Phoenix

Being a content creator is a turbulent thing.

Five years ago, we had just published our first book, were living in Auburn, CA, and had no idea that Covid was about to wreck us. For real, we had a book tour planned and everything. Today, we’re still wrapping up our second book, we live in Hancock, NY, and we’re still recovering. At the end of 2019 we made a total of $71,137 before taxes and expenses. Obviously, taxes take out a massive chunk of that, and things like Dragoncon, artwork, site hosting, Adobe….blah blah blah. The point is we were doing pretty darn well. We had enough to keep up with the bills, and continue to grow the business and reach new people and do new things.

Then 2020 happened. Imagine you’re running full speed down a hill and you trip suddenly. That’s basically what happened to us. In 2020 we moved to Sacramento, CA to a slightly smaller, but three bedroom apartment. The rent was a little higher, but we figured we’d be fine. Sales from the book were doing well and the show was in Arc 4. Our finances had dipped, but we figured that the worst had already passed us by.

Now I’m going to get real with you all. Like…..very real. Stick with me though because it gets better.

Over the next five years, we lost money in every single aspect of D&R. The Patreon went from $71,000 at the end of 2019 and dropped by tens of thousands of dollars every year. At the end of 2024 we had made $41,139 before taxes. After taxes, it was a little under $30,000 for the entire year. People had stopped driving to work for a long time and simply got out of the habit of listening. Without cash to buy ads to reach new listeners, we were dying on the vine. I know the cast could feel it too. It’s one of the worst feelings in my entire life. I went from someone who was always available to help, to simply not being in a position anymore.

We lost our business accounts and license. Our credit, which we had been building up over the course of years, was now ruined. We moved to a tiny town in NY and it hasn’t been a good fit at all. The second book has been delayed again and again as we struggled to get it done. It simply felt like we were drowning and there was no escape from it. Failure just seemed inevitable. We had a tough talk at Dragoncon 2024 with Ryan and Jasper. They knew how badly things had gotten and we started talking about a big shakeup for Arc 6.

Now, this scared the living shit out of me.

During the downturn and at the start of Arc 5, we made some major changes. We changed systems and had a loose partnership with the people behind the Cortex system. We changed shirt distributors, we changed the way we made episodes and recorded. We started making video versions of those episodes. All the way down, we tried to make some waves and really think outside the box.

And. It. Tanked.

In every measurable metric, it failed miserably. We changed the things that people enjoyed and ended up making the show something that hardcore fans couldn’t identify anymore. We also didn’t bring in any new people because the company that owns Cortex was bought by WOTC shortly after our 3rd episode went out. In short, we broke it. The feedback was so clear and negative that we backpedaled hard. We went back to DND, we stopped making video episodes, the behind the scenes content changed. We did everything we could to get back to a state of normal. But the damage was done and we lost a big chunk of our listenership.

I’ll be super honest with all of you now. That killed me inside. It’s a terrible feeling to have people rely on you and something happens outside of your control. I’ve had to support family and my plant closed down out of nowhere. It’s another to impact the people that rely on you because of choice you made along the way. I let people down. I let our community down. I made the wrong calls, and it cost us dearly. We moved shortly afterward, back to the east coast.

So when Jasper started talking about major changes for Arc 6, I was less than giddy. We talked about only one major group in the feed. We talked about possible time jumps and major plot changes. We talked about a lot, and while the ideas were fun and interesting, I didn’t know if it would be the “right” move or not. Eventually, we basically said “fuck it” and wanted to give it a try. Something had to change, and making the wrong move was preferable to doing nothing at all and watching things deteriorate further.

As of the time I’m writing this, we are 4 days away from our 13th year of doing D&R. A lot changes for people in 13 years. Many members of the cast are now parents. They moved, got new jobs, graduated college and now have careers. Basically, not everyone had the time to dedicate to weekly recordings anymore. A single group on the feed did make sense and it had some advantages. Having one main story that listeners could follow and talk about was the major one.

We started prepping behind the scenes and over the course of about 5 months, we developed the time jump, the setting, characters, and we felt very confident. I think we were all nervous when we sat down to record the first episode, but it went so well that it felt like we had always been playing these characters. There was curiosity about the setting again. Questions flowed from the players and the listeners. It felt like the old days in a lot of ways.

It’s no accident that the current setting is an endless winter. That’s how it has felt for the last few years. A constant barrage of ice and wind, never letting us recover or prepare. The cold seeping into everything around us and eroding our foundation while we simply wanted to survive. But there was always this little fire going. Our friends and our community. This group of wonderful people that never gave up and was always in our lives. It made things better, even when we were sure that we couldn’t take it anymore.

We just posted our 5th episode of the Frostbourne Arc. People seem to be enjoying it and we’re working hard behind the scenes to improve things and give you all stuff you’ve asked for. A new World Anvil page, a new way to keep up with events on the show, more community events, and a whole bunch of stuff that we haven’t even started yet. That little fire is growing, slowly but surely. We’re going to try to find a way to advertise for the first time in many years. We’re going to make Theriathon and Dragoncon major events that (we hope) will make you all proud.

If you’ve ever felt like the cold was too much for you, and there was no shelter or hope. Trust me, I hear you. Things have been hard on everyone that I know for a long time. But maybe if you have a seat with us for a while and warm up by our fire, we can all get through this together.