Monday 28 June 2010

My So-Called [Gaming] Life

Here's what's going on right now in Noisms Wonderful World of Role Playing (tm). I am:

  • Playing in a monthly Call of Cthulu game set in 1920s San Francisco.
  • Playing in a monthly d20 Modern game loosely based on Joe Dever's post-apocalyptic gamebooks.
  • About to start a monthly Blood & Honor game.
  • Planning a Japanese-soldiers-in-China hack of the Cyberpunk 2020 rules.
  • Running a WFRP game by email.

You'll probably have noticed something: none of this is D&D. This isn't a coincidence. I've recently become so sick of D&D I could puke blood. This is maybe an odd confession, because well over 90% of the entries on this blog have been related to D&D either directly or indirectly. But what can I say? I went through a cycle of massive enthusiasm for Old Beulah this past two years or so, and now I've come out the other side and just want to think about something else. We all go through these stages.

It'll be back, of course. That's the thing about cycles. I predict that in a year or so I'll be chomping at the bit to try to hit Armour Class 0 and save-vs-death magic. But for now, I think D&D and I need a break. Much like Ross and Rachel, except D&D knows that my flirtations with other games will never amount to anything much. That's the beauty of game systems, really - your marriage to one is always open.

7 comments:

  1. Ei. I've been burying myself in Shadowrun and Anima L5R and the never-ending quest to wring something sensical out of Exalted; I understand how it goes ;3

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  2. I know how that goes. While I have been flirting with the idea of 4e, I started playing WoD to get away from it. If there was one more dungeon full of orcs and goblins, well, I was going to kill. In real life.

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  3. What's D&D? ;)

    Seriously though, over the last 15-20 years D&D has become a game I only play when a) I have too or b) its modified so much that its hardly D&D.

    First, not a fan of that type of Fantasy. Second, a much bigger fan of Sci-Fi and Superheroes than any kind of Fantasy. Third and lastly, I find trying out new games to be fun in and of itself.

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  4. Haven't become bored of DMing or playing D&D in over 30 years. What can I say, it must be love.

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  5. I completely understand the cyclical nature of one's gaming preferences.

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  6. I have been playing DnD for the past 11 years. So I understand your pain. But when you move around alot, You take what you can get. Right NOW I have a DnD 3.5, Sadowrun, and oddly enough, a Dr. Who game (I am a Who Nerd, Sorry)... So all in all, Play tell your drop, But never let that go! Keeps your Sanity!

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  7. Totally understand. I oscillate between jonesing for an old fashioned D&D game (Ravenloft! Planescape! Dark Sun!) or wanting the deep and introspective angst of a Vampire the Masquerade game. Inevitably I become sick of one of them and desire to play the other, and so I shuttle back and forth, ping ponging eternally between the two styles.

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