Ty’s Gaming Resolutions for the 2016 New Year
In a matter of days it’s going to be a new year, and like the beginning of every new year, many of us make resolutions. Some of us will try to lose weight or quit smoking. Others will try to be nicer to people or maybe promise to put money into savings. Me? This year I’m going to try to be a better tabletop role-player. How do I hope to accomplish this? By following my resolutions below.
Expanding my horizons in the new year, Part I
Are you going to watch the ball drop to kick in the new year?
I have a tendency to find a role-playing game I like, then stick with it and nothing else for months, even years. Right now I’m enjoying Fifth Edition D&D, so I’ve been playing lots of it. See, I’ve been gaming for 35 years, off and on, and I’ve played all kinds of systems, some good, some bad, and I guess now in my forties I’ve grown a bit … maybe “lazy” would be the right word, though I prefer “skeptical.” I’m usually not interested in learning yet another system, especially if it’s one which I know I won’t be playing more than maybe once or twice. I need to break this habit. There are lots of great games out there which I’ve yet to experience, and a few which I’ve only experienced once or twice. So, one of my gaming resolutions is to play more games that are new to me, to enjoy the experience of different game systems. I’m especially interested in trying out some zombie survival games.
Expanding my horizons, Part II
On a similar note, I want to game with more different people. I game almost exclusively online nowadays, and I’ve fallen into playing with mostly a certain dozen individuals. There’s nothing wrong with those folks, great gamers each and every one, but again, I want to push my boundaries, to experience other gamers and dungeon masters, in no small part because I believe such experiences can make me a better game. This doesn’t mean I no longer want to play with old pals. Maybe it simply means I’ll have to game more. Time will tell.
Trying new character types
Sometimes we as players stick with particular races or classes or character types, especially when it comes to D&D. We all have our favorites. For me, I usually like human rogues with a touch of fighting ability, though I’m not unwilling to toss in a little magic. This is something I’ve been trying to change during the past year, and I hope to keep doing this in 2016. Why? Again, trying new things can make me a better game, and a better dungeon master. The more I experience different types of characters, the stronger my own role playing will become.
Dungeon Mastering
Resolving to be a D&D dungeon master? Oh, ye gads, the horror!
To be blunt about it, there simply aren’t enough folks filling the roles of dungeon masters and game masters in the online tabletop world. Lots of people want to play, but precious few seem to want to run a game. I admit I’m as guilty as the next person. I GMed a couple of campaigns last year, but eventually I suffered from some burn out, plus life stepped in to change my schedule. So, for the last few months I’ve only been active as a player, mostly in D&D games. It’s time to turn this around and give back to the gaming community by playing as a game master, at least from time to time. This is a tough resolution for me as I tend to not enjoy being the GM for one-shot games but prefer long campaigns, yet it seems nearly impossible to keep an online campaign going for more than a handful of adventures. Still, I need to make the effort. Maybe I can figure out a way to keep a campaign going.
Resolution: Not being ‘that’ player
I think, or at least hope, I do a pretty good job at not being ‘that’ player, but it’s always a good resolution to make. And who is ‘that’ player? If you have to ask, you probably are ‘that’ player, at least part of the time. Part of the difficulty here is that ‘that’ player can come in different forms, but they almost always achieve the same goal, decreasing the fun for everyone else, sometimes even outright ruining a session or campaign for everyone else. I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want my characters to totally dominate a session, nor do I want to argue with the game master about some rule. I want to go with the flow, as long as the game remains fair, and keep the action rolling, not bringing everything to a halt while looking up minutiae in the back of a bad index which will lead me to five different places in a rule book, none of which will actually be the little rule we’re trying to figure out. All that takes five minutes, but that’s five minutes of time that could have been spent slaying monsters or actually role playing. Almost never are such situations a matter of life and death, and most game masters I’ve experienced lean heavily towards saving a character than killing them off because of a technicality. I can give the GM the benefit of the doubt. True, sometimes the dice aren’t with me and my favorite character ends up dead, but hardly ever will such happen because everyone at my table didn’t spend a half hour poring through tomes to find out whether or not my fancy maneuver earned me a +1 or a +2. I don’t need to be ‘that’ player, and this will better the game for everyone.
Getting out of the house
I said I was going to get out of the house in the new year, but I didn’t say HOW I was going to get out of the house.
As I mentioned, almost all my tabletop gaming is done over the computer. No small part of this is because I live in the middle of nowhere, a region that doesn’t exactly foster many role players, though there are a few Magic the Gathering folks. I need to just suck it up and make the hour drive to civilization where I can hopefully find some like-minded people who are willing to throw some dice and kill bad guys. Even once a month would be an improvement. Gaming at a live, actual table would definitely sharpen my old gaming skills.
Okay, there’s enough gaming resolutions for 2016. I’m also hoping to shed a few pounds and get more writing done in the coming years, but that’s not necessarily gaming related, though some of it could be. Time will tell. Until then, remember to Stay Nerdy!
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Da Bill
December 31, 2015 at 8:12 amGreat article. I'm already planning on attending a few lives session when I return to the States. Hopefy one of them will be with the Nerdarchy crew. It'd be cool to play a live session with you, too man.