Tag Archives: Podcasting

RPGs

Revising Plans

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I’ve gotten some unsettling news, on top of all the pandemic induced issues of the last several weeks. My last two annual physicals my PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) has been elevated. Since it stayed elevated, my doctor advised I see a urologist. The urologist said if it was him, he’d have a biopsy instead of waiting.

Companion Blog Post Here.

My decision was to do the biopsy, so after a few weeks of worrying about it, I finally had the in office procedure on April 29th. While it wasn’t pleasant, it was far from as bad as I anticipated. My mindset was to not worry until I knew I had something to worry about. Just over a week later, I had a phone call from the urologist with the results. So this past Thursday, May 7th, I found out that eight of the 12 samples have cancer. They use a sliding scale with 6 the least bad and 10 the worst. Seven of the 8 samples that were positive had a score of 6, and the other a score of 7.

This means that I have a slow growing, non-aggressive form of cancer. It’s the best kind to have, as it is easily treatable. Since my prostate is basically full of cancer and is self contained, from what they can tell, it should be easily curable. The two best options are surgery for removal, or radiation. Both come with their own benefits and side effects.

Currently, I’m leaning towards the option for surgery. However, I have to have an in office visit to go into more detail on the two options so I have all the facts before making a decision. Plus, I have to wait and heal up from the biopsy first before they consider any form of treatment.

Fuck Cancer

So while I heal from the biopsy, I have time to think and plan.

My head was swimming a bit after getting the news, but I’m OK. Knowledge is power.

This is just the big bad and I found out about him and now I’m going to foil his plans and kill him. I have time to formulate an effective plan with the right team to do the job. Just like in RPGs.

Revising Plans and Looking Ahead

The reality of having a life threatening condition that will lead to a painful and shitty death if ignored definitely gets your attention. I plan to be around for a long time, but I need to wrap up loose ends so that no matter what happens, it’s less crap to worry about.

I can’t do all the bucket list things due to travel restrictions with COVID-19. I can’t go visit all my relatives and friends for the same reason. I’m thankful that my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter live with me.

So I have to work with what I’ve got. My job is secure and paying the bills. Less going out and about and the bank account is in good shape. No telling how big a hit treatment will be, so that’s good. I hope to avoid having to ask for help, but I need to hold that thought until I know just what my share will be after insurance. So I have to reduce spending and backing Kickstarters, etc.

I have enough games I’ve never played, let alone read. So I don’t know how much time I’ll have for reading and playing new games. That’s all on my radar of things to consider.

My Patreon has gone to the back burner as the whole lockdown and Gary Con going virtual and I ran a couple games for Gary Con, so I didn’t finish my March PDF. I did something totally different for April, I shared my Caverns & Cave Bears rough setting PDF along with the Simple Generic RPG that I made for any setting. I have only shared it with my patrons. I will share it with anyone who gives feedback so I can make it better. I’ll eventually have them available on DriveThruRPG [Affiliate Link].

So my Patreon got derailed by how I reacted to the chaos of lock down. I just got done with the busy season at work and was so looking forward to getting out of the house to go to Gary Con. I got into Minecraft to get my mind on something else, and I built a mountain top temple from one location in my AD&D Roll20 campaign, The Broken Lands. I am also working on another location from the same campaign, an underground temple. You can catch these on my Twitch channel since I streamed them there.

Sorry for dragging this out about my Patreon. I need to revise it to fit whatever my plans end up being to help me wrap up things and streamline for the time I need to heal up after treatment. At the moment, I don’t know what that will be.

What About The Card Game?

My final round of play testing I expected to do at Gary Con did not happen. I think where the rules are will work. My plan is to get the card layout done and just put it on DriveThru Cards [Affiliate Link]. Kickstarters are not the thing to do right now, and they take a lot of work. I’ll put it together with the public domain and other art from my test decks. My artist is still producing art, but has a lot more pieces to finish before I can use that art. I can use the funds generated on DriveThru Cards [Affiliate Link] to help fund finishing the art, in case treatment eats up my savings. I should have enough in my business account to cover it, so I’m not worried about that. Once I have all the custom art pieces, I can think about a Kickstarter. But there is no way I have the time, energy, or the mental or emotional oomph to run a Kickstarter right now.

Running & Playing Games

I just re-started my AD&D [Affiliate Link] campaign on Roll20. I plan to keep going and will only stop when treatment and recovery prevent me from running a session. I will have plenty of time to think and plan leading up to that point, and during recovery.

