November 2023 Newsletter
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy thanksgiving everyone! Here’s what I’m thankful for:
You! The Dukes of Highland wouldn’t exist without the support of the players and everyone interested in this weird niche hobby. I’m always humbled by you putting your trust in us and your willingness to go along for the ride.
Volunteers. A group of people who I’m eternally grateful for. I simply can’t do this on my own and I’m thankful to everyone who helps out in whatever way they can.
The “real-life” Dukes who I am privileged to know and spend time with and many of whom help me in the hobby, particularly those who helped me run Watch The Skies last year. Thanks to Brian, Forrest, Keith, Geoff, Daniel, Alan, Phil, Adrian, Troy, Lance, Eric, Mark and many others through the years who have been part of this group.
Megagames! The evolution of which is bizarre and amazing.
The Megagame coalition and the Megagame Assembly who have existed for years before I got involved and do so much for the hobby. I try to give back to those communities however I can.
Squarespace, Discord, Google Drive, Mailchimp, Facebook, Reddit, Canva, Inkscape, Gimp, and all the other pieces of tech that make the Dukes possible.
And my family, for helping me along the way and for letting me step away to spend time in the hobby that I love.
Above: The group of my friends who helped me put on Watch the Skies: New Materials in March 2022. From left to right: Phil, Tony (me), Geoff, Daniel, Brian, Forrest.
The big industry-wide survey
Our friends over at the Megagame Assembly have released a world-wide, megagame survey to get a bead on the current state of megagames. I’d STRONGLY encourage you to fill it out to represent the Dukes and add your voices to megagamers all over the world. I’ll let them take it away:
Calling all megagamers across the world!
The latest Megagame Survey is here and we need YOU to help give us an idea of the current state of megagames in 2023.
https://forms.office.com/r/tiG3u9wTV2
How many people prefer to control/facilitate a megagame rather than play? Who is playing megagames? How many megagames do people like to attend in a year? Questions like these will help us build a picture of the current state of megagames, after the last survey which was run before the Covid-19 Pandemic. You can see the results from that survey on Megagame Assembly (https://www.megagameassembly.com/.../megagame-survey-results).
It should take between 5-10 minutes to fill in, and there’s a chance to share your thoughts, as well as provide useful numerical data. The survey will run until the end of November, with results shared in early 2024 on Megagame Assembly.
Thank you!
The Future
As I’ve mentioned in previous months, I’m working with a new, local gaming convention called Rivercitycon which is coming to Louisville in January. The hope is to put on a slimmed-down version of Den of Wolves. I’d love for this to be a gateway for non-megagamers to get their first taste of our hobby. If you’re in the Louisville area and have gamer friends, I’d love for you to encourage them to come and play.
I’m still waiting on the con team to give me details on the events and how to sign up but as soon as I find out, my newsletter recipients will be be first to know.