#RPGaDay2023 - A Recap

Ten years of #RPGaDay.  

I'm certain the creators and organizers of this social media event about role-playing games are even more happily puzzled this thing has had the staying power it's had than I am.  In  a hobby where "Let me tell you about my character!" is a thing, "Let me tell you about my games/my books/my collection/my experiences isn't that far off, but to make it enjoyable and less grating, well, that's a feather in their caps.

This year's theme was a return to the year one questions, with a retrospective looking back and comparing our 2014 answers, or even thinking back to that time if we didn't participate back then.

For me, the 2023 theme could be summed up in a old adage: Be careful what you wish for.  

Over the past few years, the organizers have tried different concepts, questions, and prompts to inspire and engage the gaming community.  Most are quite serviceable, a few were fantastic, and some left something to be desired.  When input and suggestions were offered after every year, like a broken record, I always mentioned going back to year one's questions, or, at least work them into the conversation somehow.  Without researching, I believe I started that on year five, and had gently nudged at the concept each year thereafter.  

After being given everything that I've ever asked for, redoing the questions a decade later, then comparing and contrasting to the originals was... well.. nice!    I didn't reference the original answers until I completed the 2023 questions. With some topics I've evolved, others I'm exactly the same, and I've realized my recollection of things is starting to get fuzzy 34 years into the hobby.  

One thing I don't expect from this process is increased views for the blog.  Unless I have a super-fan/bot in Singapore, the normal traffic stays within the pageviews I would normally receive,  with a few spikes along the way, and I'm fine with this process.  

This year, I'm happy to say, did see a significant increase of individual post views compared to the last two years.  It over 30% growth versus 2022 or '21, and I include the all views for those posts.  It's nowhere near my number during and before COVID, but hey, who reads blogs anyway?

One last happy thought:  In 14 years of blogging, I've only had two #RPGaDay posts crack my annual Top 20 posts.   This year (which ends in September 30th for me), between 2-4 posts might survive the cut.  None get into the Top 10, but I'll take what I can get.

After I finish my August, I'll return to only focus on ongoing Actual Plays, Kickstarters, and working down the backlog of ideas.  I hope to tackle a few wargaming scenarios, and outline a RPG entry or two, like my Georic Gazetteer line.   Hopefully my backlog I call Project: 350 goes down rather than up after the dust settles. 

So, Year Eleven?  Of course I'll be participating, and I can shelve my normal string of requests until the 20th Anniversary rolls around.  I will not say copy Year Two's prompt exactly, but, like a Pokemon, evolve the library of questions into the 2020's while allowing the largest group of people to jump on board to participate seems ideal. 

(EDIT: Actually.... having reviewed the questions from #RPGaDay2015 , It would be really cool with a near-repeat of those for next year.  Some of the questions I had expected on this year apparently originated on year two. Regardless, I'll be here to answer them.)