The Monday night B/X game [Affiliate Link] and Wednesday night Stars Without Number [Affiliate Link]game on Roll20 will get by without me for any time I am down. I intend to keep playing in both.

I may do a special weekend of running games I’d like to play, maybe for Memorial Day. Maybe I can get my brother to run a game online with the old gang. That would be a hoot.

Podcasting, YouTube, & Twitch

I will continue to podcast as I have topics I think are worth sharing. I will keep making YouTube videos about Roll20 and other things. I will keep streaming Minecraft and other things on Twitch.

I can make a quick update and post online following any treatment to give a heads up on making it through the treatment (surgery).

Other Plans

I’ve been trying to downsize all the stuff I have with the long term goal of my sons not being left with a bunch of stuff they don’t know what to do with it. Everyone should do that so their loved ones don’t have to. It’s been on my to do list for years, and it feels like I’ve only scratched the surface. I want to wrap up the things on my list of home projects, at least the ones involving organizing things, so I don’t have to look at them and be tempted to overdo it during recovery.

I also really need to do a will. Not to be morbid, but one never knows. I had a severe car accident 27 years ago, and that could have been it. I’ve got enough life insurance to pay off my mortgage, truck, and other debts with some left over. Plus my pension. It’s more than my parents were able to leave to my siblings and me.

I want to cover all the bases I can and do all that I realistically can to leave things as organized as possible to minimize my stress when stuck sitting or paying around for recovery. My brain will insist on thinking and worrying about stupid shit that doesn’t matter, so no matter how well I prepare, I’ll still have that to deal with. But maybe I can short circuit it a bit.

Thanks!

I want to thank everyone who has messaged me words of support and encouragement. Those mean more to me than you can ever know. I plan to beat this thing. Cancer is one of those things for which I had a fear. Mostly about it being too late to do anything about it, or being the kinds few survive. So I’m not as affected as I would otherwise be. I’m now worried about the side effects of whatever treatment I choose. There may be none. I know I’ve internalized some of my stress, as I’ve snapped a bit at family. So I know it will be a challenge to be the positive and encouraging person I try to be. I plan to be around a long time.

RPGs

2019 – Year In Review

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Since we’re about out of year, I decided to hurry up and put together my post for my year in review. I’ll be comparing to 2018, which you can see here.

You can listen here to my 2019 in Review and 2020 & Beyond Podcast. It’s got a slightly different focus than this post.

Conventions

I didn’t do as much playing or running RPGs or playing any games as I had hoped. While I did attend Gary Con, Marmalade Dog, Grand Con, and UCON, I had a larger challenge than normal getting in the mood to plan and run games. I did manage to submit games to run for the usual conventions I attend, Gary Con, Marmalade Dog, and UCon. As always, it went well and both I and the players had fun.

I also participated in Procrasticon I. A bunch of Anchor podcasters threw together an impromptu 24 hour online con. I signed up to run a game, but no one signed up. I played in a couple of games and had a blast. One is the Monday night game I play in now.

Barrowmaze using Delving Deeper was an online game I played several sessions. My first character, a fighter, died, carried off and eaten by ghouls. My current character is a 4th level cleric. We’re on hiatus til spring.

B/X in the Broken Lands with the Orcs of Thar Mystara supplements. I play a 4th level hobgoblin Monday nights.

Playing & Running RPGs

It wasn’t until the middle of September that I managed to get the bug to create a new campaign that I actually ran an online game. I settled on Delving Deeper, and created a campaign that I called Delvers’ Deep. The name Delvers’ Deep comes from the only thing I ever submitted to the One Page Dungeon Contest, The Dire Druids of Delvers’ Deep. I’ve run that at a few conventions. Only the name so far, exists in the campaign world. I ran it as a drop-in/drop-out game, sort of a modified West Marches. After 9 sessions players were unable to commit and then my work got busy.

Sadly, the amount of work for the day job has gone off the charts. I ended up cancelling games, and finally putting my campaign on hold until things return to “normal”. I’ve used up so much of my creativity that I also broke the pace of my regular podcast. I went from 3 episodes a week to none. I went over a month without a podcast until I had an episode on December 6th. This has also affected the frequency of blog posts and my drive to work on my monthly PDFs.

