An Embarrassment of [RPG] Riches?

Happy new year, all! I'm still slowly building momentum in my small table-top campaign, Tales of the Wanderers. It's still just me as GM and two old friends as my players, meeting on at least a bi-weekly basis on Thursday nights. My hope is that as time goes on things will blossom into something bigger; i.e. at least a couple more players!

That being said, I'm feeling a bit of gamer ADD, unfortunately! I blame it all on Swords & Wizardry Complete! I just obtained that little beauty, and it's thrown me for a loop. I'm still focused mainly on Lamentations of the Flame Princess as my rules foundation, but I am using a heavy dose of S&W stuff now. Then there's the announcement of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, which Akrasia talks about in this post on his blog. He makes mention of how "crowded" the old-school RPG realm is getting. I don't want to get into that tired debate as to whether or not there are too many clones out there, etc. But I guess I feel I have to make some sort of comment, however specious that statement might be:

I guess I think it all comes down to discipline on the part of a gamer. As a GM in particular, you need to prepare yourself to withstand the lure of the next shiny object that passes before your eyes. This can only benefit you and your players...especially if those players are new to the hobby (as is the case with one of my current players). I am a big believer in "staying the course" when it comes to a campaign (one-shot dungeon crawls and other sessions of that ilk are another matter entirely). Maybe I feel this way because, as a teenager, my gaming buddies and I rarely stuck with the same game for more than a month. And now that I've returned with gusto to the hobby, I really want to accomplish a long-running campaign.

But consider this: maybe if that new shiny is pulling hard on your psyche, there's a message hidden in that reaction. Maybe your current game needs some rethinking, or needs to be abandoned entirely.

Utlimately, there may be an embarrassment of RPG riches right now, especially in the OSR, but it's up to each of us as individuals to, as the venerable Egg Shen once said, "We take what we want, and leave the rest...just like your salad bar!" I for one will be doing something similar to what Tenkar is doing: packing away distractions!

And of course, I know I am stating the utter obvious, so I will bother you no longer! Game on!