It is rapidly closing in on 4 months since the last session of the Lost Baronies campaign. That is typically a bad sign and indicative of a failed campaign. At this point even I don't feel much like scheduling the next session.
With this in mind I think it might be time to turn the string of mishaps into something official and just declare a hiatus until we (the players and I) can get our crap together to pick up where we left off.
A big factor is the issue of not having enough players to keep things going when someone has to miss a session. This thing began with a bang (7 players and 11 PCs) and we're now down to (again after one new player came and went) 2 players and 9 PCs.
Other factors include my desire to have some repairs and home improvements taken care of over the next couple of months and not wanting to have to deal with too much at my place game-wise until the dust settles so-to-speak.
Once the house issues are resolved I will re-evaluate the matter and if I feel the urge to dive back in, I will begin recruiting additional players. We'll see how I feel around the approach of Fall.
Meanwhile I am still gaming with the weekly group so at least there is that going for me.
1 comment:
A couple of things you can do to ease the stress of mid-life gaming are:
1) Run games in old-school Ars Magica style - where you have a couple-three major characters, and everyone else is minor supporting (but with critical skills necessary for the evening's storyline) and a goon squad. This allows the repeat players to develop strong characters adn rewards them for being there (it will always be about them). But also gives the periodic players something fun to do as each time they are playing a different personality and a character, including a squad of characters defined only by name and profession(ie, "Rod, Todd, Klod, and Steve, the hired swords).
A second change is to make the sessions episodic, tailored to the time available. This is really helpful when there is an assumed passage of time between episodes (just as there is between sessions), and that you didn't have to be here last time to play, or remember key details, necessarily.
THese techniques are a little harder on you, the DM, but help to keep people coming back, especially if there is a theme (the players are all elves in an Elf vs. Human war - or this week we play from the perspective of the humans dealing with - you guessed it - a plan hatched by the Elf PCs, etc.)
-Peter (rfeceo@yahoo.com)
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