Three Months In And We've Hit Our Stride

Photo by www.kaboompics.com 

Although there's over a year's worth of material on Cowboys, Capes, and Claws, today marks the end of its first quarter of active engagement with its audience.

And I have to say I'm very pleased with how things are going. In these last three months we've recorded a steady heartbeat of visitors (of course, a large percentage are bots, I know):

Visitor numbers since official launch of the blog

We appear to be getting a decent number of visitors, while still keeping our head below the parapet so I can carry on happily pootling around, not really knowing what I'm doing.

The largest proportion of referrals are from Facebook this quarter, with the United States accounting for 23 percent of hits on the site, while my fellow Brits only make up seven percent! 

Since removing the "number of hits" counter from the front of the blog, I've definitely become more relaxed about visitor numbers. It wasn't that I was desperately hunting for hits, but rather I was worried about attracting "bad actors".

I've never monetised my blogging and never will. I write all this nonsense primarily for my own entertainment, as storage vault for my ideas, and a vague diary of the more geeky elements of my life.

Do I wish more people would comment on the blog? Of course, I do. But that's something to work on as I continue to regrow the audience I used to have on previous blogs.

Since my first overview of goings-on (after just a month of this blog being "live"), the site has two more recruits to its Posse of Followers: namely, my old friend Adam Dickstein (of whom more later) and another gamer I've known for a long time, Norbert Franz.

But more are always welcome, so please show your support to my humble mumblings by clicking the blue button on the right marked FOLLOW (I think you need to have a Google account for this to work properly).

I'm not sure if there's a connection, but my six-year-old, private, tabletop roleplaying Facebook group, I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters, has also started to blossom again. We've had about a dozen new signings in the last couple of months, which is magnificent.

Also, Adam (see, I said he'd be back) has created a month-long blogging challenge, inviting people to share their home game settings through a series of daily prompts (Barking Alien's RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026).

And I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters is hosting the offerings from four participants: namely Timothy S Brannan's West Haven; Chantel Jones' Wonderland; Jonathan Linneman's Project 5.5 (The Fifth Moon of Elysia); and Adam's own Star Trek: Prosperity.

These are generating interest and conversations and, hopefully, next year that will translate into even more gamers taking part.

ASPIRATIONS FOR 2026

Don't Want To Rush These Things: After 19 years, work shall begin on my castle

As we reach the end of January (which seems to have dragged on for about 30 weeks) I thought it was about time to lock in some aspirations for 2026.

HEALTH

Obviously after last year's health debacle (losing about seven months of the year because my legs stopped working properly and being in a great deal of discomfort), I want to get better this year.

More exercise and a healthier (urrgghhh!) diet are key. Hopefully, at the very least, I can bring my blood sugar levels down so I can get the steroid injections in my spine that will allow me the freedom to do more beneficial exercises.

READING

I've already stated that I want to get back into reading more this year (eyes willing), both novels and comic books, as both have slipped in the last seven or eight months.

I'm hoping to dig into my collection of recent Conan the Barbarian pastiche hardbacks, as well as the upcoming new Philip Reeve novel, and a random assortment of other books that either I've purchased for myself or were gifts.

I also have a massive backlog of comics to get through. Even though my pull-list continues to shrink, fresh issues keep arriving every month and I keep getting further and further behind.

My Read Judge Dredd Every Day is going... okay. I read either a story from volume one of the Complete Case Files or fresh material from current issues of the weekly 2000AD or the monthly Megazine pretty much every day. Pretty much.

CASTLE

For my 40th birthday (god, I can't believe it's been that long), Rachel's dad built me a tower that I could then decorate - along the line's of Rachel's dolls house hobby - and while I've collected a lot of "bits" to go inside it, two decades on and I still haven't started proper work on it. 

I keep flip-flopping on the theme of the tower in my mind (sometimes it's a superhero HQ, sometimes it's a U.N.I.T. base from Doctor Who, and sometimes it's even a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy castle!). This year I really must get on with it.

I'D RATHER BE KILLING MONSTERS

The tabletop roleplaying Facebook group I started over six years ago, I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters, is ticking over nicely, with almost 460 members but I'd really like to kick it up a gear.

I want to make the group more interactive, get more conversations flowing.

At the moment it feels as though there's about a dozen of us doing all the heavy-lifting. I'd like to get more members of the group engaged and talking about their own games, the campaigns they're running or playing in, monster/treasure/trap ideas etc

And, of course, I'd always like to increase the membership.

PROJECT 60

This is the big one for me, my core focus for the geeky projects I want to have in place before I turn 60 at the end of this year. Yes, it includes everything I've set in stone above but the two major things I'm channelling my energies into are establishing a singular roleplaying campaign for me to run - that will have legs - and a (skirmish) wargame with painted miniatures and terrain that I can play solo or invite friends over to play.

The current top contender for a roleplaying game is the anime fantasy Twilight Sword.

When it comes to skirmish games, for a while I was spreading myself a bit thin by embracing several genres and settings, but I've finally decided that I need to concentrate on just the Western game Dead Man's Hand.

I'd hoped to get started on terrain building and painting last year, but my osteoarthritis put the kibosh on that. This year I will make up for that.