Yes, as I talked about with Jen on the Jennisodes, I am game-fasting.
This has led to me fantasizing about what games I’d like to play and with whom.
Monsters and Hearts: In this fantasy, I have moved to New York City and we play Monsterhearts with my lady-friend, our friend, Janira and her special friend. This is based on our love/hate relationship with Buffy and Supernatural, a love of YA fiction and seeing Janira play a teenager in a game of Shock:.
Stick it to the Man: Also a NYC fantasy game, in which there are 10 days to any given week so I can play Misspent Youth with the lady-friend and my buddies Rob, Jason and Witt. It would be one of those games that Jason plays with his newborn on his lap. I like the idea of our first game all together being something finite that we can bring to a definite close.
The Siege: I’d love to run a BW game with my house-mate, a long time Warhammer fan. I asked him what kind of Warhammer PC he’d like to run and he said he’d like to play an Imperial Engineer. This would be a game about an Imperial Engineer fresh out of the Imperial Gunnery School in Nuln and put on the front lines of a vicious siege. If roommates wanted to play, they could pick up other characters, like an Imperial Wizard or a grizzled Sergeant.
Excelsior Highway: Another 8 days in the week NYC fantasy, where me and Bret have an evening to play Marvel Heroic Role-playing Game about Ghost Rider on a road trip or in the midst of some homemade magical event. Mayhaps friends come and play as guest starring heroes but the main adventure is about Ghost Rider kicking ass for vengeance.
Good-bye Games: I’d like to play a game with Paula and some folks, a way to say, “good-bye,” to the Ithaca gamers. I think they’d like Monsterhearts too, actually. Maybe an epilogue game with the Apocalypse World crew and a good-bye game with Jim and Charlotte and Pete and Aaron.
Burning Wheel Greed: Yeah, I’d to play in a BW game with only the dwarven lifepaths with the BWHQ posse.
This is what game-fasting brings on at my current stage of game-hunger, fantasies about not only campaigns ideas but social set-ups that there are not enough days in the week to bring out and play. As much as I miss gaming, it is a relief to have that big gap of time in my week to get other things done and when I get to New York City, begin my career, move into a new place with Janaki and start a new city life, I am going to be very careful as to how I fill that time.
The more I think about it. The more I look hard at my goals, at the short amount of time life has to offer, at the many glorious things to learn and see, the things that keep me happy, healthy and sane, I am wondering where and if gaming will fit in. I’m looking at a period of time in my life where visiting fictional places with friends just might not work at all for a while and I’m finding that exciting.
And you? What games are you thinking about playing and how is gaming fitting into your life at the moment?
Githyanki Diaspora 
I realized a long time ago I could never, ever, ever give up RPGs. If I go more than a week without roleplaying, I get intensely bored and depressed, no matter what else is going on in my life.
My ideal, which I rarely reach, is to be in two weekly campaigns, one playing, one running, and participate in some more spaced-out events as well, like LARPs and cons, maybe once every two to three months.
Very interesting, Judd. I’ll have to listen to the ep. As you well know, I’m in a game-fasting position as well (with our online BW game my one outlet, infrequent as it may be), so you’ve inspired me to think about this and write a similar post.
There’s something about your last sentence that is full of sadness and full of hope and it hits me in the chest hard because it’s right where I am.
Thanks, Daniel. I’m glad it resonated with you.
Thing is, there are so many ways to engage with gaming nowadays. Be it a pick-up game of Lady Blackbird with friends on a Sunday evening to G+ Hangouts to pick-up Skype games, and the play-by-post stuff keeps in the fridge well while we do other things.
So, if gaming as I know it ends, that is fine. It can easily turn into something new too.
You make the hobby a better place, Judd. Do what’s best for you, but I will keep my hopes up that you find a way to keep gaming in your life.
Thank you. Even if I stepped away from gaming far enough that I closed the blog up for a while, I doubt i’d abandon all social media and the friendships I have made in this mad, wonderful hobby. I’ll be around.
I think – no, I know – that most of my gaming group is in a similar place. A few of them would love to play more often, but we have to really try to make “once a month” work, much less “once a week.”
When I moved away, they stopped gaming. I hadn’t realized I was the mover and shaker there until then.
I personally would love to be able to play once a week, but I haven’t been as immersed in gaming for as long as you have.
Running games is too much of a creative outlet for me to let go. Perhaps I should cultivate an alternative, but I see no reason to as long as I enjoy this one.
As a creative outlet, it is really difficult to let go. It feels like there is a phantom limb, a game I want to daydream about that just isn’t there.
The last 2 years have been pretty good for gaming for me. My group meets 1-2 a month, flexibly and depending on our schedules. It allows us to get some steady gaming on, but also do stuff like live life, travel, etc. I could probably do a second group like this, but it’s riding ok for now.
I think that’s a pretty sustainable amount, short of being on long trips out of town or similar stuff.
What I’m cutting back on, instead, is internet time. I tend to revisit the same sites, over and over, and I’m now going down to “once a day”, “once a week” and just cutting it back or out altogether. When I see an article that’s somewhat interesting, I’m starting to say, “Is this worth 10-20 minutes of my time? No? Move on.” The internet is really dangerous when you’re a media/info junkie, so I’m starting to get a lot more picky.
I’m so happy for you that you have the prospect of a bright new life too full of loveliness to fit in something that brings you as much joy as gaming.
I feel like I’ve stepped out of the other side of the tunnel. Up until about a year ago, life circumstances had squeezed gaming of all sorts out of my life. Slowly making my way back into it has been a welcome source of revitalization. Like finding a part of myself that I had to pack away.
I still don’t game nearly as much as I’d like to. My local friends are hooked on board games and D&D 4e, squeezing out anything else. Luckily game design as a pastime is full of lonely fun!
When I go married back in 2003, I tried to keep gaming at the same level as when I was single, and then I found out that does not work. So I stepped away from gaming altogether. i have slowly gotten back into it, and am in the process of working on a superhero rpg. I feel that designing games and running games is a creative outlet for me too. But I do miss playing in a game or two.
So, I realized that it has been nearly 8 months since we did an O’Declan’s BW session. I realized that you are leaving soon. I realized that I miss either: 1) having you as a housemate; or, 2) having you swing by spontaneously.
Gaming with you kept me sane while I was in Ithaca. It is a time I will cherish. I took some time off from gaming (roughly 1988 through 1994) and don’t regret it. I think the next adventure for you is the one you live and that is pretty damn spectacular. You are a creative dynamo, Judd. And I know that while you may not run another campaign – you will provide awesome for the next generation. Ronan is looking forward to it. Even if he doesn’t realize it yet.
Thanks, brother. It means a whole lot to hear that from you.