Feet in the pool

These days, despite my desires, my involvement in tabletop RPG’s is akin to saying I’m going swimming, then sitting on the edge of the pool and putting my feet in the water. Currently I have a single game of D&D every other weekend (which sometimes gets preempted). Add to that the fact that the game has been the same campaign for a couple of years in real time now.

We had an old-school AD&D game going for a bit, but it kind of fizzled out. It might come back, now that fall is here. But it might not. I’d be happy if it did, but I’m not holding my breath.

Basically, being a 40-something gamer with a family and a job makes gaming much more difficult than it used to be. We have to be choosy about when we can play, and as you can imagine, that limits the possibilities. Normally, it’s not a bog deal. But every once in a while, I get a jones that I just can’t fill, and it frustrates me a little.

I should point out that I hold no one responsible for this. Among my local friends, I’m probably one of the most fanatical about RPG-ing. If I had my way, I would be involved in at least two games every week. But, I’m not in my 20’s anymore, so there are a lot of factors beyond my (or anyone else’s) control that prevent that.

Still, I can dream.

As I said, my current game is D&D, and even the occasional game is AD&D. So, I often find myself longing for something else. Something with guns. Or spaceships. Or psychic powers. Or all of the above. In my group in San Diego, we changed games often. We would run a campaign in one game that would last a few months, and then we would switch to another game, sometimes under a different GM. Even ran a few myself.

My wife has expressed interest in running various games, and I even bought her a copy of Shadowrun so she could run it. But, again, things keep getting in the way, and between kids, work and school, neither of use really has time to prepare and run it. And then, of course, is the problem if finding players who are available on our schedule. Let alone players willing to play Shadowrun.

So, I get my gaming fix where I can. I read gaming-fiction, I follow gaming-related blogs, and I have even contributed to a couple of Kickstarters. It works, and I should really just accept my gamer lot in life, I suppose. It could be worse. I could have no game.

Oh, wait. That’s something completely different…