by pdzoch

An item RPG: The Story Engine has been added to the geeklist 2026 RPG Character Creation Challenge

by Alexandre Correia

Day 3280. December 24, 2025. Offline...

I must have written this post in my head about three dozen times. At least five different drafts made it to the actual word-churning processor.

In its latest version, a +2000-word chronicle lacking a connective conclusion, I stated all the reasons why I'm moving the blog away from BGG in 2026. Each reason was given full spotlight, a mini rhapsody of events and mafia-type culprits, with its own dedicated and thoughtful, if a little spiteful, I confess, AI-generated image. No matter how many times I tried to write it, though, I never knew how to finish it. So, consider this the epilogue of a post better left buried.

The reasons why? They’re scattered in plain sight here, here as well, and in Eric’s geekmail that I suspect many fellow bloggers received in 2025. Not that [user=W Eric Martin]Eric[/user], but one of those Dear Readers who quietly stopped reading.

After nearly ten years of daily blogging on BGG, I’ve realized the problem was never the platform or its infamous limitations. Its quirks and bugs, the messy forums, and lists of lists in geeklists. Even the outdated tools that now act as a barrier against thoughtless AI malarkey. All of that still works. I’ve yet to see a place on the internet that can nurture such muted, and somehow, in a strange way, wholesome friendships. Nearly as genuine as the real-world versions. It’s the house where this is taking place that no longer feels safe.

And, much like traveling the world, I've also realized a journey, in any form, starts not when you leave, but when the idea of going grips your thick skull with an undeniable tenacity. Sureness. A fact yet to happen. Moving, I'm slowly learning, it's good for remembering why you started in the first place.

Growth doesn't feel like progress at first. It feels like a loss. Like giving up friendships, familiarity with space, and the comfort of a digital routine. But looking back, every meaningful change in my life started with that discomfort, the sense that staying put was costing me more than leaving ever could. This move is no different. Risky, yes. Necessary, absolutely. I don't leave out of anger or even disappointment. I leave because I'd rather risk the uncertainty of moving than accept the slow erosion that comes with staying.

It's December 30th (31st), 2025, as I (finish) write(ing) this. I'd planned to move on the 1st of 2026, but about a week ago, I arrived from a solitary journey that was long overdue for at least a decade. It cleared the cobwebs of what really matters, jolted the spirit in a way I'd forgotten how much I needed. Such is the power of bike traveling through (almost) the entire country in stormy, freezing weather! When I arrived, the last thing I wanted to do in my list of big things that weren't so big after all, was to tinker in digital backstages to finish the blog move as I'd planned. I didn't sound the horn when I started daily blogging on BGG, after all. So why make such a big fuss about it in the end?

One day, very soon, Dear Reader, you'll open the Browsing Games tab for your daily dose of board game-related words, with a generous dose of personal stuff too, and find nothing but a very short intro to the real thing. The rest of the words, living one click away.

Just one click...

⭐⭐⭐
One year ago: ...rebirth, revival, renewal...One year later: N/A

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