The New Gaming Group, Same As The Old Gaming Group, Just New... And Improved

Yesterday, I wrote about how my gaming group was changing. At the time, I was writing a few hours before that gaming group was meeting to discuss where it would be going in the new year (which is kind of an awesome thing for a group to decide to do; a sort of "State of the Game" confusion). I thought it was going to be a discussion about how the previous game had stalled out (like games do) and we'd be discussing the game or games that would take the place of the previous D&D 4e game. Like I said yesterday, I had been hoping for a series of short games that might help us figure out what game system we'd settle on.

Turns out, the players who were left had been really enjoying the game so far (even the ones I didn't think were having as much fun) and were totally into it. They didn't want the story we'd been telling together to end like so many others had, incomplete and just trailing off into nothing. Instead, they really wanted the "new blood" players brought in as quickly as possible (and we still have to work exactly when that would be out) so we could get back into the awesome as quickly as possible. Our last full session with the previous group had ended at a sort of cliff hanger, and we'll need to figure out as a group where things went from there. The fact that they wanted to keep the story going and that they had enjoyed it so far (and the fact that it was the story that had kept these folks going) really felt like a vindication of everything I had worked on since May or so when the campaign began.

Thankfully, +Rad DeLong, who hosts our sessions, recognized that I really need to stretch my legs and, sometimes, play alongside the other gamers in the group. So, he came up with what I consider to be a freaking great compromise. If I keep running the continuing campaign (he apparently loves campaign-style play and prefers it to one-off play) every other Sunday, the in-between Sundays we can run something else, run either by a guest DM or by one of the players, stepping up to the "boss chair" for a week or two. To be completely honest, I might even run something for a few weeks just to shift gears in my brain (but then, I already run DCC so frequently... best to let these guys bear the brunt for awhile, right?).

So, the gaming group has been "saved," but we knew that was happening. What's absolutely huge to me is that the campaign that I've spent most of the last year working on doesn't have to get scrapped in favor of little game nuggets of one-shot (probably two-shot or three-shot) games, but I still get my game nuggets. It's win-win all around.

I think that one of the reasons I've only recently began to talk here about my 4e game is that I wasn't too sure of its future. Well, that and how much I've been really enjoying working on DCC stuff and thinking hard about non-4e games. Maybe I had a little bit of system burn out as well. I'll probably be rectifying that soon since I'm feeling a lot more energized on the topic.

As for this next week, though, I have some work cut out for me. First, I have the Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad crew to satisfy as they face the last few remaining horrors within the jungle temple of the Slaves of the Silicon God (this will be the sixth and final session of the adventure this Thursday). Then, I'll probably hash out some more details for the Winos & Wastrels system. Once all that's close to an end, I can start to think about how much 4e the blog needs.

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