2019 in Review

Thank you all so much for your support in 2019. It was an amazing year, full of successes, learning experiences, new friends, and a lot of growth. Growth of the Lady Tiefling brand and personal growth and learning for myself. For me, 2019 was filled with very high highs and very low lows. I’ll discuss the good and the bad of the year down below. I mostly want this to be a post of celebration of the past year, but I have made many stumbles along the way and I want to address them. But first, lets start at the beginning. 2019 was the origin of Lady Tiefling and my loot tables, but was not the beginning of my Instagram page. I’d like to share that story with you. 

Origin of Lady Tiefling

My Instagram page started as DM Kelzeon. Kelzeon being my gamertag, and a reflection of my love for Pokémon. In previous years, I had created a YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and Blog for the Kelzeon brand, focusing on Pokémon and other games. But it didn’t gain a lot of traction, and was largely used to complete assignments for my Integrated Media university degree. The YouTube and Blog being a requirement for two different university courses, which were largely left abandoned after the courses ended. 

Why did I create the page? I made the Instagram page while I was studying abroad in Japan. My study abroad trip… was an extremely difficult experience for me. I still struggle with thinking back on the trip because it was a very lonely and largely depressing situation for me. However, needing to find something to do for myself during my downtime while living there, I travelled to TTRPG shops in Tokyo. Purchased some cool items, took pictures, and then started the Instagram to share since I felt like I was posting too much TTRPG stuff on my personal page. Another note on Japan, I am extremely grateful for the experience of living there. It was my first time truly living alone and I survived it. But, it was mostly just an incredibly isolating experience. The two other American students I travelled with there didn’t get along with me. They were in classrooms with other students where I was tutored one-on-one. I was excluded from being invited to outside activities since I wasn’t ever around other students. I was so anxious about continued rejection (which there was) that it was painful to keep trying to make friends. Sorry, this rant isn’t TTRPG related, but its a bit freeing to finally share this experience that I’ve largely kept my feelings about secret. 

When I got back to the states, I continued posting irregularly. I got back into playing my home game. I was enjoying painting miniatures and crafting terrain. I changed my username to LadyTiefling because I wanted a more D&D name. I had created a post previously discussing why Tieflings were my favorite race. And Lady came from an old username (my poor Neopets) I used to have which was “LadyKelsey.” Which itself came from a joke name from my friends because a gentleman at a renaissance fair kept calling me Lady Kelsey.  

The creation of loot tables. My home game had players who enjoyed playing D&D more like a video game. We were playing through Lost Mines of Phandelver. I wanted to make things more satisfying for these players. I’d always feel bad when they’d loot the bodies and find nothing but coins. I had a habit of just rolling percentile dice to figure out how much coin they’d find after a battle. I first created a foraging table for a player who wanted to get more use out of his herbalism kit. It worked well in game and since I had the table layout made in Photoshop, when it came to them killing a bunch of goblins I created the first loot table. The goblin loot table received a lot of love online. And the table honestly helped a lot in my own game. Motivated to create more, I focused on enemies from LMoP to help out my own game. Shortly after branched out into a voting system. And now we are at 71 loot tables made in 2019. 

The Good

LadyTiefling has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me. When it gained growth back in February 2019, I finally felt like validated that I could be successful. I absolutely love helping others in their games, and hearing stories about how the loot tables have positively impacted others games makes me incredibly happy. I want to share below some of the analytics from my social media accounts for the year. 

• Instagram Growth. Gained 25K followers. Made 92 Posts. Received over 244K likes. 
• Twitter Growth. Gained 4,379 followers. 299 Tweets. 1.1 Million Tweet Impressions. 
• Twitch Growth. 362 Total Followers. 118 New Followers. 39 Subscriptions. 15 Average Viewers. 2,168 Live Views. 
• Discord Growth. 800+ Members. 167 Daily Quests. 11 Categories. 29 Text Channels. 37 Server Emojis. 

Some highlights of the year include: 

Probably the best experience of the past year was attending PAXUnplugged. Up until PAXUnplugged, I largely felt isolated from the D&D community. I was terrified of rejection at PAXUnplugged, however so many people recognized my work and wanted to be friends with me. I am so grateful for those I met at PAXU and so very thankful for how welcoming the community was. I get happy tears thinking about the trip and the meaningful connections I made. I am very excited to try to continue going to tabletop conventions, the next being GaryCon in March 2020. 

Another great experience has been my Twitch stream game, Through Hell’s Gate. I’m so grateful to have such wonderful players and forged great friendships with them. Omega, Chace, Tim, Adam, and guest player Cameron have been an absolute delight. I’m so excited to keep playing in the new year and for the surprises that await you all. I am so blessed to have such a talented group of individuals that I get to DM for. I’ve been learning a lot from the past sessions we’ve had and I’m striving to be a better and better DM. 

The loot tables. Have to talk about the loot tables. A project that was to elevate my own game and have now helped out so many other Dungeon Masters. I’ve created a total of 71 loot tables and I’m so excited to keep making more. 

I still feel a bit silly sharing this story but it really did effect me so positively. When I created my Twitter account back in February and first posted my tables, I was noticed and followed by Chris Perkins. Curse of Strahd was the first campaign I’ve ever DM’d and I took so much inspiration from watching DCA. I felt so validated in my work and that it got recognized so quickly by a big name in the D&D community. It came full circle when I got to very briefly meet him and get his signature at PAXU. I quickly shared my story and said thanks, but it really was a huge motivation for me in the beginning of the loot tables. 

