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Post by Daos on Dec 1, 2022 15:01:52 GMT -8
Autumn has ended, so it's time to see how things look once again: September - 30 posts a day October - 35.6 posts a day November - 35.2 posts a day Wow, those are some new records there! In fact, I think 35.6 is the highest I've ever seen before (35.3 was the record high from last January, previously). All of my games are doing pretty well at the moment. If I wasn't so overwhelmed at work, I'd probably even consider starting up a new game to build on this momentum. Maybe after the holidays are over. Another Autumn, another recap on forum activity. September - 48 posts a day October - 36.9 posts a day November - 32.8 posts a day Wow, okay! After only breaking a record in August (42.4), we've now done so again in September. The new record is 48. That said, things have declined a bit since then. But overall, activity is--generally speaking--up from previous years. I don't expect it to get much higher than that, though, at least not any time soon. I'm running six of the nine current games, and although I still want to run The Mystery of the Missing Patrol when it's released (whenever that might be), I'm not sure how many more games I can juggle at once. I might have to start cutting back soon, as I have way too much on my plate at the moment. But that might not be for awhile, either. I can probably wrap up Cleric's Challenge I in another...four or so months (based on its current progression). But the rest of my games are pretty far from a natural ending point, so unless there are any TPKs along the way, it's going to be a long time before any others end. In any case, I don't expect things to change too much by winter's end. Time for the last update of the year, so here's the stats for the Autumn. September - 36 posts a day October - 29 posts a day November - 24 posts a day Yeah, I was expecting that. There's been a huge drop of activity during the fall, especially last month where it was fairly common for the daily post count to be in single digits. Those numbers will likely continue to drop into the winter, too, at least until I'm able to end some of my current games and start up new ones, because then I can start recruiting again and hopefully can increase the site's population. One of the few games not run by me, Princes of the Apocalypse, ended recently due to lack of interest. Fun fact, until Gravity offered to run it, I had planned to run it myself...after Tyranny of Dragons ended. Yeah, at the time, I didn't realize that it would take half a decade to finish that game. (We're 2 years in, and still haven't even reached the half-way point). Princes of the Apocalypse lasted two years, and there was still so much material left, I imagine it would have taken another 3-4 years to finish it. This just cements in my mind that long term campaigns are not the way to go for pbp games. That said, as always, if anyone wants to run a new game, let me know. Even if it's just a one-shot, the extra activity and potential new players it might bring in could be helpful. As for my own games, I've got Chronicles of Overmorrow up and running, albeit quite slowly, so I'm actually at seven games right now, at least until I can finally end Octhania. I'm still hoping I can wrap it up by the end of this month, but the combat posts take so long to finish (up to 4-5 hours now), I'm only able to update 2-3 times a week. For the games I am trying to end, here's my new, updated timeline: Gontoria - 1.5 years [February 2024] Octhania - 1 month [December 2022] Past Glory - 1.5 years [February 2024] Tyranny of Dragons - 2.5 years [February 2025] Champions of Krynn - Unknown (1.5 years?) [February 2024?] A few things to note: Once Octhania finally ends, I intend to start focusing efforts on shortening Gontoria. I feel I can shave off some extra sidequests and maybe get that down to around 6 months or so. Or at least a year, we'll see. I don't want to butcher it, but I do want to focus on steering it to a natural ending sooner. Champions of Krynn is sort of up in the air right now. See, we're about 25-30% through the second chapter, so clearly in no hurry to finish. But I was told the third chapter would be released some time this year. However, I recently heard that it has been pushed back until the summer of next year. And again, we haven't even reached the half-way point yet in chapter two, so maybe it won't matter...but it's more than likely that we'll finish before the third chapter is released, in which case...I'm not really sure what to do. Three of the players are in other games, so they might not mind a hiatus but at least one of them is only in that game, so what's he supposed to do during the wait? Well, I guess I'll worry about crossing that bridge if and when it comes. This is what happens if you run a game that isn't complete, I suppose. In my defense, though, their original timeline said they'd be releasing a new chapter every three months on the dot, so I thought I was golden. Ah, well. Anyway, my goals for the winter are to finish Octhania, shorten Gontoria, finish the current module in Matinee, and hopefully get Past Glory, Tyranny of Dragons and Chronicles of Overmorrow to their next chapters.
