Goblin Minions, D&Donuts, Changes, and Indie RPGs

Happy Monday everyone!  Today I have quite a bit to talk about, starting with this past weekend.  Let me tell you, PAX East was a breath of fresh air.  At least figuratively speaking.  I won't mention the moments where there may or may not have been an overwhelming lack of fresh air.  This year's show was as great as ever, and then some.  I am pretty sure the Expo Hall was even bigger, with tabletop areas being pushed back and food carts being pushed out to the corners and halls.

As usual I hoped to check out a bunch of the panels featuring the things I am interested in (read: table top RPGs).  Sadly, there wasn't many I was particularly interested in this year, and those I was I ended up missing for various reasons (#linecon2016).  Nevertheless, I enjoyed being in a giant building full of nerds and nerd things.  How could you not?  We got to see some things, try out Takenoko (finally!!), and play one of the Adventure League two hour games.  Not to mention Friday night's Drunk Quest game and Saturday's Adventure Time Munchkin.

Let's talk about RPGs though.  D&D was awesome.  We had a full party of six this year and managed to get a table to ourselves, thankfully.  Now it isn't that I dislike playing with strangers, in fact we played a game a few years ago just me, my friend, and some strangers.  It was one of the best I have ever been in.  But when you get close to filling up a table, one stranger amidst a group of friends is very hit or miss.  Anyways, I got to play a wizard (score) and his backstory was, essentially, looking into the time vortex and coming out a level one Merlin from The Once And Future King in that he confused what has happened and what will happen and what is happening (double score).  I am hoping to write a short about our little adventure, but let's just say it involved the folowing:

• idiot savant like hijinx
• some fantastic attack rolls
• two very proper speaking goblins (if you speak goblin)
• befriending said goblins
• a classic New Hope style prison block Chewie in cuffs maneuver
• earning a raven familiar

Basically I got to play D&D with my friends, introduce the game to three of them, and be the star of a couple scenes myself.  Over the weekend I also got to see some friends from my old WoW guild and talk with one of them directly about a project we are working on for over an hour.  Another awesome time.  Finally I took the show as an opportunity to stick my hands on some indie RPGs.  Usually I go for board games or the like, but I saw a table of the indie games and have had some desires for this site and the podcast, so we ended up with four new games to try out:

• Monster of the Week
• Cat
• Our Last Hope
• Wield

If you are curious about any of these and haven't heard of them, don't worry you can learn more from us soon enough.  This month's D&Donuts will feature us talking about GMing and taking out first real look at these.  While everyone will get a nice little preview of it, for the real information you can head over to Patreon and become a supported before the 1st and get access to the full episode.

And this unashamed plug leads me into something else I am really working on: being the Wandering Alchemist.  This blog has been around for nearly a year now.  I have established a schedule and way of doing things.  Gotten into a pattern.  We have developed an actual play podcast and maintained consistent releases there.  Now we have D&Donuts.  I have released a number of products on the DMs Guild.  But I want to do better.

This entails a lot of thought and planning, of course, but that is something I am doing.  What I want to do is provide you guys with more.  I want to provide my friends who are supporting me on Patreon with more.  I want to provide you guys with more.

This starts with a pledge.  Reviews are no longer going to go up in replacement of Resources For Every DM.  They will be a bonus article when I have them (and of course we have a few indie games now don't we?).  Starting in May there will be at least one review a month, with hopes to increase that.  D&Donuts will continue to be a patron reward, but there will be a short preview version for non-Patrons every month as well.  Patreon will also be getting a full overhaul on our part.  I want to include giveaways of complimentary DM's Guild works for Patrons, Untamed Dice character sheets, stickers, and more.  I also want to better plan my goals.  I have a much better idea on the equipment I want to get eventually, I want to budget for reviews, and I want commission art for my future OGL pieces.

TL;DR - I want to do more, clarify the goals of the site and podcast, and give back more to Patrons.

Before I am done, let's go over this week!  Tomorrow I have an article I have been thinking about writing for a while.  A bit of an opinion piece, really, but hopefully it is something you guys enjoy.  As promised was coming, I have some information on some of the 27 Realms for Wednesday.  Thursday will remain a surprise as to what resources I do.  (I haven't decided yet)  And Friday you get another Brave New Worlds.  Stay tuned for more about all the things I have talked about!