An Amazing Month!

It's taken a while to get around to this, but a short break before work is plenty
enough to report back that last month, was an amazing month for the blog :0).

In fact, we broke all previous records for the number of folks visiting us by a clear 600 visits, over which I am quite stoked. Veteran bloggers may think, "well, that's not much" but, when you put that in the context of the relative youth of this blog and the previous record of 1,435; it's pretty damn impressive!

So, as ever, a big thank you to everyone that's dropped by. :0).

By this point, I imagine that at least a few of you are beginning to wonder, why exactly I am so obsessed with the figures? Let me say, it's more than a measure of success. Sure, I love to see that hit counter running up, it's a sign that I'm delivering content that you want, but it's also through the figures that I get a good idea of what's not working. Knightmare Re-Run being the most recent example.

Personally, I quite enjoy the show but, the subject as a whole has garnered little to no interest here. So, I figure, why waste space? If there's no audience for the content, then there's very little point in continuing to run it. The figures (and of course any comments you leave) are very important with this kind of trending, especially when I consider that the blogs remit is as wide a field as "gaming".

That's a whole lot of subject matter, and I only want to deliver the best.

As a result things are pretty much always up in the air here. It's not a bad thing. It just means that we're still feeling our way. Eventually we'll likely settle into a few regular features.. Once we work out what they should be.

So have your say! If there's something you like, dislike, would like to see or, like to see consigned to oblivion. Feel free to drop us a comment, they're always welcome.

Another Break

The 13th of the month and, only just getting the first post in.. Oh dear.

In fairness it was pretty much unavoidable though. All the rabid running around of the past month or so (both in and out of work) took it's toll, and facing absolute burn-out I took some downtime.

In truth, I am still physically pretty exhausted but I have enough steam about me to carry on (not to mention the fact that doing nothing drives me up the wall, being "somewhat" of a workaholic) and, am ready to take my blogging to task.. Although it'll likely be a couple of days yet before I provide any real updates, as work beckons, and lengthy shifts loom on the horizon.

Briefly though, my immediate plans for blogging are:

• An update and run down on last months achievements (we did good!).
• Print and play gaming: my new passion.
• Feature Abandon: Knightmare Re-run (It wasn't popular, it had to go).
• Print And Been Playing: A new feature, replacing Knightmare Re-Run. A review section for the print and play games that I have been playing, with a positive bias towards free print and play games.

Hope to see you all there! :0).

A Short Break.. Sort Of

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When I say short break it conjures up images of days spent by the seaside, candy floss and, fairgrounds.. Well, it does for me, but alas this is nothing of the sort (not that I actually like fairgrounds, with the exception of hook-a-duck).

Nope, my working week begins in about an hours time, which with the long hours that I actually work (9 hour stints without a break) leaves me little time for anything else that isn't eating or sleeping. So it's not likely that I'll get another post in till late Saturday / mid-afternoon Sunday at the earliest.

Still, we are going great guns for the month so far, and I still have pages worth of notes to make tangible and post.

So, we're looking at a couple of days break as it stands, maybe an extra day or so as I catch up on my sleep, but that's all it is. A break.. Of sorts, and I look forward to seeing you all on the flip side. :0).

Hiatuses & Hold-ups

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Just a quick post to say that due to an unexpected bout of food poisoning,
coupled with a bad case of physical exhaustion I'm running a little behind on where I want to be, and what I'd like to have posted up here to the tune of a day or so.

I am fast on the road to recovery though and, a master at playing the game of catch up. So it shouldn't be too long before we're back in blogness. :0).

+1 More Blog For The Feed

Something that I have taken to doing (or more accurately something that I have been doing for a while but had yet to blog about), is perusing the blogs that others are following. It's how I find great new reads. So if I am following you, I'll also take a look over your reading list to see what's peaked your interest.

A lot of the time you do find that you are mostly just running around in circles because I may be following A, who follows B, who follows me, but I still find this an enjoyable and worthwhile exercise. You never know what you'll find.

One that I have found over the past couple of days is The Rat's Digs, a Tunnels and Trolls blog that despite looking quite new, and not have been updated for a month or so shows a lot of promise. The content that is there is pretty good and the author has also been nice enough to post a list of useful links at the foot of the page.

This will be an interesting one to keep an eye on, so it's definitely going in the feed. :0).

Target: 10

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Well last month I set out with a simple goal. I was going to
get up 10 posts a month as the rather poor showing of one the month prior, was, well.. Poor.

Did I do it?

Yup, in fact for April I smashed the goal by a clear 12 posts. :0). Not only that but as my regular readers will be aware from my previous posts, the blog has burned through quite a few other milestones this month. It's not all about the hit-rate of course but, I'd be lying if I said that knowing we get so many visitors, so often didn't bring a smile to my face.