Card Game

I’ve had a hard time motivating myself to do some more hard work on the card game. Playtests have been very informative, but I haven’t done as many as I wanted. I have added some detailed notes for some additional rules based on feedback from the last few playtests. I need to build test deck 3. The amount of work that is is a mountain, that I have yet to climb. I can do it in a long day. I had hoped to have it in my hands by now. I really want it in time for Gary Con.

What about the Kickstarter? I’m really torn about this. I don’t have the new art as fast as I want. I’m also burnt out with Kickstarter, and get the impression many are. That is in addition to the way Kickstarter treats it’s workers. Also the Kickstarter user interface is very crude. I built a dummy campaign to figure out how to do what I want, and it is not easy. Part of me wants to just put the game out on Game Crafter, which is very easy. But I want to make it easily available worldwide. So I’m also considering DriveThru Cards. I need to order a deck from there to see what sort of quality it has.

Part of me just wants it done. I’m sure many other creatives hit that same wall. I just need to persevere and do the best job I can to make the rules and the cards work. I had an idea for a Halloween themed deck of cards about 6 weeks before Halloween. I’ll see about maybe doing it for 2020, if everything comes together for the game.

Publishing

This time last year, I had 5 PDFs on DriveThruRPG. Currently I have 17 since I have yet to complete the PDF for December. I will finish up my December PDF and publish it before the end of the year. This will give me my first calendar year of publishing and sales.

I now have 2 Copper Best Sellers and 2 Silver Best Sellers on DriveThru RPG. My first PDF, Locks, Vaults, and Hiding Places [Affilate Link] is only 19 paid sales away from Silver. My first Copper and then first Silver, Caravans & Trade [Affilate Link] , is 77 paid sales away from Electrum.

You can check out my full list of titles at my DriveThru RPG Publisher Page. [Affilate Link]

By The Numbers

Publishing:

  • All Time Grand Totals: 6389 total downloads for 678 paid sales $840.85 $588.60
  • 2019 Grand Totals: 5171 total downloads for 471 paid sales $585.77 $410.04 (All included in the numbers above.)
  • T-Shirts on TeeSpring – Still 0 sales beyond what I’ve bought for friends and family.

As a DriveThruRPG Affiliate, I’ve made $113.56, all but the last $25.00 spent on new purchases. Just waiting to spend it on another game or supplement.

On Patreon, I have 5 followers, up from 3 last year. I had 6 at one point, and would have 7 had 2 not had to drop off. $137.00 before fees. I’ve seen none of it since my personal and business accounts linked, it minimizes how much I pay each month for all the other Patreons I back. I really appreciate my patrons and their feedback and encouragement.

A few months ago, I decided to enable ads on my podcast. I have yet to go through the back catalog and insert a spot for ads. I’ve made a whopping $14.67.

Amazon Affiliate. I’m an Amazon Affiliate, but have yet to have anyone buy anything. They give you 180 days for a qualified purchase or they drop you. This is my second go around at this. I don’t expect to get rich, but would love for enough to negate my expenses for web space, domain name, art, etc. I’ve got 12 years give or take before I retire, and I need to achieve at least a net 0 expenses to maintain all the things I hope to be doing when I can give up my day job. Here’s a link to games. I’d greatly appreciate anyone using this link as it helps me out without any expense to you.

Here’s one for Dungeon Crawl Classics. [Affiliate Link]

[^ Affiliate Link ^]

So I’ve made $1,106.08 before fees, leaving $849.98. That does not cover the expenses it took to earn it and I waited to collect the publishing payout for 2018 until 2019 for tax purposes. It’s pennies per hour for all the effort and still less than the net of one regular paycheck. This should illustrate why it is so difficult to make money online, even just a little extra.

YouTube – 474 subscribers up 240 from last year, 71 videos up 7 from last year. With over 40,000 lifetime views. My series Roll20 For The Absolute Beginner is the most popular. I started a new series in 2019 – How To AD&D 1e. I plan to keep adding to each series. Over 425 subscribers to go until I can think about ads, since one of the criteria is a minimum 1,000 subscribers.

Twitter – 1092 followers up 372 from last year.

FB – 143 Likes up 79 from last year and 145 Followers up 80 from last year.

Reddit – Karma of 480 up 408 from last year.

Instagram – I started Instagram on June 26, 2018, but didn’t mention it in last year’s post. I ended 2018 with 67 followers and am up to 128 followers.

Blog posts 52 published posts, down 69 from last year, and 2 new drafts, down 4 from last year for a total of 25 drafts.

