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Post by GreyWolfVT on Oct 1, 2023 17:29:53 GMT -8
I can stop attaching files in my game if that helps.
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Post by Daos on Oct 1, 2023 17:37:42 GMT -8
No, that's not necessary. Besides, there's plenty of space now, so there's no need to hold back. It will take years to fill it back up again.
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Post by Daos on Dec 4, 2023 16:41:27 GMT -8
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. Analytics for 2023 Autumn: September - 20.8 posts a day October - 26.3 posts a day November - 22.5 posts a day Something of a decline from previous autumns. Honestly, I'm not even sure why I continue to track these metrics. Just masochistic to some degree, I suppose. We're now down to four games, as Greywolf ended his game, so the site is again 100% dependent on me to maintain activity. Which is probably why things have been so slow lately; I've been working so much, I haven't had time to post as much. The Foreign North is still in the air. Technically, it's ready to go now--has been for awhile. But I didn't want to start up two games at the same time, so I decided to give Renosia some time to breathe. And by the time it did, I realized it was the holidays, and past experience has taught me that's a terrible time to start up a new game--everyone is so busy, including myself. So consequently, the plan is to wait until January. Although...I wonder if that's still wise. Considering how hard it's been to juggle four games lately, adding a fifth may be a bad idea. Maybe I should just let that one go. I don't know. We'll see how things look in a month. Still no word on the third chapter of Champions of Krynn, if anyone is still wondering. Not even a vague release window, never mind a date. Anyway, not much else to report. I'll do my best to keep the four remaining games chugging along. |
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Post by Daos on Mar 2, 2024 17:22:08 GMT -8
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. Winter analytics for 2023/2024. December - 16.5 posts a day January - 18.4 posts a day February - 13.7 posts a day The numbers just keep dropping. Nothing really has changed since last time. I've decided to keep The Foreign North on indefinite hold for now, as I just don't have the time and energy to get another game going. Maybe once one of the four active games ends, I'll swap it in. |
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Post by Daos on Jun 1, 2024 15:24:40 GMT -8
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. 2024 Spring Analytics: March - 13.5 posts a day April - 10.8 posts a day May - 9.9 posts a day So fun fact. Originally the lowest record ever was 13.9, back when I first started tracking analytics. We broke that record in February with 13.7. Then we broke it again in March, again in April, and again in May. I imagine we'll continue breaking that record throughout the summer, too. As more and more games dry up (we're down to three now), those numbers will likely continue to dwindle. Honestly, I'm fine with it. I've been running games non-stop for seven years now. I'm pretty badly burned out. I'll continue the remaining three for as long as they last, but I won't be starting up any new games for awhile. I need a break. |
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Post by Daos on Sept 1, 2024 12:36:04 GMT -8
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. Analytics of Summer 2024: June - 11 posts a day July - 10.4 posts a day August - 9.3 posts a day A new low record of 9.3. Anyway, my Chronicles of Overmorrow game dried up when everyone but one player dropped it. This means we're now down to two active games, both module based, one for 2E (Module Matinee) and one for 5E (Journeys of the Radiant Citadel). For the moment, both are doing well. I am also working on a new project; a West Marches style game set in Forgotten Realms using Ruins of Adventure (the module that Pool of Radiance is based on). That's about it. I'm moving in a few days, so I probably won't get too much done until I'm settled in at my new place. My goals for autumn are to finish the current chapters of MM and Citadel, and make some decent headway in my RoA game. |
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