Past Year in the Manor

I didn't do this last year and not sure if I did one of these year end posts ever, but for some reason I feel like doing one this year.  I think its been a good year overall for my gaming.  Bought too much stuff again, but you'll have that.  My vices are few, but intense and one of them is gaming stuff.  Here are some general numbers for Gothridge Manor this year.

Number of Reviewed Products:16
Crawl! No. 8: Firearms
Tombstones of Terror
Life of Rage OSR Edition
Adventures Dark and Deep: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore
Rory's Story Cubes
Adventure Fantasy Game
Verloren
World War Z
6 Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer
Gnomes of Levnec
Lair of the Orc Shaman
Kefitzat Haderech
Citadel by the Sea
Moleskin Maps 4
Moleskin Maps 3
Menagerie of the Ice Lord

I'm glad to see I did at least 16 reviews.  I would like to do more this coming year. 

Number of Maps Posted: 21
Little Laminated Maps
Mini Map Time!
Map Time! and a Question
Map Time!
Map Time!
Campaign Map Funneling
Mega-Dungeon Map Time!
Map Time...I Know, Again
Map Time.  Again!
Map Time! 
Campaign Map Time!
Map Time!
Map Time!
Map Time!
Map Time!
Map Time!
Map Time!
Map and Adventure Under Construction
Map Transformation
Map Time!
Dungeon Map

I hope my maps were a little more creative than the post titles.

My Favorite Chart:
Mr. Blue created this chart for my Manors.  So cool.

Ha!  Really love this chart.  Mr. Blue, I would love to see an updated version.

Products Released this Year:  6
February, The Manor #3
April, Mini Manor: Faces Without Screams released for Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day.
July, The Manor #4
August, Where is Margesh Blackblood?
November, Manor #5
December, Execution Corner

I'm very happy with the the number of releases I had during the year.  In 2014 I would like to get four issues of the Manor released along with side projects.

Things I Failed to Follow Through With:  2
NaNoWriMo
Commenter XP

While I did not follow through with NaNoWriMo I did get a lot of writing done and it got me started on a couple of projects.  Commenter XP became too much paperwork although I want to do something in the future that is much easier to calculate. 

Conventions Attended:  1
Con on the Cob

I'd like to get into a couple more cons next year or at least game days.  And I hope not to get sick as hell next time.

Most Visited Posts
Campaign Map Funneling - 975
Friday Question: Diseases - 974
1000 Posts - OSR Mega Bundle Giant Giveaway - 854
Mega-Dungeon Map Time! - 734
Thoughts on How to Keep a Mega-Dungeon Interesting - 720

The Map Funneling and Diseases numbers were greatly enhanced by my linking them to Reddit.  Still, I've seen a large increase in hit this year. 

Best Event at the Manor
1000 Posts - OSR Mega Bundle Giant Giveaway

This was amazing.  So many people donated to my giveaway to make it a bug event.  People I'd never spoken to before were very generous and I was able to give four people 15 different PDFs and RPGNow gift cards.  

On-Going Posts
Sleestak Sunday
Friday Question
Map Time! 
GM Games Sales Reports

Sleestaks are getting harder to find these days, but I do enjoy the hunt.  Friday questions always seem to get a good response.  Map Time!, who doesn't love maps?  And the GM Games report is a peek at my numbers and how I do things.  Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. 

Blog Gamers I Met Over the Year:  5
+Ken H - The Rusty Battle Axe
+Chris C. - The Clash of Spear on Shield
Dylan Hartwell - Digital Orc
+Bryce Lynch - 10 Foot Pole
imredave - Forgotten Runes
+Dan C. - The Dungeoneering Dad

All of these fine folks I met at Con on the Cob.  I even managed to get Chris join our Money night group....sucker.

Thanks to everyone who takes time out of their day to check out Gothridge Manor.  Here's to the new year and all the cool gaming stuff it will bring.

House Cleaning at the Manor

A slightly new look for Gothridge Manor.  I divided my blog rolls into 5 instead of just 2.  I'm following a lot of blogs so I am hoping I can keep up with them better.  I guess I have 6 blog rolls.  I put The Happy Whisk on her own blog roll and as I was instructed "Keep me on top."  And so I will.  I have to keep an eye on her anyway.  She's trouble.