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Post by Daos on Jan 1, 2023 12:34:42 GMT -8
So you may have noticed over the past few days that the ads are back on the site. The odd thing is, I'm still paying Proboards monthly to not have ads. I thought maybe it was some kind of glitch and it would clear up on the 1st, but they're still here. I've gone to the Proboards support forum, and apparently this is a wide-spread problem and they are 'working on it.' No idea how long it will take. They don't seem to have charged me for January yet, at least. In the meantime, sorry about the ads. Feel free to block them if you have an ad-blocker. Hopefully they clear that up soon.
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Post by Daos on Jan 2, 2023 15:11:22 GMT -8
Looks like at some point last night they fixed whatever was wrong, and the ads are gone again.
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Post by Daos on Mar 1, 2023 12:10:42 GMT -8
Another year has passed, so let's see what we got: December - 34.9 posts a day January - 39.6 posts a day (A new record!) February - 31.7 posts a day So wow, that's great. February was almost as good as 2019, and continues to lag behind the other winter months for some reason. But we actually broke a record again with January (so close to 40!). I wish I had any understanding of what these patterns mean. All of my games are going well. The only new one in the works currently is that Roll20 one I talked about recently; I work on it a little bit whenever I have free time, but right now I'm still pretty busy playing catch-up with all my other games. So it might still be awhile. Right now, I'm mostly just fleshing out the setting. I have a good idea of what the plot will be already. And even some ideas for NPCs. Still not sure what to call it. Anyway, here's hoping things continue going smoothly in the spring. Let's compare this winter to previous ones: December - 33.4 posts a day January - 44.6 posts a day February - 41.9 posts a day So mostly an improvement from last year. Definitely an improvement from the year before that. There are three active games not being run by me, and the 8 games I am running (with one exception) are running fairly smoothly right now, for the most part. So everything seems good, activity has never been higher, and yet... And yet, I am suffering from pretty bad burnout. I have been for months. The holidays were especially rough, and I've managed to get things under control again for the most part, but nevertheless, I need to scale back. I realize that fewer games means fewer posts, and thus less activity, but increasing activity means nothing if I drop from exhaustion. So I'm going to be closing down a couple of games eventually. (I want to emphasize that last word, lest anyone worry I'm going to shutter a random game suddenly and without warning.) First, Cleric's Challenge. It's been a month since the last post there, and it's only one player anyway, so I might as well give it the axe. For the rest, most of my games have a definite 'ending' that we are nowhere near close to reaching. Most are also modules, so are a little bit easier to manage (i.e., less work is involved). There are, however, two games that don't fit into either of those above criteria--Lost Souls Octhania and Past Glory. Neither are modules and both are sandboxes. Meaning they have no specific plot, and therefore no specific ending. They just keep going until I decide they stop, or the party TPKs, or everyone just quits. So my goal is to start steering both of those games toward a satisfying ending. This means making them more linear, but I don't think anyone really cares about that, to be honest. Anyway, I think I can steer Octhania toward a definite, satisfying end before the end of the year (probably). Past Glory will take a bit longer than that; maybe I can wrap it up sometime in 2023. Although originally I had planned to immediately replace both games with new ones once they ended, I will be holding off on that until some of my other games end naturally (for instance, I was going to run a Taladas game after Past Glory ended). I'm still going to replace them, just not immediately. I need to be more conscious of how many games I am juggling. Even if it hurts the site's traffic, I can't keep overextending myself. My stress levels were off the charts during the holidays, and although they've leveled off some now, I don't want to risk it happening again. I've also been working on a new 5E setting, and when it's done, I probably will want to run a game there. So clearing up some of my older games to make room for that is a good idea anyway. (Which I guess means, at some point in the next few years, I'm finally going to cross that threshold where I am running more 5E games than 2E games.) Anyway, it's difficult to judge how long it will take to finish those games. My current prediction models have Octhania ending somewhere around November or December, and Past Glory maybe some time mid-year of 2023 (around summer, perhaps). I'll recalculate at spring's end when I update here again. Winter is over, allegedly, so let's do a recap. December - 20.3 posts a day January - 17.9 posts a day February - 25.8 posts a day Oof, yeah, that's pretty abysmal. I haven't seen numbers that bad since I started tracking them back in 2018. All the more reason to end as many of my long terms games as soon as I can, and replace them with short term games so I can start recruiting new people again. My prediction to end Octhania by the