The problems are twofold: one is my desire to run a game with people I know and like and the limited schedules I and my friends face as thirty- and forty-somethings with, you know, lives. I work full time and am a doctoral student, my best friend is a nurse who also still does some work as a massage therapist and is focused on completing his first novel. I have other friends whose life is complicated by living some 30 minutes or more drive away. This all means that weekdays are hard to schedule, and weekends are very precious.
I could run things as PBEM or PBP, but I need to learn more about the formats, and I actually like running a face-to-face game. So if I want this to happen, I suppose I need to make the time on my schedule, and face the possibility that I might need to recruit players into my game including people I just don't know -- something I haven't done in ages. Most of the time, players started with friends, who helped me recruit friends of friends, making the job easier.
In short, I have gotten lazy. And, frankly, spoiled. I'm not enamored of going through screening people and since I game these days in my own home, I'm not enamored of bringing in total strangers. I realize that I am much more averse to risk than I was as a teenager or twenty-something year old. After all, gaming for strangers at a con or a game store is a different sort of thing than having a stranger drop by your house, especially given the fact that many of the gamers I have known (and even played with) over the years have been people I gladly saw once a week or month at a neutral place, but might not have invited over to my house.
Well, at some point I need to suck it up.
I can put that off for at least another day, though. I'm back to work after a three week vacation (and by vacation, I mean three weeks off work doing academic research), and I think that will keep me busy for at least a week catching up on things....
Gaming in your 30's on up, is not as easy as it was in your 20's. You need to change your style from quantity to quality. My group, is made up of 5 professionals, many of us married, and some with kids.
ReplyDeleteIt took us a few months to find the best night for gaming, for our group, but now that we have it, for the past few years, we have been able to play weekly. None of us have time to run anything weekly, so we play 3 campaigns (different GM's) on a tri-weekly rotation.
My point is, that if playing is still a priority for your group, you can find time to play. What you may not find is an abundance of time to play. It may be bi-weekly, tri-weekly, or even monthly, but you will find the time, if it is a priority.
A little work, and some smart scheduling, and you should be able to find face-to-face time with your group.
The consider doing some online activities, when you are not meeting face-to-face to keep the interest high between sessions.
Good luck.
I have had recent success using skype and gametable.
ReplyDeleteWe've got a whole blog dedicated to this topic at thediceoflife.com.
ReplyDeleteYou should try MapTool (rptools.net) it is a virtual tabletop that allows you to connect with your friends via the internet and conduct games. I use it with Ventrilo (or Skype) for speaking and it works great. Has allowed me to continue gaming with friends in Canada and the US even though I am deployed to Iraq at the moment.
ReplyDelete