Category Archives: The Gazebo Videos

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

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.

Join The RPG Pig Pen!

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.

It’s that time of year for Shameless Self Promotion

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.

Xmas in July & Locals Update

Time for a little self promotion, folks.

DrivethruRPG’s Xmas in July Sale is ending soon and yes, we’ve a few things up over there. Zip over there and see if there’s anything you like.

Things are coming together over at the Locals community. I’ve finally got Stripe up and running so you can leave a tip over there if you wish. And stuff will be happening over there. I’m planning on weekly behind the scenes posts or those things that are so crazy that I just don’t want to put it on the blog. Plus I may post a video there now and again. And no it doesn’t cost you anything to join up. And I haven’t put anything behind a paywall yet. Let’s see how things go over there.

And with that may you all have a wonderful weekend of gaming fun.

Patreon VS Locals, Odysee Vs Youtube etc

What do do? I have had some craziness in life recently and I really started thinking. I know you’re expecting gaming content here. Well, this is about delivering more content and keeping the good old blog afloat.

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My goal is not create a second income. Sure it would be nice but I want to be realistic. I’m very niche in what I post and what I like. I’d just like to set the reasonable goal of covering the costs of web hosting and occasionally buying some RPG product that I might not otherwise for a review. Nothing super spectacular there. So what to do?

I already have Patreon and Locals pages. There are pro’s and cons for each. Patreon is more popular and many folks are more comfortable with it. Locals does have a few more features available like native live streaming. It’s my personal feeling that Locals is much better than Patreon when it comes to building a community. Patreon feels much like building a virtual storefront or subscription service.

Of course, going a long with this thought process is video. Yes, I started a Youtube channel a long time ago and the pandemic blew things a part and I haven’t uploaded anything in a couple of years. But a lot of things have changed. It does take a bit of extra effort to do a decent video and I was just thinking is Youtube really worth my time as a primary video hosting solution? There’s a huge sound to noise ratio on Youtube. There’s just so many folks on there. It’s good but let’s face it, half of your task as a Youtube creator is working the algorithm and the other half is trying to keep up with what Google decides is the community standards of the day. I have plans of going of the deep end but heck if I want I should have some choice in the matter. Plus Youtube has made it even more difficult to reach that golden point of being noticed and maybe making a few cents off your work.

I’ve looked around at various alternatives and there really aren’t that many. I’m leaning towards Odysee. Sure there are a bunch of crack pots on there. But so are there on Youtube. And I suppose I could just use Youtube as back up for the Odysee videos and see what happens. As mentioned earlier, yes there are more people who use Youtube but there are so many and with Google’s algorithm the chance of someone finding it are about the same.

I did do a little experiment last year. I stopped sharing blog posts to Facebook. Yes, the blog does have a Facebook page that still gets auto posts. But I was also cross posting to a few fo the more popular Facebook group. I stopped doing that and just started posting on MeWe. Guess what? It didn’t affect the blog’s traffic. I had fewer pissy comments. And what’s even more interesting, blog traffic has actually gone up this year.

So with all those thoughts, what’s your opinion? What’s your experience? Or any other thoughts?