Well, it’s finally here, the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. We wanted to take a few moments to think and reflect back over the past year. First, we want to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone for your readership. To our beloved Patrons, you mean more to us than you’ll ever know!

The year got off to a slow start with a sluggish publication schedule. I think we found our stride in the spring when Stephen transitioned from being an occasional contributor to officially joining the team. In April we launched our Patreon and it has been a learning experience for us. Modoc had a goal of reaching 10 supporters on Patreon by the year’s end. While we’re super happy to have 9 supporters, we did fall short by one supporter.  All-in-all we feel the Patreon has been really good for us. It has encouraged us to write more articles and review more products on a more regular basis. For that, I call it a win no matter what!

While launching the Patreon we also started a Discord server for our friends and followers and this has been really successful. We’ve been able to connect on a more personal level with some of our readers. We’ve also been able to run regular roleplaying games for our Discord friends. This has allowed us to build new friendships and further connect with our fans. If you’re not part of our Discord, come on over and be part of the conversation and the fun. I’d like to think we are an open and inclusive little community that exists to have fun and foster community building.

This past fall we picked up Cindy as a new writer and her work is outstanding! Readers have really taken a liking to her choice of topics and her thoughts on those topics. Some of our most read articles come from her contributions. If you haven’t had a chance to read those articles, you owe it to yourself to read them. Cindy and Modoc have been friends for more than two decades and it’s great that they are collaborating together once again!

Beyond the Dice: Making Legends
Beyond the Dice: Breath of Life
Beyond the Dice: Creating Exceptional 1st Level Fantasy Characters

Our presence at local and regional game conventions fell short of our expectations, but hey, personal lives and Monday-Friday jobs can have a way of putting a dampener on convention attendance.

In the end, the past year has been amazing for Rolling Boxcars and while we wish we had written more, attended more conventions, etc we’re very proud of what we accomplished as a team and as individuals this past year!

Now, let’s talk about 2019, shall we? While 2018 set the bar for our release schedule, we will maintain the schedule that readers have come to expect. We’re going to publish official reviews every other Wednesday (Patrons always get early access) and on the opposite weeks, we’ll continue to publish two articles. We have a good handle on this schedule so, it’s pretty standard fare for us at this point.

We would love to see some growth with our Patreon. The funds we raise each month really does help, not us personally, but rather the blog and all readers. First, it allows us to pay the bills for the site and keeps us ad-free. Second, it allows us to buy new products to review and often we can then run them for our Discord friends. Lastly, it allows us to sponsor and run contests and giveaways during the year for our supporters and fans.

Modoc has been hinting at some projects we’re working on for a few months now. Neither of these projects is ready for primetime and public consumption just yet, but we’re continuing to work out the kinks and polish them up for a little later in the year. Who knows maybe there will be other things that come to fruition as well this year.
 Podcast – recorded game sessions/topic-based discussions*
 A digital semi-annual/annual Rolling Boxcars publication (maybe even in print)**

* When we launch this, Patrons will have early access to all episodes before they are made publically available through various podcasting services
** The publication will be for Patreon supporters only and will not be made available to the public.

Bring on 2019! We’re ready for whatever it has in store for us and we’re pretty sure you’re going like what we write and the new projects we launch in 2019. I said it earlier, but we really do love our Patrons and we hope that you’ll consider becoming one in 2019.

~ The Rolling Boxcars Team

Follow Modoc on G+ or on Twitter at @DM_Modoc
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