So I know I've been saying it a lot of late but, I really do mean it when I say a big thank you to all of you guys. You're the fuel that keeps this blog going.

Post 300!

So here we are, post 300! Another excuse to break out "Mr 300" and, another
milestone for the blog (of which there have been a few of late).

In the past couple of weeks we have not only reached 10,000 hits, but 10 followers and, now 300 posts. That's a lot of big numbers, which of course means big thanks to everyone who's give us a hit (we're averaging out at just under 500 a week, up significantly from our regular 200ish a week), we have a new follower which I hope means that we're reaching a wider audience, receiving more comments from a wide range of people which pretty much confirms that and, I am more driven of late to get more content up on a more regular basis.

This is all good news from where I'm sitting, as the best you can hope for as a blogger, blogging gratis, is that you'll be noticed.. Well noticed for the right reasons. :0).

So again, I thank all of you who have shared the journey to 300 post with me and I hope you'll all continue to stop on by. :0).

One Blog Enters And Two Blogs Leave

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The Rusty Battle Axe is in, Farlands Games and Alien Dungeon are out (of the
bloggish feed that is).

But why are they out?

Well I have a strong belief in ethical business and, despite earlier relations that were good, I have found the conduct of Farlands Games to be anything but. In fact they're being downright sly in their business practices and I have no desires to be tarred with the same brush. I could go into detail but I don't really think that this is the place.

With Alien Dungeon though, it's nothing personal. Well, not really. I don't like their pie in the sky pricing policy and, I don't like some of the folks that they work with but, that's their call. I just have no real interest in being kept in the loop anymore.

All this is a million miles away from what I normally blog about (I prefer to keep things positive where possible) but, none of this is news. Just me being less than active in trimming away the fat from my feed as I should have cut Farlands Games off months ago! It's done now though and my feed is all shiny again. :0).

On The Cards: Loot-O-Matic, But First An Intermission

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Well it looks like I have a new project on my hands with the Loot-O-Matic
series of posts, but before I get ahead of myself (as the weapons and armor tables promise to be a bit wee beasties) I thought I would stop and update you all on what I have in the pipeline for the blog.

Digital Dungeons: This feature will look at how dungeons in video-games stack up when you bring them to the tabletop. I'm still ironing out the details out on this one but I may go as far as converting several notable (to me at least) dungeons, getting them ready to run, before unleashing them upon my unsuspecting fellow gamers. ;0).

Geeks Do It Better: This one's already kicked off and the natural predecessor to DMotivational that has officially been retired (well, for now).

Going Solo: This is something that I have talked about more than once, as a lot of the gaming that I used to do used to be solitaire (it took a long time to find a local group and I was an only child). As a result of having time on my hands and solitaire / Co-Op games not being readily available, I got creative. I found ways of playing the games that I had and loved without another player. So taking the lessons and tricks that I learned as a child and teen I hope to make some of the other great games in my collection more accessible to other player that find themselves in the same boat as I was. 

Wandering Monster Stable: I gave a quick mention to this on the back end of my last Loot-O-Matic post. What I plan to do here is create a series of wandering monster tables that you can plug into any existing solitaire adventure that you happen to own, giving it a new lease of life. Each table will be themed to bring a different flavor to your adventure depending upon your particular tastes, with the first favoring one of my personal favorite classes of monster, the Undead!

Nearly 500 More Hits!

Wow!.. Just Wow!!

It was only a week and a day ago that I sat here thanking you all for your support and, for helping this blog reach 10,000 hits.. And now I'm here doing it again.

The sheer volume of hits that this blog has received this week is nothing short of phenomenal, and it's sure put us a lot closer to 20,000, a lot faster than I could have possibly hoped for.

So again, a big thank you to all my supporters, readers, the guys that hit +1 and, the guys that comment. Without you all this blog would just be me barking at the dark.. And I do enough of that off-line. ;0).

Over 10,000 Hits!

Which is pretty amazing in anyone's books.. Okay, maybe not Google's or Amazon's or.. Well, let's just say I'm happy!

So, as ever a big thank you to everyone who has stopped by and ticked the counter along one, two or, a few. :0). Also keeping with the theme of 10's I hereby pledge (well sort of) to update the blog at least 10 times a month, with the sort of accounting for times when there is either nothing happening or life precludes me the time to put in timely updates.

See you all at 20,000. ;0).

One Update!? That Just Won't Do!

Only one update in March!? That just won't do.

I really hadn't realised how lapse I had become in updating this blog. That will change though. March was just a quiet month. Next to no gaming, not much in the way of games shopping and, not a lot happening on the development front either.

