So, how’s the old hobby blog doing in the year of our Lord 2024?

37 blog posts for the year, so about three per month. That’s not terrible, but there were some gaps in there. There were roughly 8000 words written, gaining 97 likes and 15 comments. Thank you for those–they really are the lifeblood of a blog when it comes to keeping me going.

3700 views, overwhelmingly of the homepage, from the United States, and from search engines.

But to the real nitty-gritty! With the lamia pictured above, a BBEG from my home D&D campaign, I painted a total of 57 miniatures this year. That’s tied with 2009, and one shy of 2020. 2020 is a good benchmark, because that was the quarantine year and I spent a bit of time getting up to speed on my hobbies. Highest two years in the last five or so, 2022 (70) and 2023 (105) were heavily loaded up with speed-painted zombies, and I have not done many of those in the past year. Most of the miniatures from the past year were from the fantasy genre, meaning they likely ended up in my D&D campaign or individual figures for solo sci-fi wargames.

The real sense of accomplishment has come from finally locating a RPG campaign as a player in the area. I had moved here in September of 2023, and it took me months to get settled in and find the time and the opportunity to get into a game. The game is going strong, now at level 5, and the group of guys who make up the game have become good friends.

It was out of that game that a curious series of circumstances occurred that got me running a D&D game of my own, composed not of established players like the other but mostly novices, including a couple of children. That game has been so much fun that it really has revitalized my own sense of creativity and joy in roleplaying games. This game has a title, “Tales of Celestoria.” Start looking for that tag in future posts.

But also in the past year, I picked up a couple of hobbies. Spending almost four months in temporary housing got me into papercraft because the initial expense, tool requirements, and storage were all quite low. I first started making notebooks, then cards, many of which were given as gifts to others. I purchased my first resin printer, ruined it, and then got another, mostly to make my own miniatures but also some cosplay props as well.

That, as well as some other circumstances, got me drawing and illustrating again. I hand-made all of my Christmas cards this year, for example.

What hasn’t happened much at all was any wargaming, solo or otherwise. I’m hoping to get that back into the rotation.

Speaking of which, what does the future hold in 2025?

With so many hobbies in play, I don’t think I will be jacking up my painting goals. I am thinking of bumping it from 48 (four a month) to 60 (five a month). That will be ambitious, but let us see what happens.

Obviously I am hoping to keep my RPG campaign growing and going strong. I am planning a series of posts about what tools I am using to enrich the game, both in terms of my content creation, organization, and gameplay.

I also hope to keep up a steady stream of card making, and use that hobby to get me to be a better correspondent with my friends. I love getting real mail, and figure most people feel the same way as well.

I received several woodworking tools for Christmas, and I would love to find the time to get a few of the multiple projects sitting in my basement finished. In fact, some of those projects would actually get the basement more useable, meaning I could get more done, etc.

I am organizing a few game nights at my church in 2025, and I sometimes ponder either just using those gatherings to discover new games or to introduce others to games I love.

Finally, I just want to say thank you. I started this blog a lifetime ago it feels like, briefly hopped over to blogspot for some ADHD-related multi-blog activity, then settled back here, locked in a URL, and found some degree of contentment just writing here. While I have not always understood this, blogging is just trying in some small way to show that regular people with families and demanding jobs and all sorts of responsibilities can do cool things, have fun, and play a little. Thanks for continuing to read this little corner of the internet and I hope this continues to be worth your precious time.

Have a blessed new year, tell people you love them, and go play!

WQRobb