Take Me To The Other Side

As I approach my 35th anniversary in the hobby, I feel like I am at a strange crossroads. On the one hand, I am gaming more than I have in years and I am really inspired to finally self-publish...something...but I am simultaneously enjoying the overall experience of gamemastering somewhat less than I traditionally have.

Actually, that is only partially true. I am enjoying it quite a bit with the younger kids at the learning center I teach at on Sunday in Brooklyn. My regular group however, well, that's been a source of some frustration as you can surely tell from some of the posts in the recent past.

Now part of this is surely do to my lack of free time lately and not being able to prepare and develop the campaign as much as I'd like. Another element is my impatience with the idiosyncrasies of my current group. The third major factor however is that there are so many idiosyncrasies with this group and that element interferes with my traditionally smooth flowing style.

So, much as I generally dislike being on the other side of the table, I think I am going to pass the GM chair to one of my players for the group's next campaign.



My friend Ray has a cool idea for a campaign based off of an Anime/Manga series that I must confess was never a favorite of mine. In truth, after watching four episodes of the animated series I never saw another and simply forgot about the show. Ray noted that he feels the Manga to be superior to the Anime and that is what he is basing the game on.

Now, lets take a close look at this situation and see how my group and I differ...

It's a game based on a series I didn't care for.
I will be playing instead of GMing and I prefer to GM over playing 100 to 1.
My last two experiences as a player were not so hot.

So what does your ol'pal Adam say when Ray says he wants to run this thing and asks if I'd be down for it? Why, I say, "Yes!".

Unlike many members of my group who, "Played something like that once, years ago, and it wasn't good so I'm not interested", or, "That's different from my tightly defined view of the 5 genres that interest me", I am more likely to say, "That's different. I haven't tried that thing, quite that way, before this. Count me in!"

So...

BattleTech Reborn goes on the back burner with tons of other campaign ideas and game projects. It's getting awefully crowded back there.

Meanwhile, I think I am going to take this opportunity to work on ideas for an old school, Original Series style Star Trek campaign. I'll save it for just the right time with just the right group. Weee! I am excited now. I am smiling. Ahhh. The burden of trying to entertain these guys is now the domain of some other masochist...er...talented referee.

Heh.

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