April has already blown this out of the water though.

We have a new game at the table, our Rolemaster roleplay is finally underway and, I have finally finished sifting through a folder full of incomplete projects, so there will be more from the workbench.

So I hope that you enjoyed the commercial break, and we welcome you back to the Alchemy show. ;0).

New Feature: Blog Spot

A big part of how I've approached writing this blog is consistency. I figure do what you do (and try to) do it well!

So everything that I post, I try to pigeon hole one way or another, with the idea being that it (theoretically) makes the blog easier to navigate. If you find something you like then hopefully it should be tagged to other items of interest in some shape, way or, form.

Blog Spot is going to be a little different though. Rather than taking you on a merry tour around the blog it'll lead to posts elsewhere that I think are well worth a share. Bringing the idea of Facebook's share function to Blogger.

This is pretty much an experiment at the moment, as I'll obviously need the permission of the original posters (as I plan to copy and paste the text) but, should it take off, I think it will provide a valuable gateway to the wider blogging community. After all, I come across posts all the time and think "that's great! But I can't really just post a link".

Heroclix: The Log

With Star Trek Heroclix Tactics revitalising my love for all things clix via my love for most things Star Trek (Shatner is the exception that proves the rule), I have decided that I will start tracking my thoughts as I feel my way back into Heroclix here under the tag, The Log.

Still In Blog-ness

I know it's been a while since the blogs seen an update, but let me assure you all, I am still busy beavering away. Just not at the blog of late.

Truth is that it has been WAY too cold in my particular part of the world to entertain the idea of sitting at my desk for any extended period of time. That coupled with a lovely little virus that just keeps on giving. :0/.

Things are both looking up and warming up however, so all being well, normal service will be resumed soon, and can I take this opportunity to thank all of our regulars that have been swinging by on what must be a daily basis to check up on us. It's much appreciated. :0).

Calm Before The Storm

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There's no two ways about it. Blogging wise, the past couple of months have been pretty slow ones.

By and large this is down to real life commitments, but I am hoping that I can start to turn that around. Fast. In the next 72 hours in fact! The thing is that, just because I haven't been able to update here as often as I would have liked, the ideas have still been coming thick and fast. REALLY fast.

I now have a new abstract game on the workbench, along with an independent survival-horror roleplaying game, heavily spurred on by the sterling work that Jerry Teleha has been doing with Stay Alive! On top of that there have been the usual gaming musings, a solo conversion for the Munchkin card game that I think's pretty dapper, my old solo rules for ZOMBIES!!! that I have re-discovered in a pile of print-outs, new plunder for the cave, new thrift store finds. There is a LOT to blog about, and I finally have the time to sit down and do it all justice. :0).

So sit back and relax, there's a storm coming. ;0)

Alchemy Reaches 5000!

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Which is just awesome!

Whilst we are still quite a way away from reaching our goal of 1,000,000 page views, it is still a great feeling to have come as far as we have, as quickly as we have.

So, this short post is just a big thank you to everyone that has tuned in, dropped me a comment or, popped on by.

Here's hoping to see you all here at the 10,000 mark!

+1 Follower: Welcoming Gothridge Manor.

Following on from the example set by Pulp Citizen, over at his blog, I would like to give a big shout out to our latest follower, Gothridge Manor.

Welcome on-board the mad ship Alchemy. Also, I'd like to take the chance to thank all of our other followers and readership. Without you guys, this blog would just be me barking at the dark. :0).

Amazing!

That really is the only word I can use to describe what has just happened!

As some of my regulars may or, may not know, I keep a watchful eye over the analytics for this blog. Partly because I still have my focus set on the 1,000,000 page count mark (which admittedly may take a while) but, also because I want to offer my reads more of what they want.

Looking over the figures, I can see what's popular and, give you more of it!

I certainly wasn't expecting just how popular we have become over the past week though. I won't bore you all with the averages and what not but, I will say that nearly every day this week has seen an increase in the number of pageviews that the blog is receiving.

Yesterday, this number more than doubled!

Which can be looked at as we became twice as popular within 24 hours. Which is frankly amazing and, I am stoked!

Today's statistics are looking more than healthy too, so again and, I can't reiterate this enough, a BIG thank you to everyone who drops by. YOU are what makes it worthwhile.

I Really Appreciate Your Continued Support!

It seems that day by day, even on days where I don't get a chance to post anything, this blog grows and, for that I want to send out a big thank you to all of my readers, followers and, the guys that are sharing my content!

Suffice to say that without you all, this blog would be a lot less worthwhile.

Cheers guys, you're a great bunch!