A Hello and Goodbye

First off, Dear Readers, I am not leaving the blog! Continue reading for my explanation.

A few years ago, I moved to my current location from another state. When I left there, I had been running a small, but successful Adventures League in my local (and, really, only) game store, and had a really cool Dad’s D&D group consisting of dads of kids that played in my Adventures League.

This past weekend, one of these dads, whom I was close to, was traveling through the area (actually taking a detour!) to come see our family. The fact is that our sons had become very close friends. Remember the story where I had almost traumatized a bunch of middle schoolers while playing Dragon Heist? His son was the one who threw the d20 up against my DM screen. But I digress.

We hadn’t actually seen each other for 2 years. When the boys got back together, it was like they had never even been apart. It was very similarly for me and my friend. His wife and my wife seem to get along very well, which I was very grateful for.

Today, Dear Readers, is the day they left to continue on their journey. We got to spend a good day and a half with them. We took them to see local sites, my wife and I took the adults to go out to dinner last night we did a fire pit last night where we roasted marshmallows, and we got to play a really good one shot D&D session today.

And it kills me.

For those of you unaware, it’s really hard for adults to make friends. I don’t just mean people you play D&D with, I mean real, actual, close friends. People that share your values and to have been in your home and whose home you have been in.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore the people in the groups that I play with. I get along really well with all of them. For some of them, I have been in their homes, and for those people I do count them as friends.

Friends like this gentleman however, are a rare breed.

So why am I riding this post? What’s the point?

When you make those friendships, specially when you bond over something as social and cool as a tabletop game, foster those friendships and keep them alive and thriving. Enjoy the time that you have around the game table with the people you get to play with. Create those stories that you will be able to tell for years.

We were all so excited when they came to visit, and as they left, it felt like they had just gotten here. I guess it is true that they had, and I am extremely grateful for the time we were able to spend together.

I guess I just didn’t know how much I miss my friend.

Nowadays, there are many ways to maintain friendships over a game table and I know for my part, I intend on using that to be able to play and maintain that friendship.

Thanks for listening, Dear Readers. You all really are amazing.

Until next time…