I figured I’d make a second blog post this week and talk about what I’ve been up to. There is a lot going on and a lot planned over the next year, both in and out of Amtgard. Well, mostly in Amtgard. I’m first going to talk about what’s been going on with the blog.
The Blog and Platform Content
I’ve been expanding the scope of the blog, first through adding a YouTube Channel, then through adding a Patreon. Both are doing well. I’ve been uploading videos weekly on the YouTube Channel and I’m sitting at 46 subscribers. For Patreon I currently have 4 contributors. I got my first payment this week and I’m excited. A few more people and I won’t be in the negative from paying for the site each month!
I still plan on doing a pins. My artist has been having some troubles lately so she hasn’t been able to work on them, but we both want to do this, so it will happen someday. They will be gnome themed! We’ll have to do a kickstarter to get the funding to have them made though.
Some of you may have noticed that I put up a poll concerning doing a Twitch Ask Me Anything or AMA. So far it has been pretty positive. The poll ends in five days, so I urge you to vote, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to give it a try. I don’t know when the first one will be, but I’m pretty sure it will happen at this point.
I’m also considering putting up an edited intro video for my YouTube Channel, just to give it some more credibility. I’m not sure how the script would go, but I think it might be a good idea.
You might also see some content changes over the next few months as I start merging my various platfofrms. Right now I have four main things I do, Amtgard, write, play video games and photography. A lot of this will play out on my Patreon, but some of the content will find it’s way to this blog.
You’ve already seen me talk about my writing and you’re likely to see more of that, although most of that will be on my Patreon. I am also probably adding video games via twitch and the AMA. The goal is to stream video games and talk about Amtgard. The third thing, photography will probably just take the form of more photos. A lot of the nicer ones will be shared on my Patreon.
My goal is to add as much content to the Patreon as possible to make it worth people paying for. I will continue to add Amtgard stuff as well, I’m not replacing Amtgard content, I’m adding to it. Please check out my Patreon and subscribe. I do add weekly content, aside from this blog. As soon as there is a larger community I intend to add more community features.
In Amtgard
Next year (2020) I’m running, or helping run not one, not two, but three Amtgard campouts! The first one is Winterbash in January. I was originally only running the tournaments, but I got promoted to a co-runner position to help out Uriel, who is the lead event runner. When promoted I made the crazy decision to keep my tournament running position!
I’m currently planning out the tournaments, We are having an early bird tournament on Thursday, a team tournament on Friday and a normal tournament on Saturday. The early bird is going to be a basic bearpit tournament. I’m going back and forth on the main tournament format for Saturday. I’m deciding between the Warlords Style and the Olympiad Style. I’m leaning towards the Warlords Style just because it’s something I’m familiar with. I’ll need to decide soon.
The one I’m having the most trouble planning is the team tournament. I want to do something different. My goal is to have a a series of mini games rather than just the same game each round. Each round would be a different game, leading into a final timed game. I’m having trouble balancing simplicity with balance. D’gar sent me some feedback and I plan on discussing it with him. I hope to have the games set by the start of December.
The next event I’m working on is Shattered Kingdoms. It’s by far the one I’m the most worried about. Planning on the event is not nearly as far along as I would like. Part of this is my fault, I could be doing more. The other concern is that most of the core team is having life troubles, making it difficult to focus on the event. There is still more than enough time to finish the event, but I don’t like pushing it to the last 6 months. We do have a site, so that isn’t an issue.
So far the premise of this year’s Shattered Kingdoms is kingdom building. Well, not kingdoms exactly, but holdings. Players get to build up a keep and a town in an ancient forest. This is still the land of Onseuk, they are building holdings in the name of the king. The forest is cursed. Unbeknownst to the players last year, they had a chance to break this curse, which would have changed how this next year played out, but they failed to break it.
