Perusing the message boards, this topic came up, and I'm always a sucker for it.
What the heck will I be gaming in ten years?
Let's go back in time and see if there's anything like a pattern.
Thirty Years Ago: Most green army guys and GI Joes were put away. Dice Baseball, sports, and a pile of books.
Twenty Years Ago: I had started my dream job at Dreamscape Comics. Alliances/Mirage were the Magic sets of the year, so I was playing more again. Late hours had scrapped role-playing, and my buddy Wooly and I were waist-deep playing Legions of Steel.
Ten Years Ago: Early in the year, I was playing some Kamigawa block booster drafts at White Knight's Game Room in Williamsport. By July, I was moving into the Wilkes-Barre area (there was this wedding thing in October. Details are sketchy after all these years). I had stripped down my collection on the move to Wellsboro, so my entire collection still fit in a build in cabinet in the house we were renting. No minis, save a few Hackmaster figs. By the end of the year the old crew had gotten together a few times to game, including the first ever Risus-IOU Labor Day/Day of Sloth game. I believe Hackmaster characters were getting rolled up for the B10-12 campaign.
Ten Years From Now: I'll be 52, older, slower, but, if I want still be around, a few pounds lighter. I will have two girls in their mid-teens, and who knows if they will have younger siblings, it would continue my track record of being mentally unstable.
After twenty years of marriage, I'd hope I would be allowed a regular night out for gaming. Or to put it in better terms, I hope I can get into a local role-playing group with a reasonable level of insanity. I'm resigned to playing the current iteration of D&D-esque rules.
With the girls as enthusiastic about super-heroes, fantasy, and gaming right now, they'll probably turn into normal teenage girls (oh the horror!). I would like to think I could institute the family game night (to correspond with one night without activities) where we could sit down as a group and do something together.
Now, if at least one of the girls turns into an acceptable level of geek (There will be a geek backlash in the next decade, mark my words, but a little geek never hurt anyone), I could imagine running a game for them and their friends, if I'm not too uncool. The house would be a welcome Nerdvanna safe haven for all (still no boys in the room and definitely open doors, I am a father afterall.).
For me and old crew, I'd like to hope that we've finally finished the Call of Cthulhu campaign, and I hope they do exact some revenge on the Slavers of Roark, and a few adventures beyond that. Our weekends should all get a little more relaxed, so I would say a consistent meeting of the minds every six weeks wouldn't be out of the question. The latest in linear and 3-D will allow us to construct the latest crowdsourced campaign as we set up to game.
Who am I kidding, I believe Steve's closet o' Kickstarters will still be overflowing. We'll have an eternal backlog.
Systems I would like to be playing:
RPGs
Call of Cthulhu: Just because I stopped running the campaign doesn't mean I'll stop playing. I might move onto the new 9th Edition by that point, but 1st-6th plus years of my skills would still be sufficient. And I would focus the utility of practical cultist magic just to piss the authors off.
Hackmaster: I'm sure my spot on the rule-light bandwagon will wax and wane over the years, but Hackmaster 4th Edition, in my opinion, is crunchy rules perfection.
D&D: I've played every edition of D&D except White Box (and I would if I could), and I see no reason to try the next edition or two.
Risus Illuminati University: I hope we're still chucking dice at barbeques a decade from now. The other rules light games may come and go, but IOU is basic enough for the average crazy gamer.
Wargaming
Gnome Wars/Trench Wars: Regardless of the name of this blog, I don't know what the distant future of Gnome Wars holds. I started playing right before my daughter Maja being born and the "No-no's" were a part of the first games we played. Like the Teddy Bears, Flintloque, and other "humorous" figures, they can easily inserted into a serious game... and we have had a few tense games of Gnome Wars. Trench Wars has the same mechanics (where do you think the inspiration for Gnome Wars came from?) and might perpetuate my attraction to the Great War
Colonials/Great War Africa/Samoa: Be it the Boxer Rebellion, Zulu Wars, Spanish American, or even the Sudan, I'd like to jump into as many Colonial games as possible. Everything post-Boer War in southern Africa continues to fascinate me, so I will continue to accumulate Askaris of all sorts, Ruga-Rugas, and Kings African Rifles. I would love to take a weekend off from life and just begin proper research on Samoa. I will run more Samoa games (I have the figures and hope to add to them), and even if I'm not the resident expert, Samoa is a "clean" war in terms of gameplay. Of course, I could acquire enough New Zealand ANZACs to run a "what-if the Germans had sufficient force to fight back in Samoa" campaign.
40K/WFB/Kings of War/WarPath: Who knows what the future holds for sci-fi and fantasy but I'm guaranteeing one thing: My Squats will not be ready to play, even if the future release of the Mantic space dwarves facilitates things in the now.
Magic
I may play, I may not. I'll probably accumulate the cards of my 'youth' out of the quarter or dollar bins like I'm doing nowadays.
Painting/Collecting
Gnomes: The never-ending battle, I'll still have some unfinished in a decade.
Colonials: Most are easy to paint, so I just need to buy, buy, buy! (And push the gnomes further in the queue).
Pulp: I didn't cover any real games using them, and these figure in particular are getting expensive, but a good collection of figures can be used in a multitude of settings. I'd like a "middle eastern" village that can cover games from Africa through Near Asia.
Egypt: Maja's fascination seems to be maturing than fading, so we'll see if we continue to acquire mummies, ancient Egyptian warriors. I anticipate pyramids moving into a corner of a bedroom.
Legions of Steel: I can't guarantee another game ever being played, but the UNE Commandos should get there day of painting, perhaps professionally.
54mm: My AWI 54s are still in the garage looking for a new owner (send me a message and we can negotiate). Perhaps Great War 40's or 54's for modeling's sake might be a new endeavor in my old age.
