I know I've not really posted here in forever, and for good cause: I've not been gaming or thinking too much on gaming of late except for Travian, which is still going strong. (s1 starts on the 11th, for those who might be interested)
What has prompted my posting tonight is three-fold...
1, my lady isn't around to talk to and I'm bored shitless waiting on some slow ass settlers to claim me a new village on Travian.
2, I started this blog so that I could communicate and I've failed drastically in that so far and want to 'fix' it in this new year.
3, I got this for Christmas...
I feel like at the end of 3.5, I was maybe spinning my wheels in the game. I went big and got myself burned out on the very things that make D&D fun for me. Maybe that's why I haven't tried harder to make my schedule work to play in the past few months. I can't say for sure.
The one thing I can say is that this 4E preview book has opened my eyes and made me love the game that got me into tabletop rpgs in the first place. Many of the concepts and redesigns are things that I are just fresh enough to get those wheels a'turning in my brain, but still so recognizable as to not halt the thinking processes.
Am I a blind 4E fanboy? No.
Will I like everything about 4th Edition? Most certainly not. I'm already iffy on the Elf/Eladrin thing, but it's workable.
I will, however, embrace the new edition for what it is and use those products in whatever way I find most fitting. If I don't like the systems, then 3.5 books are at hand to give me a familiar system that's similar enough that I can fidget to make things work.
I'm actually eager to run a game. One of the reasons I had such a problem when I was playing here at my house, then later at Paul's in the fall is because before that, I was running a HUGELY epic game. One of such enormous story depth and character development potential that it literally took roughly half my energy to keep it going, and I liked it. I liked it so much and was on such a high from it even after the months of not playing before I started again that I crashed hard when it was just me and 2 players, and I wasn't really happy with joining games featuring people in high levels, because I needed a clean slate of playing at low levels to keep the balance of the DM rush in check.
I know this probably makes no sense. I'm trying to put it as clear as possible in context. I think I wasn't ready to go back to gaming just yet. I wanted all this great stuff that would take time and wasn't wanting to wait. 4E has whetted my appetite for a clean slate of gaming, and I think that by the time May rolls around, I'll be ready to play and DM and really enjoy myself and not just go through the motions.
I'm currently reading Races & Classes a second time. Once I absorb what I missed, I'll likely come back with more on it...and possibly a list of ideas I have for some games.
