Second year Anniversary

Happy birthday to the blog! 2 years ago, I started this project, and am now looking at a blog that is one of the most active parts of the community. While we have faced some hardships in the past year, the blog is still going strong, and will continue to be around for the forseeable future.

Congratulations also to CardTalk, who started their podcast series a day before my blog went live. We have together contributed a lot of new and fresh content to this community, and I am happy to see both creations still being alive and kicking!

In this article, I don’t want to repeat myself from last year’s anniversary, but know that this project has changed a lot for me personally. It has given me enough to do in the past year when I didn’t have a real purpose for my time. And by continuing to write about this game, I have grown as a community member, a player, and as a person. I am becoming more sociable, and really appreciate all of the messages and comments that I receive from all of you. Please continue to send your feedback about any aspect of the blog.

As for how the next year is going to go, there are a few things worth noting about the blog and the game in 2020 (and the first month of 2021). I have covered many of these aspects already in my 2019 year review and in the Heat Death article, but figured I might as well repeat some things here. First of all, the game itself will run out of official content this year, as this is the last cycle for the foreseeable future. This means that there is a finite end to this game (for now), and that means that my scenario analyses are one day going to run out. However, rest assured that there is a lot of content left for me and my team to cover. The POD scenarios have mostly remained untouched, as well as the majority of the Nightmare scenarios. On top of those, I want to run through the first cycle again, since those articles are in deperate need for some updating to bring them to the same level of depth as the current articles. These articles are quite popular, so it would be best to give them a fair treatment on level with the rest. So between all that, and the many other articles I have planned, it will be enough to last us well beyond the blog’s third anniversary.

As for personal plans for the next year, I have had a rough year behind me where I had to graduate and adjust for living on my own. It’s fair to say that I have managed to do well at keeping up the content, but that is in large part thanks to the many co-authors on this blog, as well as the moral support of the community. However, now that I have graduated, I will be starting a job in the very near future, meaning that there is a fair chance that my own content will be delayed and less frequent than it has been over the last few months. I will have to see how I can balance a career besides the blog, but given enough freedom, I think I can keep up with the number of articles I promise each month on the Patreon site.

Speaking of Patreon, the site has provided me with enough financial backing to keep the blog going, but as of late, the pledges have start to dwindle. This has been in part due to personal reasons of some patrons, but several mentioned that they are stepping away from the game and are thus ending their subscriptions. I would like to take this time to ask you to at least check out the page here, where you can see the rewards you can get for pledging to the blog. Small monthly pledges go a long way and will help me to fund the ideas I have in the future. One of those ideas will take shape in the form of this year’s loot, which I have started preparations for already. Due to my plans being a bit complicated, I won’t be handing out a lot of items at Con of the Rings this year, like I did in previous years. Instead, I can only make a few items a long time in advance, so I will only be able to give this year’s loot to those supporting me on Patreon or those that have proven themselves worthy via other means (writing for the blog, spell-checking, getting me alt arts, etc). In order to make up for this low quantity, the items will be personalized per individual (if all goes to plan), and will be handed out at the Con or shipped internationally. Pledging to Patreon allows you to keep up with the development of these ideas, as you get to join the separate Discord server and are updated via the page. Thanks already for the consideration.

Thanks

I also want to take the time with this article to thank those that have had a positive influence on the blog in the past year. I also have plenty of people who have made the past year with this game better, but let’s keep it somewhat brief, because I have a cake in the oven.

Co-authors

To those of you that have helped me keep up the steady stream of content, thank you so, so much. I am very fortunate to have assembled a team of people from across the world to help write for the blog. This includes those that write on the same series that I write, such as the archetype analysis and the quest analyses, but also those who have their own series on the blog. Whenever I see that someone else has done some work on an article (and I can keep track of it, Palantiri are powerful things), my heart jumps a little of joy. During the past year, you have given me enough time to balance graduating and blogging, and I hope that you will continue to entertain the community with the words you are writing.

Patreon supporters

While I will admit that I am not as active on the site as I perhaps should be, I hope many of you are reading the regular articles as well. I will be making a few more updates on the Patreon page in the near future to inform everyone on the development of this year’s swag. But for now, I would like to thank all 17 of you for your continued support on the financial front of this project. The money you donate goes to a great community resource and I will try and be as transparant as possible on where the money goes. This is also the time of the year where I will reset everyone’s requests, so you can request another article on an LOTR LCG topic if you want to. Also, be sure to join the Discord server for more direct messaging.

The Designers

While I doubt they will be seeing this, I would like to thanks the designers of this game for the wonderful foundation that this community has settled on. While I am a little sad inside that the game is taking a break, the announcement of the game eventually returning has me excited. You have done great work on over 100 different scenarios, and have been the cause of many hundreds of hours of fun for me over the last few years.

The Community

And finally, there is the rest of the community I would like to thank. Whether we have met in person at an event, or if we have never directly spoken to each other, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my articles and to leave helpful feedback or your own experiences on the different topics. It is because of the great responses I keep getting on my articles that I keep doing this, and I hope that the break in official content won’t lead to a decline in this support. I will likely have another feedback poll out eventually where you can leave your feedback on the blog as a whole, so that I can make the blogas user-friendly as possible.

With all of that out of the way, I will continue with the Ered Mithrin cycle soon. With just 2 more APs to be announced, I will also likely be starting an update-month for the reworked archetype analyses some time this year. Thanks again and I hope we may meet on the road ahead!