end of December was, of course, way, wayyyyy off. I ended it literally yesterday. And only because I seized the narrative and made it happen; had that final battle, which had raged for five months, been allowed to run its natural course, it's entirely possible the game would continue until way into April, if not later. And that would have been intolerable; I was usually up until 4AM or later trying to get a single post for that game up. I couldn't keep that up for much longer, to be honest. So after five years, it's done. That's one less thing for me to worry about now. Now I just need to finish Gontoria and Past Glory. I've already started work on their replacement games in my off-time, but those sorts of things take time. That said, I'm no longer worried about ending either game 'naturally.' Basically, as soon as their replacements are ready, I'll probably just go ahead and end them, satisfyingly or not. Because honestly, my most recent estimates had those games ending in about a year from now, but realistically it will take much, much longer than that. And I don't have that kind of energy anymore, especially considering the absolute lack of enthusiasm from the PCs in either game. So my new goal is to hopefully end and replace both games some time this year, maybe in the next 3-4 months, but we'll see. At least now I know what is replacing them. Gontoria will be replaced with a Renosia game, and Past Glory will be replaced with a Taladas game. I'm pretty excited for them both. Tyranny of Dragons came very close to ending, but the group eventually voted to continue for one more chapter, at least. I'll probably check in on everyone after each chapter, just to see how much life that game still has in it. Champions of Krynn faces the same problem as before. We're now more than half-way through chapter two, but chapter three is not scheduled to come out until the summer, so it's entirely possible we'll finish too early and then...I don't know. Just wait, I guess. Not a great plan, but I'm not sure what else to do about it. (And this is all, of course, actually assuming the Nexus sticks to its new schedule; they were always 2-3 months late on their old schedule, so...). Module Matinee is going well enough; we recently started a new module for it. And Overmorrow is chugging along--we're still on chapter one after three months, but otherwise it seems to be progressing well. At least I'm back down to six games again. (Well, seven if you want to count Purify Pilgrimage). Hopefully that will make my overall workload a little easier to manage. And once my new system is in place, I'm hopeful burnout will be less of an issue, because it will be easier to end and switch to a new game if one becomes too much. So just to recap: Lost Souls Gontoria has been going for over six years, is down to two players, and will be ending as soon as its replacement is ready. It will be replaced with a game that takes place in Renosia, and I will recruit for it when the time comes. Module Matinee is still on its current Dragonlance run; we just started the third Dragonlance module. So far, the party of five seems invested, so this might continue for awhile. Lost Souls Octhania is over after five years. Past Glory has been going for four years now, and still has four players. It will be ending as soon as its replacement is ready. It will be replaced with a game that takes place in Taladas, the northern continent, and I will be recruiting for it when the time comes. Tyranny of Dragons is coming up on its third anniversary. We're down to 3 players and it will continue for as long as the party is invested in it and there's still enough of them to keep things going. We aren't even half-way through it yet. Champions of Krynn is just over a year old now. We still have 4 players, but it's not clear the third chapter will be released before we finish the second one. So it might be going on hiatus soon. Chronicles of Overmorrow is about three months old and has 3 players still. But it's working under my new system, so if it doesn't work out, it's easy enough to replace. Once the first adventure is complete, I'll have a vote to see if the players want to keep going or not, just like in Matinee.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Mar 1, 2023 12:21:06 GMT -8
Yeah, I (personally) have really been losing interest in PbP D&D lately--I've been busy with schoolwork, and college prep, and my IRL D&D campaign. My heart's not been in it. I'll cut things down to just a game or two as opportunities arise to finish playing.
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Post by Igordragonian on Mar 10, 2023 6:21:35 GMT -8
Yeah sorry.. I have been.. through.. well.. failed sanity checks in Call Of Cthlhu wise....
I got better, but felt guilt and nervouse to get back.. I.. will try..
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Post by Daos on Apr 10, 2023 14:53:18 GMT -8
Bit of an update.
I've recently learned that my roommate will not be renewing the lease come September, but moving out. This means my future living arrangements are...sort of up in the air now. As such, I am currently halting work on all new games. I'll continue the current slate but I won't be starting any new replacement games (such as Renosia and Taladas) until my situation is taken care of. Largely because I'd hate to start a new game only to have to potentially end it a few months later if I wind up homeless or something. Until then, any game that ends will not be replaced--at least, not immediately, anyway.
