2024 Year-in-Review

I first published this blog in October of 2023, which means 2024 was my first full year of blogging. I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the year. 

I posted 38 times this year, which is more than three times per month on average, although some months were more productive than others. 17 of those posts were play reports about my AD&D 2nd edition campaign.

Which brings me to the elephant in the room. There were a few more sessions of that campaign - maybe two or three - but ultimately, it petered out. I got tired of preparing for it, running it, and writing about it. I talked to my players about it and they were not super into it for a variety of reasons - mostly because they felt they were progressing too slowly. And they didn't want me to run a game I wasn't enjoying. So, we stopped.

It's funny because I looked back at those play reports, and in the very beginning I said that I didn't want to overdo it and make it a ton of work for myself, but that's exactly what I did. Those posts are fairly long and detailed. It was too much.

But reading them again also gave me the distinct feeling that the game was really fun. The stories that emerged were interesting, and what happened was almost never what I expected. I was really glad that I had put so much care into writing about the game, even if it contributed to my burnout, and I wished that I had kept it going. I'm considering trying to rekindle the campaign with some concessions to get the players back on board, but I'm hesitant to jump back into something that wasn't enjoyable to me and which I already successfully extricated myself from.

While that game ended, I continued playing in a separate 5e game (DMed by one of the players in my AD&D game). That DM was likewise getting tired of running the game, and I was just starting to want to try my hand at it again, so I started filling in as a guest DM here and there. 

The DM eventually ran one last adventure to conclude the game, which ended with half the surviving characters trapped on the wrong side of a portal to Hell. That scenario was interesting enough for me to want to pick up the ball and run with it, so I've been running a 5e game in Hell for a few months now.

I haven't written about that much because I don't want to spend the time when I'm energized to work on D&D stuff writing about what already happened instead of preparing for what needs to happen next. Part of me still wants to write about my ongoing games, though. Maybe I will again in 2025, if I can learn to contain myself to brief reports.

My most-viewed post from 2024 is On Initiative, in which I detail a Frankenstein's Monster initiative system for 5e which combines B/X's phased initiative with optional initiative modifiers from the 5e DMG (which are in turn inspired by AD&D's speed factor rules). This is probably popular because it was linked in Dwiz's post compiling EVERY (?) initiative method.

I'm not even really sure that I still like the system I came up with. It still requires everyone to roll initiative, so it still brings the dramatic moment when combat is joined to a grinding halt. All it really accomplishes is tie the sequence of actions to what the combatants are actually doing, and nerf spellcasters by making their spells interruptible (which is its greatest strength, in my opinion, but maybe accomplishable by other means). Admittedly, although I'm currently running a 5e game, I haven't bothered to try playtesting this because I feel like it would be a hard sell to my players.

Some other posts from this year that performed well this year include On Language (which did well mostly because it was linked over on Prismatic Wasteland and Fail Forward - thank you both!), On Reducing Combat Frequency and Length in D&D 5e, Can't Someone Else Do This?, On the Adventuring Day, On Random Encounters: Men, D&D is a Problem-Solving Game, and On Monster Manuals.

Those are most of my "big posts" from the year. A few others which didn't perform so well for whatever reason were On Identification, On Necromancy, and On Illusions. These were some of my favorite posts to write, but they are more focused topics. Maybe they are only of interest to me.

The story of 2024 is a tale of two halves: 29 posts (including all of the play reports) from January to May, and just 9 after that. Excluding the play reports, it's 12 in the first half and 9 in the second, which isn't as big of a disparity. Yet, all but two of those most-viewed posts are from the first half of the year, which suggests to me that the blog gets more eyes on it when it's more active. Ending the regular play reports maybe hurt the performance of the other posts, even if relatively few people read the play reports themselves.

I don't know what lies in store for this blog in 2025. It sometimes feels like a lot of work for very little payoff. My posts don't get a lot of comments or engagement of any kind. There is probably more I can do to promote the blog. Now I mostly do so through Twitter, while most bloggers seem to be moving to Bluesky. I don't particularly want to do that, because if I was going to quit Twitter then I would rather just quit Twitter, not move to the New Twitter and start all over again. Some people I like are still on Twitter, so in fact I would just be adding a second Twitter solely to promote this blog.

I am also somewhat hesitant to promote the blog because I guess I am suffering from some imposter syndrome. Obviously everyone who has a blog is technically a blogger, but am struggling to figure out what makes my blog unique. The only game I play is D&D. Obviously, a lot of bloggers write about D&D in all but name, but I mostly play 2e and 5e. Those are not "cool" versions of the game. (Obviously 5e is the most popular TTRPG of all time, but not among the sorts of bloggers and designers I admire.)

I still mostly like 5e (the 2014 version, anyway), despite having a lot of problems with it. I like writing about those problems and how I'd fix them. I also like looking at older editions and describing how things have changed or how 5e can be improved by implementing past design elements. Maybe that's super niche and people just aren't interested in it, but that's the sort of thing I imagined this blog would cover.

Aside from being discouraged by the lack of engagement, I'm also just not sure how much I really have to say. It's fun to write about different types of wizards, poke and plug holes in 5e, and editorialize about how everyone but me is playing the game wrong, but I don't seriously feel like my thoughts are particularly insightful or are contributing towards any broader discourse. 

I also sometimes feel like I'm just out of things to write about. I keep hoping that ideas will come with playing the game, but it doesn't happen often. Maybe if I play a new game, the ideas will come back. Maybe if I play a "cool" game, people will be interested in what I have to say.

I tried getting a few Mork Borg games together this year, but they all fizzled out an hour before we were scheduled to play. Some friends I went to PAXU with expressed interest, but we haven't been able to convert that interest into an actual session. I have plenty of adventures ready. I kind of feel that the system is too simple and is kind of...boring? But I won't know until I actually play it.

I got the Mothership boxed set and am excited to try running that. I am also considering Dungeon/Mutant Crawl Classics. I like Old School Essentials and would probably run that too, once I grab some more adventures for it. I own but am yet to read Blades in the Dark, Troika, and Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City. At the very least, it's been a good year for building my collection.

In 2025, I hope to persevere and continue posting, regardless of the subject. I hope to post more often but with shorter entries, so that it doesn't feel like a chore. I hope to break out of my comfort zone and play new games. I hope to play with new people, too. I hope to write about those experiences. I hope to gain some confidence and make more of an effort to get this blog out there. Mostly I just hope to be inspired.