My Online Life

[Zarniwoop]

I notice of late I am really starting to lurk more and more spending less time responding to posts or creating new ones. That includes not just here but Boardgamegeek, Meetup and various other sites.

I find myself losing hours reading posts, checking games or reading about other games but I seem to be finding it harder and harder to contribute myself. I don't know if this is an age thing, I am getting older after all, or whether it's just because life in general is getting harder and I find myself too tired or busy to take the time to join in.

I thought when I cut down on the TV side of things I would fill it by doing more with my online life, where what has actually happened is I am spending more time with my social life - gaming, walking, drinking, eating out etc. This is not a bad thing, don't get me wrong, but I didn't want my online life to suffer I still enjoy that side of things as well but, as I mentioned on other posts, I feel things online in general seem to be slowing down.

Over the years I have put a lot of time and effort building this site and the Raiders of the Game Cupboard webpage which has been great fun and an interesting project in itself. The sad thing for me though is that ideally I would have grown the community here to something much larger, though that said what we have built is great and we have posted a lot of good content as well as having some interesting discussions. Maybe a lot of this is due to the fact we are a social group that meet face to face on a regular basis, so the need for an online forum for discussions is less important, though we all have other social circles and activities so there is potential for other things to be discussed here as well.

Maybe my own output on here is suffering here as I find it increasingly difficult to put my thoughts down in messages, not sure why this is the case but it could be related to the fact that I have not read a good book in a long time. Watching TV makes your imagination lazy as it does all the hard work for you, when you read a good book your imagination is triggered to help create the images to match the descriptions of the author and reading always helps build and strengthen your vocabulary.

I have a number of books I have yet to read but again its boils down to finding the time to do these things in amongst all of the other stuff life throws at you. It probably does not help my cause that working in IT means I spend the vast majority of my life in front of a computer screen, which means what was once an enjoyable hobby has now become my workday. This is not always a good combination, though I do enjoy my job at times there are occasions where it does become a chore which then obviously taints other computing activities that should be fun.

Anyways, I have rambled enough again so I will sign off for now but  have fun and I will be sure to see you around either in cyberspace or in person.

Enjoy!..

[Snakes in the Tiki Lounge]

Clearly the solution is to DM more games.

[EvilGinger]

It is Zarni is a good GM and has lately sadly been very delinquent in this respect

 Ginger

[Zarniwoop]

So I've started 2015 with some game session write ups, I hope to post something about the monthly gaming in the next day or so. I did forget to take photos at both Wednesdays and todays sessions but hope to rectify that in future.

I cross posted on BGG which meant Chris and Richard replied so I shamelessly re-posted those here to replicate the conversation, seeing as neither of them pass by these dusty parts of the internerd anymore.

I feel like I am not getting enough plays of my games in such that a lot of them are daunting to put in the bag as I will have to face re-learning rules on the evening of playing, my rules head is definitely waning a bit lately.
Time needs to be found to read rulebooks for RPG's so that I can dust of the GM badge for 2015 though what system I go for is tricky, but I suspect I really should go for D&D Next as a lot of people in my group want to try this with me at the helm on the Starter set.

I am finding that the Forum is becoming more of a backwater than it was when I started this whole thing, though to be fair I am finding a lot of the sites I visit are not as hot as they used to be. I noticed some Facebook planning of stuff over the holiday period that I obviously overlooked as I never really use the damn place. Still if people try and arrange games with a group when a lot of them don't frequent the place your organising it on then what does that say about you... hmmm. In general the gaming groups are inclusive but they can sometimes be shortsighted or ignorant of peoples social media usage

Anyway, look this is not meant to be a rant but just a general ramble about my online life, which is becoming sad and lonely especially on my own forum Even my Co-creator of the original Big Bang Burger Bar BBS has never really visited this site, despite me harassing him about it

If nothing else I guess I can use this as a rather over-complicated blog site to record my stuff and maybe one-day someone else will take pity on me and post the odd reply or add some more human content.

I hope everyone had a great holiday as well as a good start to 2015 and I hope, if anyone actually reads these posts, to catch up with you sometime in person and play a game or three.

Keep gaming....

[Snakes in the Tiki Lounge]

It'd be good to see you back on the GMing horse again, it's been far too long.

[Zarniwoop]

Well my Online life seems to remain mostly stuck in the 'lurking' mode, though I did for a brief spell start writing up the Spirit Games Wed night boardgaming again. I have not managed to keep this up though, I may try again this year.

On the flip side I did dust of the cobwebs of the mind a bit and have started DM'ing the 5e Starter set with our new regular monthly group. Several sessions in and I have found that whilst I still under prepare, worry about my delivery and always feel worried whether people will like my games I have enjoyed running them. I think overall the gang are enjoying the games, I am certainly liking 5e a lot and can't see me using any other version from this point on. Andie is planning on running some 5e for our group as well, so I look forward to playing my own character for a change.

It does feel good to be roleplaying again with a group that enjoys the fun of it without getting too serious about it. Sure some games are more serious than others due to the story but it's good to have banter at the table and enjoy the company of others rather than getting bogged down with getting things perfect.