If this is my 2006 gaming year in review, what does 2007 hold?

[scourger]

My weekly gaming group met 38 times last year, 2006, which is 73% of the time. Of those weeks, 34 were for RPG play; or 65% of the time. (That last figure is a little generous since 2 sessions were level-ups and/or character generation only, which puts the actual RPG play percentage at 62%.)

Contrast those statistics to 2005 in which we met 83% of the time (43 weeks) and played RPGs 79% of the time (41 weeks, plus 5 weeks in which extra RPGs were played for 88%).

In 2004, we met on 48 weeks for 92% in which we played RPGs 41 times or 79% of the time (adding 6 weeks of extra play gets to 90% of the time).

Significantly, no D&D was played by the group in 2006. My only D&D play was during a visit to Seattle on an awesome tour of WotC (thanks, James Wyatt!). With my number of weeks gaming decreasing and D&D dropping sharply, I'm considering what to do in 2007. Hence, the question for this thread:

If this is my 2006 gaming year in review, what does 2007 hold?

The year is off to an inauspicious start because I know I'm not gaming this week. Our group's membership is down. Three of us are pretty solid to attend, but the other two live out of state and just can't come every week. I'm pretty burned out on d20 (having come to really enjoy the ease of Savage Worlds) but another friend will only play D&D--leaving me to consider going back to my 3.0 game.

I'm just not sure how to get the most out of my increasingly scarce gaming time. Any stories, advice or suggestions are welcome.

 

[Razz]

Play online. I use OPEN RPG to host my gaming sessions with all my old D&D buddies who are spread out across the East Coast while I'm stuck here in MO. It's been working fine.

And if vocalizing during the game is necessary then use Teamspeak or a similar program.

The only loss is the satisfcation of actually rolling the dice...but you guys could all get webcams and roll on those.

 

[scourger]

We have one guy who appears virtually some of the time. It's an interesting use of technology, but I don't understand it.

 

[Dragonhelm]

My group met 5 times last year, and I think I got to play in maybe 2 other games. I would love to game 38 times in a year. I actually envy your problem!

What I've discovered in life is that as time goes on, you have less and less time for gaming. I used to game weekly, and I loved it. Then it became bi-weekly, then monthly (and even that wasn't working).

If 38 times a year isn't doing it for you, then I would recommend internet gaming of some sort. You could game over AIM, through play-by-post or play-by-e-mail. I've heard good things about Fantasy Grounds, so check that out too.

As far as game systems, you might try a compromise of sorts with C&C or True20.

Anyway, hope that helps.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

So I'm reading your post and thinking to myself, "You gamed 38 times last year? You lucky bastard." Here's my situation:

1. Wife and daughter. Daughter is 4. 'Nuff said.

2. High school teacher. Me, that is. Ton of work, except on summers. But summers do me little good, because no one else I know wants to game regularly on summers, because they're all off on holidays on weekends. Also, even though I get summers off, see #1.

3. My favorite system is AD&D 1e/2e. No one wants to play it.

4. I like D&D 3.5 quite a bit (it's really grown on me), but my group is so irregular that we meet maybe once per month (even though we always say we plan to meet weekly). So I end up playing maybe 10 times a year. And of those 10 times, I enjoy maybe 2-3 sessions.

My solution? I bought a Nintendo GameCube with 12 games, including Twilight Princess, Resident Evil Zero, StarFox Adventures, Metroid Prime . . . Nope, it isn't D&Ding, but it's sure fun. And I can do it alone! Yeah!



"Video games are the most fun you can have by yourself without masturbating."

--Chainsaw Mage

 

[scourger]

So I'm reading your post and thinking to myself, "You gamed 38 times last year? You lucky bastard." ...

Yeah, I though about that when I posted it. I guess I'm tyring to keep the glass half full.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Well i got to say im Pretty lucky, i think my group only missed maybe 4 sessions out of the 52 week year and that doesnt include the non-saturday games we played. And sessions last about 4-6 hours average, and we are in the habit of playing another game after mine on sat's which adds to the time about 2-4 hours on average. So yeah im pretty lucky.
Im lucky enough to have two of my players be my siblings and live at home, three friends who always have weekends off due to their jobs or school (though one graduates high school this spring so he'll be off to college, but might be back on weekends, we have to wait and see).