I’m supposed to be gaming right now, but Sarah had a going away party for a friend and we couldn’t get a sitter, so I was on kid duty. I’m bummed because the game is fun, but as I was kissing my wife goodbye and getting our daughter ready for bed, I wondered if I was bummed enough.
I know that sounds silly, neurotic even. What I mean is I wonder if I am becoming a “beer and pretzels” sort of gamer. According to Robin Laws, this is the guy who games because it’s fun, but also because he doesn’t have other stuff to do. Gaming is a diversion that’s done primarily as a social activity. If the game doesn’t happen (or if something better comes along) it’s not a big deal.
I’m not there yet. Gaming is important to me. I enjoy the folks I game with, but the game itself is important just as much as the social aspect. I like the combat and the unfolding story. But I am certainly not as active a gamer as I once was. Despite my DM’s best efforts, I don’t really participate outside of the regular Fridays (on the wiki and such). Time is certainly a factor, but I think a lot of it has to do with work. I’ve come to realize that the mental energy that powers my writing and teaching is the same as (or very similar to) the juice that powers my gaming. It’s no accident that my gaming peaks are in the summer when my work load is much lighter. It’s not like I cut grass for a living, which would require a different sort of energy, leaving plenty of the creative juice for gaming.
Do other folks feel like this? Or am I just weird?
Tags: Robin Laws
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Oddly enough, most of my gaming-related creativity comes while I’m at work. That’s the problem. It’s hard for me to think about work when I am bombarded by gaming ideas. It wouldn’t be so bad if I had a job where I could just tune out. As it is, I have to indulge my gaming ideas just enough to let off the pressure so that I can focus on work.
I guess it doesn’t help that watching the kids totally sucks my gaming energy right out of me. I love them more than anything in the world but they they are so darn interesting that I can’t really think about much else when I’m with them. And they take so much energy to manage that I’m usually beat by the time I put them down to bed.
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This is an interesting notion. If I look at the kind of mental effort I am required to put forth at work, it is more logical than creative. I wonder if your job requires the opposite? It would seem to me that playing (or DMing) would require more creative effort than logical effort (although rules-lawyers might disagree).
And I suppose that I am more excited than the players if only because I am the DM and a lot of the success of the game rests on my shoulders. Often times I have to rein in my world-building tendencies and focus more on the story- and character-building stuff. Like right now, I’m stoked that Kamal is going the prestige class route. And what about Eriks and his becoming a vampire? And I’ve retooled some of the upcoming encounters to make them more pulpy (after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark with my boys, wink wink!).
But no matter how you want to classify yourself according to Robin’s Laws, you are always welcome to sit around the proverbial campfire and game with me.
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My job requires both creative (how can I get my students to learn this stuff?) and logical (what stuff do I want them to learn?). Add to that my natural tendency toward introversion and the job just wears me out.
Eleanor wears me out, too, but also inspires creativity. I REALLY want to run a Risus Thomas the Tank Engine (vs Nazis or Cthulhu) game one day.
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