What the heck will I be gaming in ten years?
Let's go back in time and see if there's anything like a pattern.
Thirty Years Ago: Most green army guys and GI Joes were put away. Dice Baseball, sports, and a pile of books.
Twenty Years Ago: I had started my dream job at Dreamscape Comics. Alliances/Mirage were the Magic sets of the year, so I was playing more again. Late hours had scrapped role-playing, and my buddy Wooly and I were waist-deep playing Legions of Steel.
Ten Years Ago: Early in the year, I was playing some Kamigawa block booster drafts at White Knight's Game Room in Williamsport. By July, I was moving into the Wilkes-Barre area (there was this wedding thing in October. Details are sketchy after all these years). I had stripped down my collection on the move to Wellsboro, so my entire collection still fit in a build in cabinet in the house we were renting. No minis, save a few Hackmaster figs. By the end of the year the old crew had gotten together a few times to game, including the first ever Risus-IOU Labor Day/Day of Sloth game. I believe Hackmaster characters were getting rolled up for the B10-12 campaign.
Ten Years From Now: I'll be 52, older, slower, but, if I want still be around, a few pounds lighter. I will have two girls in their mid-teens, and who knows if they will have younger siblings, it would continue my track record of being mentally unstable.
After twenty years of marriage, I'd hope I would be allowed a regular night out for gaming. Or to put it in better terms, I hope I can get into a local role-playing group with a reasonable level of insanity. I'm resigned to playing the current iteration of D&D-esque rules.
With the girls as enthusiastic about super-heroes, fantasy, and gaming right now, they'll probably turn into normal teenage girls (oh the horror!). I would like to think I could institute the family game night (to correspond with one night without activities) where we could sit down as a group and do something together.
Now, if at least one of the girls turns into an acceptable level of geek (There will be a geek backlash in the next decade, mark my words, but a little geek never hurt anyone), I could imagine running a game for them and their friends, if I'm not too uncool. The house would be a welcome Nerdvanna safe haven for all (still no boys in the room and definitely open doors, I am a father afterall.).
For me and old crew, I'd like to hope that we've finally finished the Call of Cthulhu campaign, and I hope they do exact some revenge on the Slavers of Roark, and a few adventures beyond that. Our weekends should all get a little more relaxed, so I would say a consistent meeting of the minds every six weeks wouldn't be out of the question. The latest in linear and 3-D will allow us to construct the latest crowdsourced campaign as we set up to game.
Who am I kidding, I believe Steve's closet o' Kickstarters will still be overflowing. We'll have an eternal backlog.
Systems I would like to be playing:
RPGs
Call of Cthulhu: Just because I stopped running the campaign doesn't mean I'll stop playing. I might move onto the new 9th Edition by that point, but 1st-6th plus years of my skills would still be sufficient. And I would focus the utility of practical cultist magic just to piss the authors off.
Hackmaster: I'm sure my spot on the rule-light bandwagon will wax and wane over the years, but Hackmaster 4th Edition, in my opinion, is crunchy rules perfection.
D&D: I've played every edition of D&D except White Box (and I would if I could), and I see no reason to try the next edition or two.
Risus Illuminati University: I hope we're still chucking dice at barbeques a decade from now. The other rules light games may come and go, but IOU is basic enough for the average crazy gamer.
Wargaming
Gnome Wars/Trench Wars: Regardless of the name of this blog, I don't know what the distant future of Gnome Wars holds. I started playing right before my daughter Maja being born and the "No-no's" were a part of the first games we played. Like the Teddy Bears, Flintloque, and other "humorous" figures, they can easily inserted into a serious game... and we have had a few tense games of Gnome Wars. Trench Wars has the same mechanics (where do you think the inspiration for Gnome Wars came from?) and might perpetuate my attraction to the Great War
Colonials/Great War Africa/Samoa: Be it the Boxer Rebellion, Zulu Wars, Spanish American, or even the Sudan, I'd like to jump into as many Colonial games as possible. Everything post-Boer War in southern Africa continues to fascinate me, so I will continue to accumulate Askaris of all sorts, Ruga-Rugas, and Kings African Rifles. I would love to take a weekend off from life and just begin proper research on Samoa. I will run more Samoa games (I have the figures and hope to add to them), and even if I'm not the resident expert, Samoa is a "clean" war in terms of gameplay. Of course, I could acquire enough New Zealand ANZACs to run a "what-if the Germans had sufficient force to fight back in Samoa" campaign.
40K/WFB/Kings of War/WarPath: Who knows what the future holds for sci-fi and fantasy but I'm guaranteeing one thing: My Squats will not be ready to play, even if the future release of the Mantic space dwarves facilitates things in the now.
Magic
I may play, I may not. I'll probably accumulate the cards of my 'youth' out of the quarter or dollar bins like I'm doing nowadays.
Painting/Collecting
Gnomes: The never-ending battle, I'll still have some unfinished in a decade.
Colonials: Most are easy to paint, so I just need to buy, buy, buy! (And push the gnomes further in the queue).
Pulp: I didn't cover any real games using them, and these figure in particular are getting expensive, but a good collection of figures can be used in a multitude of settings. I'd like a "middle eastern" village that can cover games from Africa through Near Asia.
Egypt: Maja's fascination seems to be maturing than fading, so we'll see if we continue to acquire mummies, ancient Egyptian warriors. I anticipate pyramids moving into a corner of a bedroom.
Legions of Steel: I can't guarantee another game ever being played, but the UNE Commandos should get there day of painting, perhaps professionally.
54mm: My AWI 54s are still in the garage looking for a new owner (send me a message and we can negotiate). Perhaps Great War 40's or 54's for modeling's sake might be a new endeavor in my old age.
Don't forget Heroclix! :)
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