Monday, December 26, 2011

2011 Resolutions in Review

The Bottom of the Glass tradition returns, as the end-of-year triumvirate of posts look back, and forward, on the gaming year.

#1: Game More (SUCCESS)
An absolute success. My main gaming group have played through the end of our D&D campaign this year, and then Gamma World, the Dresden Files RPG and a little Burning Wheel too. Dave has successfully started a second gaming night, with some new blood, playing D&D which has been very tasty so far. And, as if that isn't enough, I have been playing with the girls - mainly the Dr Who RPG. From precious little to a smorgasbord of gaming. Superb.

#2 Fold or Twist with Omnihedron (QUALIFIED SUCCESS) and #3 D&H V2.0 (FAILURE)
This is a difficult one. Lots of things changed this year in my work life and that meant that I had to make some very difficult decisions with respect to Omnihedron. It became a matter of priorities and resource management - the main resources being time, energy and concentration! The upshot has been the mothballing of Omnihedron for the time being. Its not dead - just resting, and I have some things planned for next year when I get my head into gear. The decision - well, I like to think of it as a decision because that implies I had an active part in it - was a hard one, but in the end it was a right one. The upshot was that I had to cancel all my rumoured and planned projects which included the revised edition of D&H. That was poor form on my part and it is definitely something that will never happen again.

#4: Run Another Game (SUCCESS)
An easy one, this. I've been running a Dresden Files game which has been OK. I have some serious and growing issues with the system and the way that it handles wizards, but the story has been fine and the attitude I have tried to adopt - more an ongoing game rather than a fixed campaign of unrelenting awesome, has been interesting. I'm not sure it 'worked' but it was nice to try it. The games with the girls have been highly entertaining and some of that entertainment has had me wondering about the effects of cultural metagaming on other game play. More on that later though..

#5: Time Management (SUCCESS)
... but a Pyrrhic success if ever there was one. I have gone through a period of extreme 'faff-pruning'. A huge number of Facebook time-sink games have gone the way, as has any real attempt to do any hardcore MMO gaming, retreating back to just F2P DCUO. Work has become a far more regimented system, with marking and planning done with military precision - especially hard as my new position results in some very random callings upon my time. This has kept me open when it comes to gaming and allowed me to maintain things. However, a lot of this extra time has been surrendered to just vegetating in a knackered stupor. I don't think this is a gaming thing - I think it has more to do with health. However, I have managed to make room for gaming, so its a win!

#Unofficial 6: Continue Avoiding Toxicity
This isn't even a question nowadays. I just walk away. Self-editing and knowing when to turn the computer off are amazing skills.

So, three and a half out of five this year - mostly due to external factors. Not too bad really. The year has been far better in terms of gaming than this post seems. Which naturally leads to the next post - Best Games!

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