CHOOSE RANT

Title:   Vicious Circles Day:    June 22nd, 1999 Author:  Ruiner				Okay, so here I stand on my digital pulpit to speak about games once more. Yes those RPGs like in my very first rant. But no, this is not about how 'good' they are, and what bad raps their getting from the media. If you want material like that, go visit my friend Arawn's site. He used to have a useful rant up about the whole trenchcoat mafia deal, and bad publicity. But he changed his site and oh well, I can't find it now. No, this is about a trend I've noticed with my friends and groups in general. Simply put, with lives being what they are, we do not have enough time for the games we want to play. Yes, they are just games, but they are tremendously fun excursions for my group. It's a great chance to assume a new identity and immerse yourself in a different world for a time. You can live dynamic lifestyles and take chances that result in life or death, all the while having a great social time with your friends. But it can be time-consuming. What I'm noticing is that our interests broaden as the years go on. New games come out, old one take on new aspects. And our group's potential grows and grows. So what we've ended up with are several people all capable of inventing and running a campaign all their own. And there's not enough time to play them all. I wish there were more hours in the day, or more days on the weekend. Something to alleviate what I feel to be a glut in the system. I'm not above it. I have a campaign or two that I'd love to run and I feel I could do a damn good job at. But we have so many things going on, it becomes a hassle. Scheduling has been an age-old beast with my group. Ever since the days of Tempestt, that nightmarish campaign of mine that had too many players, we have fought with work schedules and significant others for an opportunity to work something out. But what options are there? Some of us, the unfortunate ones like me, don't date much and have those free Saturday nights along with the rest of the weekend. I have no kids to watch over, but more and more of us are taking that route as well. We're growing up. Sad to say. There's tons of problems involved in working something out. If someone has a long-term campaign going on that's great, should they retire it so that someone else can take a shot? If everyone's enjoying themselves, why end it? Or if someone's been running something that some people enjoy, but others are non-emotional about it, what right does someone have to ask them to stop? These creations are our babies, so-to-speak, and we all want the best for them. We want to watch them grow and become things of legend. I for one always put a lot of effort into them, and I can be very sensitive as well. I perpetually worry if others are enjoying my games and am quick to pull them if I don't feel things are acceptable. I know some others who share my lack of faith in ability. Also, nighttime jobs and other 'distractions' like girlfriends mean that some of us can't make it when a game could ordinarily be played. We harbor no grudges, because we all understand. (Truth be told, I'd love to have a woman drag me away from a game every once in a while). But do we run a game without them, or plan a game where they are not involved? We've tried this, and it fails. The players want to be involved in any cool games going on, and the GMs don't want to discriminate against anyone. And sure enough, if I run something without Player X and I like it, every time it's available, Player X will have free time. So they'll make a character, join up, and we're back at the start of the vicious circle. On a different vein, we have a lot of new games going on, these LARPs (Live-Action Role-Playing for the uninitiated) They are large venues where people dress up and actually act out what their characters are doing. We used to make fun of them years back but now we've gotten into the flow of things and come to enjoy it. (I hear that's the standard progression) So now, we're playing these things which have a set schedule and tend to push our table-top games aside. And we've even considered running one ourselves, which I think will be a grand idea. Personally, my opinion of my playing group is that we are of the highest calibre, and can pull anything off if we set our minds to it. And so we cultivate this idea, but even as we speak others are creating new LARPs to play and compete with, and these groups are splintering and replicating like some out of control virus. It's an interesting setting to watch, trust me. So off we go to our next Convention, where I'm sure we'll find more games we'd love to try. We'll talk to a cool gentleman we met last year about working with his organization (possibly running the LARP under his overall campaign scheme). New ideas will form and who knows what our hobbies will be like in the coming weeks. I'm not really complaining about all of this, because I still enjoy every bit of it. I just wish there were a way to provide more time, so that all these dreams could be realized. Maybe I should just chill out. I complain when others seem to lose sight of the purpose of these games, which is to have fun. Have I lost that vision? I don't know - I'm just taken with a little frustation. But everything is also up in the air with upcoming weddings, people moving, and trying to get everything situated. Maybe once that is resolved and we decide if we'll run a massive LARP of our own, we can hammer out a good schedule. We'll see. B.Mooney