Hi all! It is the last day of 2013 in Australia as I type this and I thought that I might throw a post up here taking a look back at what I have achieved over the past year. What I have done well and what I need to do better. This is by no means a list of resolutions. I don’t do stuff like that. Just a few observations based on my year that was.
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| My Emily Vitori Original! |
Firstly to my blog! The Pathfinder Chronicles has been a huge focus for me this year. It is actually the third blog I have ever started but really the first one I have devoted time to and my first blog that focusses on gaming (RPG’s mainly) as a whole. It has been going for a little over a year and my focus on it has grown it from a measly 14 views a month at the start to around 10000 views per month now. I have a great response to my posts and have great readers too. They are very involved in my blogs and freely offer comment. Sure, some posts I write I feel I will ignite a fire of discussion and get nothing and am surprised at some posts that get a lot of discussion when I expect none. Regardless, I am very grateful for the support.
I want my blog to be a resource for others in a variety of ways. I want new GM’s to be able to rummage through previous posts and find articles that help them ease into the role. I would like experienced GM’s to take a look and offer their advice as well as considering my own as there are many ways to approach the one problem. I also enjoy doing my posts that offer up NPC’s to various game systems that are usable by anyone who wants to take them on! It will also always be a portal for people to watch the on-line games that I run via my links to my YouTube channel. I am not hugely worried about making any money from the blog and monetary concern is minor. I did add Google adsense to the blog but literally have not been paid a cent as yet (I think I have made about $10 all up) and I also added links to DriveThruRPG as well and did make around $5 from that which purchased me a game. I am financially secure in my life and this blog is more of a hobbyists outlet.
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| My first requested review got me to buy the physical copy of the book! |
One thing I think I may have overdone though is how prolific I have been. In the end on average I was averaging about a post a day and I feel that this is too much. I was getting frustrated with myself toward November when I realised that I had nothing to say that I had not covered and so was bringing out some questionable comment posts. I have found that since taking a break from the blog for a month that I am naturally seeing things that I want to comment on as I have more time to read what others are saying and looking at the whole picture. As it was I would wake up, think about what Iwas going to blog about. Write the blog, post it and then look at what else needed to be done for the day. I think this will change to perhaps two to three on average a week now. One of these may be an NPC and the other two commentaries or reviews. Either way the posts will slow. These posts I am talking about will not include any that I offer up for showing the games I run as they are easy to maintain.
My involvement in RPG’s this year has been huge! Larger than it has possibly ever been after I left high school. There have been successes and failures through the year but on average I am so happy to be so heavily involved in RPG’s to this level. My first disappointment was that I did not complete my game Detritus this year. I have done a lot of work on it but what I thought would be an easy task became a lot more convoluted than I had first thought. That is OK though. It is only a failure in that I wanted it finished by the end of 2013. I know that the extra time I am putting into it will make it a better game in the long run and hope to finish it in 2014.
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| My boat finally got it airing in the Skull and Shackles |
I have enjoyed doing some unpaid work with an RPG company during the year and made some good contacts through this. I am much more concerned with contributing to the community rather than making money from it so I am more than happy to offer up what I have on the blog to anyone that wants it. I know that there is little chance in the immediate future of me being able to be financially secure in the industry but I want to see it not only survive, but thrive! That said one of my major disappointments for the year was the fact that I was not chosen to help write for the newly reforming Earthdawn in 2014. I got to the second round but it seems I have missed out on writing official material for my all time favourite RPG. Not that this will stop me being a big fan, it was just a big disappointment. I am happy for those that did get the offer though and look forward to what you manage to come up with.
I have put in my RPG Superstar entry for Paizo again this year and hope perhaps that I may actually crack into the second round for the first time ever this year! It is my third attempt and I truly think that I have learnt a bit from the previous two years so here is fingers crossed for that. As we are talking about Pathfinder,m I am actually working on the final levels of the clock adventure that I started on the blog. It went a bit quiet because I got to the point that I had it all worked out but realised that I was a very poor map maker. Thanks to a couple of tutorials I have found on the internet though they are slowly coming together and if I get nothing else done before I return to work on the blog, the clock adventure should be a completed project!
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| Let us not forget that Hawthorn are the AFL winners! |
Finally, over 2013 I have finally come to see the value of the internet. All of my non-internet based friends always told me the internet was brilliant because you could get anything there. They are specifically talking about pirating stuff and I do not pirate. I am morally objected to it as I see the damage that it does to people. Massive conglomerates can weather this cost but it annoys me to see software houses and publishers go under to this because people can not be bothered paying a reasonable fee for a product. But this year I found my place with the internet. And it was Google+ that did this as I finally realised it is the perfect place for collusion and community and finding people of the same mind set.
I have been inspired by new games, new people and a new outlook this year. I have peeled back the skin of RPG’s to find that there is a wonder land of beautiful games that tell stories that matter hidden by the big successful games. I have also learnt that everyone’s opinion matters! I have had some fantastic conversations over this year that have made me change my views on a lot of material and also offered comment that I feel has done the same for others. I have GM’d some great games and also played in some brilliant games over the past year and I hope that this trend will continue into 2014.
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| Pathfinder, still going strong… |
So, as a finale to this rolling blog I want to specifically thank the following people for their part in my 2013 gaming resurgence. This is by far and above not a complete list but it is a list of people I have met this year that have challenged and enriched my life! Thanks go to: +Cameron Corniuk, +Jonathan Henry, +Dan Hall, +Matt Guyder, +matt jackson, +Desiree Kaleopaa, +Tom Tyson, +Emily Vitori, +Jeffrey Tadlock, +Brianna Sheldon, +Morgan Weeks, +Shawn Driscoll, +Kristin Hunt, +Jeff Miller, +Carl Pinder, +Carl Congdon, +Seth Blumberg, +Steve Russell, +R.S. Tilton, +Nico Lindner, +Scott Cadoo, +Justin Aquino, +Cam Mcloughlin, +libby furr, +Martin M, +Stuart McDermid, +Emi Cordill, +Jesse Butler, +Georg Mir and +Christopher Hardy. I am sure I will kick myself with some names that I have missed off this list but it is by no means intentional and I offer my thanks to everyone that has chatted with me over the past year in any context. I salute you. Keep rolling!