One a Day

Our gaming group is in the strange situation of no active games, having wrapped up the two existing campaigns recently. That means the upcoming weekend leads to the infamous “weighted list” decision-making session!

The weighted-list session is a bit of an inside joke but not entirely without a shred of truth. About four years ago — with a multifaceted group — I tossed out the idea of voting and stack raking our gaming ideas to choose the next game. Well, that tradition has lived on, although sometimes it can be pretty painful. We don’t always do it. But the intent of the session — weighted list or not — is to pitch and talk about game ideas and come up with the next game (or two). The last time I put any thought into this was quite some time ago. (Ironically, a year!)

Unfortunately 2008 was not a good gaming year for me. I didn’t run a game and solely as a player spent a good portion of that year frustrated. I acquiesced to try a Mage game where we spent a goodly amount of time infighting and not working together and after spending so many weeks on the road in 2008 and returning home to referee two small children the last thing I wanted to be doing was bickering, albeit in character, at the gaming table. The game was pretty complex and the rules fussy; it’s one of the few games where I sat through an encounter, entirely ineffective, having zero fun and wondering if there was a way to just stop playing the game. The other was the aforementioned two year Dungeons & Dragons game that I won’t belabor. Die, 3rd Edition, die!

So this time around I don’t intend on spending another year “taking one for the team.”

I don’t have to run a game but in light of the fact that I’m one of three GMs in the group it’s likely that I will. I’ve put a little thought into what I might pitch but I’ll readily admit that I’ve no great scheme hatching in the background of what to run. So in that vein — until reaching Sunday — I will toss up one campaign idea a day.