I’ve been feeling kinda blah about gaming again lately. A big chunk of this is likely due to the fact that we haven’t been able to game much. Our attendance at games (or our ability to run our games) have been kaiboshed by our other social activities and travel. It’s really hard to maintain enthusiasm for a game you don’t play in for a month or two. Or three. It’s why I prefer “every other week” for a gaming cycle, as opposed to “monthly when we can manage it.” But when you are gone most weekends in a given month… well, that just screws everything up. =P
Beyond that, I’ve been pondering what it is I want out of a game. Part of this came from my renewed desire to play in a Star Wars game, but realizing I don’t have anyone I’d want to ask to run said game. And, really, I want to play. I’ve tried to think about what it was that was missing from my current gaming experience that I had in the past. Which came up with a more bizarre realization: More often than not, my favorite gaming experiences as a player have come from games where I thought the GM was awful. This isn’t to say there haven’t been exceptions. I’ve had great games with GMs I love. I’ve had soul killing gaming experiences with GMs I hated. But I’ve had a ridiculous amount of fun with games where the GM just wasn’t doing it for me.
The things that were fun was that everyone loved their characters and people were really engaged. It’s what I loved about “Dragon Lines,” which I hadn’t really had a lot of in other games I’ve run. I have a delicate ego that feeds off of other people’s enthusiasm. Part of me wonders if the players developed such rich interactions with each other because they had nowhere else to turn to. Not having a plot they could (or wanted to) interact with, they turned all their energy into having fun with the other players. Not all the players did that, but enough so that it was fun and rewarding.
Now I just need to figure out how to pull that off with a GM who is good… ;)
Yeah. I’ve been feeling the same. Lately I don’t have much time for gaming, I don’t know what I want out of it, but I’m pretty sure I want to try something different.
So what do you want in a Star Wars game? Something that replicates the feel of the movies? Adventuring around the Star Wars universe? Exploring what it means to be a Jedi? Play Boba-Fet dual-wielding lightsabers? Not offering to run, just curious.
Some of it is just stuff I want in all my games: Personalized story arcs, good character interaction, a solid plot. I get some of that with our current Vampire game, though it seems like the group dynamic hasn’t really gelled. I’m not sure what caused it, but I’m just not feeling it. Some of that could be our big lag between sessions.
For Star Wars specifically, I think I’d additionally want something that really embraced the Star Wars universe. Not just the core trilogy, but the better parts of the Expanded Universe. (The prequels are crap, but good stuff has been done by the fine folks at Dark Horse. The video games I’ve played are pretty fun too.) I’d want some introspective Jedi stuff, some fast-paced cinematic action, dastardly villains, etc.
In games I’ve played before, what I’ve seen that you often get is either “D&D in space” or “Generic roleplaying experience that could be in any vaguely sci fi setting.” Nothing kills the mood faster than, “I get on the the Internet and find the local equivalent to eBay.”