I'm a little depressed, and I don't want to be the only one.

[Simon Atavax]

Is anyone else out there frustrated, discouraged, even downright bummed out by the fact that their real life is currently so busy and hectic that they can only dream of their first 4e campaign?

Take me, for instance. I love my life. I have a wonderful wife, a beautiful five-year-old daughter, and a great job (teacher). But at the end of the day, after reading my little girl to sleep, I collapse in exhaustion. If I'm lucky, I may get in a few rounds of BIOSHOCK (my current XBOX 360 darling), or some television with my lovely wife, or some time to read, or whatever. Usually I'm out cold by 9 pm at night (my little girl is asleep by 8 or so).

Weekends? Usually a similar routine. Hanging out with family, trying to get the house tidied up, maybe a little time here or there for myself. The idea of a long, in-depth 4e campaign (or any other kind of RPGing) just doesn't enter into it. My wife is working on her master's degree, BTW, so she needs as much time as humanly possible to work on that.

I'm also a passionate boardgamer, and the same problem, obviously, exists there. No time for my beloved Arkham Horror, Settlers of Catan, Risk 2210 A.D., etc.

Anyway, I just wanted to know if anyone else in a similar boat as me. You've been a gamer a long time, and you're deeply excited about 4e (or whatever version you're in love with). But the prospect of ever having enough time to play the dang thing is rather bleak.

Without irony I say that I'm planning to run a campaign when my little girl is nine or ten or so. It may take that long for things to come together.

 

[Henry]

Just keep the faith, and know that you are being a stellar husband, and all-around good guy. When the wife finishes her Master's, and the little one gets into school regularly, things might change. THough you really should follow that rule about never asking advice from strangers on the internet, keeping the lines of communication open with the wife, and when things settle down a bit letting her know you wouldn't mind an afternoon every week or every other week to get some gaming in with a group of friends wouldn't be a bad idea. Heck, alternate, and one weekend is "girl's night" where she gets her chance to blow off steam with girlfriends/crocheting/enjoying a good book/whatever, and the other weekend is your weekend to kill dragons and rake in imaginary gold.

Good fortunes and good gaming to you!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Trust me Simon, you're not the only one. Although I do get to play a bit so I guess I my situation isn't as bad as yours.

I run a fortnightly 3.5E campaign. I'd love to play that weekly (or play in one of my player's RHoD campaign which he runs in the "off" week). Unfortunately I have a (nearly) 1-year-old girl and a wife that I also like to spend time with. Add in playing lacrosse for half the year and my free time evaporates pretty quickly.

I also love playing Blood Bowl. For years I couldn't find anyone to play with. Now there is a weekly league running at my FLGS and I don't have time to play in it! Damn universe, why do you mock me!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It is a sad fact of adulthood that in addition to working for money, you also have to work to make time for play. And you really need to do that.

I'm currently single but most of my buddies in my game group with major family commitments.

The way they work it is that every other week, they hand off kiddie duty to the spouse and go gaming...and the weeks when they're not gaming, they get solo time with the young'uns while their significant other goes out for some fun.

That way, every 2 weeks, one parent or the other gets a little recharge.

Even with that generous schedule, sometimes reality intrudes, of course- crunch time at work, kid gets a fever, whatever.

But by and large, we all get together every 2 weeks and exercise our RPG creative sides.

 

[EATherrian]

Simon, I feel your pain. Since I've been gaming, I've created far more worlds than I could actually play, and some of them were cool and I also could just dream of using them. I'm currently just playing 4E, but I'm also making a world but I'm sharing it with everyone so at least someone might get some use out of it. It's in my signature, and there's more on paper than on-line right now. Old habits die hard.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I have been in the same slump for a while, but in a act of irony right when things are getting really busy (first year of college) I may actually be having a actual continuous going 4e campaign soon.

Gonna have a first-timer, so gonna have to make it semi-more traditional setting to ease them in, which is gonna be difficult for me

 

[johnnype]

My situation is very similar to yours. The only difference is that I have no problem staying awake until midnight. As I tell my wife: I'll sleep when I'm dead.

The only time I actually get to play anything (other than computer games) is on the single day a year I actually get to go to a Con. I actually plan on asking my wife if I can go to GenCon next year but our schedules may not allow. Tsk, tsk...

Yep, PC games have become my first source of entertainment recently and although I would never suggest MMO's can replace pen and paper RPG's, they do serve as good entertainment. I plan on joining up with a bunch of people from the RPG.net boards and form a Warhammer: Age of Reckoning guild. Join us.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

At least you can dream of it! Of the 5 people in my old gaming group, 3 of us are in different states, one is in the Mid-East, and one is in Asia!

 

[Jonny Nexus]

Well add me to the list of people saying that if it's any consolation, you seem to be doing a pretty good job in the overall life stakes.

I do still game, but not as much as I used to. My old Sunday afternoon game (transplanted to Monday, and then Tuesday evenings) has survived, albeit a bit truncated. But my Thursday night game has died, a victim of life basically; people (including me) got married, some had kids, and some moved away.

In my case, I also find that I have no time to GM anything, because the time I would have spent thinking and writing my campaign I'm instead spending trying to market one book and write another.

And we haven't even had kids yet!

 

[Drowbane]

I feel your pain, Simon. Although in my case, I have plenty of time and energy... and no group.

I've tried getting my niece to play, but she is always busy with chores or homework.

And my girlfriend would rather stab herself in the eye with a spoon than roll dice with me :/