Feedback and Blog Direction

Where to go next

I've got a little bit of a different post today, and mostly it involves needing your feedback. When I first started this blog, the goal was to show how I played solo RPGs in the hope that insight would help others get into their own solo games. And I honestly think that was pretty successful in my first Shadowdark Campaign.

Since then, things have changed. I switched systems to The One Ring after a vote by my readers, and while I love the system, it's not as fast as Shadowdark. I also started running a weekly Dolmenwood campaign that I love. I decided to share the play reports from that campaign and see if other people liked it. What I've come to realize over the past few months is that all of those things combined have significantly reduced how much solo play I'm actually doing. Based on my last few articles, the blog is definitely trending in the direction of more group play reports than solo play articles. I don't know that this is a bad thing, but I also don't know if it's what you would prefer to read.

Lastly, while my posts are definitely getting plenty of views, they tend to get very few likes. Since I don't know how Substack calculates views, it's possible that people are opening the article, reading the first four sentences, and then moving on. If that's true, then it sort of means no one is reading the article, and I prefer to produce content that my readers want to see.

I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now and decided that what I'd like to do is just ask your opinion. What do you want to see this blog produce? I think there are three realistic options.

First, I could just stop posting the Dolmenwood play reports and focus on the Solo Gameplay articles. This would give me more time to play and write up the solo stuff.

Second, I could focus mostly on Solo Gaming content and just post abbreviated summaries of the Dolmenwood game. I would have more time for the solo stuff, and the play reports would be much shorter. I’ve included an example below if anyone is interested.

Lastly, I could just keep going the way things are. It would mean probably 1 Solo Play article a month for a while, and the focus would be more on Dolmenwood for now.

My call to action is that you take 30 seconds or less to fill out this survey. Knowing what the people who take their precious time to read my blog want to read would be incredible.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog, and a huge thanks to everyone who helps me figure out what to do with this blog!

Example of a Dolmenwood Session Summary

You’ll notice this is much shorter. Like a 3-minute read vs a 13-minute read, and I already do these for myself anyway.

Day 24: Grimvold, 24th

Weather: Relentless Wind - Really picking up, it’s quickly becoming a storm across the lake
Encounter: Day: No / Travel: Yes (5 Werewolves, No surprise, Reaction: Indifferent, may negotiate)
Locations: Incandescent Grottos at the Crystal Caves > Refuge of St Keye

Notes:

• The group has an incredible combat with the Drune group and barely emerges victorious, though the leader does escape. During the combat, “Marjoram” reveals herself to be a Doppelganger, shape-shifts into Chalice-of-Duskviolet’s form, and tries to slay Chalice-of-Duskviolet but is unsuccessful (barely, she had 1hp left), it also escapes. This was a very tough fight, and the group fought incredibly smart. Some highlights include:

  • Some incredibly lucky saves in the first round when the Druene tried to paralyze most of them. Only Moriah failed.

  • Sister Molly’s silence, and Roland’s silence (cast one Hesper) was insane. Since you can’t move and cast in the same turn it meant that half of the Drune’s turns were simple spent moving away.

  • Arda running up and shoving a healing potion in Hesper’s mouth mid-fight was great. This was a brilliant way to use Arda effectively without putting him in danger of dying.

• The group retreats back to camp and with several of them close to death they decide to risk it and make for the closest Inn, the Refuge of Saint Keye. Where they can heal up and prepare for further excursions. Along the way they encounter a group of predatory looking men (werewolves), though they don’t seem interested in fighting. Moriah recognizes them as having “the gaze of a predator looking at prey” and things are tense for a moment before they move on. She can’t shake the feeling of a pack of wolves staring at a herd of deer and simply deciding they aren’t hungry enough to bother.

• They arrive at the Refuge of St Keye in the early afternoon and hole up to heal.

A storm hits the following day and lasts for 5 days. The group rides it out, healing and licking their wounds. A few events of note:

• Chalice-of-Duskviolet doesn’t let anyone in her room for 2 days, including Arda. She was on the verge of being killed by herself and needed some time to deal with it alone.

• Moriah had been paralyzed by the Drunes magic from the beginning of the fight and spent the next several minutes stuck inside her body as she watched her friend almost die. Worse she had a front row seat to the Doppelgänger/Chalice affair and knew that at any moment the Doppelgänger could simply walk up and slit her throat without issue. Having already died once the prospect of dying again was terrifying. Moriah ultimately suffered no physical damage but was dealing with plenty of trauma. She needed to decompress in her own way and went off into the woods to forage each day despite the storm. In addition to normal rations she also found 3 Knobbled Mandrakes (incredibly rare herbs though she doesn’t know what they do you.