Photo Credit: FreeImages.com / Alex Bramwell

This is Campaign Mastery’s

800th post!

But it didn’t feel right to make a big celebration out of that milestone after touting the 750th-post anniversary so prominently last year. Instead, it’s business as usual – except that this particular article is, of course, a celebration of the achievements that helped get the blog to this point!

So, here are the stats worth knowing: 1.11 million page views, 36% visitor loyalty, 406,000 visitors.

Let’s put those numbers into perspective by dividing them by 800: An average of 1,387.5 views of each article, 499.5 by loyal readers and 888 by first-time visitors – 320 of whom will come back at some future point to read another article.

And yet. those numbers are misleading. Compared to this time last year, Campaign Mastery has 6.4% more readers every day, every article, every week, every month.

Here’s another perspective: Up through November 2013, the pattern of readers was a gradually-rising sine wave, rising and falling over a period of about 7 months. This had been the pattern following the euphoric Ennie nomination a year earlier. Something happened in December of 2014, some threshold was crossed; what it was, I don’t know, but it had a profound impact on the readership. What used to be the cycle peak value in readers suddenly became the reliable minimum, with occasional articles – four of them in 2014 – attracting an extra two or three thousand readers in those months when they were published. The 750th celebrations represented another milestone, another threshold: the new minimums each month is the average of those four exceptional months last year, and at least two of the last six months have shown a significant increase over even that bottom line.

What’s more, It’s my (admittedly prejudiced) opinion that the articles that have been published here in the last year have been better than those published the year before, which in turn were better than those the year before, and so on. Certainly, the feedback I have received has given that impression!

So there’s an awful lot to celebrate!

During the period with which this article is concerned, there were 66,201 articles read by 25,137 readers, 37% of whom had been to the site at least once before. Year-on-year, this was pretty much unchanged from the previous year in terms of number of visits but slightly down in other metrics. That’s actually pretty good, because that 2013 period included the 500th post and a couple of others that received greater than usual attention.

There’s some pretty good stuff here….

The Best Of 2014 Pt 2: July-December

As always, this list is very subjective, and you may not agree with my choices, but I have selected – with great care, and reviewing each contender individually – 28 for your reading pleasure.

Scoring 10/10:

These are the best of the best from this 6-month period. And there’s rather a lot of them.

• The Flunkie Equation – quick and easy Hors d’Combat
• Stormy Weather – making unpleasant conditions player-palatable
• Shades Of Suspense Pt 1 – Eight Tips for Cliffhanger Finishes
• Shades Of Suspense Pt 2 – Fourteen Types of Cliffhanger Finishes
• The Secrets of Stylish Narrative [series]:
  • Polished Loquacity; Part 1
  • Bullet To The Point: Part 2
  • Words, Like Raindrops, Fall: Part 3
  • The Impact Of Polished Text: Part 4
  • Pearls Of Spontaneous Prose: Part 5
  • The Keys to the Kingdom Of Literacy: Part 6
• Thatch and Confusion – creating a village
• The Expert In Everything?
• The Wandering Spotlight Part One of Two: Plot Prologues
• The Wandering Spotlight Part Two of Two: Shared Stories
• Memorials To History – an ‘a good name’ extra
• There’s Something About Undead
• Ask The GM: Seasoning The Stew (making races feel distinctive)
• Layers Of Mis-translation: RPGs and Dubbed TV
• “I know what’s happening!” – Confirmation Bias and RPGs
• Alien In Innovation: Creating Original Non-human Species
• The Unexpected Creeps Up Behind You – Dec 2014 Blog Carnival
• Pretzel Thinking – 11 types of Plot Twist for RPGs, Part 1
• Let’s Twist Again – Eleven types of Plot Twist for RPGs pt 2
• Ask The GMs: Buzz and Background
• The Thinking Man’s Guide to Intelligence for Players and GMs

Scoring 9/10:

Almost as good, but these aren’t going to suit everyone.

• Seven Circles Of Hell – Creating Politics for an RPG
• A Population Of Dinosaurs and the impact on RPG ecologies
• An Experimental Failure – 10 lessons from a train-wreck Session
• Race To The Moon – a lesson in story structure
• Studs, Buttons, and Static Cling: Creating consistent non-human tech
• Flavors Of Victory: Why do good GMs fail?
• Pieces of Ordinary Randomness: Random Techniques Of Chance
• Gifts In Gaming: Overlooked Seasonal Plot Hooks

Honorable Mentions 8/10:

It might have escaped your attention, but in part one of this presentation of “The Best of 2014” a rating of 8/10 was enough to make the main list. That’s a measure of how many really good articles I was able to put up during this six-month period! As usual, I’ve included comments on just where these fell short of the standard:

• Touchstones Of Unification – This three-part series is just a little too abstract to be an ‘A-list’ entry.
  • Pt 1 – Themes
  • Pt 2 – Concepts
  • Pt 3 – The Big Picture (Genre and Style)
• A tabula rasa – focusing the mind before writing – Not enough people realize that they suffer from this problem and could benefit from the advice. This deserves to be in the main list but because of that limited appeal, it has to be relegated.
• ‘I Can Do That’ – Everyman Skills For Pulp – This would rate more highly (placing it in the main list) if not for the subtitle, which gives the impression that this was written only got pulp campaigns. It starts from the perspective, and focuses primarily on that genre, but includes advice on applying the principles to other games and genres, such as D&D. But if you have to explain to people why they should read it, it isn’t quite good enough to make the list.
• On the binding of Wounds – Everyday Healing For Pulp – Same problem as the previous article.
• Dr Who and the secrets of complex characterization – Great insight, but not enough practical advice to be top-shelf.
• Tourism in Sleepland: Sleep management for GMs & other creative people – I stand by and use these techniques all the time, but they might not work for everyone – or be completely safe if used excessively.
• There’s Something About Christmas – Interesting but in hindsight doesn’t go in-depth enough to be a top-rated article.

So we’re almost half-way through 2016. According to my original schedule, this article should have been published about a year ago, and I should be publishing “The Best Of 2015” about now. But plans change; my current intention is for the next in this series to be published in January 2017, again splitting the year in two, with the second half appearing mid-year. “The Best of 2016, Part 1” should follow in early 2018, and so on.