Eight's not a very elegant number, but it'll do. With apologies to Amityville Mike for totally ripping off his own list of gaming resolutions.
8. Pick up a copy (or two) of Fight On!
I keep hearing about it, and what I hear sounds crazy-awesome. Might even cure me of my moment of Vampire-induced weakness.
7. Post a little more regularly
By which I mean "quit taking those weird, four month long breaks." It'd be really great if I could start making thirty posts a month, but I'm not starry-eyed enough to think that'll happen. I'll settle for a goal post of twenty, and even that is probably pushing it, given my well-established proclivities towards distraction.
6. Train a new GM
By "train" I mean "support/pester into giving the engagement a shot" but the point still stands. I've got a couple of prospects, folks who have expressed interest and would make decent GMs, and who might just need a little encouragement and logistical support to give it a try. It'd be a shame if someone missed out on the life of increased gaming opportunities and constant state of creative aggravation that GMing provides for lack of something I could provide, even if all it is being told "Hey, you should run a game some time."
5. Read a few Conan stories
And pulp fiction in general, but Conan is on my immediate radar. The local library has a copy of that collection of unedited Conan stories that came out a couple years ago, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
4. Write up a megadungeon through 3 levels
I've given this a shot once or twice, but I don't usually get much further than mapping out the first level. I want to write out enough of one to actually use -- and then run it!
3. Finish my Traveller Subsector
It's already got about half the planets rolled up, and it wouldn't take much work to get it into playable form. Just the other half (and all the crazy ideas that would spring out of that endeavor) and a little more detail on the handful around where the PCs start.
2. Play in a campaign
I haven't been a player in a tabletop game that last more than two sessions in at least two and a half years. I've played a couple of one-shots and been involved in a few attempts at a longer sort of game (and of course I've been doing some online play in noisms's excellent Yesteryear game, to which I really need to get a little less shy about posting) but a combination of circumstance, disinterest in continuing a bad game, and my own preference for the other side of the screen have kept a really satisfying player experience from materializing. Three years would be a little too long to go without getting a good look at what goes on in a player's crazy world, so I'm going to see if I can get someone else to run a game for once. This is the evil part of my new GM scheme, but I might also be able to get one of the old gang to run our summer game.
1. Run a campaign
It doesn't need to be long, but it should be a proper campaign. None of this "published adventure" nonsense that I spent the summer indulging. I should knock this one out next semester, but if I manage to pass up that opportunity I've still got the summer, and fall semester after that. No real idea of system. Swords & Wizardry, Traveller, and various World of Darkness nonsense are all top contenders, but it's not quite close enough to the action for me to make a final decision.
(Two days early for the January RPG Blog Carnival. Oops.)
Good luck with your resolutions. I know how hard they can be to keep. Your Conan one reminds me I need to read more myself. As to posts, I'd start with say two posts a week. That should be workable rate, you can always post more if you feel like it. Right now I try to post M-F and take the weekend off.
ReplyDeleteI mean to do some of what you have resolved to do. I need to restart my own campaign (a playtest of a system I hope to release in '09). Playing more would be good, but not likely with the gaming scene locally for me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have been reading that very Conan book. I have all 3 volumes in that series. From what I can tell, they are the entirety of the Conan stories, as originally written by Howard. I am maybe 1/3 of the way through the first book and loving it. Some of the plots seem a little contrived, but the man has a way with words. Once I finish the Conan, I plan on reading Elric and then catching up on my Lovecraft. All great stuff, really.
Play in a campaign instead of running the game...
ReplyDeleteWhat a novel idea!
Perhaps I'll try this one too.
Here's a little quote to whet your Conan whistle:
ReplyDelete"I replied that since he was a friend of mine, I could not betray him. Then the court waxed wroth, and the judge talked a great deal about my duty to the state, and society, and other things I did not understand, and bade me tell where my friend had flown. By this time I was becoming wrathful myself, for I had explained my position. But I choked my ire and held my peace, and the judge squalled that I had shown contempt for the court, and that I should be hurled into a dungeon to rot until I betrayed my friend. So then, seeing they were all mad, I drew my sword and cleft the judge's skull; then I cut my way out of court..."
Now is that something out of Stupid PC Tricks or what? :)
bonemaster: I don't read nearly enough. I used to have a book open pretty much all the time (got me into trouble at school) but these days I'm lucky if I can get in a novel a year. On my own time, anyway; I do tons of reading for class but it's not really the same.
ReplyDeleteThe Pretentious Fool: I do find that one of the major advantages of being able to happily GM games is that I've got a much easier time getting them together, but it does tend to make actually playing kind of hard because everyone gets used to me running them. Good luck with the system, that's a temptation that so far I've been able to resist.
John: If I can do it and not get ticked off a couple weeks in because the game master is "doing it wrong" it'll be a miracle. Fun, but dangerous.
Sirlarkins: Classic!