I’ve taken hobby breaks when live was a bit too intense… being a carer is not easy…

Also taken breaks as GM when I’ve felt uninspired or life was too intense (see above), but someone else stepped in as GM for a while.

It was spontaneous… due to the circumstances.

When I’ve stepped back from a skirmish, or board game I only worried about rules changes if I bought a new edition. When you’re not playing competitively (and I don’t play tournaments) it doesn’t really matter as rules are optional.

Hobby break. Have you ever stepped back from the hobby with a mental note “I just can’t right now” and left the hobby for any amount of time?

Yes, a few times. Often it’s just a matter of prioritising hobbies (hey, there really is more to life than painting miniatures, no matter how much you’re told otherwise). Sometimes I want to learn some guitar and actively tell myself I haven’t time for mini painting and focus on that instead. Sometimes it’s electronics. Sometimes it’s just reading a really good book. Very rarely have I actually put my paints away, but I do occaisonally tell myself I just can’t paint right now and do something else. Sometimes it’s days. Sometimes weeks. Every now and again, months.

Have you made that decision spontaneously and suddenly or was it more a “I’m not enjoying this right now, lets do something else”?

Not necessarily “not enjoying this right now” but more “I think I’ll enjoy this more”. Even when I’m not enjoying the process of actually painting, I still like sharing pictures and being part of a community that paints miniatures. But the same goes for playing music (or making cool gadgets) – it enables me to be part of a community of people with the same interests and to share ideas; the activity is a gateway to hang out with the cool kids. Sometimes I just need to hang out with some different people, to keep the relationships alive.

When getting back into a game you find the rules have been updated some significant amount. Do you try to get back into the old system or do you take the dive at the deep end and learn everything fresh?

If it’s a game I’ve played and am familiar with, I’ll stick to the rules I know. Is there anyone who actually *enjoys* learning new rules for games? More than actually playing the game? Surely we learn the rules *only* to enable us to play the game? I’ve never been a “play to win” kind of player, I much more enjoy the process of playing the game (to win means the game is concluded; I happily give my opponent pieces back in a game of chess, for example, if it means the game will continue and/or make it more interesting). So learning new sets of rules to a game I already know to play? For some kind of tactical advantage? Not interested. If my opponent plays to the new rules? Well, they can talk me through them! I don’t have enough time already for my hobbies – don’t give me something else to eat into my time, too!

@sundancer – your BotWars reminds me, I’ve some cool cartoon-style Transformers minis printed and primed somewhere around here. I told myself they’d only take a couple of evenings but after finishing Octopus Prime and nearly finishing Bumblebee, my butterfly mind jumped onto something else – the rest of them are still just black-and-white primed…. somewhere.

My pile of opportunity swells and grows – but mostly because I print stuff then hang onto it for a few months, then give it away once I’ve lost interest or decided I’m never going to get around to paint it after all and printed something else.

@sundancer – well, now you put it like that….. actually, not really. 3d printing is the shizz. But for a long while I was still printing on a colour LCD and, aware of the relatively short lifespan (somewhere in the region of 400 hours is often quoted) I always loaded my print plate fully before printing anything. So each print got me 6-8 minis at a time.

Of which, I probably only really wanted 4 or 5 but realistically would only ever go on to paint two or three.

So, yes, I printed far more minis than I would ever even begin to paint. But gain nothing from it? Absolutely not. It revolutionized how I collect and paint my minis.

It allows me to treat them as disposable – to try out different techniques and colour schemes, and if they’re rubbish, just throw them away and print a replacement!

I don’t keep minis “for best” any more, or cripple myself with indecision about how to paint something because I really like the sculpt and don’t want to mess it up.

No, 3d printing is like garlic bread. It’s the future.

The rest of you can deny it, but we all know you’ll come around to it in the end! Like us computer users in the late 80s/early 90s being jeered for being nerds, or mp3 adopters in the late 90s being told it’s a pointless endeavour because people want to hold a physical thing in their hands, us early adopters are once again going through the growing pains so you don’t have to.

But that’s ok. Because some of us still enjoy it, even if sometimes it’s a pita. We’ll be here, ready to share tips and expertise with the rest of you when you’re ready to catch up! Just like we have with every other innovation that changed the world ? </snark>

Btw, if you fancy a set of Autobot/Deception minis in about 32mm scale, zenith primed and ready for some contrast/speed paint, I might have a few knocking around here somewhere….

Convenience is everything. Sure, vinyl records are still “a thing”. But those who insist “they’re better than CDs because they’re analogue and CDs are digital and I swear my ears can hear the distinction between a digital signal operating at 44,100 times a second and an true analogue signal, and no, it’s not that vinyl is “warmer” because my stereo is actually cutting part of the treble signal, I can hear the difference because vinyl is better” still sound like lunatics shouting into the darkness.

CDs overtook vinyl because it was more convenient (and eventually cheaper). MP3s replaced CDs for pretty much the same reason. Vinyl these days is poorer quality and vastly more expensive than pretty much any other music delivery medium. But yes, it still exists. For the nostalgia nerds.
That’s not a bad thing. But it doesn’t make the other thing “the bad thing” either.

More weekend? Yes please.
I played at a blues jam yesterday and it was amazing. I’d love to do it all again today.
But I can’t. Because I’ve got a kitchen sink tap to fix (it just came off in my hand last night!) and work to do.
And a parcel to send, apparently 😉
Autobots roll out!