State of the Site

[Rax]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Daos .

I assume that you can't access some form of publicly funded housing allowance or other economic assistance to help with the rent?

[Daos]

Thanks, and I've been trying, but my entire state has a huge homeless problem.  There are so many (due to skyrocketing rent and housing prices, as well as stagnating wages) that the system is overloaded.  There's just not enough resources to go around.  Even homeless shelters have a years long waiting list.  Things were bad before, but post-COVID they've become even worse.

I'll keep trying, though.  Maybe something will come up.

[Daos]

Okay, I have some good news for a change.

I will not be homeless in six weeks, as it turns out.  I managed to buy myself one more year.  It took a bit of a Faustian bargain to pull off, and there's every possibility that one year from now I'll be in the exact same situation I was now, but even if that is the case, I'll take it.  And at least a year will buy me enough time to maybe find a way out of this situation entirely.

So as far as this site goes, things will continue normally, at least for awhile longer.  So there's that, at least.

[GravityEmblem]

That's great news! I'm really happy you managed to work towards a solution.

[Matt4]

Oh my God, I'm so happy to hear this! So you'll remain in your home?

[Daos]

Yep, I'll be staying here, at least for another year.  I'll be moving after that, but hopefully into a new home and not into my car.

[GreyWolfVT]

Glad to hear it Daos. Hopefully that year works out and gives you plenty of time to find somewhere else that is not your car. 

[Igordragonian]

I'm glad that at least for now things are working out

[Daos]

I'm pretty glad, too.

As for the site, now that it has a future, I'll resume work again on my 2E Dragonlance and Lost Souls games.  Maybe get one of them up in the next week or two.

[Matt4]

Oh, I was looking forward to those!

[Daos]

Sept 1, 2022 12:45:03 GMT -8 Daos said:

Sept 6, 2021 12:23:03 GMT -8 Daos said:

Alright, let's see how we did for the summer.

June - 25.5 posts a day
July - 39.9 posts a day
August - 42.4 posts a day

Uh, wow, we broke the highest record (35.6) twice.  The new record is now 42.4!  That's incredible.

I hope things continue to do so well.  There are ten games (nine active) at the moment, and I am running six of them.  And although I probably shouldn't add to that, I do plan to run The Mystery of the Missing Patrol when it's released (probably October).  Assuming I don't overexert myself, we should have some pretty good numbers for autumn, too.

Heck, we even got a spambot today.  It's been a long time since that's happened; I don't think we usually get enough traffic for them to bother with us, so I think that's probably a good sign, albeit an annoying one.

Another summer come and gone.

June - 33.3 posts a day
July - 36.1 posts a day
August - 35.6 posts a day

An increase in June, but a decline in July and August since last year.  No new records broken.

I have some plans, though, that might significantly increase the activity of the site, though.

About a month ago, I had this revelation about the nature of pbp and long-term campaigns, which you can read here if you never saw it.  The long and short of it is, when I started running pbp games six years ago, I didn't really take into account just how loooong they take.  Most of my games are long term campaigns, and as a result, they may take 10 years or more to finish, which is not only exhausting but leads to stagnation, as well.  By complete accident, I stumbled on the solution--Module Matinee, where after each adventure (usually around three chapters or so), the party votes as to whether they want to continue to the next one, or roll new characters and start something else instead.  The benefits of this system are numerous:

* If too many players ghost or drop, we can always recruit more, roll up a new party and keep going.
* Games don't need to last years and years, unless the players actively vote for them to.
* Easier to write in new characters and write out old ones.
* Easier to recruit more people without constantly adding more new games to my plate.
* Avoids stagnation and burnout, as things are constantly changing

I've decided that I'm going to eventually transition all of my games to this method.  Of course, 'eventually' is the keyword there, because again, pbps are slow, so ending the current slate will take awhile.  I'm still hoping to end Octhania by the end of this year, Past Glory by the end of next year.  I'm currently brainstorming ways to bring Gontoria to a satisfying end, as well.  Tyranny of Dragons and Champions of Krynn, though, have a long, long way to go unless they end through other means (TPK, everyone ghosts/quits, etc.).

I'm thinking of sticking to six active games, as that seems to be my absolute limit.  Three 2E games, three 5E games.  Each group with have one homebrew game, one published setting game, and one module game.

For the 2E games, the homebrewed game will be Lost Souls.  It will work the way MM does.  We'll roll up new characters and vote on a location in the setting, then play there until we're ready to move on to another area.  Instead of limiting the game to a single continent (Gontoria, Octhania, etc.), the entire map is open, so we might have a political intrigue game in Tardiff, then move on a swashbuckling adventure in the Octhanian isles, etc.  This game will begin once Lost Souls Gontoria ends.  Module Matinee will stay as it is, with the players shifting between various settings when they vote to do so, like Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, etc.  And when Past Glory ends, I'll run a 2E Dragonlance game to replace it using the same method, having players vote where on Krynn they want to play, including other continents like Taladas and Adlatum, or maybe even other planets in Krynnspace, if they want.

