There's more to Oz than the Yellow Brick Road

I know I have the tendency to open a blog post with how long it's been. At least partly because that has been increasingly true. But this time, it's more true than most. I'm actually writing this from a completely different house in a completely different city. It's been such a big transition that the last blog post here feels even more distant than they usually do.

I usually try to keep this as a gaming blog, but that's ultimately one of the reasons for my big blogging slowdown. Because of the move, I've been gaming both more and less. I've been more willing to join games because I want to make sure that I was getting in quality time with my friends while I still could. But at the same time, I haven't been as willing to run a game. The longer the campaign goes, the more invested players become and the more disappointed they get when the whole thing eventually breaks down.

Running one-shots here and there is fun, and I've tried out a couple of games that work really well for one-shots, but the thing that I love most about GMing is the planning and the logistics, which applies both for the organization of the group at the table, but also working out the adventure scenario that I present to them.

One-shots are too easy in both respects. Rather than working out a day that everyone can show up regularly, you only have to worry about one session at a time. And the scenarios tend to be loose, with lots of input at the table. Fiasco, for example, requires no prep at all. Everything from beginning to end is handled right there at the table within the space of 3-4 hours. The best middle ground I found was probably InSpectres. It works great as a one-shot, but it does have things that can carry over from session to session, so a campaign is possible. While I don't have to come up with a full scenario, since player input is part of the system, I do have to put together something to kick off the session.

It also doesn't help that I'm still meeting people and making friends in a new city. I've been using Meetup.com and gotten a couple of contacts out of it. But until I get a job, I don't want to commit to a regular thing. At the same time, gaming is part of how I network and networking is important for getting a job (That's what they tell me anyway. So much has changed about job hunting since the last time I had to that I have a lot to catch up on).

This also means that my wife and I will not be able to attend DunDraCon this year, breaking a decade and a half-long streak. I'm hoping to be able to put a different convention on my calendar at some other point this year to make up for it. There's an Oz convention that I've been meaning to go to for a while, but never quite managed to get everything together for, as well as a couple of gaming cons that are now closer to me because of my move. We'll see how this goes.