A Survey (and a Gift)

This past month marks a significant milestone for the newsletter: 1,000 subscribers!

I genuinely think the past six months of content are some of the best stuff I’ve written—and the analytics say you feel the same!

We’ve gotten just over 500 subscribers in about six months - not bad considering I am absolutely awful at marketing the newsletter in pretty much every capacity!

Ignoring those numbers and simply looking at likes and comments, let’s put it this way: the four articles that released in June got more likes and comments than all of the posts in 2024 (42 of them!) combined. That’s crazy!

With all that, I’ve tried to reflect on what works and what doesn’t work so much. Sometimes, it’s just down to the timing of the thing. Other times, it’s the topic. But I’ve been bashing my head against the wall trying to figure out each week exactly what you all want to read and engage with when it suddenly hit me…

Why not just ask you?

So, if you’ve made it this far…

Welcome! To the Grand Grinning Rat Reader Survey (or GGRRS for short)!

Photo by Patti Black on Unsplash

In this survey, we’re (hopefully) going to determine a few things:

• What do you want to see more or less of

• What you’ve liked and disliked in the past

• What things am I missing

• What formats do you want me to explore

And other questions of that nature.

Consider this your chance to be brutally honest with me. No hard feelings!

I know how important your time is and I don’t want to waste it with a bunch of fluff. That’s why I’m doing this survey and, because it’s important to me, I’m willing to put skin in the game. You deserve to be compensated for your time!

So, that being said, if you fill out the entire thing, I’ve got PDF keys for Dungeoneering and its two expansions, Wanderers and Catalysts, AND both the Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar—my megadungeon / setting book—and the Starlit Spire, a mini-pointcrawl in the same setting.

We’re talking about $75+ of PDFs—free.

But you gotta do the survey.

Sounds good? Great!

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A Special Note to Followers

If you’re subscribed to the newsletter (either free or paid), go back to the survey link and fill it out. Okay? Okay. Nothing to see here. Promise.

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Okay, I think they’re gone.

Hey you!

How’s it going? Just lurking in the shadows, huh?

Well, I wanted to chat really quick about how Substack works and what being a “follower” versus a “subscriber” really means.

See, Substack does this kind of fucky thing where you can “follow” someone by clicking—you guessed it—”Follow” on their page.

Sounds simple, right? Well…

It turns out that “following” someone means you get updated when they post notes. Those are the things that look like tweets or a social media feed when you first hop on the app or website.

Guess what you DON’T get updated on when they get posted? Actual blog posts.

That means you’ll see me gush about what books I’m reading or my thoughts on other creators’ posts around the site, but you won’t ever be notified when I post my articles. You miss out on bangers like Thoughts on Swords, Why Most Magic Items Suck, and 10 Lessons from Running Games. AND the free itch.io downloadables that come with them!

So… let’s fix that.

Click the button below to become a subscriber. Yes, it requires your email, but I promise I won’t spam you with stuff, nor should Substack. You don’t have to pay anything either.

I just want to make sure you’re getting the goods.

According to my analytics, around 200 of you are following but not subscribing. So click the button, and thanks in advance!

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This article is brought to you by the following paid subscribers who make this newsletter possible:

• Azzlegog

• Colin

• DSPaul

• Michael Phillips

• Mori

• Reed

• Space Pirate