Three months now

...that the Flagon has been open for business.  As I enter Month #4, I have to say that in my estimation, it's been a rousing success.

Sure, my posts are nowhere near the most profound, ground-breaking, or thought-provoking OSR material out there.  My page views and readership numbers are nothing to brag about by the standards of the old guard blognards.  In many ways, I'm late to this OSR blog party, a trend that some of the giants of the old school blogosphere seem to believe has crested already and is now in sharp decline.  Maybe they're right, but that doesn't bother me much.

Writing this blog has been an outlet for my interest in the game, at a time when opportunities to actually play have been pretty slim.

It's kept me writing when I've gotten discouraged with my novel-writing.

By writing my ideas in a format meant to be read by others, it's helped to crystallize and solidify them in my mind.  The constant search for topics for new posts has kept me thinking ahead and coming up with new ideas, remembering old problems and thinking of ways to address them, and just thinking in general. 

 People are reading my ramblings.  Maybe not the legions of people who read The Tao of D&D or Hack and Slash, but more than I ever got on my former blog about economic and political issues.  Hell, I get more page views in a good day at the Flagon than I had over the entire run of my libertarian blog.  In a way, it's disappointing, because those issues matter so much to me, and let's be honest, D&D is a fairly frivolous pursuit, but at the same time, a writer wants to be read, and I'm getting that here.  I've had some good feedback from a few more established bloggers.  The Flagon is listed on some old school blog sites, including the Eternal Keep, Old School RPG Planet, the Oldschool Blogs page at Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets, and Dreams of Mythic Fantasy.  (Wow, SO many hits from Dreams of Mythic Fantasy!  My sincerest thanks to James Smith for adding me to his blog roll.) 

So, yes, tending the virtual bar here has been a good experience, and I think it's safe to say the Dragon's Flagon isn't going anywhere any time soon. 

Things to do in the (hopefully near) future:

Come up with a cool header image.

Make an actual page of links to my favorite old school sites and blogs, instead of just the blog roll in the margin.

Produce some actual downloadable game aides and supplements.

Keep posting!