TEN YEARS MAN!

The old saying of “Time flies when you’re having fun” is only partly true. Time ALWAYS flies. Case in point: Ten years ago this month Raptor Squad made it’s debut on the World Wide Web (or “Interwebs” as the crazy kids say these days).

Wow.

A whole decade has literally flown by and it’s hard to wrap one’s head around that fact. And in that time, so many things have happened, not just in our little corner of Lucas’ Universe, but in the real world as well. I won’t go into everything of course but it’s amazing to consider that when the site went up, 9/11 here in America had yet to happen, and the world was just a very different place. It’s amazing that many of the folks reading this right now may have barely been out of diapers.

It makes a Webmaster like me feel kinda old actually.

But! I’ve always been a believer that age is really just a number, and it’s how you live, how you feel and how you view the world around you that determines how young or old you really are. When you stop dreaming, stop trying and stop believing, that’s when you start feeling old, and to be honest, I’m not there yet, not by a long shot.

So! I know you’re asking yourself “Great, a decade is past, and now what?” Yeah, well me too, I’ve been asking myself that a lot.

In fact, as far back as four years ago, I sent out the following to our group members:

“I've decided that when the RS site reaches it's 10 year anniversary, I'm locking it down to (most) new stuff and it will exist as a shrine to our game and the good times.

Granted, this is still about 4 years off, but I think it’s a good end point.”

Well, four years have passed, and now I look back on those words and realize I have a decision to make:

End it, or keep moving forward?

And I realize, not to get too philosophical, but that exactly the question we all face as time moves on and we get older. And one has to ask an important question that makes the decision a lot easier:

“Did I accomplish everything I wanted to?”

In looking at the Raptor Squad site, pouring over the hundreds of pages of content and the decade’s worth of work, I realize that the answer is no. A strong “no” even, the kind that scares your dog.

There is still a story to be told here that’s far from over. There is still fiction to produce, still characters to be introduced, artwork waiting to burst forth from my hands and new features and content I’m itching to create for those diehards out there still using the D6 system.

Locking down the site and walking away from it would be like leaving a painting incomplete, or a story unfinished, and in a real way that’s exactly what it is.

I don’t know how long the site will continue, or how long real life will allow me to continue telling our story, but you can’t let that stop you. You have to put your nose down, move forward and keep doing what you love and what makes you happy for as long as you can.

Because in the end, that’s all that really matters. Happiness.

Because life is too short for anything less.

So, consider this a “Ten Year Preview” post. As I’ve decided April, all month long I’ll be adding to the site and dedicating all thirty days to bringing the community new content, new features and furthering the Raptor Squad story.

Thanks for letting me ramble, and though I’ll be saying it all throughout April in one fashion or another, thanks for hanging in there with us.

And what the hell, here’s to another decade!!!

Ten Years Man...TEN.....YEARS!

Woah!

I almost forgot! My old age must be creeping up on me!

This month marks my tenth year straight of gaming!

Long history short...I came to my senses back in 1999 and got divorced. Living in Cincinnati, I had no real family or friends, so smart money was on moving back home to the Louisville area where I was originally from.

I did so, and upon my return, a good friend of mine, "Scout" asked if I wanted to run a game his brother "Linny" was running. At first I didn't have much interest...a lot was going on...I almost even skipped the first Saturday morning session we had planned after I worked late the night before.

But I showed up and it literally changed my life forever.

I met new friends (both online and off), it gave my future wife and I something to talk about (and she eventually joined the group after I decided I was going to keep her around for a bit) and a lot of pluses and minuses came out of it.

But I don't dwell on the bad stuff, Life is too short- I focus on the pluses.

So! Here I am, ten years later and I can honestly say it's been one hell of a ride and I got an E Ticket that I don't plan on turning in any time soon. I still got plenty of years of gaming left in these bones and there are still lots of stories to tell over at www.RaptorSquad.Net

But I do want to say this, to my friend "Scout", "Linny" my old GM, and the other fellas that allowed me to sit down at that table on that cool March morning way back in 1999 and bring a PC named "Vic Palisades" to life:

Thank you. It opened up a whole world for me and despite anything else that has happened between all of us, I appreciate what you did and what you allowed me to participate in.

That's it folks! I've got work to do on the site so I better get back to it.

Here's to another ten years!!!