Total blog posts 797 counting this one you’re reading.

Podcasting

I have 11,886 total plays among my 170 episodes, for an average of 69.9 listeners per episode. 6 episodes are over 100 listeners. My first episode is at 150 listeners. I plan to do a year end podcast so the final 2019 numbers will change.

Last year’s hiatus due to work and family drama saw my podcast’s trend for growth smacked down. The proliferation of new RPG podcasters on Anchor has made it easier to get lost in the noise. No one has time to listen to all of them consistently.

I wonder how much longer I’ll maintain the effort.

Kickstarters I’ve Backed

I still backed way too many Kickstarters in 2019. 5 that should have delievered in 2018 arrived in 2019. Of 10 Kickstarters that should have delivered in 2019 that did deliver in 2019, 1 was early, 1 was on time, and 8 were late. This is the source of my disillusionment with Kickstarter. I want it when they say they’ll deliver, not months or years later. I go in for Kickstarters that I’ve never used or read the game. I know I’m not alone in this.

12 more Kickstarters are supposed to deliver in 2019, and only 2 of those appear on track to meet that goal or only be a couple weeks late.

I have 19 overdue Kickstarters. I hate to think how much money that is. I have not updated my page here on the blog where I track the Kickstarters I’ve backed. I want to help my friends with their projects, but when so many of them are late. Some do a great job of explaining things and are late for good reason, and do a great job of making sure things go at ASAP. Others do a terrible job of communicating and are late and when they do communicate, it is sometimes more frustrating than silence. I’ve learned which publishers/creators I’ve backed that I’ll never back again because of how late they were.

My Tips For Those Running Kickstarters:

I’ve backed 77 Kickstarters that funded, and only 3 that did not. So my track record of picking the ones that will fund is very good. As for picking those that deliver on time, not so much.

  • If you’re always 6 months late on delivery of a Kickstarter, add 6 months to the delivery date of future Kickstarters.
  • If you’re not good at communicating and keeping backers informed. Don’t launch a Kickstarter. If you do a Kickstarter anyway, suck it up and communicate.
  • Don’t wait to deliver bad news.
  • Do the work BEFORE you click Launch!
  • Pay the artists, layout and others as soon as you have agreed to/when the money arrives.
  • When the money arrives, pay all the bills/vendors to minimize the tax burden.
  • Get along with your team until delivery is complete. Don’t have interpersonal, legal, whatever nonsense. Get it done. Be Professional.
  • Minimize the points where things can go wrong.

Final Thoughts on 2019

I didn’t meet all my goals. That’s a realistic occurrence. However, I did well on the goals I met. I’m still here and I’m not quitting. The nature of my day job with it’s busiest time of year in December and more so in January forces me to pull back from spending time on my hobbies.

I’m also working on a review of the stats of the blog, such as the most popular topics in 2019. That will be another blog post that will take a bit to pull together.

One of the coolest RPG things I ever did was participating as a player and DM for the first ever livecast of a D&D game (5e) from Gary Gygax’s old house to benefit Extra Life. Having a video of all four games allows me to relive it a bit. Seeing how I run a game is also a helpful teaching tool to help me get better.

What’s Ahead in 2020

  • Release my card game whether through Kickstarter or directly via Game Crafter or DriveThruCards.
  • Continue one PDF a month for my Patreon that is also released on DriveThruRPG.
  • Evaluate my podcast and determine if it is worth my time to resume when work slows down.
  • Attend conventions and run and play games.
  • More regular blog posting.
    • I’d like to read more blogs like I indicated at last years round up post, but I didn’t do very well.
  • More videos on YouTube.
  • Run and play more games in person and/or online.
  • I’ve been invited back to the next round of live cast RPGs from Gary’s old house, so I’m letting ideas tumble in the back of my mind.

2019 was overall a great year. I let my thoughts and self-judgement get in the way of enjoying it as much as I should have. The older I get, the more I realize, no one else will ensure I have fun. It’s up to me.

For 2020 Gary Con, I’ll bring my card game for pick up games, and bring some stuff to run or play pick up games. I will focus on playing some wargames and a few other things. I don’t want to pack my schedule, as I want to enjoy things as much as I can with the con more crowded than prior years.

As with last year, I look forward to the changes and opportunities that lie ahead in 2020. I hope it is a great year of growth and opportunity fulfilled for all of you. May you play often, roll well, grow rich and powerful, and save or destroy the world as is your wont.

