Saturday, December 31, 2011

It's New Year's, I Kick-Off a Campaign Arc in Two Weeks and Once Again, Gamer ADD Assails!

While pressing concerns continue to push-back plans for a Home Campaign, my Birmingham Meet-up Group twice-monthly game, resumes in two weeks.

I promised the guys that later in the year I'd run Dark Heresy. But, for now, I have a four session stint of D&Dish gaming on the calendar. I'm not planning to pick-up from where I left things. I expect several new player's anyway. Though, anyone from last autumn's games can bring in their character, if desired. 

The Meet-up Group is a groovy little set-up. Around 20 or so gamers show up, two Friday nights a month. Two games are featured, each session. Chaosium's system is usually being run in the living room, though Pathfinder, 4e and WoD have made appearances. I run in the dining room, usually Old School D&D. 

It's an Open Table kinda thing, which has its advantages and disadvantages. Combined with the cyclical schedules (they like to switch up games a lot) it's hard to really focus on a long-running Campaign.

During the Autumn, I ran my Old School Homebrew, but I've put that on the shelf for re-tooling and I want to do something a little more traditional this time. 3 pages or less of houserules. ;)

So. I'm leaning towards OSRIC, but GAMER ADD rears its ugly head and I'm all like:
  • "Maybe I should take Castles & Crusades for a spin..."
  • "I got a print copy of Barbarians of Lemuria for Christmas! Something utterly new would be a nice change of pace."
  • "Fuck all of that! I'll run AD&D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
  • "Swords & Wizardry Whitebox may be the most Sublime version of the game ever published!"
  • "I wonder if the Grindhouse art would freak anyone out?"
  • "The more I think of it, the more I really like Labyrinth Lord."
  • "You know, I've never ran a straight LBB campaign."
  • "OpenQuest. Everyone at the meet-up likes d100..."
Heaven help me, if Delving Deeper ships in January.

The fact that it's a four session stint, at least initially, makes things worse. No long-term commitment. Come spring, I'll be doing a Dark Heresy run and after that, who knows? I'd like to come back to whatever I start in January and if everyone's cool with that I will. Unless, you know...
Well, I'm going to decide tonight! Somewhere around the time I'm watching the new Conan flick, and snacking on the enormous batch of Chex Mix my wife made. 

As someone who enjoyed Arnie's Conan and Mr. Sorbo's Kull (yes, goddammit, Kull was a fun movie!) while still being painfully aware how far from R.E.H. those movies are, I expect the new Conan to be at least watchable.

Speaking of which, I got Del Rey's The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane for Christmas, as well. Some inspirational reading, may be in order. 

Happy Holidays!