Month in Review: October 2018 and Q&A announcement

Oh man, another month has gone by so fast, and so much has happened that I would love to dive right in and talk about all things that have happened in October. But I first want to talk about another Q&A I have decided to do, so let’s get to that one first.

Q&A November 2018

Between now and the 14th of November, you are free to send me any questions that you would like to ask me. The topic of these questions can range from my thoughts on LOTR books and films, to things about me personally or about the blog. You can check the previous Q&A article for some inspiration, but don’t repeat questions on which my answer hasn’t changed in the meantime (my shoe size has remained consistent, thank you very much). You can send messages to me via the blog, twitter, facebook, Discord, email or carrier pigeon. Make sure you start the question by writing Q:, otherwise I might answer it there and then. The most frequently asked questions and those that stand out will be answered in the article on the 14-15th of November, if time permits. I am currently studying for exams, which leaves me enough time to procrastinate by doing the article. Feel free to ask anything by my pin number, and you should expect your answers in a span of 2 weeks. With that out of the way, let’s go to the review of October.

October

This month was all about the Con of the Rings event that happened half way through the month. It was a great event to meet up with other creators for this game and to get to play a couple of games with them over the weekend. I have made a separate article about the event here, so feel free to check it out for stories and awkward photos of me. The month also had a new official release with Roam Across Rhovanion. This resulted in more deckbuilding options, and the hope that this cycle will get released on a 2-monthly basis at least. No other real news has arrived since, so hopefully November can surprise us with more content while we wait patiently for our next AP.

Cycle Scenarios

We are halfway through the Angmar Awakened cycle and have had a couple of great articles coming out this month about its scenarios. With the blog now being roughly halfway in the cycle, you can expect the final half of the cycle to be out in November or early December. This will allow us to move on to the Dream-chaser cycle and the Grey Havens Deluxe box. I am inviting everyone to claim a quest if you want to help out, with Carn Dûm being the big quest I dread to take on. Any takers?

Saga Scenarios

No Saga scenarios were covered during this month, as Brinx is still working on Helm’s Deep, which is a tough one. On top of that, he attended both Con of the Rings and the Essen event at the end of the month, so writing articles isn’t a priority in that case. He will return to us at some point, and continue the saga’s. I actually got to play a fair few saga quests during the Con, and might start a campaign soon, so I get to use the articles myself as well.

Nightmare Scenarios

While I did not have time to do another Nightmare scenario, I did pick up a bunch of Nightmare packs for cheap while I was at the FFG center. This will mean that eventually I will be covering those scenarios as well. However, some packs are for quests that haven’t been reviewed in Normal mode yet, so I will have to wait for a while ere I can post the Nightmare version too. I am eyeing the Hills of Emyn Muil pack now as the next quest to cover, and I also got the first half of the Against the Shadow cycle to cover, so these will be coming to you whenever I don’t feel like doing regular scenarios.

Trait Analyses

Only the Ranger trait got covered this month, as I am slowing down the traits a little as more news is coming out of FFG. I will continue with the occupational traits, but will leave those of the Woodmen, Dalesmen and the Beornings for after the cycle has concluded. Chances are that there will be more cards for their synergies in the upcoming packs, so an update on them will be done eventually. I can also look at some of the mechanical analyses, as not many are left to cover on that part. We will wait and see what November brings.

Staples

The staples of October were that of the Healing mechanic. I feel like the article is done pretty well and I am looking forward to handling another one of these mechanics in the future. They really invite you to explore the card pool and maybe find new ways to deal with damage in this case. For November, I am not yet sure what group of staples to cover next, but am open for suggestions.

Additional Articles

With Con of the Rings and the new Roam across Rhovanion pack, this really was the month of the additional articles. I posted an article explaining all about the exclusive loot that was handed out this month at both the convention and to my Patreon supporters. I am very pleased with the positive feedback that I received and will be looking into making more exclusive Palantir loot for next year. I will not be doing this for each convention I attend, but will look to release my loot during the time I attend Con of the Rings, if I can attend that year. If not, I will ship you the loot myself, or you can come and pick it up. If you want to be eligible for a piece of the loot, you can support me via Patreon, or commit your spare time to write articles for the blog. The more backers I get before next year, the more awesome the loot will turn out to be.

The other articles were a recap of Con of the Rings and the first impressions of me facing the Roam across Rhovanion pack. I made these articles during the Con, so if they seem a bit different, it may be because of jet-lag. For November, I have no other articles planned. There is likely not going to be another pack for me to cover, so I might pour that effort into doing regular articles or take more time for my studies.

The Future

I finally got a solid internet connection going on my desktop, so I am writing new articles (like this one) much faster than on my laptop. This is good news, as I can make the articles quicker, and more frequent. This also allows me to save time that I can spend on other things. My studies in particular will be taking up a lot of spare time this next month. The first half will be me trying to pass exams and trying to finish reports on time, potentially getting me tired of sitting behind a computer and writing. The next half of the month will be where I start my minor in Engineering Entrepreneurship (yes, it is as boring as it sounds). This will be a full 40 hour workload each week, which may result in less time to be writing articles. I will try to circumvent this by making a lot of templates out front, and filling in the modules as I go. This cuts down the work to small bits of half an hour, and will really help in relieving stress. I will also rely on my co-authors to crank out some articles, allowing the blog to maintain its 10+ articles per month capacity.

With not much expected news in November, I hope to catch up on some of the smaller projects on the blog that I have been doing. The Angmar Awakened cycle will also be nearly finished by the end of next month, just in time for winter. Remember that the Q&A will be a part of the rotation next month, so try to send your questions before the 14th. Thanks to your support I have the motivation to keep this blog going, spreading my nonsense to the rest of the community. Catch you all next month!

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