Happy New Year, and Here's Hoping

 It's the 1st of January, 2026 here in New Zealand: what a year it has been, and I'm personally not sorry to see the back of it.

Again, I must apologise for the lack of content over the last twelve months. Unfortunately, trends that had developed over the preceding years became more intense and challenging. My job - already a hissing nest of stress-inducing vipers - became even harder to handle, until, a few months ago, a blood pressure check at a doctor's visit revealed a ridiculously high result. A battalion of tests revealed no underlying problems other than the hypertension itself, although I have a family history through both parents of heart issues.

Diligent monitoring of BP results showed that, whilst it's almost always too high, my BP is waaaay worse before and during shifts at work. I've soldiered along with it as best I can, but there's been only marginal improvement despite medication, so, in the name of spending more time with my family, getting my BP down to normal levels and having the mental space to do the things I actually care about (like getting out into the great outdoors and writing for RPGs), I've resigned my job, and am off in search of greater simplicity (and, no doubt, less money). I've less than 3 weeks to go, and I will be leaving a workplace of nearly 16 years. This is both scary and exciting.

It's my hope that this will translate into more time and mental space for this blog and other TTRPG-related writing. So: new content ahoy, and perhaps, perhaps, inspired by the release of OSRIC 3.0, a return to some of my favourite areas of the blog - Petty-Classes, Fortnightly Fiends, and the Hex material, adapted for OSRIC, along with new classes, and a revisitation of, and simplification of, skills for the OSR. I'll continue to 'double-stat' the material for Blood & Treasure, however, as I still think it's the best OSR game out there.

The material I'd been putting together for my own system has seen the creation of a great many character classes. Some of these, suitably modified, would translate quite well to OSRIC 3.0. If you  think that OSRIC doesn't need skills, further classes and other more recent paraphernalia, stand by to repel boarders!

Anyways, here's to the New Year, that it may be fruitful, joyful and better for all of us, in all the ways that matter the most.

That Was The Year That Wasn't

 Anyone who has cared to roam these pages in the last 12 months will have noticed that the blog has gone...well, dead. The year that is almost over now has inarguably been one of the most ridiculous and challenging years I've experienced.

Without going into too many details, I've had to navigate a dreadful year due to illness and injury among the small team I lead. It's been - at peak horrible - 14 hour shifts, 12 day fortnights, and hasn't really eased up significantly until the last few weeks. There's also been some awkward personal and family stuff going on, and it's all happened more or less at once. There's been no mental room for luxuries like blogging (or even playing! My group only played about 6 times this year, about a third of what we'd normally hope for). I've also been diagnosed with ADHD - to the surprise of none who know me - and am now 8 months down the track on taking medication and trying out behavioural management stuff to help me keep my life on an even keel. Results have been mixed, but promising thus far.

Well, anyways, here I am, desperately trying to shoehorn in a couple of posts so that the whole year doesn't come up empty.

Inasmuch as I've had the opportunity, I've continued tinkering with the rules for HoNK/ToNK/ChoNK (which last is Chronicles of the New Kingdoms - still haven't settled on a name!), and have been desperately trying to get more writing done for the follow-up to Garden of Rain. 

I'll be releasing more content from the new rules as time goes by and my workload eases, although my priority is getting the HARP adventure done, so pickings will be slim for a while yet. But I'm still thinking hard about all this stuff, and now that I have more time, hopefully more - and better - words will follow.

By way of an update: new work problems have arisen to replace the old - 'twas ever thus - so I'm still stuck for time. I do have lots of untaken leave that I must use soon, so fingers crossed something new will appear here in the not-too-distant future (8/04/25)