As the world continues to burn around us, it’s nice to appreciate the little glimpses of light in this dark tunnel. Another year has come and gone, and Vision of the Palantir is now 8 years old! The blog continues to grow, though this was a rather slow year, boosted mostly by the QOTW articles. Still, the visitors keep showing up to the blog, and I continue to get emails and comments of new players finding the blog a really useful asset to the game. So raise your glasses and grab a piece of cake (I made lemon pie this year) and join me in celebrating the blog’s eighth birthday!
It puts into perspective how it would be to raise a child. While the blog is far less maintenance, you do get the idea that it is growing up in front of your eyes. The quick growth spurts in the early years, and now a steady growth as the blog fleshes out certain series and is waiting for more new content. I might not have children of my own (despite what the username would suggest), but this is the closest I’d come to that. This past year has been a rather quiet year, though we did finish the LOTR Campaign scenario overviews. That was a fantastic milestone that is worth celebrating on its own. We are also working hard on completing the NM Dream-chaser cycle, though I have been distracted from that for a month now. Hopefully, I can get it together quickly, so that I can move on to the NM Ringmaker cycle (though I am dreading that one as well, as you might imagine).
The biggest series on the blog during its eighth year was the Quest of the Week series. This is spearheaded by Autumn, and has completed several cycles in the past 52 weeks. We are currently going through the Oaths of the Rohirrim cycle, giving people a chance to share their thoughts on AleP’s first cycle as we all play the scenarios together. We will continue to host this series, though I can imagine that we will run out of quests before long. We are workshopping ideas behind the scenes, and will continue to bring you all up to date as the series continues.
I, meanwhile, have been working and waiting on the new book: Tools of the Trait. For people unfamiliar with it, the book covers the Deckbuilding side of the game and dives deep into the different traits and synergies that player cards can have. While the bulk of the text was already written last year around this time, we have made good progress with the book in other aspects. A team of players has helped to proofread the entire thing, I have made some adjustments to the structure here and there, a cover was created with the help of Rook Dillhunt, and the book is currently receiving its layout by Thaurdir. He has helped with the Field Guide’s layout as well, so I wanted to have the new book in somewhat of a similar style. It reads a lot better than a plain text document that way. Currently, all traits and mechanics from the base game have received their layout, and the AleP traits are being worked on this very weekend. Once that is in place and the introduction chapter on Deckbuilding Principles has been transformed as well, it won’t be longer than a week before publication. I will do a prototype run first, but will release the book and its PDF soon after. You’ll see the publication article all over the LOTR LCG socials, so you can’t miss it.
Upon the book’s publication, I will have a lot more time left over to work on the actual blog. I will still have some distractions from work, social life, and new games that keep me from my work, but eventually, I should have time to continue with the rest of the Nightmare scenarios. I will also look into redoing the Hobbit scenarios in anticipation of their Nightmare counterparts. And before you know it, the blog will have turned nine years old, almost double digits!! They grow up so fast *sniff*
Thank you all for supporting the blog for 8 years now, and I hope to continue to inform and entertain with articles by me and other community members for more years to come! A huge shout-out to everyone who has contributed to the blog as well. Commenters, financial support, writers, editors, everyone deserve a piece of cake today! Play the game more often to forget about the world outside, and I hope to get the book out in the world very soon. Cheers!
Vision Of The Palantir 