#RPGaDay2025 - Day 4 - Message

Day 4 of #RPGaDay  "Message" is the one prompt I had problems developing a quick premise.  I finally had to sit down and simply search "message" in my blog search, to realize that the creators used the same prompt in #RPGaDay2020, and I had the same issues, until a bit of luck called me.

I did go back and find a message from the past albeit a few month short to be perfect.  

Back in 2016 I wrote a quick post, detailing what I was doing 10, 20, and even 30 years ago.  I also made some not-so-bold predictions about what I would be doing a decade later.  I'm nine months early, but it's still a fun exercise. 

The younger Pie-in-the-Sky me, so naive...   He was just about to finish up his Masks of Nylarathotep game for Call of Cthulhu, and just about had just bought the the My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytellling game. Lots of dice, card, and boardgames with the girls.  I had anticipated, after 20 years of marriage, a regular game night with my buddies, and a more mundane game night occasionally at home. 

Except I didn't account for a currently still-ongoing divorce and I didn't anticipate my kids moving four hours away from me this year.  On a better note, the girls are their own type of athlete-geek, still intrigued by conventions.  My dream for an ongoing game was answered sooner than later, with a D&D 5e game on Roll20, and has been evolving ever since.

So a comparison from my guesses in 2016:

Systems I would like to keep playing: 

• Call of Cthulhu
• Hackmaster
• D&D (Any) 
• Risus Illuminati University

What I actually played this year?

• Gamma World
• D&D (BECMI)
• Risus Illuminati University
• Star Wars d6

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Wargaming Hopes and Dreams Nine Years Ago for my Future Self:  Gnome Wars to "real" Trench Wars, Finding my niche Colonial setting, maybe going into "mainstream" wargaming (40k, Mantic, etc.) for the equivalent of a poker night (and spending the same money as losing bets)

Wargaming played this year - Gnome Wars, Tactica, Fistful of Lead.  Pipe dreams for Colonials.  My Gnomish Space Marines still slowly getting painted.... which are used in my Fistful of Lead convention games.   My elder daughter, Maja,  RUNS Gnome Wars and Fistful of Lead at conventions.

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Magic Hopes and Dreams of 2016 - I may play, I may not. I'll probably accumulate the cards of my 'youth' out of the quarter or dollar bins like I'm doing nowadays.

Magic played this year -  Free MTG Arena version on the laptop.  Yes card concepts and players still piss me off.  I did sell off a bunch at the onset of the divorce, to help pay for moving costs and didn't make a giant boatload of cash, but enough for a good quality non-Wal-Mart canoe...  and I still have some stuff from my glory days (1993-1996). 

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Painting Hopes and Dreams from 2016?

Gnomes: The never-ending battle, I'll still have some unfinished in a decade.
Colonials: Most are easy to paint, so I just need to buy, buy, buy! (And push the gnomes further in the queue).
Pulp: I didn't cover any real games using them, and these figure in particular are getting expensive, but a good collection of figures can be used in a multitude of settings. I'd like a "middle eastern" village that can cover games from Africa through Near Asia.
Egypt: Maja's fascination seems to be maturing than fading, so we'll see if we continue to acquire mummies, ancient Egyptian warriors. I anticipate pyramids moving into a corner of a bedroom.
Legions of Steel: I can't guarantee another game ever being played, but the UNE Commandos should get there day of painting, perhaps professionally.
54mm: My AWI 54s are still in the garage looking for a new owner (send me a message and we can negotiate). Perhaps Great War 40's or 54's for modeling's sake might be a new endeavor in my old age.

Painting this year:  

Gnome Wars:   Still painting, not much of a backlog.  I supplied most of the units for our big games at Historicon.

Pulp/Egypt:  I've collected too much, needed to sell some off.  With the "Egypt" game relaunch, we're looking at smaller games when the girls are visiting..

Legions of Steel:  Still in storage

54mm: Sold Off what I had acquired.

NEW:  Star Wars d6 era figures - purchased almost 200 figures from some HMGS flea markets.  Have painted up half of them.  Almost all of them made an appearance at Historicon this year.

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And if I set up a message for my future self, 10 years from now? 

• D&D (Current Edition) - Easy to acclimate to the community, whatever it might look like
• Hackmaster - My pipe dream proper ending to a campaign for what will be 30 years old at the time.
• Call of Cthulhu - I might finally upgrade to 7th Edition, but I hope I've gotten a chance to relaunch the old campaign, using a different campaign book.  
• Campaign based skirmish wargaming - Starting with PEG's Savage Showdown, to Planet 28, Brutal Quest, and now Fistful of Lead.  Optimizing narrative, possibly solo play, with small group tactics.  
• And maybe I'll finally play some of the million 'zines I've picked up over  the years.