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Post by Daos on Jun 3, 2023 11:21:34 GMT -8
Time for the spring update: March - 32.4 posts a day April - 37.6 posts a day May - 24.9 posts a day Interesting; there's improvement for March and April, but significant decline in May. Not sure I can explain that. Finals, maybe? There's usually a dip in May, but not by that degree. I'd do another recruitment drive, but my games are--for the most part--still pretty full. So I'm not sure. Maybe start a new one? Not sure I have the time/energy for a sixth one, though. Well, I'll have to think on that. Maybe wait and see if this trend continues, or if May is some kind of anomaly. Anyway, projects in the works: Really just the Roll20 game I am still (very slowly) working on. Still no idea when that will be ready to go. But I've made some decent progress on it recently. Oh, right, spring is over. I almost forgot, time for an update. March - 38 posts a day April - 33.8 posts a day May - 40 posts a day Significant increase in March and in May, but a decrease in April. I've no idea why. Maybe these are just ordinary fluctuations, with no real reason, and I'm just looking for patterns where there are none. Anyway, nothing to really update. Still hoping to end Octhanus by the end of the year, and Past Glory sometime the following year. The only other thing is that, at least for a little while, I'll probably only be updating one combat post a day (for when I have multiple games go into combat at the same time; for instance, I had five games go into combat at the same time coincidentally). Combat posts take a lot of time to write up (sometimes over an hour), especially the first round, and it can get stressful and time-consuming, so from now on, at least until I get a better handle on things, when I have multiple games in combat, I'll only update whichever one has been waiting on me the longest time each day. Alright, may as well get this out of the way. March - 25.7 posts a day April - 16.6 posts a day May - 14.9 posts a day Yeah, those are pretty bad, especially compared to the past couple of years. Not really surprising, though. Greywolf's game is the only one left not being run by me. As for the games being run by me, several of them have broken down completely, thanks to me also breaking down completely. Matinee, Overmorrow and Champions are still chugging along, and I did manage to get Radiant Citadel up and going. But Tyranny of Dragons fell apart, and both Gontoria and Past Glory have dried up entirely. Despite what I said earlier, I am still working on their replacements, although at a slower pace than before. Anyway, the poor numbers over the spring are entirely my fault. My depression has really been kicking my ass lately. It's weird, because in the past no matter how bad it got, it never affected my games. Kind of the opposite. My games are my cure, so to speak. Working on them is what keeps me from sinking in too deep. But now they're being affected, as well, and I'm not sure how to deal with that. I don't expect those numbers to improve (and indeed, they may worsen still) at least until I get the new Lost Souls and Dragonlance games up and running. Even then, it's entirely possible I'm going to be homeless come the end of summer, in which case this place will die off really quick. I admit, that thought makes it harder to work on things. Why put in all of that effort if it won't matter in the end? In the meantime, Matinee is doing well and we'll be wrapping up the current module on it soon. Overmorrow is doing alright, considering it only has 3 players. I might look into finding another one or two for the next adventure. Champions' current adventure is wrapping up. Unfortunately, I have no idea when part 3 is supposed to be released anymore (it was slated for the summer, but they missed their spring release (a 5E conversion of the original modules) so I'm doubtful they're going to make it). I'll have to put that game on hiatus for awhile, it seems. As for Lost Souls and Dragonlance, I don't have a specific timeline on when they'll be ready. Most of the background info is done, and I'm currently working on the first adventures. My pace is slow, though. Maybe another month or two.
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Post by Daos on Jul 27, 2023 10:21:00 GMT -8
This is really hard to write. And not just because my hands are shaking so much.
I now have confirmation that my roommate is moving out when the lease on my apartment ends. I cannot afford to remain here on my own...or anywhere else, for that matter. Rent is just too high all over the city, all over the country, even. I don't make enough money to even get approved on a new apartment, never mind actually live there. And I don't know anyone else to room with. So effectively on September 20th, the last day of the lease, I will be homeless indefinitely.
I still have my car I can live out of, and I still have my phone and laptop, and there are various places in the city where I can charge them and get free wifi (the library, for instance). So it's my hope that I'll be able to continue all active games even after that point, albeit perhaps in a more limited capacity (that is, I probably won't be able to post more than once a day, if that).
I have three games currently on hold. Lost Souls and Dragonlance, which have both died of inactivity, and Champions of Krynn, which is on hold until the next chapter is released. I have replacements set up for the former two; they are either ready to go or almost ready. However, starting up new games at this time does not seem like a good idea. So I will be shelving both of them. And as for Champions, even if chapter 3 dropped today, I'd be reluctant to start it up at this point. So it's getting shelved, as well.
Module Matinee, Chronicles of Overmorrow and Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel will keep going for as long as I'm able to keep posting. And I'll try to keep up with Ministry of Adventures, as well.
But I'll be honest. I don't know how much of myself I can continue to give to these games. Survival is the bigger priority, and my mental health is pretty hard to manage these days even when I do have a bed to sleep in. So I can't make any promises. I'll do my best for as long as I can hold out, but I don't blame anyone if they decide to bail.
I won't be starting up any new games or recruiting new people for current games for the indefinite future. However, if someone else wishes to start a new game, I'll still set them up, of course.
If there are any questions, let me know. But things should continue normally, at least for a couple of months, and hopefully after that, too.
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Matt4
Paragon
Posts: 3,540
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Post by Matt4 on Jul 27, 2023 12:37:16 GMT -8
Oh my God, Daos I'm so sorry...
Is there anything you could do to try and solve this? Maybe you could print some ads to put somewhere (like, a university or something) to find for a new roommate?
I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your landlord, but maybe you could ask them if could make a lease on your own for your room? Idk how it works there but when I was renting, I had my own arrangements with my landlord, and they were unaffected by my roommates moving in or out.
Or you could discuss with them the situation and see what they are planning to do once your roommate moves out, and see if they can account for you in those plans. For example, if they plan on searching for new tenants, maybe they could only search for one, and then make a lease to both of you, like you had with your old roommate?
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Post by Daos on Jul 27, 2023 14:47:17 GMT -8
Well, anything's possible. But the odds aren't in my favor. The chances of me finding a suitable roommate in 8 weeks is pretty low as it is. But I'm a 41 year old single guy with no family or friends and the social skills of an empty jar of mayonnaise, So convincing a random person off the street I'm not an axe murderer, never mind to move in with me, is quite a challenge. As for my landlords...maybe the old ones might be willing to cut me a deal. The new ones, it's highly doubtful. We got some new owners a couple of years back, and they're quite different from any previous ones: * You may recall about a year ago they essentially made our home unlivable for a week, twice, to do renovations on the place. That meant 8 hours a day, for 2 weeks or longer, of workers stomping around the place, ripping out walls, turning off power/water, kicking up a ton of dust, moving stuff around, etc. The second time we wound up staying at a hotel for a week. There was no compensation and the owners were kind of rude in how they went about it (their basic stance was, 'we're doing this, we own this place, deal with it or get out.') * They refuse to negotiate rent increases. All previous owners would allow us to negotiate, and because we had lived here so long (17 years now), and always paid rent on time, they would usually knock off a bit for us. However, the new owners refuse to even meet with us about it. They just threaten to kick us out if we don't agree to it. * Last rent increase was a whopping $400/month. For context, it's usually closer to $100 or so. Likely this was meant to pay for all of the mandatory renovations. * They recently sent us a very threatening letter, basically telling us to remove any and all items from the balcony (including things like wind chimes or hanging plants) or else they would evict us within 10 days. When we called them up to ask what the hell (particularly as we don't have anything up on our balcony?), they were like, "Oh, we sent a copy to everyone." And that was just...like really rude and threatening language to send to every tenant? Baffling. So yeah, I'm doubtful they would care to help me in any way. My instinct is that they are just hoping to pretty the place up a bit and flip it for a quick profit, and don't care about the actual tenants or any long term profitability.
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Post by GreyWolfVT on Jul 27, 2023 16:04:30 GMT -8
While I can't entirely relate to all of that ordeal Daos, I truly can relate to the potential of becoming homeless it happened to me 2 years ago, and if it wasn't for some really bad luck for someone else we would be living in a camper if it was legal in this state (which it is up until winter hits.) I wish there was something I could to do help you out since I have been in that sitation it sucks, rent is insane in this country. Housing booms in states that had low Covid numbers didn't help with mass amounts of people relocating to those states and buying up all the property for insanely high prices drove housing and rental prices through the roof.
But anyway that is my ranting, portion hopefully over. If there is anything I can do please let me know.
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Matt4
Paragon
Posts: 3,540
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Post by Matt4 on Jul 27, 2023 16:43:42 GMT -8
Yeah, those new landlords don't seem reasonable people :/ I didn't understand something, are the old ones still involved in some way? Any chance you could talk with them?
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Post by Daos on Jul 27, 2023 22:03:55 GMT -8
Thanks, Greywolf. If there was anything anyone could do, I'd definitely ask. Sadly, I don't see any way out of this.
Matt, no, the current owners bought out the entire complex from the previous owners, changed the name and everything. I have no idea where the old owners went, but they have no authority here any further.
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Post by Igordragonian on Jul 28, 2023 5:12:18 GMT -8
I had my own share of terrible landlords. (One tried to make me pay for problems at the house that existed for 20 years before me- claiming I "have ruined the house" I had to tediously gather the previouse tennats who have confirmed.. that those problems were since forever.)
I.. am really feeling for you. This is a disgusting behavior.
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