On the right side I'm still shlepping my goods.  Knowledge Illuminates and The Manor #2 has found a new home over at Lulu and things are going well there.  However, Issue #1 of the Manor does not want to go.  It's file is refusing the cooperate.

I'm going to reinstate my commenter experience points table on the side.  I'm going to simplify it for myself because last time I did it I had to do math.  I don't like doing math.  So it will be a simple 1 comment for 1xp.  What does that mean?  I have plans for those who take the time to comment.

I won't be doing the State of the Manor 2012 in this post, but do plan to do one.  I've got a list of things I'd like to accomplish.  Need to focus a bit more.  I was told focus was the other F word.  It kinda feels like it.

Happy New Year folks. 

What the Fricking Hell

I've been working a lot over the past few days and haven't had too much time to check out blogs.  This morning I get on blogger and I see they have developed a new torture device.  They've made their 'captcha' (for those who don't know which I was one of them, its the word verification) so incredibly difficult and longer that it makes leaving comments more difficult.  In the end its going to frustrate people from commenting.

I'm not sure what the reason is for this change or what problem they addressing, but it's not a good solution.  It says its there to prove you are no a robot.  I don't know about you, but if a robot wants to post on my blog, I'm okay with that.

Participant Experience Points

I've been a big fan of the Digital Orc blog and now I am going to blatantly rip off an idea from his blog.  Experience points for those who comment.  A running total for the year along the left side.  Why?  Because I like the idea of it and when I do give-a ways, that is something I would like to do more of, or contests or whatever, maybe those with the higher scores get some kind of bonus.  I have no idea.  But I like the idea.

I can't be any more difficult than keeping a running total for the year.

Housing Cleaning at the Manor

Since I have the day off I've been going through some blogs I don't get to read all that often.  Some blogs who post while I'm at work or asleep are hard to keep up with, but that's what weekends and holidays are for.  I was adding some blogs I thought looked good.  I'm not sure why I didn't have scott's blog already on my roll, but that has been corrected.

Stocking the Dungeon
scottz's blog. 
The Excessive Gamer 

As I was joining their blogs I saw I was reaching my 300 limit so I did a little blog roll cleaning.  I'm down to 245 blogs.  I think I chopped 50 blogs that were discontinued, dead links or as a general rule, if they have not been updated for two months they get chopped.

I still see some dust in the corners and cobwebs on the ceiling.  Those damn things seems to be everywhere.  Before I go, here is Booger, Johnny Fever and Alice Copper playing D&D.

5E D&D In the Word of Tom

Tom Doolan has a very good post over on his blog, in the Words of Tom.  Another post about Wizards announcing a new addition to D&D.  I guess they are calling it 5th edition.  I like his honest take on it.  I don't have a dog in this fight.  If they put new version out cool.  That always stirs a ton of reknewed interest in the RPG industry.  But if it stinks, no big deal for me.  I plan on playing whatever floats my boat at the time. 

So go check out Tom's post and his blog as a whole.  A lot of good stuff over there to check out.

Favorite Posts/Blogs of the Week

I've been trying to pay more attention to the blogs I read.  I don't know how many times I read something then want to go back to it and cannot remember where the hell I read it.  So I started writing down a few of my favorites from each week.

My first one I saw this week was from R.W. Chandler of the Black Hole Diaries.  He post a tavern game called Rot Grub Roulette.  Absolutely love this game.  It's horrible and creepy and exactly what stupid drunk adventurers would do.

Ckutalik over at Hill Cantons started a Point of Light Contest.  Being that my campaign is run on this concept I took an interest in this post.  Read the comments.  There is a ton of great entries.

Lastly, Jason Sholtis from UNDERWORLD INK started a brand new blog called The Dungeon Dozen.  I love the concept of the blog.  Each entry is a random table on random subjects.  Jason brings back some respectability for the often forget d12.  Love the tables he's done so far.

I am off this week and looking forward to getting some work done on a couple of my projects.  I hope everyone had, is having a great holiday and then we got another one of those next week.  I love 2fer holidays.