HeroPress Is Dead...

... Long Live I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters!

My "Acrobatic Flea" persona is also being retired at this juncture, and in his place arises "Sir Timothy Of Kent"

After a suitable break, I plan to reignite this blog with a more swords & sorcery/medieval/Dungeons & Dragons bent - and less sci-fi/superheroes (for one reason, my passions are reverting to my childhood fascination with knights in armour, sword fighting, archery, jousting, the Middle Ages etc and, for another, there are so many other blogs/websites out there that do some of the things I was doing on HeroPress so much better).

I want to thank you all - official Followers, Facebook readers and casual visitors - for your patience and perseverance.

After four-and-a-half years - 3,273 posts - I can't just walk away or blogfade. I can only apologise for my rather public meltdown over the weekend (there were forces beyond Blogger at work, but that was the proverbial straw).

Although it may appear that this was a sudden bolt from the blue - I can assure you, gentle readers, that cogs have been whirring in brain since last year about a change of direction for the blog.

Well, not so much a change, as a tightening of the remit.

Unfortunately, nostalgia for a part of my youth that perhaps should have stayed in my youth (i.e. the resurgence of Villains & Vigilantes) distracted me from my master plans as I tried to recreate the incredible times we had playing superhero RPGs in our formative years.

If Monkey House Games hadn't popped up trumpeting the "resurrection of Villains & Vigilantes" (and I wish Jeff, Jack, Scott et al the best of luck in resolving their differences and bringing superhero gaming to the masses), I could quite possibly have stayed on target.

But like a magpie, I always have to have the shiny, new toy... and this new toy had the currency of nostalgia (and a very special part of my teenage years) to add to its value.

Sadly, for me, it only took several months for the rose-tinted glasses to lose their sheen and it dawned on me that, even beyond any issues I had with the rules set, the genre just didn't suit my personal ideas of the adventures and stories I wanted to take participate in.

At first I was determined to crash on through, but eventually, it struck me that my mind wasn't going to change and it simply wasn't working for me.

Let this be a lesson to you: you really can't go back!

I had forgotten the four key factors that make a game for me:

• Exploration (discovering and mapping new lands, hidden underground realms etc)
• Monster-Fighting (that is an interaction with the extraordinary, I get enough mundane in 'real life' which is why I like to escape into the bizarre and geeky)
• Accumulation Of Treasure (not necessarily financial, but like Wil Wheaton and his dice, I like my exotic treasures to bring with them a story I can share at a later date)
• Character Development (again, not necessarily increasing levels or hit points, but beyond the mechanic elements I need the character's life story to continue to expand and grow - like an on-going comic book character - with vibrant stories and anecdotes)

Of course, this wasn't all supposed to come spilling out at once. The idea was to slowly shift the focus of the blog more to what I wanted. However, this weekend's perfect storm of problems caused a mental overload in yours truly which resulted in the brainsplurge that has been recent posts.

And then, to add insult to injury, my Google account was hacked this morning as well!!!

In the meantime,there are scheduled posts that will continue to appear (mainly picture posts and video clips), but original content, reviews, articles, commentary etc will start reappearing in due course...

I shall return!