RPGs

One Year Of Podcasting

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You can hear the companion anniversary podcast episode here.

Monday, June 24, 2019 marked one year since I started podcasting. Initially, I was podcasting whenever I had an idea, with often a new episode every day. It wasn’t until September of 2018 that I settled into my three episodes a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

I maintained that schedule until after Thanksgiving, 2018 when I had to deal with the combined chaos of the day job and some personal issues. Once the personal issues were under control I had a few episodes here and there and was back to the normal 3 episodes a week, except for Gary Con, but I did do a joint episode with Ray Otus and Cody Mazza. I was consistent with episodes until May and was just tired and dealing with work and stuff around the house.

I finally started back on a regular schedule and the rains and flooding overwhelmed my sump pump. I thumped it and it started, but it wouldn’t turn off. I spent all day last Saturday replacing it. I live in a house that’s almost 100 years old. It has 3 or 4 different types of pipe in the plumbing, and this sump pump was not installed the way it should have been so it took several trips to the hardware store to get all the right parts, but I got it done.

Unfortunately, the water got deep enough before I could get the new pump in place that it knocked out the pilot light on the water heater, so we’ve been without hot water for a week. I have tried a couple times to light it, but no go. I think until it dries out completely in the basement, that it’s useless to try. The water finally quick coming in through the sump and the seams in the floor. Now the dehumidifier is slowly drying things out. As long as there’s no more rain, I can relax a bit.

I was so worn out Saturday, that I just vegged the rest of the day, and no podcast. I have a fitbit and I made 50 trips up and down stairs. I also took it easy Sunday.

Then the internet wouldn’t work for my home computer, so I was limited in what I could do. I finally determined that I just needed to move the Ethernet cable to another spot on the modem. I just got the new modem in March, when I switched internet providers. For a couple days I was worried the network card went out. I’m glad that’s not it, as I need to be ready for other expenses.

Thankfully, my RPG collection is high and dry and mold free! I lost most of my original collection to a water leak, so there’s no way I’m storing any of it in the basement!

I had my end blurb since before the 3 episodes a week. Is that too iconic to change how I do that? What do you think?

I’m way behind on listening to my fellow podcasters, and it seems like there are a lot of new ones over the last few months. I’ve tried to listen to them. I keep hoping to change that, but too much other stuff keeps interrupting my fun.

Next month, I will publish my 12th monthly PDF on DriveThruRPG supported by my patrons on Patreon. Most of them are PWYW, but I will be going back to each of them and improving their formatting as I’ve gotten a lot better at formatting. I have 1 Silver Seller (Caravans & Trade) and 2 Copper Sellers (Library Generation Tables and Locks, Vaults, and Hiding Places).

Next month is also the tenth anniversary of my blog! I can’t believe it’s been that long!

The end of August will be 1 year since I launched Follow Me, And Die! Entertainment LLC to get ready for the Kickstarter for my card game. The game is moving along. So far, things are on track to launch in the first half of 2020.

September will mark 1 year since I launched a Patreon. I want to thank all my patrons who have been on this journey with me!

RPGs

2018 – YEAR OF GAMING IN REVIEW

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2018 was an RPG filled year.

I attended several conventions through the year: Marmalade Dog, Gary Con, Origins, and UCon. I ran games at all but Origins. I plan to continue running games at every convention I attend. Gamehole Con was the same weekend as UCon. Since I go to Gary Con over Marmalade Dog, I decided to stick with a Michigan convention in the Fall. I didn’t attend Grand Con this year, as I attended my 35th high school reunion that weekend.

October saw the epic conclusion of 4.5 years of Wednesday night AD&D game on Roll 20. I managed to join every session.

It was replaced by SWN after a couple week break, and after a few weeks, life got chaotic and I had to cancel plans for 3 of the last 4 weeks. I decided to take a break from Wed. night and my podcast until work slows down in mid-January or after January.

I started a podcast on Anchor and am on all but one of the minor platforms they syndicate to. I have over 4,200 podcast total listens over 68 episodes nearing an average of 63 listens each.

I launched Follow Me, And Die! Entertainment LLC in preparation for the Kickstarter for the card game I keep talking about.

I became a publisher on OBS. Here’s my publisher page [Affiliate Link] . With OBS merging RPGNow into DriveThruRPG, I’m glad I’ve tended to focus on links to DriveThruRPG. RPGNow links will be re-directed to DriveThruRPG.

