Event Planning
This week was the start of GenCon registration. After going to either Origins or GenCon for so many years, it's weird to be completely out of the picture for both.
There's a part of me that would love to go; there's a part of me that remembers having one of those cinematic scenes last year when I was dropped off at the airport by my wife and daughter where I was forcing myself to look forward and keep walking so I wouldn't be waving and crying. There's also a part of me that thinks I retold one good story from last year way too many times ... and I don't know whether that means I should quit now or should definitely go so I can find a better note. There's someone else I know who also lived off of one story from knowing me, retold for years, and I don't want to become that guy. On several levels.
I've got plenty of stories of my own gaming. The RPG event from last year that screams dick move. The most legendary story of my GM tenure was a failure so epic I've hung up the books since then. I'm known for taking too long on my turns and talking through all kinds of strategy to excess. Hell, one night I considered sticking around a get-together to play games with people, a new guy showed up and slagged one of my favorites so hard I opted out.
I don't exactly get many good gaming opportunities as it is. Being a parent of 2 compresses the schedule. Working in DC takes a lot out of me, too. A reputation that borders on bad gamer, however you define it, certainly isn't going to help anything.
There have been some good moments. I would never have expected that playing Ticket to Ride: Europe on a Saturday evening was how I would spend the night just before my daughter was born. It's less surprising that I played Memoir '44 against two of my DC bowling buddies late in the year and proceeded to get steamrolled but still had some fun doing it.
I should probably get back in the habit of having a deck of cards and a cribbage board handy. Cribbage bakes a lot of strategy into quick hands and it's easier to get a pickup game going, even if you're not destined to play for long. I've found myself with a bad case of the fidgets too often lately.
To heck with my own drama. I'm just jones-ing for a decent game. Xbox 360 only gets me so far, and even then I haven't been able to compare notes with people about good games like Dragon Age: Origins. Maybe some weekend like late February could get some people to play something. Have to plan ahead nowadays. To bring it full circle, that's what a games convention is on a larger scale. Lots of people in one place to play all kinds of games, planned well in advance. Now if only there wasn't so much travel involved ... heh.
- Pookah
There's a part of me that would love to go; there's a part of me that remembers having one of those cinematic scenes last year when I was dropped off at the airport by my wife and daughter where I was forcing myself to look forward and keep walking so I wouldn't be waving and crying. There's also a part of me that thinks I retold one good story from last year way too many times ... and I don't know whether that means I should quit now or should definitely go so I can find a better note. There's someone else I know who also lived off of one story from knowing me, retold for years, and I don't want to become that guy. On several levels.
I've got plenty of stories of my own gaming. The RPG event from last year that screams dick move. The most legendary story of my GM tenure was a failure so epic I've hung up the books since then. I'm known for taking too long on my turns and talking through all kinds of strategy to excess. Hell, one night I considered sticking around a get-together to play games with people, a new guy showed up and slagged one of my favorites so hard I opted out.
I don't exactly get many good gaming opportunities as it is. Being a parent of 2 compresses the schedule. Working in DC takes a lot out of me, too. A reputation that borders on bad gamer, however you define it, certainly isn't going to help anything.
There have been some good moments. I would never have expected that playing Ticket to Ride: Europe on a Saturday evening was how I would spend the night just before my daughter was born. It's less surprising that I played Memoir '44 against two of my DC bowling buddies late in the year and proceeded to get steamrolled but still had some fun doing it.
I should probably get back in the habit of having a deck of cards and a cribbage board handy. Cribbage bakes a lot of strategy into quick hands and it's easier to get a pickup game going, even if you're not destined to play for long. I've found myself with a bad case of the fidgets too often lately.
To heck with my own drama. I'm just jones-ing for a decent game. Xbox 360 only gets me so far, and even then I haven't been able to compare notes with people about good games like Dragon Age: Origins. Maybe some weekend like late February could get some people to play something. Have to plan ahead nowadays. To bring it full circle, that's what a games convention is on a larger scale. Lots of people in one place to play all kinds of games, planned well in advance. Now if only there wasn't so much travel involved ... heh.
- Pookah