So many games, so little time

[buzz]

Okay, one of my groups plays D&D; another plays D&D, SWd20, and M&M; and my third group is all about HERO.

All-D&D group is switching over to 3.5e as we speak. All of us are scrambling to become proficient with the changes.

D&D/SWd20/M&M group won't be switching until winter, probably, as our DM needs time to digest the revision. Ergo, concurrent 3e and 3.5e campaigns for the next few months.

Then, of course, there's the SWd20 and M&M campaigns we'll probably be switching off between while our DM takes his revision break. Not to mention the fact that some of us are itching to give Urban Arcana* a try... Not to mention the other fact that virtually all of us ordered copies of Arcana Unearthed and would like to see that get run ASAP. And then, of course, Gamma World d20 will be coming out in a few months, and it's looking like it'll be the Best Game Evar(tm), thus demanding (well, *me* demanding) that a campaign be run.

And let's not even mention that the HERO group has yet to make use of Star HERO, Ninja HERO, Fantasy HERO...

Oh, and I'll slap you if you remind me that I want to check out Midnight... and that I have Unknown Armies sitting idly on my shelf... ditto Adventure!... or that Tekumel Tri-Stat will be out in November... and d20 Future after that... and Ars Magica 5th edition...

Somebody help me! I'm only using 1% of my RPG collection!!!

Sympathy? Empathy? Anyone? Bueller?


*Heavily infused with Dark*Matter, of course; UrA on its own is actually rather disappointing, imho.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I've bought a couple hundred dollars of GURPS stuff and so far I've been able to run ONE mini adventure. It was a blast for us but we barely have enough time to get our 3e games in. I've got both SWD20 corebooks, POTJ, & HG sitting there and I've never played it. I've got several SWD6 books as well that I've never used. Hero 4th, and Heroes Unlimited sit there gathering dust as well. I wish I had more time for gaming, or friends who wanted to game more.

 

[apocalypstick]

I suggest moving Unknown Armies up to the top of your list of "games which I must play." It managed to edge out CoC as my favorite RPG, and that's saying a lot.

 

[buzz]

I suggest moving Unknown Armies up to the top of your list of "games which I must play." It managed to edge out CoC as my favorite RPG, and that's saying a lot.

I'll try, but the group I'd probably try it with is very much focused on d20 right now.

Still, we've been toying with the idea of rotating "one-shots" on nights when some people can't make it, so maybe I'll prep a UA scenario and PCs just in case (once I finish reading the book, that is...).

 

[Bloodstone Mage]

I'm having a somewhat similar experience, not just with games in particular, but campaigns as well.
Just about everyone is my gaming group wants to DM, and each one of them pulls the "I've been wanting to run a game for months" thing to try to get their game run. While it's true for most everyone, we called one of our gamer's bluff when he couldn't remember his world's name accurately.
I hate it when these things happen, and it bothers me especially because of how little time our gaming group has left to game (we're all in high school, and coming soon is our senior year...after that, everyone's either moving away or going to college or getting full time jobs, which means not enough time to game). One guy is running a Spycraft game and wants to run a Star Trek game, one guy is running a Star Wars game, one guy wants to run a D&D game, one guy wants to run a homebrew game (using practically every other RPG system under the sun), and I want to continue my D&D campaign. It gets very frustrating because people take it very seriously, throw fits, and often stop gaming for a couple of weeks when they can't run their game. I also think it's bad in the respect that their ideas are good but are squandered by pressure and resentment. But these things just don't happen in gaming. I see them happen in bands, between artists, and in other creative fields (I think someone has said this before, but only 99.9% of all scripts ever written actually get made into movies). People take it as rejection and see it as favortism of others, causing them to despise one another.
A friend of mine wants me to be the DM of his group, but right now there's no one in yet. I might just start gaming with him and start playing online, instead of frequenting my FLGS. I hate to do that, but it seems that the pressure keeps adding up. The guy that wants to run a Star Trek game (which is Chuck, if you know my other posts) is buying all of the Star Trek books in the assumption that everyone else wants to eagerly play in it (which we don't. While I like a RPG system that doesn't center around combat, Star Trek doesn't appeal to me. No offense ). I've decided to quit buying book after book, just the stuff that appeals to me. It doesn't bother me if I don't ever use them, but then again, with that single gamer, I can always run whatever I want. I found it truely frustrating to get a lot of gaming systems and never being able to use them.
I'm sorry for your circumstances, buzz, and there are too many games to play out there. If only we had more time to play them all...
Oh well. Maybe everything will get better.

