Epilogue

Things have changed a lot since that campaign all those years ago.  Here's an update for anybody who is curious.

Sam is a successful engineer and at the time of this writing has a wife and 3 kids.  He moved out of the area so we rarely play wargames anymore, but we do play Dungeons & Dragons using Roll20.

Steve is married and we're still friendly but our lives have grown in different directions.  We still check in with each other from time to time.

I don't hear from Dave anymore.  He too is married these days but our paths also grew apart.  I have a sneaking suspicion that in these politically divided days of our country, he may no longer have wanted to be close friends with me because of our widely different views, but I don't know that for sure.  I just know at one point he just stopped making an effort.

Tony, Jeff, and I still hang out and talk regularly.  We're like the Three Musketeers although they see each other more often than I see them.  That's probably because I'm the most introverted of the three.  They too participate in my Roll20 D&D game and we occasionally play Batletech.   They've expressed an interest in playing the new version of Warhammer: The Old World.  I don't want to play it, but I kind of owe it to them since they've so often followed my lead into new games.  So, I probably will play. 

I occasionally talk to Don and we're on good terms but we don't see each other very much.  He's even more introverted than I am (and that's saying something) so I understand.  I am subscribed to his YouTube channel and he seems to be doing alright.

I still consider all of these guys to be good people and even with the ones I don't hear from, if they needed me I'd be there for them without hesitation.  The Blood in the Badlands campaign strained some of our friendships, but we survived it.  We even did another small campaign or two after that but nothing that came close to matching the scale of that big, horrible, glorious, confused mess.