Time to stop kidding myself
OK, I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm currently without a gaming group. I've often attributed this to a lack of gamers, but I'm realizing there is a pool of gamers out here. The real problem is lack of a hugely precious resource on my part - TIME. I've never hidden the fact that I'm a gamer and lately, I've even advertised it to several suitably geeky soldiers and civilians on post. Most of them (actually I think all of them) seem to really dig the idea of playing an old school D&D game. I think that's awesome.
However, as with so many things, I just don't know how to squeeze in the time to my schedule. Being a full time IT professional and devoted father and husband (not to mention aspiring artist!) leaves me with very little time. But, I feel that I have a great opportunity here to bring old school gaming to the masses (military types have always been a fertile ground for gamers) and should not squander it. So, I have this question: how the #$3@ do you guys find the time to do it ;)? I feel that I should at least strike while the iron is hot and get a bi-weekly game going. Hm, I'll just have to think on how to get this going (heh, of all the problems to have right?).
However, as with so many things, I just don't know how to squeeze in the time to my schedule. Being a full time IT professional and devoted father and husband (not to mention aspiring artist!) leaves me with very little time. But, I feel that I have a great opportunity here to bring old school gaming to the masses (military types have always been a fertile ground for gamers) and should not squander it. So, I have this question: how the #$3@ do you guys find the time to do it ;)? I feel that I should at least strike while the iron is hot and get a bi-weekly game going. Hm, I'll just have to think on how to get this going (heh, of all the problems to have right?).
Time is the real killer. IN theory my campaign runs fortnightly on Sundays, but it is a rare month when we busy adults can make it work (it's more like one session every 3-4 weeks).
ReplyDeleteMy only real advice is try to make it stick as much as you can. Let it slide too long and the date drops off everyone's priority list, if you keep at least a semi-regular schedule than it becomes easier to schedule over time--people learn (ahem spouses in particular) to work around "daddy's special weekend time".
Yes, just do what you can, but do it regularly. Concrete start and stop times for each session are crucial. My group meets every two weeks for four hours each session. You could even do once a month for as little as 3 hours per session. But find the time, then regularize it so that it becomes habitual to all participants.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck!
I think you need to toss the ridiculous schedule that some game groups cling to - the 8 hour Saturday session. That's just crazy. Short and sweet works for us. It's just like the way I surf: show up, get into it quickly, kill it for a few hours, then bail.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's entirely possible to have weekly 2-3 hour sessions that are productive, yet focused.
In L.A. we have to play on Sundays, mostly due to the fact that traffic makes weekday sessions impossible and Saturdays are always jammed with social commitments. Three hours from noon to three or one to four works okay.
I game much less than I want to, but like you I have a busy life outside of gaming. When things are on track we game about once a month in person with the occasional boardgame or Skype game night adding to that. When we do get to play I don't want a game that takes an hour to run a combat encounter or create a character. I just don't think that's a good use of limited gaming time.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of in the same boat. I'm really busy (and don't have any children) and there are 2 different gaming groups that I play with semi-regularly, but I've been so stressed and slammed that I haven't made a session in a while.
ReplyDeleteI also wish that both groups I played with shared my taste in games --- one currently plays 3,5e (blech) and has dabbled in Savage Worlds and other games (but not old school D&D), the other one plays Pathfinder (which is just like 3.5e but they changed rules AGAIN. Both groups seem to go in for heavy plot, narritive driven type deals where the fate of the world usually hangs in the balance and character death is nearly non-existant.
Maybe I'm just dreaming and maybe its just a 'grass is greener' thing, but I think I could really dig a bi-monthly rules light "sandbox" style game with frequent dungeon crawls and side adventures with character death meaning you start over again at level 1 and adventures take place in a 'persistant' world... sort of like I have heard the old Blackmoor or Greyhawk campaigns described. Have a big pool of players, and, if this player or that can't make it one week, then no biggie, you just run a game with the players you have and the absent PC steps into the background or goes back to guard the mule.
You pick a time, and you don't ever cancel. The players might (I'm assuming you're going to DM), but the DM can never do it - everything falls apart.
ReplyDeleteAfter a while it's just routine and no big deal. We play twice a month, on Wednesday nights.
Another thing I do, is I have my players play no matter how few show up - just means the guys not there miss out. I've got 5 regulars, and not once in the past 6 months have they all shown up at the same time. Usually I get 4 of them though.
Monday night is game night. We start at 6:30pm end at 9:30pm maybe 10. Sometimes we need to skip a week, but its all good. But I make it a point to keep Monday Night as game night. Like a bowling league or golf league or a spatula dueling club.
ReplyDeleteI'll just add to Carter's comment since I'm a player in his campaign that we run a game by Skype video calls where he's DMing from New York, another player is in Wisconsin, and the rest of us are at my pace in Oregon. So if we can keep up a regular game across multiple time zones, you can probably make it happen in one place. Having said that we did all start the campaign in the same town, originally.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input gang! I just gotta make some time and do it and stop making excuses. Daisey is not a gamer, but she knows it is something important to me so she's suggested I do it as well. I think I'll start off with a module and see where it goes. I'm not decided on OSRIC, S&W Complete or LL & AEC (which is actually closer to the way I actually played back in the day). I don't think it ultimately matters. I just need to get my game on!
ReplyDeleteThe important thing is to just do it. If you over think the schedule and time you will never get around to actually gaming. Go ahead and find players, set a time and the day of the week you want to play, do everything you can to make the designated game schedule work and you will be surprised how often it actually does.
ReplyDeleteI know it must be hard with kids and commitments. But some good advice above. I'll second:
ReplyDeleteSet a regular day of the week, play for 3 strong hours, DM never cancels, play happens with whoever shows up.
Don't worry so much about the logic of the narrative; I've got people popping in and out of dungeon parties that are trapped in a dungeon just because they came or didn't for sessions -- didn't hurt anything.
I like it just for the social aspect. If you can find some people you and your wife both enjoy, add some food and wine = nice times.
As has been said above, there is no magic trick. You just do it. You do have the time, you're just not seeing it yet. If you were truly critical of your time, you'd quickly see that there are loads of times you're not using. Saturday from 11am till 3pm? There's four hours right there. Sunday 4pm till 9pm, five hours to get your game on! Yes, you have other hobbies, a family, a job, blah, blah, blah, but did you watch 4 hours of mindless TV last Wednesday? Blam!! Four hours of gaming instead! :-)
ReplyDeleteTo me, you are not an aspiring artist, you ARE an artist.
ReplyDeleteThe once a week thing works well for Tim and the guys. Once in awhile one guy will miss a Monday, but overall, having that Monday game night works for them.
Hope you get to gaming :-)
My goal was for a 4 hour session every other week. Alas, these past few months have seen that completely fall apart due to the wife's schedule and me having to pick up the childcare slack. But I'm bound and determined to get back into the swing of it.
ReplyDeleteOh, I wish I could do 3 hour week-night sessions every week. I think I could actually pull that off it weren't for the horrible traffic in the DC area.
The Happy Whisk is right--You ARE an artist. A darned good one, too.
ReplyDeleteAs to the gaming-thing, consider developing a set of smaller mini-scenarios that you can run as quick-and-easy pick-up games, then after running those for a while, based on your schedule, see how that works. Make it easy-access, no hassles for you or your players, and enjoy the game.
Two-Three hours at a session works fine, if you cater to the episodic, cliff-hanger style. Going past that gets into diminishing returns, unless you're doing it for a special cause, reason, etc. like a charity event or having recently lost your mind...