’ve like what you’ve seen over the years then drop a tip if you want to. For something simple, you could hit up Buy Me A Coffee. If you want to be even more generous and set up something reoccurring then head on over to the Patreon.

If you want the real skinny plus the crazier rants from the depths of my brain. A few behind the scenes things and maybe a free handy PDF now and then just head on over to the Locals page. Heck, just head over there any way. It’s free to sign up. How much bandwidth the community gets depends on how people are in the community. As it grows, more stuff will be added and I’ll do even more over there. Yes, I spent a couple of hours trying to get a video done. Sigh, it looked good but there’s something screwed up with my audio. So, I need to track that down.

If all of those things aren’t you’re style then you can check the stuff on DrivethruRPG, Itchio, and for your POD wishes there’s Lulu.

Thanks for stopping by. Like posts, share posts, subscribe and all that stuff.

Let’s have fun out there.

Adventures in Gaming, Magic Pig Media, News, Rants & Reviews, Playing It Wrong Podcast, The Gazebo on Locals, The Gazebo on Rumble

Happy New Year! 2020 in Review and Plans for 2021

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I don’t have to tell you that 2020 sucked but for this post I want to stick to a few more positive things.

Let’s talk about the money side first and get it over with. I admit that I’m not in this for the money. But actually made a little this year. After web hosting and other minor expenses, I made enough for pizza. I know not much and nothing to brag about but at least it’s positive. Digging down into the numbers a little bit more, my three main sources for income were (in order) DriveThruRPG sales, Lulu Sales, and Patreon/Buy Me a Coffee. Amazon was hardly anything and, for me any way, hardly seemed worth the effort.

The blog did really well this year. Better than I had hoped for. Blog traffic increased 37% over 2019. I hadn’t expect that. Oddly enough, it seems that more traffic is coming from MeWe rather than Facebook.

The Youtube Channel and Anchor Podcast. Oh this part is a little depressing. I admit I hadn’t posted a video in months. I had plans but everything in the world seemed to go to hell and I just didn’t bother. Then Google changed the terms of service. Basically, if I wasn’t monetizing the videos with their ads then they would, just not giving me a cut. Sigh. We see enough ads online. I don’t want that extra annoyance on folks. And on the podcasting side, the audience size just isn’t really big enough to warrant the time put into it. This doesn’t mean that I’d done with these. I’m just planning on taking a slightly different approach. I can post and host videos and podcast audio right here on the blog plus I can post some of these things directly on MeWe and Locals. It might be worth the effort just to see what happens. I haven’t solidified a plan yet but it’s mulling around in my brain and just might work.

Patreon/Buy Me A Coffee/Tip Jars. All was going well on Patreon until they decided they needed to start charging sales tax. Sure fine it works great for material goods but they got really vague about things like early access and PDF’s. I personally felt that the way they were going about it wasn’t in the best interest of Patrons. I’m still going to use Patreon as a sort of continuing “tip jar” and I’ll post some exclusive content, free stuff, and special deals or something. I’m also considering adding a PayPal Tip Jar on the blog. I know it sounds like I’m begging but I’d rather do that than have a bunch of ads. As I’ve said before, I ain’t out to make a bunch of money. But I do want to at least break even.

Locals/Discord/Social Media. So Locals is a little bit like Patreon but more focused on building a community. So I could put my Locals behind a pay wall but haven’t done that. I’m not sure if I will. That will depend on how many folks head over there and how far it goes. I do plan on putting some exclusive content up there too. Like some of the other things in this post it’s a plan in the making. As far as Discord goes. Well, I belong to a bunch of servers but I don’t spend much time over there. I really should and don’t have any one to blame on that but myself. So in 2021, it’s time to have some fun on Discord. I doubt I’ll do my own server but may hang out regularly on a few. Social media is really becoming a cesspool. Twitter is where brain cells go to die. The last couple of times I stopped by there it was a total and complete dumpster fire. Facebook is getting just down right annoying. I really like MeWe but sometimes it seems like there isn’t a lot going on . Like a lot of things, I don’t have a solid plan. Part of me wants to ignore Facebook for a month just to see what happens. Another part of me is thinking about posting more gaming stuff to direct Facebook feed. On MeWe, I plan to be more out going. Comment more and interact with folks more.

Projects and Gaming. Forgotten Tales of Sword & Sorcery is my main project. I’m working on it now and it’s going well. I’m already putting some notes down for two supplements for it. So I’d say that’s going to be my main project for 2021. And gaming. Hell, I really need to get some more gaming done in 2021 but about that in another post.

Thanks for sticking around till the end of this and thanks to all who have supported me one way or the other over the crap fest that was 2020. Let’s get some stuff done in 2021 and make it great year.