Hey everyone!

I have to admit, it’s a little crazy looking at the traffic for this little D&D blog!

January is coming to an end and the site has received over 1000 page views in this month alone. Looking at the traffic and getting some really nice comments/emails has really helped me see what kind of content is most helpful and enjoyable to you all.

So I’m going to be doing more of that!

But I figured it’s worth taking a bit of time to recap the last few months and get an idea of where this thing can go from here.

90 Days of Content

I set a crazy goal when I started this blog. Because I have a major tendency to be a perfectionist and get stuck on details (which means I don’t publish much), I wanted to break that habit.

So the goal became putting out 90 articles in 90 days.

It is probably one of the most intense things I’ve ever done, but it was also incredibly fun. Tiring, but fun!

I figured that it would be good to cast a wider net and see what people were more drawn to as far as content goes. This has helped me better plan what my content will be focusing on in the next leg of this blogging journey.

Of course, I’m always super happy to make content that you will enjoy or find useful. If you have requests or comments, I read every comment/email/message I get! Just let me know!

But with so much content, I’ve realized that doing a roundup is probably the best way to evaluate what I’ve learned over the last 90 days.

Class Guides

I did a series on the Druid subclasses where I took deep dives into each of the Druid Circles that have been officially published for D&D 5e. Far and away, these have been the most popular articles on the site.

You can read the most popular of these subclass guides, the Circle of the Moon, by clicking here.

This honestly surprised me a bit. I kind of figured they would be useful to people, but wouldn’t be how people found this blog.

I was so wrong!

But since the subclass guides are performing so well, I’ve already begun working on the next batch for the Rogue subclasses. They have already been getting published and I’m pretty happy with how they’ve turned out. So far, the guides for the Mastermind and Arcane Trickster have been published. I expect to have the Swashbuckler guide finished next!

On a similar note, the guide to the Druid’s Wild Shape ability has also WAY outpaced most of the other content I’ve written so far. I think doing deeper dive guides to certain key abilities for each class may also be helpful, so I expect to do some other articles like that in the future. The next will very likely be over the Rogue’s Sneak Attack.

Monsters

Who doesn’t love a good creature feature?

I’m happy to see that the monster feature articles are getting solid traffic. I’m seeing the most traffic focusing on the Guide to Hags and Guide to Oni which makes me very happy!

There are tons of really fun and interesting monsters in D&D that I can’t wait to feature! If there’s a particular monster or monster type that you would like to see a feature about, definitely let me know!

Right now, I’m focusing on Giants but I have no idea what to focus on after that. Possibly Dragons? Goblins and goblinoids?

I’ll probably do some more monster round-up posts as well. I had a very fun time writing this article that features 10 monsters from 10 different mythologies and compares them to how they are presented in D&D.

Questions

I want this blog to become a major resource for D&D players and DMs of all experience levels.

So I’ve noticed that there are questions that get asked a lot without having many detailed answers. The next highest performing content on the blog so far has been articles that directly answers those ignored questions.

The two biggest examples of these posts are the ones that answer whether or not Druids can wear metal armor and answer whether or not Elves sleep.

Miscellaneous Content

There were a few articles that I am particularly proud of during this first 90 day hustle.

The first was covering how to run horror games in D&D.

It’s probably the biggest article on this blog so far and I still didn’t go quite as deep as I would like to. I fully expect to do a part 2 at some point.

If you want to get spooky, scary, or creepy with your D&D game, I really recommend checking it out here.

I also really enjoyed writing this article about what if Quentin Tarantino was a Dungeon Master. I plan on making some more content in the future about other directors and how their styles could apply to D&D.

The current list of possible directors is Alfred Hitchock, Stanley Kubrick, Rob Zombie, The Coen Brothers, and Tommy Wiseau. I’m not sure when I’ll get to the next one, but I’m excited to do it. If there’s a director that you’d like to see for this “Directors and Dungeons and Dragons” series, let me know!

Lastly, I’m thinking of doing a regular “story time” upload.

When I wrote the article about that time that my gnome artificer built a Death Star, it was fun to reminisce about my own home games.

I’m deciding if I want to start doing story time recaps of the game that the character of Tabletop Joab comes from or a story time recap of my current Curse of Strahd group.

February Is a Month of Changes

In the last Tabletop Joab update, I mentioned a few changes that I was considering making.

With this content posting hustle done, February will be the month that I’m looking at changing things up.

New Publishing Schedule

With the 90 day hustle being officially over, I need to find an upload schedule that’s actually sustainable. Daily writing was fun and helped me get over those perfectionist tendencies, but it’s incredibly difficult to juggle with school and work.

So the current publishing schedule will be Tuesdays and Fridays.

I may expand to three days a week, but I want to see how two uploads a week work first. If I get the itch, Sundays may have some bonus articles!

Site Design and Organization

I’m not a web designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I am pretty proud of this site. I had to learn a lot to make it happen and I’ve kept experimenting and learning more over the past few months.

I plan on redoing the design a bit to make it prettier, but I mostly want to refocus on the organization of the site.

My notebook has tons of ideas for how to redo the article categories. Whatever form it takes, it will hopefully make it super easy to find exactly what content you’re looking for on here.

I’m definitely open to suggestions here, so please let me know if you have any thoughts!

Merch?!

I’ve partnered with some AMAZING artists and fans of the site to design some awesome merch. The test products recently came in and I’m VERY happy with the quality.

Not only do I think that these are objectively fantastic products, but they’re a way to give back to those who want to support this blog.

I’ve already had a couple inquiries about starting a Patreon, but I’m not entirely sure about it yet. Like, I’m not sure what I could really offer on there and I want to make sure that I’m able to fully engage with the audience when that time comes. It feels way too early for that right now.

So I figure that merch is a good place to start. I’m hoping to get the first wave of merch fully launched in February!

I’ll also be digging through my notebooks to make some AWESOME published modules. I’m doing research on how to do that in a way that won’t get me in trouble for copyright infringement. Once I get that figured out and can make the modules to a level that I feel is totally worth the money, those will also be available in the coming months.

Social

I’ve made efforts to be social on Facebook, though literally every other platform has been ignored during these last few months.

So now that the daily post hustle is done, I’ll be much more active on social media. Facebook and Instagram mostly, but I may decide to use Twitter some.

At some point in the next few months, I’ll be launching a Facebook Group and Discord channel. I feel like these will be the best ways to really interact with everyone! Additionally, I’ll be making Youtube videos once I get better at learning how to edit videos.

The big goal is to be as interactive with the D&D community as possible.

You can sign up for the Tabletop Joab newsletter at the bottom of this post to get updates for when all of these go live!

In Conclusion

So, in conclusion, thank you so much for helping support this site. I’ve received some of the most kind emails and FB messages since starting this. It’s really cool to be able to meet other D&D players and DMs and talk about our favorite hobby.

I see some really exciting things coming on the horizon. I hope I can make you all proud with content that will help you have incredible games and make memories that will last a lifetime!

Until next time!

Wade / Tabletop Joab