Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Gamer ADD and Burn-Out

Hey folks! Just wanted to check in and ramble a bit. Been feeling a bit burnt over the last couple of days with regard to gaming. And I know why: Gamer ADD. I've let that hoary beast push my beleaguered brain to the edge of reason once again.

I will confront Gamer ADD and say "Ah yes, my old friend and enemy, I see you lurking over my shoulder. You're the cause of my unrelenting need to dig through my RPG book collection almost every night.

You push me to flip through all those pages and dream about campaigns that may never be. You make me obsess over thoughts of adventures yet to come.

You distract me from working on the campaign I am currently running...a living and breathing campaign with great players that depend on my ability to provide a fun and exciting experience almost every week. They are what's most important right now. Not you. Begone, I say! The power of St. Gygax compels you!"

Seriously, I am feeling like I need to strike back somehow at my old foe. I am feeling that I need to put away all the other books and stay away from them for a good while. I want to just carry around my Castles & Crusades books and the materials I am using for my current campaign. I don't want what I currently have going on to suffer at all due to my penchant for daydreaming about what could be.

I think I can do it. So, for the time being, until I am no longer feeling fried in the brain pan, I will gently put aside (for instance) my copies of Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry. Just for a while. And with them, I will put my embryonic thoughts of getting down to some Original/Basic/Classic D&D goodness on the shelf. I will set aside thoughts of race-as-class and all the other trappings. Just for a while. So the gray matter can cool down.

Though I am scared of what will happen when the PDF of Crypts & Things comes knocking...but I can't worry about that right now!

I need to do this for my peace of mind, and for the good of my actual gaming. No need to sacrifice the "what is" for the "what might be," right?

If you're out there reading this and you are feeling the Gamer ADD crunch at the moment, gimme an amen! Remind me that I'm not alone! I need the support right now!

6 comments:

  1. Gamer ADD is the Siren song that lures us onto the rocks of distraction and procrastination. I spend a lot of time on those rocks. Good luck resisting the lure Drance.

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  2. AMEN!! But I hear that all the time. :) From my line of work: And also with you! I suffer from DM/GM ADD all the time. For me it is always finding something new I want to incorporate into Dragonquest or a new campaign setting/system I would like to develop. Right now I am trying to work on an elemental-punk setting and I have on a back burner a Fairy Tale setting for Dragonquest. I don't know if I will get to Once Upon a Time, but Blood Moon at least has a chance of completion. Meanwhile --- I still need to tend to the main campaign with the current crop of players. Good luck

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  3. You are not alone! Just push aside those maddening thoughts, dig into your C&C books and relax!

    Of course, maybe just a peak into the S&W stuff wouldn't hurt.

    And there's this cool LL post, that just showed up on your blogroll.

    Maybe a comparison of the DMG, OSRIC and C&C books would be a nice, distracting research project. Better grab a few old modules to look over as well.

    Have you read -C's Psionics supplement for AD&D/OSRIC yet? Chock full of all sorts of campaign ideas...

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  4. You have a great group of powers at ATF, the last two sessions I ran might have been the best played games of D&D I have ever seen. They are clever guys.

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  5. Austrodavicus and Padre: thanks for the well wishes. Just wanted to state that this post was sort of tongue in cheek, but I really did need to vent. And I do need to stop staying up late reading RPG stuff, that's part of my problem. I'm friggin tired! But make mo mistake, I will overcome! Just need to focus.

    James: uh, thanks for nothin! ;-)

    Rich: you said it! The group at ATF is a rarity, with some great, creative people!

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  6. Yeah, Drance. That's me all over. ADD, Angst, Disatisfaction, Frustration, whatever. About the only thing that fixes it for me is actually gaming. Between sessions I'm busy convincing myself that things would be better only if. I suppose in a way all this gaming goodness is a blessing. But it can certainly be distracting sometimes.

    Peace

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