#122: Reports and Polls

Also, a really interesting end of the year report from Mongoose Publishing.

I. Dear Reader,

Another quick one today! Been a hell of a week for me as both wild weather and family plans collided messily. I hope you’re week has been easier, folks.

Like I said last week, I’ve been thinking about is what new directions to explore in 2023 for the newsletter. I wanted to run a quick survey for your input on one of these ideas. So, with twitter on the decline, there is a lot of pressure on indie designers to get the word out about their games. At the same time, I know some readers use this newsletter to discover games - whether through the links, ads, or just me talking about them.

Would you, my readers, be interested in a monthly round-up of new games? Basically, once a month, this section would be replaced with a section titled “What’s New On Itch.io”. I would put a form out so anyone could submit details of any new releases to me and get semi-automatically included. (I already get some emails about new games and mostly don’t have a way to do anything with them.)

This is one of those polls where a “No” vote is as loud as a “Yes” one. I like the newsletter, I want to share new games, but I also want this to remain a relatively non-commercial space. I’m also aware that this will eat into ad revenue for the newsletter but that’s something that I’m willing to bear if readers like the sound of the idea.

Yours poll-itely,

Thomas

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II. Listen of the Week

• Great Daydreaming about Dragons episode about interesting ways to handle “the party has been captured” situation that keep things fun.

• Generally, it’s been a quiet time for podcasts as the year winds down so let me shout out a non-RPG podcast. A More Civilized Age is a Star Wars podcast and their Andor commentary made watching the show even more fun.

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III. Links of the Week

• Lots of publishing outfits are doing End of the Year reports. I found two so far but I’m always on the lookout for more. I find these reports really useful because they’re rare glimpses behind the curtains for folks who are interested in self-publishing.

  • Mongoose Publishing’s statement is a really interesting read for many reasons, especially the plan to become worker-owned in 2023.

  • Mimic Publishing is a small publishing co-op that shares all their financials and is looking for more members.

• Sean McCoy of Mothership (and Two Rooms And A Boom, which many forget) has reached the stage where he can just tweet ideas and set RPG twitter aflutter (in a good way). He recently proposed making 2023 the year of the megadungeon on the basis of writing one room per day (with some days meriting nothing more “empty room”) and ending up with 365 rooms over 12 levels.

  • I don’t do dungeons but some folks (incl. me) are wondering if we could use the similar idea to start writing cities! Though 365 city entries sounds too much so I’ll report back with a different formula.

• On Gnomestew, a comparison of all the VTTs with 3D graphics

• I don’t usually share things about Hasbro but after Dicebreaker reported that the corporation feels D&D is “under monetized”, one redditor had this to say about the pivot from RPG to lifestyle brand:

I don’t know why I find it so funny but I do.

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IV. Small Ads

All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.

• Dive into Ecryme, a Dark Urban Steampunk tabletop RPG with an original, fast-to-learn and play 2d6 system that focuses on narrative. Soon on Kickstarter.

This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.

• Oh gosh, it’s just some of the best bundles of the year and they’re at the same time. There’s a Blades in the Dark bundle that let’s you get the new heist deck as well as Band of Blades and other FitD games.

• There’s also a revival of the Spire bundle alongside an all-new bundle of Heart and its supplements. If you get these bundles, you also get discount codes redeemable at the RRD e-store.

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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.

If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!

Thanks for subscribing and take care out there!