It’s Christmas Time – Time to Reminisce.

Seeing that it’s Christmas time, it seems like a good time to talk about the RPG-related highlights of the last year and look at last year’s New Year’s resolutions.

Generally speaking, it was a sparse year for gaming. Apart from a struggling on-line GURPS game, a few sessions of L5R and some con-related playtests and con games, there wasn’t a dearth of gaming.

Many things got in the way, and one of the biggest, ironically, was the the podcast..

But there was some gaming. As I think I’ve mentioned before, we are fortunate enough to have three game conventions a year in the Los Angeles area. With a couple games per convention, and the prep involved, there were plenty of game-related activities, if not a lot of actual gaming.

I also hosted a mini game convention on my birthday weekend, which (it turns out) was a grand idea. We ran three simultaneous tables of role-playing goodness. Definitely something I’ll consider doing again.

As for my track record with last year’s resolutions, it was a mixed bag.

1. Acquire and Play Shadowrun (MIXED) Acquired Shadowrun, but have not as yet played it. It’s still on my list of games to play.
2. Game Every Week (FAILED) Gaming frequency actually went DOWN this year, though I did make recent strides to fix that.
3. Run an Online Game for Listeners (MIXED) The Good News: I did start an online GURPS game with four listeners. The Bad News: I only ran one session. I do have a second session scheduled for this weekend, though.
4. Play in a Call of Cthulhu Game With a Really Good Keeper (FAILED) I ran a CoC one-shot (which was a playtest for a convention game, and the convention game was run in GURPS instead, but was still a cosmic-horror/Lovecraftian adventure. But I have not played in a CoC game with a good keeper. Maybe there might be an on-line game out there.
5. Figure Out a Way to Record Games (SUCCEEDED!) The trick was to play IN my studio’s recording booth. It’s a small room, but it will hold a tiny table and can accommodate three players and a GM. I wouldn’t try running a game with six players, but a small group works nicely, and I get a reasonably good sound quality.
6. Run Another Savage Worlds Mini Campaign (FAILED) Nope, not even close. though that might be my next recorded game.
7. Finish My Book on Gamemastering (FAILED) Nope, didn’t happen. In fact, I didn’t even work on it in 2012. I still have it, but it will have to go through a major revision, as the way I think about and approach GMing has changed, even in the last year or two.
8. Release the Opening Songs (SUCCEEDED!) In fact, you can purchase the first collection of opening show songs at CDBaby.com. I even shot a goofy music video for one of the songs (THAT was a lot more work than I thought it would be). I’m currently working on a second series to release, but it probably won’t be out until Summer 2013.

As for 2013, here’s my list of RPG-related resolutions

1. Game Every Week - again, I’m aiming high, but with the ubiquity of on line games, it should be possible, right? The other thing I need to keep in mind is that I don’t have to RUN a game — I can play instead.
   
2. Try FATE – I’ve read a couple FATE-titles now. I mostly understand the concept, but still haven’t sat around a table and played the game. I want to see how the game translates at the table, since it has such an out-of-the-box concepts compared to most other RPGs. Maybe I can get in an on-line one-shot.
3. Release Second Collection of Songs - My wife and I have several songs to record, plus a couple of new show intro songs.
4. Play in an Organized Play Game - Just so I can say that I did it. Maybe an RPGA game or a Pathfinder Society game.