Bad at Blogging, Good at Gaming

The third month of the year will come to close this weekend, and this will be my first post of 2018 — thus the title.

Recently, I looked back to the beginning of the year to understand where the time went.

Things got out off to a bumpy start with my wife, two daughters, and I all coming down with the flu. My youngest daughter had some complications as a result. She’s totally fine now, but there were a couple of very scary moments.

I then had a health scare of my own that was eventually downgraded from ominous to mysterious after a series of somewhat serious tests. I too am fine now if not a little worse for wear.

On the work front, my business is growing. I consider myself very fortunate for that. It’s also changing. To keep up, I’m working later than ever, getting home just in time for a quick dinner with the family before helping get the girls bed. Then, it’s usually back to work.

All of this combined to amplify the anxiety disorder I’ve struggled with for most of my adult life and bring about the first crop of panic attacks that I’ve experienced in several years. They’ve since subsided, but not without reminding me just how debilitating they can be.


In the midst of all of this, I’ve generally managed to get in some sort of gaming or gaming related activity on a daily basis — painting figures, modeling terrain, researching, reading rules, writing rules, trying to get down to Metropolitan Wargamers once a week for a game. I feel fortunate for this as well. No TV and the need for little sleep helps, but, however I do it, I’m happy to have gaming to help keep me sane.

This daily routine has helped make for a good gaming year in spite of the demands and pressures of family and professional life. JamoCon 2018 was short this past February, but the tradition continued and included an epic game of War of the Ring on closing night. My love of convention GMing has also continued with my good friend Kimber and I running 3 4 hour games in 28 hours at HMGS’ Cold Wars earlier this month in Lancaster, PA.

Now, I’m working with Kimber and our friend Marco to start Campaign Games which will create board, roleplaying, and war games with a focus on history and narrative play. We have a few games in the works and more in the wings. Yes, it’s another demand on my time, but it’s one that I welcome with open arms.


So what about the blog? Well, this post is a start and will hopefully help compel me to post here on Little Wars on a more regular basis. We’ll see. I’m admittedly bad at blogging…

What does gaming do for you? How do you fit it in? Join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter.