[Questing's Musings] Reviewing Gaming Quests for 2017

Questing's Musings is a column where I give my disorganised thoughts about gamemastering, timely topics happening in the gaming community and gaming in general. Part of my wish for this column is, at worst, for it to be a place for me to rant, rave or speak out my random thoughts, and ,at best, spark discussion and exploration of new discourses in gamemastering and gaming. Other than that, it is also most likely where I will put up posts that are not suited for any of the other columns on this blog. The posts here are mostly an unfiltered capture of my thoughts on the topic at hand and should be read as an opinionated soapbox, rather than one that tries to further any sort of agenda. As such, feel free to ignore this column if my personal thoughts on gaming does not interest you in the slightest.  

Once again after trying to commit myself to restarting this blog, I end up going silent for another year's worth. I know you all are tired of reading my excuses and resolutions to get back into blogging, so I will stop declaring my intentions and let my posts do the talking.

I had intended to make this my last post for 2017, so I'll be using this post to close my year of gaming for 2017 before I get into any 2018 content. Despite my silence on this blog throughout the year of 2017, it has been my best gaming year so far as a working adult, and I'm glad to report that gaming is now firmly back in my life again.

So I'll be going through my Gaming Quest of 2017, and report how well I've done by the end of the year.

Start running regular games again

The good news is yes, I'm running regular games again. My current schedule as a DM is currently on a bi-weekly basis on the weekends and I'm currently my group through Out of the Abyss for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. We managed to wrap up half of the module by the end of year 2017, and will be continuing to run the module for 2018. It was good to be back on the saddle to relearn old and new tricks, and I fully suspect this would get me on track to talk more about gamemastering and pondering on gamemastering subject for as long as it lasts. 

Find a new regular gaming group

By far my proudest achievement for 2017 is the current group that I am currently gaming with. Shortly after posting my quest to search for a new group, I was contact by a couple of players I met in 2016 that they wanted to meet up for drinks. What started out as a friendly chat turned into proper plans to start a regular gaming schedule and we got back together, with a few more additions. In the midst of our gaming schedule, we added a newbie player of RPG into our ranks, and we now plan ahead for our games as part of our routine schedule.

Things got much better with the group when I floated my intentions to try out new RPG systems, other than Dungeons & Dragons, and the group was receptive to the idea. So we were not a group that would stagnate with one system for too long.

The best part of this group, however, is that we have all decided to give GMing a go, and as of the end of 2017, every player has also DMed for the group, and we still have ongoing campaigns that each of us are still DMing for. This is my ideal group that self sustains itself, while also having the possibility of expanding our sights on the world of RPGs. A great group makes a world of difference when playing RPGs, which only solidifies my thoughts that RPGs are great when the people you are playing with are great company. 

Complete an RPG project

From here on is where my gaming quests for 2017 start to falter. While I have made small strides in some of my pending projects, none of which I would consider completed as the limited time that I have is taken up for prepping. Some I would consider are nearing the final stages, but the process itself has also helped me to refine my tools for gamemastering, as well as lay some foundations for future works that would not be as hard to startup. I have also learned to plan my time and resources a little better throughout the year, so I'm looking forward to be able to make much progress in some of the projects to end by 2018. 

Start making content for the DMG

In between all the time of prepping for games, this one has been laid on the wayside completely. It's starting to become a tough market nowadays, and I'm not sure how soon I can start making products without certain skills, and I'm not in the best financial position to afford commissioning for these expertise. I still myself in the learning stage at the moment, and hopefully some new resources in 2018 would help to kickstart my plans for making content for sale. 

Start new columns on the Questing GM

Second to my failure of making content for sale is the maintenance of this blog. The only consolation I have is that I've been collecting plenty of ideas to last me more than a year if I were pushing them out on a weekly basis for the rest of 2018. This doesn't mean that's my plan now, as I try to find my natural rhythm to be more consistent, but having nothing to write about would be the least of my worries. 

However, all is not lost. As an alternative to the lack of my own content, I have been contributing to the Faerûn History YouTube channel and have been wondering if I should dedicate more time to increase my contributions there. Forgotten Realms lore has been one of my favourite topics since I got into the setting.  

Learn to change my gaming mindset

While I don't think much has changed for me on this front, but being able to interact with more gamers, I think I have seen more points of view of other gamers. If there's anything that I really learn from 2017 is that I can start differentiating what philosophies and mentalities are toxic to me as a gamer and to the community, and it's never worth trying to change someone's mind. So I've learned to distance myself from those who are unhelpful, and try to provide the best help to those who ask or willing to listen. Life is getting shorter to engage in discussion with anyone who are not open to explore different discourses, or who only entrench themselves further as though we are talking about politics. If anything, I've starting looking for like-minded gamers, and leave those who disagree with me alone.

Try a new game every month

Given my already less frequent gaming schedule with my group, my gaming schedule was not filed to the brim with new games to try. However, I am still glad to report that my group has managed to try several games throughout the year. We've run short sessions of SpyCraft, the Lone Wolf Adventure Game, Numenera, and Tales of the Loop. Naturally there were hits and misses with the group, and it made clear to me that trying a new game every month is rather ambitious, given the amount of pre-reading and pre-planning that needs to be done before we can even try a sesion.

However, my happiest achievement is that I've found a group who is willing to experiment with me, and we have already suggested a few other games that we would like to try. I am looking forward to trying more games in the future.

So here are my ups and downs for gaming in 2017, but overall I would still think it's an extremely positive year for me in terms of gaming. My plans for 2018 look to be pretty much the same for 2017, with plenty of opportunities to make some real progress in some areas. So here's to hoping that 2018 would be a better year for gaming! 

[Questing's Musings] Gaming Quests for 2017

Questing's Musings is a column where I give my disorganised thoughts about gamemastering, timely topics happening in the gaming community and gaming in general. Part of my wish for this column is, at worst, for it to be a place for me to rant, rave or speak out my random thoughts, and ,at best, spark discussion and exploration of new discourses in gamemastering and gaming. Other than that, it is also most likely where I will put up posts that are not suited for any of the other columns on this blog. The posts here are mostly an unfiltered capture of my thoughts on the topic at hand and should be read as an opinionated soapbox, rather than one that tries to further any sort of agenda. As such, feel free to ignore this column if my personal thoughts on gaming does not interest you in the slightest.  

With the coming of the new year, resolutions are often the most appropriate thing to be talking about as we face the potential prospects of a fresh start. While I'm not the firmest believer of having any sort of resolutions (gaming or otherwise), I do like the idea of having a semblance of what to do in the coming year in terms of gaming. Rather than listing them out as resolutions and giving myself the unneeded pressures of sticking to them and completing them, I have gone the way of making them my gaming 'Quests' that I strive to complete as any good adventurer should.

So if you are interested in what I'm planning to do for 2017, here are my gaming quests for 2017!

Start running regular games again

I had ran through the Lost Mine of Phandelver twice since I bought it in 2015 and had taken a short break after my second run of it in 2016. The plan was to get back to running again shortly after that but then my life's routine took a turn and there were more important things to do than prepping and running games again. That's not to say that I haven't been gaming at all in the meantime (I was playing in 2 groups and had a weekly session of organised play), but it's about time that I get back on the saddle again for another rodeo. I am in the midst of re-prepping my notes Lost Mine of Phandelver, with some added personal mix to it for a more challenging experience, so it could be the start of my next campaign.

Then again, given my adult commitments and limited time, I have been entertaining the prospects of running regular one-shots for a regular group that is less straining than maintaining a long running campaign. I may delve a little deeper into why I think one-shots can be just as fun as a long term campaign (or even more so) in a future posts.

So those are my options at the moment, and I can't wait to start GMing again.

