Nerdhogg's 2020 in review

 2020 has certainly been a year. I was considering doing a personal recap of the year, but that's not really how I do things on this blog, so instead I wanted to look back at what I've done from a Nerdhogg point of view, not a person who owns the Nerdhogg accounts perspective.

I made 18 blog posts this year, averaging at 59.9 views each. My three most viewed posts published this year were:

Aarakocra: Nope No Longer - 152 views

I Was Interviewed! - 128 views

Links to Start a Conversation on Racism & TTRPGs - 121 views

Removing these outliers, I average at around 45.2 views per post.

Views don't necessarily bother me too much, but I'd like to improve engagement in the future. Of the 18 posts I've made, 6 of them received comments on the site - I get a few more responses on other platforms, but there's a difference in feeling between a thumbs up emote on discord and a post on the blog.

Outside of the blog, this year has had both highs and lows in the TTRPG field. I co-published a silly game with Jojiro, I was interviewed alongside the Discord of Many Things staff, I've ran games of AGON and played games of D&D, and I participated in the November 2020 RPG Writer's Workshop. At the same time, I've ran little D&D and not been as active with this blog as I would have liked, and was unable to complete the Writer's Workshop due to changes in my workplace - this is in addition to the issues with the pandemic that we are all experiencing

I had initially planned to try and do more posts this year than I had in the first year of this blog - averaging out at roughly 2.6 posts per month. In hindsight, this was unrealistic given that I both work full time and am living through a pandemic.

I don't really have any plans for next year. If 2020 has taught me anything, it's that planning for the year ahead is a lot like making an adventure for players: you can plan everything out and have a clear goal and plan in your head, but that's rarely how things turn out. There are a few things that I think could be neat to try and do, provided that I have the time and resources to dedicate to them:

Try more map designs. Back in March I tried to make some map content; it's not fantastic, but I wanted to have a go and see if I would be able to make maps for my groups if needed, and truth be told it was an enjoyable experience (albeit a frustrating one, as my expectations exceeded my potential at the time). It would be good to try some more, and perhaps share progress here if there was interest.

Be more engaged. I've done a few posts based on challenges & other blog post content, and would like to do some more. First things first, this means increasing my palette of blogs that I read. I have blogs on my page that are recommended reading; perhaps I should follow my own advice there.

Dedicate more time to posts. A lot of posts in my drafts fall in two categories. Category 1 is posts that once held my interest but currently don't, waiting for a time when I am wanting to return to them. Category 2 is posts that need time to work on: ones that aren't just opinion pieces, but will require statblocks, research, testing etc. I would like to try and make that list shorter if possible.

Try different content types/find a niche. D&D/ttrpg blogs are rich and plentiful for those wanting to find them, and if I am wanting to increase engagement (and to a lesser extent, views), I need to either diversify into other types of content or find a niche that is less occupied. I've started a bit with the former, making a game on itch.io and appearing in a YouTube video. The latter will take more time to figure out, if it is at all possible.

If you had any posts from this year that you really liked, or any thoughts you want to share with me about content in the next year, please feel free to leave a comment below.