The following is a rant. I am just expressing my frustration. Feel free to ignore me.
So, it looks like I won't be running a campaign any time soon -- which is quie a switch since I recently was running two simultaneously.
One group has kind of fragmented due to real life issues. It was a small group to begin with, so the loss of just two players was enough to leave us in the lurch. One player is simply more interested in WoW, and another recently got divorced and is busy enjoying the freedom and responsibilities associated with such a change in life. We may eventually "get the band back together" but the longer we go without doing so, the less likely that becomes. The biggest problem here is that they were my only "any edition is a good edition" group -- we could play 1E ToEE, 2E Planescape or 3E Forgotten Realms. We even played Role-master for a while, and it was fun.
The other group basically fired me. It was a long time coming -- we've had a few campaigns go down in flames, due largely to strong playstyle differences between myself and the other-DM/player, combined with a complete apathy by everyone else. No matter how many times I tried to pump the rest of the group for desires and preferences, all I got back was crickets. So, I ran the game the way I run the game. Eventually, other-DM guy would decide he wasn't having it any more and after a little game-group-drama it would all fall apart and he'd start a game and a few months later, his game would fall apart and I'd lobby to run again and the cycle would repeat itself. After three times of this, I have finally lost both the desire and hope that I'd be running again, and since I like his GMing style as little as he likes mine, I won't be playing with them again. Which is really too bad, because they are good folk and my friends.
So, I am game-less. Since I live in CT, finding other players is tough. Anothe rproblem is the inevitability of 4E -- I am only vaguely interested, and keep going back and forth. once it hits, if I don't want to play it, I might as well hang it up unless my "any edition" group gets back together.
So I am at that point -- part of me says just hang it up. I have other hobbies, and certainly hanging around here less would improve my general productivity. But I love gaming, and specifically running games. I've never had much luck with the game-store or message-board call for players -- not enough to form a whole new group, certainly.
And I definitely don't want to become one of those "only talk about gaming, never plays" types. No offense to anyone that fits that description, but I think once you get disconected from the hobby as an activity, your views on it become more extreme and less relevent.
Aarg.
I say again -- Aarg.
So, it looks like I won't be running a campaign any time soon -- which is quie a switch since I recently was running two simultaneously.
One group has kind of fragmented due to real life issues. It was a small group to begin with, so the loss of just two players was enough to leave us in the lurch. One player is simply more interested in WoW, and another recently got divorced and is busy enjoying the freedom and responsibilities associated with such a change in life. We may eventually "get the band back together" but the longer we go without doing so, the less likely that becomes. The biggest problem here is that they were my only "any edition is a good edition" group -- we could play 1E ToEE, 2E Planescape or 3E Forgotten Realms. We even played Role-master for a while, and it was fun.
The other group basically fired me. It was a long time coming -- we've had a few campaigns go down in flames, due largely to strong playstyle differences between myself and the other-DM/player, combined with a complete apathy by everyone else. No matter how many times I tried to pump the rest of the group for desires and preferences, all I got back was crickets. So, I ran the game the way I run the game. Eventually, other-DM guy would decide he wasn't having it any more and after a little game-group-drama it would all fall apart and he'd start a game and a few months later, his game would fall apart and I'd lobby to run again and the cycle would repeat itself. After three times of this, I have finally lost both the desire and hope that I'd be running again, and since I like his GMing style as little as he likes mine, I won't be playing with them again. Which is really too bad, because they are good folk and my friends.
So, I am game-less. Since I live in CT, finding other players is tough. Anothe rproblem is the inevitability of 4E -- I am only vaguely interested, and keep going back and forth. once it hits, if I don't want to play it, I might as well hang it up unless my "any edition" group gets back together.
So I am at that point -- part of me says just hang it up. I have other hobbies, and certainly hanging around here less would improve my general productivity. But I love gaming, and specifically running games. I've never had much luck with the game-store or message-board call for players -- not enough to form a whole new group, certainly.
And I definitely don't want to become one of those "only talk about gaming, never plays" types. No offense to anyone that fits that description, but I think once you get disconected from the hobby as an activity, your views on it become more extreme and less relevent.
Aarg.
I say again -- Aarg.
