Keeping It Real

Moderation is important. This is also true when it is applied to one's own traits. Myself, for example, I'm not overly moderated when it comes to seeing "the other side" of an issue or argument. I can empathize with both sides fairly evenly. What this leads to is indecision. Of specific import is that this can sometimes keep me from settling on a particular system to work with, thus fueling my ADD.

I have to look at things in an uncompromising light, though, and be real with myself about my actual gaming. To describe my gaming (actually sitting down with other gamers and playing) as "sporadic" would be generous. My wife plays, but doesn't like to put too much thought into it, and hates character generation. She would be much happier just being handed a pregen, but she is never happy with them. My teenage son likes playing, and we've made plans to play, but he's a teen. When you're a teen there is almost always something better to do. My teen daughter likes the idea of playing more than the act of playing. She wants all the cool stories with none of the in-between times.

A great deal of what motivates me to toward the OSR (apart from nostalgia and a genuine agreement with the rules-lite philosophy) is that it seems to be the most likely arena I could possibly get my family into. Character generation is simple, which makes my wife happy. It also doesn't cut into actual playing time, which, let's face it, doesn't need to be occupied with creating characters that may never get played again. It takes an act of congress to get us all together for a game once, let alone regularly. So, a session spent generating characters is just a waste of time.

Yet, the reality is that it has been about a year since I actually gamed. It was that Savage Worlds zombie game for my son and a friend. It's back there in the blog somewhere. Trying to tailor my gaming hobby-time around a potential game with my family that will likely never happen is an exercise in futility. I have talked myself out of a few game moods just because I convinced myself that it was a waste of time because I would never be able to get the family onboard with whatever game it was. Ironically though, they aren't getting onboard with any game, so I may as well be doing whatever the hell I want, anyway.

If it sounds like I'm frustrated with them, I'm not. I'm frustrated with myself for trying to see too many sides of an issue. I end up limiting my own options because I made the decision to keep gaming options open for folks that aren't going to be gaming anyway.

From now on, I am going to mess with whatever game I want to, because I want to. Who knows? Maybe this flirtation I am in with Pathfinder will become a rest-of-my-life obsession. Maybe if (and that's a big if) I can keep my focus, I can keep any rules set I settle on so transparent that I could get them to play it no matter how complicated it is to run. If I can be familiar enough with it to make it simple to play, I think I can reel them in.

There you have it. Another glimpse into the rabid mind of a life-long role player. It ain't always pretty.