Rather, I am experiencing operating difficulties. I am having difficulty operating. By operating I mean 'doing my thing'.
The previous post was, in my eyes, a dreadful misfire.
I had hoped to get a discussion going, hoped to receive opinions from my peers, and fellow GMs who may have experienced the same sort of feelings. I received very little response, and one that I receive misunderstood the nature of my inquiry, and put me in a bit of a funk with their comment.
A game I ran last Friday night didn't help matters.
My creative juices sucked dry by the fruit bat of frustration* (there's an image), I didn't have much in the way of a desire to post. I've got a few unfinished drafts in the pipe, but all for this merry month of humor, and I wasn't feeling particularly mirthful.
To add insult to injury, I am almost completely unpacked from my move to my new apartment, and I can't find one of my favorite RPG books. I was looking to do a post on it for this month.
Yeah, not feeling especially full of glee this weekend.
Thankfully, there is always a bright side...
I'll start with the fact that it's Autumn...
More precisely it will be on September 23rd, of this year. I love Autumn. I love the changing color of the leaves, Halloween (or at least the idea of it), the Thanksgiving Holiday (my favorite holiday), and especially the weather. I'll take a million rainy days to the sweltering heat, and disgusting humidity of a New York Summer.
Another great thing about the Fall is that it's Pumpkin flavored everything season, and that always puts a smile on my face. This year's special find, Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats from Kellogg. You might as well have put, 'For Adam' right on the box. So good. Apparently Peanut Butter & Co. makes a Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter. Come Barkley! We seek the Holy Grail!
I got to see two friends of mine on Saturday, teach at the tutoring center today, and mere moments ago I found the RPG book I was looking for.
Things are looking up.
I'm still a little irked by some of my recent game-related experiences, but I can already feel that fading. I'll get over it, and hopefully figure out a way to do something about the less than optimum conditions I am currently faced with RPG-wise.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress...
AD
Barking Alien
*Thank goodness this isn't a D&D/OSR blog, right? Fruit Bat of Frustration? You know some maniac would be stating that thing up, but good faster than you can say 'Fiend Folio'.
Now you got me wanting to stat out the Fruit Bat of Frustration! What happened on Friday, though?
ReplyDeleteand...done.
ReplyDeletehttp://graphpapergames.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-fruit-bat-of-frustration-mhr.html
You have games and groups to play them - and you do! That's more than some people have.
ReplyDeleteWhen I younger and had more time to game, I was more willing to go with stuff. Perhaps it was the value of time. When I had a lot of free time, spending time gaming - even something I was unsure about - was just positive. More gaming == good. Now that I have so little time to game, I'm a lot pickier about what to do. (And luckily have the option to be a bit pickier.)
ReplyDeleteI do sometimes game with my original long-term gaming crew, but it's no where near the same. When we all put in 8-10 hours every Saturday for a campaign it's a whole different experience then a weeknight after work once every four weeks. It's hard to recapture glory days because we'd need all of us to have the time.
I've read you like longer sessions, but that may be part of it with you. It sounds like your tailoring for the group is courtesy, respecting everyone's time as wanting this to be the most for everyone. But that's a lot of pressure. There's a writing event called NaNoWriMo where you attempt to write a 50K word novel(la) in November. In order to get that much, you need to give yourself permission to screw up some.
Try mentioning it to your group next time you change up what you playing. "Hey folks, I'm inspired to do X. I know this isn't our normal way of doing it, but I'd like you to give it a try and hold criticisms for a session or two so we can hit stride." Get permission to just have fun without trying to be perfect for everyone, and you may find they get swept up in the enthusiasm.
Or not. :) But that's okay - if it's not working for the group, let it go and try something else. That's why it's an experiment.