Back from the Void: "Where ya been, Gundobad?" - redux!

Well: hello again. It's been a year and a half since my last post, from February 2025. Meanwhile, any reports of my demise have been exaggerated (and hopefully not prophetic!). 

At least (on most days) I've been healthier than these heavily kitbashed warriors of Nurgle.

I wrote the following in a post waaaaay back in November, 2024:

Still here! I had hoped that this might be a fairly active year for the blog. As it turned out, however, it's been a really challenging, draining year on the personal front. … On the flip side, some really good and beautiful things are happening because of all that work and energy-investiture, so I'm paradoxically very grateful for much of what we're experiencing, while also chronically exhausted in my emotional reserves. Recent world events have not diminished the stress levels, either.

With all that in play, I've had to adapt my hobby activities. … I've become far more adventurous, creative, and unorthodox in my approach … All this has been a source of real comfort during a season that isn't quite so much "bad" as "really hard." 

Crazily, life since then pretty much has been more of the same, including - just to mention some 'lowlights' - a massive nervous-system burnout a year ago and then spending a week hospitalized earlier this month after a bout with myocarditis -- inflammation of my heart tissues, possibly triggered by some sort of viral infection. It's been ... a time. And yet, life also keeps revealing beauty and growth, things that leave me grateful and hopeful. 

And so, back to the blog. I will not pretend to commit to any new schedule etc., but I do hope to update things more frequently here in future. If I pull that off, what sort of things should you expect to read? Well, part of the fun of all this is the unexpected nature of creative fruits - so who knows? But I can tell you that most of my hobbying of late has reflected some common themes:

+ deeper and deeper down the crafting well... 

+ narrative skirmish wargames + RPG - what's the difference?  

+ Collaborative sorta-Braunstein-style gaming, whether freeform or otherwise...

+ taking deep ownership of background lore at our table...

Hopefully, something there sounds tasty. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, let me offer hearty thanks in advance to any who comment - increasingly, AI bots and spammers seem to be the main contributors to my comments-to-be-reviewed feeds; actual engagement with thoughts blogged into the void is always welcome. :-) 

And, for now, as always, cheers - and happy gaming!

- Gundobad