Back in March 7th, 2008, I wrote an article in Blogger. That was almost thirteen years ago… and exactly 299 entries ago. Oh, I’m sorry. Are you looking for our 300th article? You see… I’m really sorry. It’s still under construction.

Would you mind coming back after the weekend? I think I’ll have it ready by then. But just in case… allow me to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day. I’m sure me greeting you will make it a very special day.

Thanks for coming by!

Of course I was kiddding. It has been an exciting article to write, and having a look at my different posts from all these years have been a rollercoaster of nostalgia. There are many things I want to share, the hardest part has been how to do it properly without sounding like I’m just rambling. I decided to use a Past, Present and Future approach in the most notorious sections time has made the most read around here, and that brought me to wanting to share a sort of ranking, so I went to my dashboard and check which are the articles with the most views. Let’s start with our temporal musings.

The Past

I started Codex Anathema many years ago on Blogger. My purpose was to have a journal for my campaign (you can check the very first episode here). The entries were written by my players, some as conversations overheard in a local tavern, some others as letters and even some as interviews for the Chronicle of Korranberg. It’s a great story to follow if you’re up to. But as I was enjoying my time writing about my campaign, a little bug grew inside me: I wanted to share tips with other fellow DMs. And as I did, I started a different blog, «Dados Sobre la Mesa», which eventually I translated and merged together when I moved here to WordPress. They are grouped now under the label «DM Ex Machina».

The Present

What follows is my Top10 as it stands today: a very ecclectic mixtape that encompasses and at the same time is very representative of everything this website is about.

1. «Todo Sobre mi Xanathar» is a review about Xanathar’s Guide to Everything I wrote in Spanish with a wordplay on one of the most acclaimed movies by Pedro Almodovar. The huge success of the book obviously make people search for details about it, and I’m glad to admit that my review was one of the first to appear in my native language.
2. «Jace Beleren» and «Chandra Nalaar» are almost tied in a very curious happenstance. They were my first attempts at turning MtG planeswalkers into full D&D characters, and it’s clear I was not the only one at the time wanting to see them as such.
3. I guess I’ll never know if giving to my homage to Eberron the title «13 Reasons Why» when the Netflix hit show was trending made people arrive to my website for the wrong reasons; but if one was curious about the game after looking for some information on the series, well, that’s what I call a jackpot.
4. My second interview to Keith Baker got even more visits in «The Cow in Hell with the Dice» as we were preparing for the release of Rising from the Last War. This interview was part of a 13-part celebration that included also an interview to Ruty Rutenberg, canonically place in 13th position (I had to mention that detail).
5. I remember writing «Eberron is unlocked!» in a little more than an hour. I found out Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron was published on DM’sGuild as Wizards of the Coast unlocked the setting for anyone to publisg material based on it and I was flipping around.
6. The shocking suprise in this ranking is definitely «Z is for Ral Zarek», last entry for 2019’s «A to Z» blogging challenge. Probably because it included a new build on the recently (by then) published artificer class the detail that made people fall into it after searching something like that.
7. Along with #6, «Alchemical Artillery» is about the Artificer, but before it went official, as it dealt with the Unearthed Arcana third playtest for that class.
8. Our very first actual tie is brought in «T is for Tarrasque», part of my first venture into the A to Z blogging challenge, and «Pirates of the Lhazaar Sea», where I talk about the seafaring sub-theme in Eberron’s Lhazaar principalities and a little about one of the best campaign I’ve ran as a DM.
9. «12 (+1) Days of Eberron» is by far the most ambitious endeavour I got into as a blogger. Just befor the release of Rising from the Last War, I decided to do a 13 day celebration on the setting with not only articles but also interviews to Eberron creators and D&D personalities who responded the call. Every title was a reference to Eberron combined to some element from pop culture (I’m particularly proud of «House of Marks»).
10. And somewhat surprisingly, one of my recent Essential Guides made it to this ranking: «Una Guía Esencial para Clérigos» deals with everything you need to know to play a cleric if you’re new to D&D and if you speak Spanish.

The Future

2021 is bringing many sparks of inspiration, mainly from my even more frequent games every week. Just as we get closer to April, keep an eye on both the A to Z and the RPG Blog Carnival, because I’ll be hosting both once again right here with the «Gathering Inspiration for Magic Items» theme.

Among the new series of articles, we will be premiering several:

• Along with our Essential Guides, I’ll be expanding my Comixology and Gathering series into a full Characters with Class. In this I will feature even more pop culture characters turned into D&D characters (yes, I know Tulok the Bardbarian, I just happen to have my very own versions sometimes).
• «Eberron for Dummies» will transform itself into Exploring Eberron with new and more twists into how to eberronize everything D&D. 
• As I finish some very interesting Masterclass courses (Dan Brown’s «Writing thrillers», David Baldacci’s «Mystery and Thriller Writing» and Neil Gaiman’s «The Art of Storytelling») I will be writing my own Mastering the Dungeon column with tips from those lessons and how to apply them to your DM duties. I must warn you: this series will be written in Spanish, but Google Translate should do a decent job at translating them if you want to follow them in English.

But the most important event will be happening in the second half of the year, around August. Then the whole Codex Anathema publishing line should be ready to arrive to the DM’s Guild. Extraordinary Journeys will be a series of one-shot adventures designed to be played one after another, while Gatherings will turn my favorite MtG storylines into Eberron campaigns.

And here we are, in our 300th entry. What a ride. I’ll hold the tears: Dungeons & Dragons is by far my favorite hobby, the thing I missed the most along with my friends and family when I was working abroad (which meant that during some five years, my blog was nearly abandoned). But now it is growing stronger and unstoppable just as D&D is.

Welcome to the future. Roll initiative.