The Simple Life
Recently, I've been trying to make gaming fit in better with the rest of my life.
There are quite a few parts of gaming that leave me feeling unfulfilled. I spend too much time thinking about the stories and characters in my games, prepping for sessions, re-reading rules to understand the implications. Gaming tends to creep up and take over my mental life. And that's not even taking into consideration the amount of time I've spent reading forum conversations on places like rpg.net.
So, the goal is to make sure the gaming I do is fulfilling. For that, I need it to be creative, and to share the experience with other people. And the keys to that seem to be 'redefinition' and 'simplicity'. First, I've redefined gaming as something that I do, rather than something I am. I'm just a guy who likes playing games, not a gamer. And already I'm feeling good about that decision, like my life's more balanced. Second, I'm making the experience as simple as possible - in terms of what I read and what I need to do in order to play.
My first thought is that I like the group creativity that gaming promotes. I like being surprised by everyone's contributions. And there are some games (like Capes, Universalis, and The Lucky Joneses) where all the players have an equal ability to create, contribute to, and affect the story. I find those types of games incredibly appealing. That sense of engagement cross-pollinates with my scriptwriting.
In games with a stronger GM role, I'd like more of a balance between GMing and playing. In the last couple of years, I've found the more I GM, the more I feel I'm losing the skills of being a player. Leading on from that, if I'm GMing then I like games with low or no prep. Reducing or eliminating the need for prep, and (instead) creating the story entirely at the table - is probably THE most effective way of preventing gaming from dominating my mental life.
My big second realisation is that I prefer a small number of rules.* Games that are between 3 and 20 pages long work great for me, with an upper limit of around 50 pages.** I guess I'm talking about games that are rules-short, as opposed to rules-light.
The main reason for this is that I compulsively re-read games - to understand them, to make sure I run them well, and because if I'm running a game then that's what my brain demands that I absorb. But I find the pleasure I get from re-reading and studying games doesn't balance out with the fun of running or playing the game.
So, short rules. They won't take up as much of my time when I'm re-reading them, and hopefully it won't take as long to figure out how run the game well.
In terms of setting, I love seeing the everyday world in a different light. Some examples include our Primetime Adventures game “Phoenix”, Nobilis, InSpectres, and Bliss Stage. That leads to tone - the two big things I respond to are comedy and sincere emotions. And they aren't exclusive. For example, I've really enjoyed Best Friends (and even The Mountain Witch), which melds the two.
Socially, I'd like to play with friends who are all as focused on playing as I am. Really, I like the “band” analogy - play with friends whose creativity you respect, and then we all play to the best of our ability.
So, what am I doing about all this? To start with, I've emailed a whole bunch of people I'm interested in playing with and set up a mailing list for the people who replied. We're going to play a whole bunch of one-off games - experiment with different systems, play games I love that I haven't had enough of a chance with yet, and have fun. I'm also considering using Skype, and arranging games with people who are overseas.
As I mentioned above, I'll focus on playing games that promote creation of story right there, at the table. If I can't prep, then I won't prep. I'm also considering collect together my Actual Play reports over the last 3 or 4 years, to see if I can extract any other patterns from them about what I did and didn't like.
Finally, I'm going to try and focus my internet time - for the next couple of months I'll spend it here, contributing to First Thoughts at the Forge, writing the occasional Actual Play, and identifying the new hotness. I want to try and limit my purchases to games that fit most or all of my criteria.
Weird. Having written all this out, I feel like I've taken it all pretty seriously - this attempt to try and maximise my fun, and minimise the time I put in. I also feel like the key was to say gaming is just another part of my life, and not a dominant one. Which leads me to some questions:
How big a part of your identity is gaming? Do you consider yourself to be a gamer? Someone who plays games? Something else?
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* By 'rules', I mean the mechanics I need to understand in order to run the game.
** I realised this upper limit exists after reading Bliss Stage.