Month in Review: May 2018

As summer approaches, so does the light at the end of the tunnel known as university. In a few weeks, I will have finished the final exams and can pour all my attention towards the blog. This month has been a little bit quieter as I have been busy with projects and other things non-LOTR related.

May

May has been a busy month behind the scenes, as I have upgraded the blog to a paid membership so that I can support various additions on the blog, as well as having the articles ad-free. The added benefit of this was that the blog now also has its own URL, without the WordPress attachment. Besides the blog updates, I have also made a Patreon account and have received multiple pledges already. If you want to support the blog via Patreon, check out this link: https://www.patreon.com/vision_of_the_palantir. I have also started with monthly polls. The first one has already been closed at this point, but the second poll should be up and will remain open until the end of June. If you have suggestions for polls in the future, let me know, I’m making a list!

Cycle scenarios

This month I have finished the Against the Shadow cycle and have had the luck to encounter somebody who was eager to start writing the first few scenarios of the Ringmaker cycle. Having more people pump out these excellent reviews and analyses will improve the speed at which these articles can be published. It will allow us to catch up on recent content now that we are just 3-4 cycles behind instead of the 7 cycles in January. In June, we hope to bring you the Ringmaker cycle scenarios, but we cannot promise if we will finish the cycle by the end of the month.

Saga scenarios

While the author who was going to the Hobbit scenarios is taking a little break because life gets in the way sometimes, I am proud to announce that we have started the Lord of the Rings saga scenario analyses. This will help any player who is looking to start a new campaign. If you have any tips on how to beat certain saga scenarios if they haven’t been mentioned yet, be sure to let us know. The more tips and tricks we can add to these articles, the better. In June we will likely continue with the saga analyses as Frodo makes his way towards Mt Doom.

Trait Analyses

The Wose trait analysis was published this month, but besides that, I haven’t had the time to write more of them. I will hopefully do some more of these once the new cycle is fully released and I get the chance to explore the new Dale, Eagle, Beorning, and Woodman traits. In June, I hope to at least make 1 article about archetypes (thinking about Doomed/Isengard for now) and if time permits, perhaps more articles on traits and deck archetypes.

Staples

I actually found the time to double the number of Staple articles this month. They are a blast to make as you get to explore every card in the card pool and find any potential hidden gems. Threat reduction and Encounter deck scrying are mechanics I tend to lean towards often, so the articles were a lot of fun to make and didn’t take as long as I’d thought. Next month, I hope to at least make another one of these. I have player deck scrying next on the list, but if anyone has a preference for another mechanic that they’d like to see me do first, let me know (or write it yourself, takes 2-3 hours max). For anyone that is concerned that I am stapling the physical cards in the pictures, don’t worry, they are safe and are not harmed in the production of the articles. No need to call card protective services.

Additional Articles

I made two additional articles this month, one about the Patreon page (see link above) and one about fan-made content in the community. It was amazing to scour the depths of the community to find some of the crazy quests and different game modes that people have come up with. If anyone has any other ideas for future articles about the community or any other articles related to the game, let me know. For as far as my own ideas, I have been thinking about making a list of folks that play a big roll in the community. Maybe get something like a short paragraph on what everyone does etc. Just a thought, I will look further into this as the month goes on (and if there is any interest from your side). I will also now be making a short article on the results of each monthly poll. This just discusses my interpretation of the results and will be stored on a seperate page linked to the News page.

The Future

Things are looking great for the blog and the rest of the community for next month. With more and more news articles coming out of FFG, I am personally really excited about the new official content that is going to be released this Summer. In the meantime, I hope to continue my work during the month of June. The first weeks will be busy, as I will hopefully finish my exams and projects, but after that, you can expect a lot of articles as I will have plenty of free time. I will also at that point be available to play games on OCTGN, so if you want to play a game with me, hit me up and we’ll see if the schedules align.

Though I know the wait is long before we get new quests, I am very happy to see new people join the community every day and that the game is still alive and well (yes, it is alive, not dead). The news that came out of FFG this month has got me super excited about the next cycle. Plenty of new archetypes that I would want to explore.

If you would like to support the blog, to make sure we can sustain the monthly fees and keep producing articles, feel free to pledge any amount via Patreon using this link. Any amount helps and the money will go straight towards creating more resources for the community to enjoy.

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