To borrow a phrase from TBP for a moment.

Ok, in another thread I posted:

What RPG would you like to play that isn't feasible right now?

I could run anything (other than work constraints until April which stop me running anything, which is why I just play presently), the group would I think give anything I wanted to try a fair go.

The issue is that I have too many ideas, and it's not feasible to run all of them. In the past fortnight I've wanted to run (in no particular order of preference):

Bronze age historical fantasy
Delta Green
Conspiracy X
Historical naval action
Modern day crime
Flashing Blades
Elizabethan espionage action
Victorian conspiracy
Victorian adventure (as in tracing the source of the Nile, fighting in the great game)

And each one comes into my head with enough detail to be tempting, but not enough to be playable, and is then knocked out by the next. And of course, if I run any of them I'm not using that slot to run my Traveller game.

Gamer ADD dudes, gamer ADD.

So, how do you lot avoid this problem?  Do you avoid it?  Have you any useful tips or techniques that have helped you maintain your focus and channel your creative impulses towards one game for a decent period of time?

Quote from: BalbinusBronze age historical fantasy
Delta Green
Conspiracy X
Historical naval action
Modern day crime
Flashing Blades
Elizabethan espionage action
Victorian conspiracy
Victorian adventure (as in tracing the source of the Nile, fighting in the great game)

Genre mashups.

You can squish a number of those games down into two or three bigger categories, although there will be loose ends.

Mash up the bronze age historical with the flashing blades and maybe the historical naval (historical naval could fit in a number of places I'm sure).

Mash up Delta Green, Modern Crime, and Conspiracy X.

I alternate between four different games a year. I break up the games into seasons, so for instance I run, Aces & Angels two times a month and something else for the other two weeks for three months, then we switch to something else for the next three months at the end of which we go back to Aces and the other game.

So in a way, I suffer from Gamer's ADD as well. We do however finish all the campaigns we begin.

Regards,
David R

We've sort of turned our gamer ADD weakness into a strength, running short arc campaigns (4-6 sessions) in an episodic format. We try to make the ending of each 'episode' satisfying in itself, but leave things open enough to return at some point in the future and explore the characters/situation/setting further.

Works great!

Quote from: BalbinusSo, how do you lot avoid this problem?  Do you avoid it?

Usually, I don't.

I'm still hungering for a long-term superhero campaign. I can't make up my mind about which system to use as well as determining the exact campaign scope and session format.  

Recent discussions at the RPGsite regarding Elizabethan gaming (plus seeing the recent Golden Age movie) have convinced me that I need to do something about this.

I am constantly torn between playing vanilla/dark fantasy or roman/antiquity-inspired fantasy.

I want to play more survival horror. Zombie-style. But I'm not satisfied with what I come up with yet.

I'm also ambivalent whether I want to play hard sci-fi or space opera. I figure the delination should be clear and yet, both possibilities seem to fit in a weird way for my basic idea.

Right now, here's my solution:

Continue to dungeoncrawl, especially as a player.
Concentrate my GM duty on an upcoming Dreamwalker campaign
Prepare a secondary campaign that will mix sci-fi with Elizabethan intrigue.

I would love to run a sci-fi campaign where characters played fighter pilots on a mercenary "pocket" carrier patrolling a particularly rough part of space, but I have a ton of work to do on starship and equipment rules before then.

I would love to run a long-term superhero campaign, but I am reworking the experience rules... into something that is unfortunately heavy in physical components. Lots of cards and chits to be created.

Add to this the fact that my group is currently firmly entrenched in our fantasy campaign and all of this becomes quite theoretical

Quote from: BalbinusSo, how do you lot avoid this problem?  Do you avoid it?  Have you any useful tips or techniques that have helped you maintain your focus and channel your creative impulses towards one game for a decent period of time?

What I do is to plan for most of my campaigns to be short (6-18 sessions) and closed-ended. It's easier to focus on something if you know it'll be over in a few months and you'll then be able to go onto something different.

I lay out to my players a list of potential campaigns, as for example here. There are six potential campaigns I've never run, and four I've run in the past and would happy to run sequels for. So that's ten campaign ideas altogether.

I keep a notebook of ideas for each of those ten campaigns. Whenever I get new ideas I'm keen on, I can usually slip them into one of the campaigns already there. If I really can't put the idea in there, then it's time to add one to the potential campaigns.

Knowing that the ideas I have won't be used today, but might be used in a few months, that helps keep me focused on the current campaign.

Also, in each group of 3 or 4 players I rotate out 1 or 2 of them and bring in some new players - sometimes they've played with me previously, but usually some of them will be new to each-other. Because I'm getting a range of players from one campaign to the next, I can be sure I'll get a range of tastes in campaigns. It won't be just, "oh let's play another horror one!" or whatever. So eventually I'll get to try out all my ideas. Eventually

You know, I find a lot of the campaign ideas that I'm on about can be condensed (some of them separate from that setting), or may not have enough to them to "knock out" whatever RPG I'm playing at the moment.  Usually I try to isolate those elements I find cool about that, and try to incorporate them, if possible into an existing campaign.  I find that helps dull the ache.