Cheers!

 

[buzz]

I'm sorry for your circumstances, buzz, and there are too many games to play out there. If only we had more time to play them all...

Hey, no need for sympathy. Mine's a pretty nice problem to have, as problems go.

Have you thought of setting up a schedule where you rotate between the games everyone wants to run? Since you're in high school, I'm assuming that you and your friends game pretty frequently; once a week mabye?

If so, why simply have a schedule where you're one month (or more, or less) on each person's campaign? Sure, that leaves a big gap between slots for each campaign, but hey... maybe the will make players all the more eager to get back to them.

 

[Bloodstone Mage]

Have you thought of setting up a schedule where you rotate between the games everyone wants to run? Since you're in high school, I'm assuming that you and your friends game pretty frequently; once a week mabye?

If so, why simply have a schedule where you're one month (or more, or less) on each person's campaign? Sure, that leaves a big gap between slots for each campaign, but hey... maybe the will make players all the more eager to get back to them.

We tried that, but everyone seems to try and screw up. We used to have interchanging weeks (I run a game one week, another DM runs it next week, and so on), but everyone burned out on that, so we decided to all vote on which game to run. My game won, so I ran my game for about a month, and then we switched to another guy's game. Starting in mid-August, my game will be back on. I have an unsettling feeling that around that time, someone will try to oppose everyone's decision and run a game.

 

[Desdichado]

That's what we were just getting off the ground (before my regular group went on hiatus as 50% of its folks were out of town.) When we're back up to a reasonable core size (four or five players, sadly down from eight) we'll get back into the "at least three concurrent GMs" rotating weeks. At least, that's our hope -- I think it'll work as long as games like HeroClix, D&D "miniatures" and the impending release of Counter Point and Halo 2 for the xbox don't distract us too much. We've got too many big ideas -- Midnight, my steampunkish homebrew, a Dark*Matter-esque d20 Modern campaign (I almost forgot, buzz, I'm still "not talking to you" for buying that book out from under me! ) some GURPS, Mutants & Masterminds, and of course some good old fashiond D&D. Then there's Quickbeam's CoC campaign, assuming it gets moving again, although that's much more infrequent. And of course, that's ignoring at least 95% of my d20 collection, not to mention my other games.

But I think the rotation will keep us going with enough variety that we don't have string after string of abortive campaigns because we suddenly are more interested in something else before the last campaign has really done more than get started.

A good solution to give some of those other systems a test drive is to sign up for something different at the local gamedays, though -- I'm already excited about the next Chicago one (since the Detroit gameday never got more than a few vague location suggestions.) I just hope it's not scheduled too close to my wife's due date, or I'll have to skip another one. Although all things considered, that's a good problem to have too! If I'm there, I'm seriously thinking about running a d02: Know No Limit!!!!!11!! game just for variety. That game could either roxxors your boxxors and knock off your soxxors, or it'll blow chunks so badly we'll all be in danger of choking to death on the unholy, blasphemous obscenity of it all.

 

[Gellion]

All i play is D&D, but i have been wanting to check out Deadlands D20.

 

[skinnydwarf]

Somebody help me! I'm only using 1% of my RPG collection!!!

Sympathy? Empathy? Anyone? Bueller?

I've got you're sympathy right here. One thing you can try to do is pretend that all the games you have are a "collection." Some games you got not just to play, but because you simply *had* to have them in the "collection." "My collection must have the Street Fighter storytelling game!" Hey, I was young and impulsive. Ok, young and stupid.

Or enjoy the books you have for their reading potential. I mean, besides the rules, some games are really fun to read! Take Castle Falkenstein, Mutant Chronicles, or your favorite campaign setting.

Alternatively, head on over to http://www.nobleknight.com -they buy and trade used/new games. I'm hoping to trade some of the games in my collection that I know I'll never play for some stuff that I *will* play, or at least read. Or maybe I'll find some gems that simply *must* be in my collection...