My Gaming Goals for 2021

It's a New Year and, while we're still filled with hopeful enthusiasm, an opportunity to start fresh on our gaming goals. Here's mine.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

As I look back on a challenging 2020, it's an opportunity to consider what I would do differently if I had a chance to do it over. I'm fortunately still here and healthy, so I consider that a great place to start.

• Back Kickstarters I Believe In: I love backing Kickstarters, but I've gradually become disillusioned with their fulfillment times. Products I thought I would need for my game took so long to be delivered that sometimes the group didn't even exist by the time the product arrived. As someone who participated in a Kickstarter that took over five years to deliver, I understand why it happens. This is why I so admire Russ' Kickstarter strategy, with a product ready to go before the Kickstarter is completed. If I back a Kickstarter, it will be because I support the product and not depend nearly as much on receiving it in a timely manner; I plan to be much choosier about what Kickstarters I back in the future.
• Diversify the CAR-PGA: I'm Chair of the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games, a non-profit dedicated to promoting (and in the past, defending) tabletop role-playing games. We've made great strides in reestablishing our digital presence, but now it's time to grow the member base to deflect the diversity of our players. I'm hopeful we can host some virtual events and even have some guests join us as speakers in 2021.
• Finish My Star Wars Campaign: When the pandemic hit, my in-person Star Wars/5E D&D campaign came to a screeching halt. We're down to the very last episode and the grand finale. I plan to wrap things up in 2021 so we can have some closure.
• Print More Miniatures & Terrain: Now that I have two 3D printers, it's time to start cleaning out my game room and replacing miniatures and terrain I bought with stuff I built. I plan to sell it all to Noble Knight Games; this will take time and not everything can easily be replaced (some miniatures are so detailed that I can't print suitable replacements), but any reduction in clutter is a good thing. Also, in some cases if I know I can print a miniature or piece of terrain, I can wait until I actually need to it for the game before printing it.
• Find an In-Person Group: Now that I have my game room and table, I was steadily working up the courage to do this. When the vaccine is fully distributed I plan to look for players I can game with in-person.
• Play More In-Person Games: We play a post-apocalyptic 5E D&D game and with all the cool gaming accessories I got for Christmas, I plan to put them to good use with my kids as players.
• Appreciate My Players: One of the members of my original gaming group passed away last year and that reinforced that we'd stopped playing together for years. I've made a commitment to cherish every moment I have with my new (virtual) group. I'm thankful after every session and so appreciate having adults to game with (my kids have no choice!).

I'm not sure I can achieve all of these goals, but I'm hoping if I even made progress on fifty percent of them that I'd make significant strides in improving my overall happiness with gaming.

Your Turn: What are your gaming goals for 2021?

 

[chuckdee]

I'm not a huge fan of Kickstarters, I'm very selective of what I back for the example you give, they just take too long. Seems Level Up will be relatively complete by the time it hits kickstarter and with no stretch goals the turn around should be somewhat quick I hope. So that's one I'll probably back depending on the price, format and delivery date.

I don't mind the time that they take to market. I just want to make sure that when I back, I have something concrete in mind, rather than just supporting because it looks vaguely interesting.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Join Nextdoor, an app for neighborhoods where you can get local tips, buy and sell items, and more

Nextdoor is the neighborhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services.

nextdoor.com

What's Nextdoor?

 

[The Green Hermit]

Join Nextdoor, an app for neighborhoods where you can get local tips, buy and sell items, and more

Nextdoor is the neighborhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services.

nextdoor.com

I'll check it out, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is too urban, just like Meet Up.

 

[The Green Hermit]

Join Nextdoor, an app for neighborhoods where you can get local tips, buy and sell items, and more

Nextdoor is the neighborhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services.

nextdoor.com

Okay, they actually have a small group in my rural area. I still am not sold on its effectiveness, but I'm giving it a shot!

 

[MNblockhead]

My gaming related resolutions, and progress so far, for 2021:

1. Reduce and focus.

I tried to start running a second campaign near the end of the year, just as work started to get even more crazy. Both campaigns suffered, especially as one was for a complicated system without any pre-written adventures and I just didn't have time to properly learn the new system, create the setting and adventures, plus prep for my sessions with my other campaign. I became a chore. So I dropped to new campaign to focus on the ongoing one.

2. Less money on Kickstarters

Came back from my recent trip abroad (for work), went through the boxes of fulfilled Kickstarters to make sure everything arrived in order and undamaged, and put them on my shelf for whenever I have time to use books or accessories. One of the more expensive items (infinite scroll maps--very cool, but useless now that I'm only running games online) I just left in the shipping box and through in the closet. Given the current amount of time I have to run games, I have enough stuff to run games for years. Also, COVID and work travel has led me to running my games with a VTT, so it'll be a loooong time before I have a chance to use most of the physical terrain, minis, physical maps, etc. I have stuffed into storage.

3. Re-allocate my Kickstarter budget to VTT-content creators and making my DM prep easier

The VTT I use is Foundry VTT, hosted by The Forge. Foundry has a great developer community and I am supporting, mostly via Patreon. So far this has been mostly for plugins and tools, like the excellent stuff that Virtual Table Top Assets (vttassets.com) is putting out.

But some of these creators, as well as the hosting company I use (The Forge), put out fully prepped adventures that take full advantage of all the features my VTT platform has to offer. And, wow, does it make things easy to run.

I see all these new gaming 'zines coming out, adventures on D&D Beyond, EN5ider, etc. and all I see now is "more work for me." I don't want to pay for more PDFs or books that I then have to work into my VTT. I have shelves and Google Drive's full of that stuff and it will take years before I ever get to use most of it. At this point, I am only buying adventures where there is at least digital assets included. At a minimum battlemaps and tokens. Fully prepped maps with walls, lighting, etc. would be nice as well.