Happy Anniversary to Me

 Nothing gaming related going on right now. This weekend was my 11th anniversary, so I spent a lot of time and energy with my wife.

I've been using the rest of the time with the writing group working out some game projects. The first half went into my second Tabloid World adventure, mostly research. For the adventure location, I rolled Milwaukee, which is intended to be the most Mundane place in the world. But as I'm doing my research, it turns out to be really interesting.

Then I turned to my OSR sandbox/hexcrawl game. Building your own maps in Roll20 is a pain, and I've got a lot of maps yet to go. So it's not going quickly. I tell myself that once I finish this particular dungeon map, I'll be ready to recruit players. I don't know if that's going to happen anytime soon.

As annoying as it is, I think I want to keep that game online. The premise of the game is world-building through play, so the ability to easily record the sessions has a value. The players aren't just having adventures, bur writing history as they play. Recordings of the sessions would be historical records.

But I also want to have something to play "right now," more or less. That's what Tabloid World is for. Something a little more structured/scripted than a pick-up game like Fiasco, but not as much work as the Beast.

Good News, For Once

Taking advantage of the writing group to post here again. Hopefully this becomes a thing.

I got to interact with real people over the weekend. There's a Meetup group for local gamers to meet and schedule games that I've been a member of for a while now. We're slowly getting back into in-person events, including the monthly (or so) all-group meeting.

This time, it was a swap meet. Everyone brought all the stuff they were trying to get rid of. I brought my extra inventory of Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road and my enormous Box O' Dice (I don't know if I've told the story here, but maybe I will some time). I only lightened my load by a few copies, though one person was nice enough to ask me to autograph their copy.

It felt good to interact with people after feeling isolated so long. And I picked up a few things I didn't have before. The majority of my gaming books are still in storage after nearly 5 years, so the opportunity to pick up some new stuff, even it if it was from someone cleaning out their closet, felt good too.

One of the regular features of these group meetings is that we'll typically play a game after the meeting's business is concluded. I'll typically bring Fiasco, since it's great for one-shot play and doesn't require any preparation, or play something that someone else brought to run.

This time, I presented an adventure in d20 Modern, which I had been working on for a while. I had written it during this writing group to keep my brain working and fighting the isolation doldrums. Inspired by the random scenario generator in Pandemonium: Adventures in Tabloid World and using the D20 Modern ruleset. The hook is that crop circles have appeared in a ritzy Florida golf course. I won't spoil it any more in case I run it again. It was fun.

But after so long running no-prep one-shots like Fiasco, or sandbox-style games like The Castle of The Mad Archmage, writing and running a scripted, play-through-the-story adventure was quite a change. My players had fun and laughed at the twist in the plot, so I'm prepared to call it a success.

In fact, I used the rest of my writing time to try to come up with a follow-up scenario. We'll see if it's ready by the next gaming group meeting. Or maybe I'll feel prepared enough to call it a campaign.

Another Week

 Stealing a little more time from the writing group to post here. Not that I'm really stealing. It's not like they give me an assignment. They just peer pressure me into taking space and time to write whatever I need to. So I guess this counts.

I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but I found out that working from home can lead to feelings of isolation. Especially if you don't really do anything outside of work. So my goal now is to try to find something to do with other people outside of work time. Gaming seems like the perfect idea.

There is the game store downtown that's only 1 bus away from where I'm at now, instead of 3 buses like the place that the gaming Meetup group seems to prefer. But especially since they're a new store, I want to make sure that they have the chance to make money, so I would like to run something that they have in stock.Which is another reason to learn a new game rather than lean on my old ones.

I've actually got a D20 Modern oneshot adventure written and ready to go (Thank you, writing group!). But that game is over 15 years old and there have been 2.5 editions of D&D that have come out since then. So despite my strange affection for it, that's going to wait for another opportunity.

One of the other things that holds me back is my feeling that I need to put a lot of work into a campaign before I unveil it. Not necessarily having the whole thing scripted or whatever, but at least to a point where I'm not caught too unawares by whatever the players come up with. So even though I have one adventure written for d20 Modern which could certainly be the start of a campaign, I feel like I should have at least one more adventure in the can before I start advertising it as a campaign.

My candidates (outside of Adventures in Oz, of course) are some flavor of Fate and Fallout.

I've got the It's Not My Fault cards, which are basically a Fate Accelerated Session 0 in a box, which is a super neat idea on top of the super neat idea that is Fate Accelerated, a tidy little ruleset in a neat little book for only $5. But my need to be prepared makes it hard for me to dive into that with both feet. Ideas are pending.

I do have a copy of the Fallout RPG by Modiphius. It uses a version of the 2d20 System that is their house system. Also used in their Star Trek RPG, which I do have in a box somewhere. So if I'm going to use the Modiphius rules, Fallout is my candidate.

The fact that it's coming up on 5 years since I put most of my collection in boxes is disheartening. It means that a lot of stuff that was at my fingertips for a good long time has been unreachable for long enough that part of me has written it off.

Am I back?

 I don't know if anyone still reads this. It doesn't matter. I'm posting anyway.

It feels like ever since I moved to San Diego 3 years ago, I've never really been steady or stable.

The first year was okay. I had an okay job in a field I didn't care for. I was starting to make friends and make connections.

Then the pandemic hit.I got laid off from the job. Everyone was encouraged to isolate and keep in their own little bubble. Do everything over the internet. Even socialize.

Like a lot of nerds, I'm actually pretty introverted. I'm okay with this. But by adding layers, complications and hassles to socializing by having everything online, I wound up isolating myself to the point that even I'm realizing it.

I tried running a D&D campaign during the first lockdown, but preparing the maps and everything on the virtual tabletop was a lot of work and I didn't have the fun I expected during the sessions. I still have the stuff there and I keep thinking that I'll come back to it. We'll see.

The coffee shop where I met the writing group and did some gaming closed down a few months ago. There doesn't seem to be a good substitute. There isn't a nearby place to gather a group and pay your admission with a cup of coffee or a bagel in the evening.

The writing group moved online, but with my reticence to call my online activities "socializing," I only recently rejoined the group. I'm carving out some of that writing time to write this. I need to do something. I need to get back out into the world.

A new game store opened up in reasonable range from me a few months ago. It seems really nice. I should try to run a game there. I just need to figure out what and find the energy and focus to put it together. And of course, out of deference to the new game store, it should be something that they carry. Which means that I can't lean on my old games, no matter how much I may love them.

Maybe I'll run Adventures in Oz and give them a few copies on a consignment basis. We'll see.