Even if players aren’t aware of how their actions effect the story of Shattered Kingdoms, they do. I’m not exactly sure how to make it obvious though. I don’t really like the idea of flat out telling them because it can kind of ruin the mystery but maybe I should so people don’t feel like they are just playing in a one track world. I’m not really sure, I’d be open to suggestions.
The third event of the year is Pacific War, also known as Pacwar. This year we are also hosting the national event Olympiad. I’m co-running the event with Ceian. We have a pretty good team so I’m sure we’ll do great.
For people who are unfamiliar with what Olympiad is, it’s a national Arts and Sciences and Warskill event. The goal of the event is to pit the best of the best through out all of Amtgard against all each other. The Northwest hasn’t hosted this event since the early 2000s. It’s a great opportunity for us to shine. I’m looking forward to becoming more well know at the national level.
I’ll be entering Olympiad but I know I won’t win. Still, I hope to do well. I’d really like to know where I rank nationally, I’ll just be entering the Arts and Sciences Competition, not the Warskill contest. I’d also like to be known for running a well run event. It’s also a chance to spread my blog to new people. I’ll probably even have business cards!
In addition to the events I’m working on, there is House Gravy. We have a lot coming up and I’m excited! The next thing we are doing is Winterbash. We are not running it as a House Hold, but several of the lead people are part of House Gravy and it’s a House Gravy Targeted Event. What does that mean? It means that the members of the House are encouraged to volunteer at least 4 hours at the event which counts towards their attendance within the House.
We are also contemplating running a demo at a local anime con in Portland. I’m pretty sure we are going to do it but the poll I created doesn’t end till Monday. Then there is Northern Lights Mid-Reign. We are donating breakfast for the event. The week after that is another House Gravy Targeted Event, Shattered Kingdoms.
That’s a pretty full half of a year, we aren’t sure what, if anything we’ll be doing for the second half but I I hope we find something. We’ve also been growing and are sitting at 16 members, with another two prospective members. I love that we are growing and adding quality people to the House.
Writing and Such
If you’re a loyal reader then you probably already know that I released an issue of Failed Schemes Magazine on Halloween. That was my major focus over the moth of October and I’m excited to have released it. Sales have been somewhat slow but I’m glad some people bought it. I hope you will consider purchasing it. I plan on releasing an issue once a year, more if I can find authors to contribute to it.
I’ve also recently went back to an old piece of writing I did. At one point is was the longest start to a novel I’ve done, sitting around 11k words. Right now I’m just rereading it and editing it along the way. If I think I can write an outline for the rest of the novel then I’ll start adding to it. Rereading it has me excited though so I hope I get inspired to start writing more.
I also finally found a beta reader for a novel I wrote, a person I think will actually finish it, Heldris. I’m excited to get their feedback. We talked and I already believe I’ll get a more favorable review than I thought I would. I’m sure there will be lots of criticisms, but when we had a discussion about the quality of peoples writing she was rather positive when talking about mine. I have so many self doubts about my writing that it was nice to hear.
It would be neat to finally finish my novel. Having someone read it is the next step before a third edit. I still have some scenes I’d like to add but to be honest I haven’t felt the creativity over the last few years to add them. This might be the motivation I needed to do it.
Final Thoughts
I’d really like to thank all my readers. Over the last month I’ve heard a lot of people at the parks I’ve travel to talk to me about my blog and tell me they enjoy reading it. I love hearing that. I don’t get told that very often and it’s hard to tell what people think about my work. Very few people comment when I post so some weeks I feel disheartened.
Since I’ve moved to the website I’ve been able to better judge if my content is being read. I usually get between 20-30 readers a week, which is nice to know. Articles get a larger draw, the most has been 160 in a week. That was for the rticle Is Amtgard a LARP?
I’d love to increase my viewership, but I’m not sure how to do that other than buy ads. If you like my content I’d really like to have some help spreading it around the internet. I’d also love to hear input from my readers about what they would like to see.
Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading about what I have going on in my life!