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?

 

[pogre]

• 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.

Not clear why you are replacing miniatures and terrain - why not just add to your collection with the printers? You are likely a faster painter than me, but most prints take a few hours minimum. That sounds more critical than I intend - just trying to understand the goal a little better.

I am going to concentrate on terrain building myself. I am going the opposite direction with more hand-crafted terrain. Although I'm sure I'll do some 3d printed stuff.

 

[Sunsword]

For most of my time role-playing, I've been the GM but I now belong to a group with multiple GMs. I intended to simply savor being a player in 2021.

 

[talien]

Not clear why you are replacing miniatures and terrain - why not just add to your collection with the printers? You are likely a faster painter than me, but most prints take a few hours minimum. That sounds more critical than I intend - just trying to understand the goal a little better.

I am going to concentrate on terrain building myself. I am going the opposite direction with more hand-crafted terrain. Although I'm sure I'll do some 3d printed stuff.

Simply put, space. I have a cabinet that takes up one entire wall of my game room with miniatures. If I were to print/paint at full speed, I could easily fill an entire second cabinet (which I don't have room for!) in a week. I made the mistake of printing every miniature for a 5E conversion of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks since many of those monsters are not commonly purchased miniatures -- and now they sit in a bin taking up space when I used maybe a fraction of them in the actual adventure.

Printing forces a few things: 1) optimizing my collection by asking if I really need to print the miniature or can I wait to print it when I actually need it, and 2) getting rid of existing miniatures that I realize I don't need to make a copy of, which means I never needed it that badly in the first place.

I didn't even mention painting my remaining giant bag of Reaper miniatures!

 

[Ghost2020]

Some similar ones here too.

I plan on backing far fewer kickstarters this year than I did in 2019 and 2020.
So many from 2019 were late, and by the time they arrived, many still I have not, I have either moved on from the system, or no longer had interest in it or no longer wanted.

Trying to get more games to the table just to play short campaigns to see if I even want to keep them.

With that being said there are many games that just need to be sold off because I'll never have the time to play them all, or I have a preferred system that does the same thing.

I think I'm experiencing purchase burnout.
I did my part during the pandemic to help gaming companies!

 

[aco175]

I want to buy, read and run a 16-32 page module by WotC; and not from DM's Guild. A module I can complete with a reasonably sized group in a 2-4 sessions of 3-4 hours.

I want this for 5e and not have to convert from a time Wizards made modules of this size.

 

[R_J_K75]

I want this for 5e and not have to convert from a time Wizards made modules of this size.

I have a feeling alot of people do as well. Im not opposed to adventure paths, just break them up into to pieces that are easily managed, wrap up from module to module where you can either branch off on your own or play the next chapter. I think the sword of the Dales trilogy is a good example of this.

 

[thullgrim]

Run a campaign in a game system and world I’m interested in. Preferably Earthdawn.

Try and learn to prep more efficiently.

Migrate my vtt from Roll20 to Foundry for everything except maybe my 4e game. If only there was a 4e Foundry plug-in.

 

[TrippyHippy]

My primary goal is to keep the groups going that I’ve got, and try to establish some sort of local club at the school I teach in. I already run a Chess Club, and used to do the Adventurers League as a DM, so my issue is marketing to a degree.

My playing goals is to finish the current campaign I am in, try out a few games offered by others and establish a new Vampire Chronicle primarily.

My buying goals are to not spend too much on games, but otherwise I should expect to see:

• Dune: Adventures in the Imperium - waiting on preorder.
• Twilight: 2000 - waiting on Kickstarter
• Various Mongoose Traveller supplements and books - on Kickstarter and pre-order
• Scion: Demigod - waiting on Kickstarter
• Cults of the Blood Gods for V5 - waiting on Kickstarter
• Kult supplements/scenario books - waiting on Kickstarter
• Putrescence Regnant - a vinyl supplement for Mörk Borg also waiting on Kickstarter
• Le Morte d’Arthur and the Arthurian Concordance - also waiting on Kickstarter, which I hope to use with Pendragon.

And following on:

• King Arthur Pendragon 6e
• The One Ring 2E
• 2300AD - Mongoose Traveller box set for hard sci-fi setting.
• Everway 2E
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5E

My buying goals may be under pressure already! Guess this leads to my final goal of selling off the stuff I’m not using.

 

[Tyler Pickering]

Paint some minis. I barely touched the brush in 2020.

For gaming I'd like to continue to run my PF2E AP of Extinction Curse and hopefully get and run the Kingmaker 2E AP.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I'm in a good place with my RPG games, as I trimmed back on a couple of games, but added one with my high school friends which I am enjoying very much (Lost Mines of Phandelver).

My game-buying however is probably something that could use some review. I have already started to think about a game and think - will I ever really get that game to the table? If the answer is no, then I don't back... It's basically a question of taking my FOMO out back and giving it a good whack in the shins with the rationality whiffle ball bat.