/'wɪdʒ.ɪt/

I recently ordered the remaining in-print Academy stuff I didn't have; two copies each of Druid, Elementalist, Monk, and Necromancer. The package arrived today and of course it's only a single copy of each. I've messaged Arcane Wonders, hopefully I'll get this addressed quickly. It's not as if I'm playing any time soon but it's still disappointing that I have to wait even longer.

Our tax return came in really quickly this year. I'm using most of my share on debt, but I did buy some computer monitors, a docking station, and attendant accessories. I'm finally going to have my perfect desk setup; plenty of screen real-estate, a clear desktop, and a quick and easy way to switch between my work and personal computers without moving a ton of cables around.

Looking forward, I'm hoping to be able to get BT11 at or near release, and I might want to get printed copies of the Academy Forcemaster and Warlord. Not committing to either, though; Joc and I are trying to hold each other responsible for nonessential purchases, so both will require a talk first. Of the two I'm more focused on Digimon.

In other games, my hobby focus for the foreseeable future is going to be on finalizing my Pathfinder house rules document, so I can move on to transcribing my Iron Gods game and actually play it for once. I'm incorporating a lot of third-party Akashic material, and a good chunk of it is revisions to Akashic Mysteries itself. Consequently I've decided to just lift over most of the book and collect it as "Ultimate Akashic", in the same vein as Dreamscarred's Ultimate Psionics. Particularly, this'll let me rename the base classes and scrub off AM's ill-advised layer of orientalist paint. I might even release it as a PWYW on DriveThru. I'm not quite solid on that yet, though. Most of it would be reprinted rules from other works, which seems rude even if permissible by OGL. For another, I'd be taking a heavy editorial hand to that content, modifying or cutting things I don't like - whether because I think they're thematically incoherent, redundant, poorly written, or excessively overdesigned. It might be Ultimate Akashic at my table, but that title might come across as a bit pretentious in the wider community. Also, putting in the work to catalog my changes and get Section 15 properly filled out doesn't seem especially rewarding. We'll see.

I don't know if it's the time of year, or the drama around the OGL, or just the way my life is at this point (work, house worries, kids, chores, et cetera), but I've found it very hard to focus down tasks outside of child- and home-care. Just got some of that generalized low-grade anxiousness going on, I guess.

I mean, I think I know what I want - get the house situation figured out, get the time to devote to hobby projects and games, get my Mage Wars collection squared away, get my computer situated the way I want it. That would all be helped immensely by being independently wealthy - I can dream, I guess. Meanwhile I'm working with what I have.

My Avatar Legends stuff came in this weekend, before I even got a shipping notice. That was a pleasant surprise. It all looks great, I just hope it'll see the table sometime soon.

Got some custom-printed cards in yesterday. It had replacement Hellboy case file and enemy cards with better art, and a full double playset of Dreamblade proxies. I sold my model collection to fund more Mage Wars, but I still wanted to be able to play DB. I need to sort them, but it'll be relaxing whenever I can get around to it.

Man, this OGL 1.1 stuff is not good for my health. Not that I have anything published under it, and I have a hard time believing Wizards can actually get away it, but it's going to wreak some havoc while it shakes out. At the very least, Wizards' own statements regarding intent in a twenty-year-old FAQ directly repudiate 1.1's claim, and I have to believe that's a relevant factor as to whether WotC can actually pull this off. Either they've been intentionally misleading people for the last two decades or 1.1 is unenforceable.

My Digimon collection is in a pretty good place right now, all considered. Only truly expensive stuff is still uncollected. I think that for future releases, at least in the mid-term, I'm going to hold off on buying them for a bit. Unless I hear about availability shortages or something, I suppose. Joc and I are investigating the possibility of getting a house (!) so I'll be saving any collection expansion until after we've figured out what the deal is there.

I did retire MaloMyotismon and build a Blue Flare deck. Hopefully soon Joc'll be through with her more pressing work and we can have some hobby nights. Really want to play some Digimon soon.

I ordered some Mage Wars items a few weeks ago, so now I have the full Arena line less Domination. I want to aim for a playset, and honestly I'm mostly there; just missing a few single cards. Of course they're spread between several sets so it wouldn't be trivial to get them all - mostly some class-restricted cards and equipment. Also my Druid spellbook had a tear; I repaired it but it kinda sticks in my craw. Need to run an inventory, see what I have to buy to get it finished. Not that I'm going to do it any time soon, and that's completely neglecting the Academy stuff I don't yet have. Still, good to have an idea.

Happy New Years! Got a lot of hopes for this year, we'll see which ones pan out.

One of my resolutions for this year is to make better use of this site. Gonna try to up frequency while reducing post length and focusing on one topic at a time. Consider this a start.

Got BT10 in last weekend, pretty happy with the results. The set is blessedly pretty cheap compared to BT9, in terms of singles. Didn't even break $90 on the slush-buy, and that with accidentally overbuying the MetalGreymon this set. A lot of expensive promos have dropped in price, too - Sunarizamon under $10! - but I'm holding off for now.

Deck updates will be nice, particularly for the Sakuyamon Plug-In deck. Also have touch-ups for Bugs and Cyborgs. As for new decks, I like the look of Blue Flare and Bagra Army, but for now I'm just building out Canoweissmon. Gonna add Kimeramon and one of the early WarGreymons - probably BT1 since it protects from Options. My brother might build out a proper RagnaLoardmon deck, too, which looks fun.

EX3 is hitting next month. Love me some dragons, and there's a great piece for Cyborgs.

We played Dinogenics this weekend when that brother visited, and let me tell you I had a lot of fun. I was afraid it had too much going on but it played really well. Hoping to hit a higher player count at Thanksgiving.

Bought some Mage Wars this weekend for real cheap, so I've decided to fill out the core 4 for both Arena and Academy. Working out what I ought to consider a "complete" collection has been fun, it'll be easier with the cards layed out in front of me. Going for a "complete experience" as opposed to "complete collection" thing here, if that makes sense. Never played much of it before but I love tactical and card games, pretty hard to say "no" to mixing that peanut butter with this chocolate. I may branch out to add the Druid vs Necromancer stuff, but that strongly depends on the final collection layout I settle on - if I need doubles, those get too costly very quickly, even at the steep discounts I'm finding online.

I ordered a Berserk Fury Zoid earlier this year, and it finally shipped, two months later than it really ought to have. That'll be a fun build, eventually. I really ought to plan out a couple nights on biweekly schedules so I touch my various hobby projects and play my verious games reasonably often. Hopefully as the boys get older actually pulling that off gets easier.

Got BT9 opened last night and made my customary finishing order. No SECs and I didn't buy any - they're sitting at ~$30 each, so that's what, $250 for eight cards? No thanks. I did finish out the promo Gammamons and Hiros, though, in anticipation of getting BT10 and building Canoweissmon.

What I'm really disappointed about price-wise is the promo Okuwamon from the Update Pack included with each box. That's running $25 and it'd be perfect for my Insectoids deck, but I just cannot justify that price point.

I'm bringing alt-arts with me this Thursday to try and trade for some EX2 AAs for Joc's Renamon deck, maybe someone'll have Okuwamons for trade.

This set has pieces for Shoutmon Blitz, Armor, Garurumon, Cats & Angels, Insects, Alphamon, and Machinedramon. Gonna take a look at each later, see if I can't expand them out. I am missing some of the pieces I'd want to use, but it's a start. I also really like Gaiomon, might try and slap together a BlackWarGreymon deck.