As of now, I have five PDFs available, released in the final days of each of the last five months of the year, approaching 1,200 total downloads.

I launched a Patreon. So far, with 3 steadfast patrons.

In October, Google announced it will shut down G+ in August, 2019. A few weeks ago, they moved up the date to April, 2019 and will start deprecating APIs in January.

Google takeout is rough. I jumped on the G+ Exporter as is does posts and communities. G+ Exporter can export into either JSON or WordPress backup format. I will post my thoughts on it once I have a chance to restore a backup. Time is running short, since G+ will have the plug pulled in April.

By the numbers

G+ passed 400 followers, and it dropped to the 398 after Google’s announcement of the G+ shut down. Until the shutdown announcement, I was on track to reach 500 by now….

YouTube – 234 subscribers, 64 videos.

Twitter – 720 followers

FB – 64 Likes and 65 Followers

Reddit – Karma of 72

Blog posts 121 published posts and 6 drafts.

Total blog posts 742 with this one.

Affiliate Sales OBS $42.54 All used to buy various books and PDFs, especially shipping for physical copies of Kickstarter rewards.

Total Sales of PDFs as a publisher $231.55, 70% of that comes to me.

I backed 20 Kickstarters in 2018, which is way too many. They all have cool things, but I don’t have time to get to all of them, let alone all the Kickstarters I backed before then.

Speaking of Kickstarter, my plan is for 2019 to be the launch of the Kickstarter for my card game. There are a few things still up in the air, so I can’t narrow it down more. My plan is to launch, fund, produce, and fulfill all within the same calendar year.

What’s Ahead in 2019?

There are many plans in place.

  • Launch a Kickstarter.
  • Continue Producing one PDF a month to my Patreon that is also released on DriveThruRPG.
    • If things come together, produce some larger PDFs. The timing of the Kickstarter will affect this.
  • Resume my podcast once work slows down, either in Mid-January or after January.
  • Attend conventions and run games.
  • More regular blog posting.
    • Also more reading of blogs, whether from my blogroll or via an RSS reader.
  • More videos on YouTube.
  • Bid G+ farewell in April when Google finally pulls the plug.
  • And most importantly of all run and play more games during the week.

I look forward to the changes and opportunities that lie ahead in 2019. I hope it is a great year of growth and opportunity fulfilled for all of you. May you play often, roll well, grow rich and powerful, and save or destroy the world as is your wont.

RPGs

Anchor Podcast For Follow Me, And Die!

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A few days ago I shared on various social media that I had started a podcast on Anchor. I put up an episode 0 to try things out. I added a link to my Anchor podcast on my Social page.

I’ve made a list of topics for short episodes to record. I haven’t decided if I will do one episode a week, or more frequently.

Anchor has an app that allows others with that app to “phone in” to a podcast, and that call in can be shared in a future episode. If you want to hear me talk about a specific topic, let me know. I can do more detail on a topic already covered, or touch on a topic new to the podcast.

This is just another place holder on the blog for anyone searching for it. I also put a link along the left side under my affiliate links. Give a listen and a comment.

RPGs

Gary Con VIII – Podcasting Panel

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The Gary Con Podcast Panel, with hosts from Game School, Gaming and BS, Cube of Death, Drink Spin Run, and Dead Games Society discussed gear, and other practical aspects of podcasting.

I am interested in podcasting, but I’m not sure that I have what it takes to make it a regular thing. I went to get some insight into the process. The basics to get started are less than $100 on the low end, to unlimited. This is not a formal article, but more my notes on the discussion.

The panel was recorded, so it is intended to be shared somewhere. Until then, here is a very quick outline of the presentation from my notes. I look forward to the recording so I can figure out what a couple of quick scribbles are in my notes.

Tech

Each podcast host mentioned the gear they use and things to consider when getting gear for your own podcast.

The bare minimum needed is a microphone, headphones, and a way to edit sound. Less than $100 if use free sound editor.

  • Microphones – 2 main types
    • condenser – wide range, very sensitive. Need to have a separate room/space to pad out noise
      • Blue Yeti
    • dynamic – Rejection – front & center
      • ATI 2100
  • Headphones
  • Sound editing program/mixer/ soundboard
    • Audacity is free sound editing program
  • Pop filter – also speaking past microphone if pop filter not enough
  • Vibration isolation
    • scissor arm
    • separate table for the microphone

Hosting

  • Can host files on your own or use a service. If host on own it can lead to limitations of bandwidth.
  • RSS Feed – This is how people find and listen to your podcast.
  • iTunes & Website – Squarespace – simple installation
  • Host file at Blueberry or Libsyn – Both have plugins for WordPress. both have $x a month plans.
  • PodBeam
  • Free at Archive.org – it is slow and can make listening choppy, or freeze.
  • Filesizes – 200 MB is too big for download, usually 30 or 40 MB.
    • There is a site that explains sound quality based on file size. good quality at around 40-50 MB

Tips & Tricks

  • Microphone Discipline:
    • Never Eat at the microphone.
    • Mute if not talking.
    • A pause from a guest is not an invitation to talk. Wait and make sure they aren’t just taking a breath.
      • Wait five seconds before you speak, they may just be taking a breath.
  • Do a pilot episode that you never share to work out the kinks.
  • Start small wit an inexpensive microphone and audacity to make sure it is something you can and want to do before laying out large sums on high end equipment.
  • Longevity gets guests.
  • Podcast fade – Most podcasts fail within 7 episodes.
  • G+ Podcasting Community
  • Make a thing you are interested in so that you keep doing it.
  • Don’t set self up for failure.
  • What value do you bring to the community with your podcast?
    • Content – What is your niche? (Avatar)
    • Conversation
    • Scripted topics of discussion
      • Plan episodes from a storytelling perspective. Does not need to be a complete script, but an outline to guide the conversation.
  • Podcast: Out On The Wire on Public Radio.
  • Avoid long intros
  • Avoid upspeak. this was a particular pet peeve of one presenter, and I must say, I agree with him.
  • Listen to other podcasts to figure out what you like.
  • Half hour podcast is ideal. (80% of people listen to podcasts on the commute to & from work or otherwise in their cars.)
  • Getting Guests & Good Interviews
    • Guest Dock – Form on site the guest fill out. Pick 3 things you want to talk about in order of importance & have them write their own third person bio, and any NSFW disclosures.
    • What is on & off the table?
  • Logistics:
    • Acts or segments to break it up. Used a timer
      • Show notes to reference the time of each segment.
    • Length of show
    • Audio bumpers after each segment.
    • Grab Bag – old quick idea for a topic. (Originated with boring guests.)
    • Call & Oates – Hall & Oates on crappy MIDI.
    • Shared Google Drive for collaborators to work on scripts, planning, etc.
  • Hosting – Solo, or with a co-host.
  • Facts/Interviews/Learn Things
  • Host Chemistry is important is multiple hosts.
  • Have some in the can, that way you can take a day off.
    • Record several sessions before post the first one, if a weekly podcast.
  • Have a location where you record that is limited on errant sounds, such as traffic, family members, pets, etc.

Promotion

  • How grow audience?
    • Social Media
    • G+ community – put post after done recording episode announcing the topic, and another when it is posted.
    • Twitter feed.
    • Mailing List – email sign up.
    • Do a guest show & the very best it can be
    • Audience participation
    • Mention what you liked on other podcasts
    • Crossover/cross promotion
      • Not hard to get other podcasters on your show
      • Increase Luck Surface Area

Pet Peeves on Podcasts

  • Interrupting guests
  • Excessive rants
  • Laughing at something for no reason.
    • No nervous laughter
  • Not passing important visual queue to the audience
    • ex. Look at this, when audio only.
  • Super long intros & transitions (bumpers)
    • 15 second into. tops
  • Forced Academia – Level of pompousness/arrogance
    • Don’t condescend
    • No bad/wrong fun
    • Don’t shit in pool

Audience Questions

  • How handle multiple guests?
    • How “GM” the interview?
  • How do you triage or post-mortem each episode? (My question)
    • Pay attention to each piece
    • Take notes
    • Feedback from listeners
    • LISTEN to each episode the very next day.
      • What was good, what can be done better, what segment doesn’t fit, etc.
    • Listen to yourself.
      • You will find things in the way you speak and your own vocal quirks that you want to fix.
  • What is the right ratio of recording the show to editing?
    • Silence is no problem at all.
    • Don’t fix everything.
      • Max 4 hours to fix a one hour show.
      • Find the right ratio of re
      • Editing is the difference between a good show and a great show.

[Update: Added links to Part I and Part II of the recorded panel at Dead Games Society.]