Posted by:
Carl
on
1/8/2010 12:04:31 PM
The holidays have come and gone. I actually took two weeks off to do as little as possible, which included among other things, some beta testing time on Star Trek Online and a substantial amount of time getting the Aero-Titan to 37th level. He's 38 now, since my retcon at level 34 brought me into a level of power and capability that is now truly super-heroic and I can literally blast my way through missions that I previously struggled to complete without getting my dick knocked into the dirt a dozen times a session. I may hit level 40, the level cap, this week. I'll then start working on my PvP character and join the rest of my Super Group, the WildCards, in the televised arena death matches of the Champions Online universe. After that I'll be succumbing to alt-itis and playing a wide variety of super and not-so-super heroes.
The main reason for not blogging is that outside of my afformentioned muhmorpooguh, and a few rounds of the Sims 3 with my wife (we think of it as a combination reality show, sitcom, nite-time soap opera, softcore porno), I have done no gaming. None. Not even a board game. I logged into the T5 message boards and poked around, made a few posts. I actually loaded up my T5 program and stared at it for about 10 minutes before launching Champions Online one fine day.
I have to face the reality that my gaming group has disintigrated. My wild campaign changes are likely to blame. Learning new rules and adjusting to a new setting is difficult. I've asked a lot of my players and I think it was just too much. One of my (maybe) former players said to me over the holidays, "I really miss D&D. When are we going to play D&D again?" I responded that I would love to play D&D and was looking forward to seeing her run a game, thank-you-so-much-for-volunteering. That went over like a lead balloon.
I know what she wants. I was being obnoxiously obtuse, and for that I apologize to her. The bottom line is that I, as a game master/referee/dungeon master have no love for either Dungeons or Dragons anymore. None of the editions appeals to me. They're all fraught with problems. AD&D is, frankly, an unbalaced mess. Witness the rules gymnastics, rewrites and additions that my colleague Alexis has gone through to improve his game and overcome the problems in the AD&D rules in this fine blog he writes. The idea of going back to that system appeals to me for its nostalgia, but that's about it. I think that the morass of text that consititues 2nd Edition D&D needs no further criticism from me. 3.x edition is interesting, and I certainly have a lot of material for it, but once 7th level is attained, the game becomes almost unplayable. 4th edition hasn't even been a consideration for me. I consider it a brutal watering-down of the D&D meta-concept into a video game that is played on paper. The designers, in their haste to bring about something "hip" and "cool" for the "kids" released game that that is devoid of any D&D-ness that I would recognize aside from some spell names and the concept of a character class and levels.
T5 fits my ideal of a game that is well-designed and playable. So why isn't it working? Where are my players? Why aren't they clamoring to come over and explore the great undiscovered galaxay? I can blame myself only. I ran a few dud sessions that were poorly constructed with a heavy emphasis on rules discovery. In short, they were boring. I know this. Being boring is the unforgivable sin of role-playing game mastering. I just thought we could get past those awkward sessions, but it seems that it was too much. I have had a multi-session game fully-prepared and sitting on my desk for over two months now. I have a well-detailed hunk of galaxy waiting to be explored. I used to wonder if I'd ever run it for anyone. I'm not wondering so much anymore.
With my group as scattered as they are, players living 50 miles or more to the north and south of me, a player re-locating over 300 miles away to Portland, Oregon and my wife no longer interested in table top RPGs (or at least ones that I'm running), I've run out of players. And I'm not keen on the idea of finding new ones. What I'd like to do is find a regular group where I could play. Maybe re-charge my batteries and offer to run a session or two when that DM decides he or she needs a break. At this point this is all just noise in the wind. Work is extremely demanding at the moment and shows no signs of letting up until much later this year. The stress of the job is sapping my desire to do the legwork necessary to find a suitable group. It's a downward spiral.
Happy New Year everyone!
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