For the 5E games, the homebrewed game will be my new setting.  Which means I need to come up with a name for it, because it won't do to call it Lost Souls--that'll be confusing.  I've been brainstorming ideas, but nothing yet.  The module game will be using various 5E one-shot modules, which there aren't many officially (most 5E modules are full blown campaigns), but there is third party content I might be able to dig through to find more.  Not sure what to call that one, either.  What's the opposite of a matinee?  Soiree?  Module Soiree?  Hmm, loses the alliteration, though.  I'll have to think on that.  And for the published setting game...hmm, that one's tricky, too.  None of the 5E settings really excite me.  Forgotten Realms and Exandria are kind of generic.  I'm pretty disappointed in 5E's versions of Spelljammer and Dragonlance, and I'm not sure I'll care for their version of Planescape, either, when it comes out.  I'll probably just run Dragonlance using fan rules until Skyraiders of Abarax comes out, then maybe switch to that.  Unless I discover another 5E setting I really like.

So basically:

When Lost Souls Gontoria ends, it will be replaced by a Lost Souls game.
Module Matinee will stay as it is.
When Lost Souls Octhania ends, it will be replaced by my new untitled 5E setting.
When Past Glory ends, it will be replaced by a 2E Dragonlance game.
When Tyranny of Dragons ends, it will be replaced by a 5E equivalent of Module Matinee.
When Champions of Krynn ends, it will be replaced by a 5E Dragonlance game, and maybe later by Skyraiders of Abarax.

I'm pretty excited about implementing these changes, although again, none of this is happening any time soon.  We're talking months, even years, not days or weeks.  But I feel like once things have fully shifted over, it will be good for the site, and a lot easier on me.  And of course, these are just my own games.  Anyone else can run a game however they want.  You want to start a full blown campaign from 1st to 20th level?  Go for it.  I just hope I'm still around and kicking long enough to see the end. 

Speaking of which, as always, anyone who wants to start up a new game, by all means, let me know.

Summer can't be over fast enough, to be honest.

June - 16.3 posts a day
July - 19.6 posts a day
August - 23.3 posts a day

Yeah, a pretty abysmal drop from last year, but hardly surprising.

A lot has changed in a year, and even just during the summer.  We're down to four active games (three of which are run by me).  Lost Souls Gontoria, Past Glory and Tyranny of Dragons all fell apart.  Champions of Krynn's third part still hasn't come out yet.

But on the bright side, the three games I am still running seem to be doing pretty well.

Module Matinee is starting its third year and fourth adventure with Dragonlance.  Which, granted, means we're only averaging about 2 adventures a year, but it's still chugging along, at least.  No ghosts, full party of six.

Chronicles of Overmorrow is nearing the end of its first year and second chapter.  Which again, seems to be about 2 adventures a year.  Hmm.  Has that become my new average, I wonder?  I used to aim for 4 a year.  No ghosts, though, and a solid party of four now.

I started up Journeys of the Radiant Citadel at the beginning of the summer, and we're now in the second chapter.  We had one ghost, but got a replacement, which was handled fairly smoothly.  So far my new system is working out pretty well.

And I'm working on getting Lost Souls Renosia up soon.  I haven't even finished it yet and it already has four players, so that's promising.  If all goes well, I might get the new Dragonlance game, The Foreign North, up sometime before the year's end, as well.

Originally my plan was to have three 2E games running (Lost Souls, Dragonlance, Module Matinee), which I am working on, plus three 5E games (Overmorrow, Published Setting and Series of Modules).  Radiant Citadel kind of fills the third slot, but there's still the second slot.  I had planned on running maybe a 5E Dragonlance game or Skyraiders of Abarax if it ever comes out, but I'm rethinking that.  I've soured a bit on 5E of late.  Plus, I no longer think Dragonlance is really viable in 5E.  And there's no telling when, if ever, SoA will be released (it's been nearly two years now).

To be honest, running six games at once was pretty taxing anyway.  I think I'll just stick to the set up I have now.  Lost Souls, Dragonlance and Module Matinee on the 2E side, and Overmorrow and Radiant Citadel on the 5E side.  I might need to just give up on Champions of Krynn.  Even if part three comes out, I probably won't be able to afford to buy it now.  Thanks to the Faustian deal I made to avoid being homeless this year, my entertainment budget is now $0/month for the foreseeable future.

Honestly, making any long term plans is probably a bad idea at this point.  There's still a very high chance I might wind up homeless anyway come next year.  It's still too early to tell.

Anyway, blah, blah, blah, society collapsing, planet burning, life sucks, etc.  Hopefully Renosia gets those numbers up a bit for the autumn, and Foreign North can further bolster them for the winter.  Fingers crossed.

[Matt4]

things seem to have improved compared to april/may! Let's hope they continue this way


How much do you think the third chapter of Champions of Krynn would cost?

[Daos]

Not sure.  Chapter 2 was about $5.  But I heard a rumor that they are going to bundle Chapter 3 with the first two.  Which would be pretty annoying, as I already have the first two, and that would presumably make it more expensive, too.

At this point, though, I have no idea.  They haven't updated their Patreon since March.

[Matt4]

Yeah, that would suck. I hope they give the option to either buy them as a bundle or just buy them individually :/ (if it come out at all at this point)

[Daos]

So even though it will cost me $3/month, I went ahead and increased the file storage of the site by 300 mb.  Considering it took many years to fill the free 200 mb, we should have plenty of space to upload files for a long good while now.  So now I don't need to keep deleting old files to make room for new ones.