The Discord Community. In the beginning, creating my Discord was solely to try to better connect with my followers. I feel like the server is slowly turning into a positive D&D community with some great features. I’m so grateful to my moderators, Twisted, Mithriltabby, and Lordess. They are such a kind and creative team. Thank you for putting up with my grandiose ideas and ranting of new projects. We launched community events in December and I’m excited to see the creativity of the server in future events. I’m excited for the plan I have in 2020 to keep elevating the LT Server community. 

Some personal accomplishments I’ve achieved: University Degree in Integrated Media. First Full-Time Job as a Marketing Assistant. Getting my mental illnesses properly diagnosed by my psychiatrist. 

The Bad

Patreon. And yes, it is a bit ironic I say that as I am posting this here. I consider Patreon my greatest failure of 2019. I was so excited to launch my Patreon and so many people were excited to support my content. I very quickly got overwhelmed with the promises I made. Instead of properly communicating or getting a handle on the work, I ghosted. There are still a large amount of messages I haven’t responded to even now. I’m very ashamed of this. I probably should have shut the page down, but I connected some self-worth to this Patreon since its my only form of revenue from the loot tables. I felt like if I discontinued the Patreon that I would be giving up on my dream of doing this full-time. 

I’m so sorry to those I’ve let down. I know I’m full of false promises. I really do want 2020 to be a new start for me here. I have finally updated the Loot Table PDF to include 51/71 tables, complete with all weights and prices of items. The additional 20 dragon tables will be updated to the PDF shortly. The remaining Patreon requested tables I am hoping to have done this month. I will not be doing any future tables until the Patreon requested ones are done. I’ll be posting a Patreon-only update in addition to this public update. 

Mental Health. While I really am so incredibly grateful for Lady Tiefling, it has been an emotional rollercoaster. Before this year, I really felt like I was a nobody. I have very few IRL friends. And while I cherish those friendships, I have always felt like the “unpopular” kid. With the creation of the loot tables, my popularity online grew extremely fast. While it was exhilarating, it was also very overwhelming for someone who has social anxieties. I’ve struggled my whole life with anxiety, but the fears that came with the LT brand were new and hard to explain. I still suffer from highs and lows (which my psychiatrist thinks is from Bipolar Disorder, but I’m currently trying different medications to find out). However, I am very proud that I did finally seek professional help. Which, has helped a little bit but I really do need to commit more to consistently going to my appointments. 

The Future

I have big plans for the future and I’d like to share some of those plans with you now.  

Loot Tables. I plan on having a more consistent schedule and to also make many more tables this year than last year. I also want to expand on the types of loot tables I make. Last year I introduced loot tables, harvesting tables, and location loot tables. I want to keep making more interesting and unique tables for your games! 

Lady Tiefling Website. It is currently in the beginning stages. However, I am happy to announce I’ve properly included a randomization button feature. I’ll post more updates as I work on the site through Patreon only posts. My very tentative plans for the website are to include a directory of all loot tables, blog posts, and potentially an online shop. 

Collaborations. I can’t speak too much on these. But I’ve been working with my friends Bonus Action and RollANat20 on a special project. I also have been talking with DnDCoaltion on collaborating with him. I hope you’ll look forward to these projects! As soon as I can announce more I will! 

Random Encounter Cards. Still something I want to do, though it has been pushed back by other projects. This may become a collaboration project. 

1D100 Tables. Still something I want to do, though it has been pushed back by other projects. 

A Book. Unsure on this. Was something I really wanted to do and has been heavily requested. I may focus on digital files for now, but I still would love to try to eventually create a printed product. 

Discord Community Games. It has been a goal of mine since launching the Discord to have community D&D games hosted there. We have yet to see that happen, but I’m excited at the plans I have in store to get games going. Along with my Discord mods, we’ve been working on an Adventure League/West Marches style of play that will hopefully be a perfect fit for Discord D&D games. 

Twitch. I launched the LT Twitch successfully in 2019. I’d love to keep growing the channel and adding new viewable content. Currently, all that is streamed on the channel is the Through Hell’s Gate live-play and the after game discussion. I would love to start streaming miniature painting, content creation, DM Discussions, and more!

Thank You!

Thank you everyone so much for your continued support. I will continue striving to grow in this community and help contribute positively to peoples games. Thank you to my boyfriend Adam who has been so supportive through my highs and lows. Thank you to TwisteD/Liam for being an OG supporter, a great friend, helping me with my workload, and helping me keep realistic in my goals. Thank you to RollANat20/Chace for becoming my friend at the start of my journey and us supporting each other through our Instagram growth. Thank you to Tim/Bonus Action for the great conversations, we always seem to think the same way and having someone to relate to has been so helpful. Thank you CriticalBard/Omega for being a wonderfully genuine person and friend, your support on Twitter and on Twitch have really meant a lot to me. Thank you to Cameron/DnDCoaltion for being a great friend who really believes in my work and I’m excited for the future for us to continue helping each other succeed.  

And THANK YOU! I wouldn’t be where I am without the support of this community. I’m so incredibly grateful and I am determined to keep making quality content for everyone to enjoy! 

Looking forward to 2020! 

Much appreciation, 

Kelsey/Lady Tiefling