I’ve been thinking a ton about “audience engagement” recently, how to get that sweet, sweet participation of people watching, reading, and listening to TCbH. Then it dawned on me, WHY? Is it for validation? Feedback? Money? All three of those are legitimate things, and can be incredibly important for content creators, TCbH included. But I think that for me, more than anything, it’s for the conversation.

Since I was but a wee babe, I’ve been creating stuff. Drawing, music, designing poorly reskinned versions of Heroquest, you name it. But I don’t think I ever imagined a world where I was fully supporting myself doing these things, it’s that I just loved it when someone totally got where I was coming from and responded, and we could then just geek out. Whether it was the obscure track we decided to cover at a punk show, or someone seeing that I was sketching ancelary Thundercats characters, I loved engaging with people.

In a way, you could call that validation, but it’s not so much the validation of quality as it is the recognition of authenticity. Or maybe that’s what I tell myself so I can get to sleep at night.

Anyway, I really appreciate everyone out there on reddit, bgg, twitter, youtube, and elsewhere spreading the word about what we do, giving feedback, and more than anything, just starting some conversations. We have a few more projects going on these days where you can make your voices heard, too.

About once a month, contributors and friends of the show get together to record “TCbH Hangouts”, a more game focussed discussion podcast which usually has a particular question attached. If listeners contribute answers, we also bring them up there. Then we are also posting our rough draft reviews to the patreon, and asking patrons (and twitter followers, but patrons get 2 votes) to vote on upcoming reviews, Rook & Records, etc…

In other news we got a ton of new stuff on the horizon, including interviews with Ben Rossett, Carla Kopp, Jamey Stegmaier, and R. Eric Reuss. Reviews of Orbis, Root, Imperial Assault, My Little Scythe, Tiny Epic Zombies, and more. Oh, and Rook & Records of Abyss, My Little Scythe, Terraforming Mars, Clans of Caledonia.

Shoot… We just got a lot of stuff going.

Oh, speaking of which. Carla Kopp of Weird Giraffe Games has been a frequent guest and longtime supporter of TCbH. Their latest kickstarter just launched, “Dreams of Tomorrow”, which I recommend you check out this week’s interview. You can find the kickstarter here. I have not played the game, but it sounds awesome.