Find a new regular gaming group

2016 was a great year for me as far as meeting new players in the city where I'm living in at the moment. The growing numbers of the RPG community in this part of Malaysia has seen some very encouraging signs of new players being interested in RPGs and helping to connect older players who may not have otherwise known each other over the years.

I've had the privilege of playing in new groups and look forward to meeting more players from the community, but my ultimate goal is to find or form that perfect gaming group that suits me. I have my own criteria of what I'm looking for in a gaming group and there is so much I want to do to test out some ideas. But it all has to begin with finding the right people to game with, who share my enthusiasm and wavelength about gaming to improve as a GM and a gamer.

This would probably be my hardest quest to complete this year, but this is what I want to do and I hope I will find that group by the end of 2017.

Complete an RPG project

Since I have returned to gaming on a regular basis, I have been having new ideas and also revisiting some old projects of mine that I had worked on. Most of these projects are almost always daunting and time-consuming in nature, but they could have some long term benefits to my own gaming life and could benefit the community in some way.

The main trouble, of course, is having too much to do with too little time to complete it. Even by spending incremental amounts of time on each one would probably take too long to finish, so I have decided to select and focus on only one of these projects, in conjunction with my regular RPG-related works (this blog, running a campaign, and the other quests I'm planning) for the rest of 2017.

I may or may not reveal which project I will be working on eventually, but I will need to make a decision on what I want to do for the rest of the year. Hopefully by finishing just one of them this year will create some momentum for me to keep on doing more in the years to come.

Start making content for the DMG

With the proliferation of the Dungeon Masters Guild, I have started seeing it as an additional source of income to pay for my gaming habits. It's about time I learn to embrace the digital age of RPGs and accept the challenge of stepping up my game. This is probably my most ambitious quest to attempt in 2017. but hopefully it is the first step into becoming a game writer in the future.

Start new columns on the Questing GM

As far as the number of attempted blog revivals I have done since I started this blog, this is probably the proudest achievement I've had so far in 2016; I'm finally able to return to a regular blogging schedule about my gaming life. To make things better, I am now able to share it with an audience much closer to home. Although according to my statistics, most of my readership is composed of those outside my home country (which I am very thankful for, for giving me reason to keep on blogging), but I have finally found a reason to share my gaming thoughts and revisit those that I have collected over year of absence on this blog.

I want to continue making a more consistent presence in the RPG blogging scene again. I already have seeds for new columns and content (including this new column) that would hopefully make this blog an enjoyable and helpful resource to GMs, players and gamers alike in enjoying RPGs. 

Learn to change my gaming mindset

Gaming can easily be a personal thing. It is easy to identify what we like and dislike about certain gaming styles and stick to the ones we like for the rest of our gaming life. However with the growth spurt in my local gaming scene, I think it would be a disservice to only stick to one gaming style without even trying to explore what is out there and help grow a healthier community.

For this reason, I'm challenging myself to be more open to adapt and adopt new horizons of gaming, and hopefully by doing so will help me to be a better GM. Being open and receptive to various gaming styles of different players and GMs alike could change how I have always thought about gaming all these years. It's not going to be easy, but I think it's worth for growing to be a better GM.

Try a new game every month

Even after years of being a gamer, I can safely say that D&D and its iterations have predominantly been the game that I have played and run, and loved (and hated). But the truth is, there is a whole world of different RPGs out there and I want to finally spread my wings to go and find them and run a game with them. I don't see any of these games replacing D&D as my go-to system any time soon, but I certainly would need the exposure to improve my understandings of game design and my work. 

If things go well in this department, it could be the basis for another column on this blog.

These are all the quest I'm setting myself on to complete and frankly, some of them are overly ambitious to be done within a year. I don't think I can really accomplish them all, but the experience points for completing some of them could help. Still, hopefully this would be a reminder for me as the year goes by, and I could start a new column for tracing my progress if you are interested in following them.

So what are your own gaming quests for 2017? 

Last Updated: 01/01/17