Cross-posted from my blog.

What the hell, right?

Well, here it is. I 'm kind of honked off about gaming right now, actually; specifically, about my lack of it. I just don't get to game. From 1 January 2009 to 17 March 2009, I have engaged in no more than 3 short gaming sessions, totalling about 15 hours of time. Hey, kids -- let's do some math!

The year is 76 days old. Let's divide that by 7 and call it 10.85...okay, 11 weeks. Let's assume that I work 5 days a week, so that's 76 days minus 55 = 21 days off. 21 days equals 504 hours. Let's assume that I sleep for 7 of those hours each day, leaving me with about 17 hours a day. 17 hours times 21 days is 357 hours not spent at work. Of those 357 hours, 15 of them have been spent in the enjoyment of the hobby that I love the most in the whole goddamn world.

15/357 = 0.0420168067.

Percentage of free time this year spent enjoying the hobby that I love the most in the whole goddamn world: 4%.

Okay, now -- why? What else am I doing? Not having players show up, for one. Not having time to host a game, is another. There are ways around it, but in practice that's pretty dang hard to achieve. I work Saturdays, now, so I really only have Sundays available for gaming, and I like to include my wife in such stuff. She works 3 Sundays a month.

I cannot tell you how much this pisses me off. Not that she has to work -- but rather, how little time I can devote to playing, and how little of it can actually get bloody USED.

The worst part is when I see all the other gaming blogs out there, people talking about how they played this and they got together with the friends and played that. And I'm sitting here like a fucking chump with my dice bags and my notes and my rulebooks and my eternal enthusiasm and I can't help but stop all of a sudden and feel like Robespierre shopping the Stetson catalog.

Let's make it even more pathetic, shall we? Consider this: I'm still really, really, REALLY enthused about the hobby. I take a gamebook with me to work every day; I brush up on rules. I even make occasional stabs at adventure notes. But that's slowly stopping, because I start working on something and then I think, "What's the point?! Ain't gonna happen."

Julia Roberts is really unattractive.

I've really wanted to run Fading Suns lately. I'd love to do something with Savage Worlds. Now and then I think about a Star Wars game and my leg starts jiggling like a happy puppy's. And then I think...

"...oh, yeah."

THAT'S why you haven't heard from me. That's why there hasn't been a blog entry, that's why there haven't been any posts on The RPG Site, that's why there haven't been any comments on my homies' blogs. I'm a pissed-off gamer, all dressed up and nowhere to fucking go.

Tomorrow I have the day off. Two of my high school buddies are supposed to come over and play Encounter Critical. We'll see if that pans out.

I feel your pain. I moved in August I've played three time since then. I put in about 80 hours a week right now just in order to stay only a little behind. I'm spending my spring break in the library. My best friend and I are talking about doing something over skype, but he has dial up and has been talking about getting broad band for about two years. We'll see.

Yeah, I'm taking steps to correct the lack of face-to-face gaming in my life as well. Joined a local meetup group that looks pretty active. Now I need to ween a few of them away from all that bloody D&D madness.

It could be worse...I have run about 90 Squirrel Attack! games since the start of the year...people wonder why I always post about squirrels...SQUEEK!!!!!!

Added: I am actually looking forward to running flesh eating zombies this weekend!!!!

Although that will soon be screwed up with All Squirrels Must Be Eaten...

Doc R,.

 Can you get yourself to Cincinnati this weekend?

I'll be at a con where gaming is going on - we could always use another Gm or player.

Oh yeah there will be room parties, a masquerade, the guest is Science Fiction author John Scalzi and also S.L. Farrell will be there. The Filker guest is Tom Smith.

If you want to bring the family - threre is programming there they can enjoy too.


- Ed C.

Damn, Koltar, don't go reminding me of how far out-of-reach THAT kind of fun seems to be, too.

Facebook is awesome for finding players and organizing games.  I've also had good luck tossing out some D&D type links on my Twitter account (3.5K followers) and see if anyone takes notice.  Friend-of-a-friend connections have been really good as well.

I've got a few pieces of advice for you, Doc. You can pick and choose.

1. Deal with it. Okay, so you get to play once a month, on the average. Make that one time special, like a real social occasion and not just the boys showing up for the weekly game.

2. Play a separate game without the wife. Sure, you love her, but you don't have to do everything together. You can save the special game for her.

3. Try different games. Maybe people don't want to play Star Wars. I don't, for example.

4. Try getting more people.


Any of those seem applicable?

Now you run Fading Suns WITH the Savage Worlds system and you might have an instant gaming group on your doorstep, as long as you don't mind a gaggle of angry punx and gawths on your doorstep.

-=Grim=-

Julia Roberts is really unattractive.

Thanks, Doc.  My monitor needed that shower.

You're my new hero, I swear.

I feel your pain. I'm in a similar, but leakier, boat. At least your wife likes games. My fiance hates games, and resents the time I spend with my friends. She says she doesn't, but the skills I learned from watching 'Lie To Me' say otherwise:

"I want you to spend time with your friends." (contempt and manipulation cues)

"I hope you don't have games this weekend." (now we have the truth!)

Among my group, games are resented by wives/ girlfriends more than other "guy stuff". My friend Dan claims they'd feel better about us going to a strip club. I think he's joking, but sometimes I wonder.

I hope things change for you.

You ever free online? Some Tuesday or Thursday I could run a evening Derelict Delvers playtest...

Move to Boston and join my group, Doc!

Or play over IRC - I've been running one game for six years now, and another for three.

-clash

Quote from: Leo Knight;290703Among my group, games are resented by wives/ girlfriends more than other "guy stuff". My friend Dan claims they'd feel better about us going to a strip club. I think he's joking, but sometimes I wonder.

I think you should test that out, actually.

Doc,

I feel ya, bro.  I moved away from my friends three years ago.  We still play, just electronically now.  We play using Skype and MapTool, both free programs.  We started with Gametable, but quickly found out that you could 'break' that program with too much stuff.  So far, MapTool is working out great.  You can also break MapTool if you try to put too much stuff on a map, but it's easily avoided.  

As far as the wife playing, you're a lucky, lucky man Doc.  When we first started dating, I tried to get my wife interested and involved.  She really didn't get into it.  However, I'm lucky enough that my wife has no problem with me playing with my friends.  Although, I would love to be able to play RPGs with my wife.

One of my friend's current girlfriend apparently has a problem with it, and he doesn't play that much any more.  He's like most of us, he really looks forward to gaming.  It's really caused him a lot of stress, and a strain on their relationship.