Check In

It's been a week since my last blog post, so I'm posting this just to keep in touch (with whom? Myself? EWW! I'm keeping in touch with myself!)

Anyways, I just wanted to not go more than a week without a blog entry, so I'm cheating and writing this meta-entry about not writing the past week. I've been a little busy with other stuff, which is why I haven't been writing. So, bullet-point style, here are a few things I've been doing the past week that have been occupying my time:

-I've spent a lot of the past few days emerged deep in The One Ring. I am running a game of it this Sunday with an adventure of my own design, which I have been writing and prepping for. Also, I just finished my review of the latest sourcebook for the game, Rivendell, for my reviewing gig with Geek Native. I am very, very excited to run this game. Not only will it mark my return to regular GMing after a hiatus of several months, but The One Ring, as I've written before, is an extraordinary game, and I've been having a blast putting this adventure together. I am very enthusiastic that it will turn out well!

-With the arrival of the Xbox One this Christmas, my gaming pendulum is swinging back into videogame land, for the first time in almost a year. In the past few weeks since Christmas, I've beaten Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's single player campaign, made a new character in Dragon Age: Inquisition, and had some epic battles in Shadow of Mordor. To say nothing of Sunset Overdrive, which is just ridiculously fun. And my greedy eyes look ever outward at expanding my collection. I've refused to buy anything before my birthday this Friday, but after this weekend, as soon as I'm able, I'll be picking up Halo, Grand Theft Auto V, and Diablo III, amongst numerous potential others.

-Although my interest is now running deep into console gaming territory, I still intend to stay with tabletop gaming. For one thing, I generally don't like multiplayer videogaming; I prefer my social gaming face-to-face. For another, I am very much an advocate of investing in experiences, not things. Tabletop gaming definitely feels like a collection of things at times, but most tabletop games can't be played alone. So these games facilitate an experience with other people. That's important. So while videogaming is definitely something I look forward to when I need a quiet evening at home by myself, this blog isn't going to switch over to electronic gaming any time soon.

-I'm having a problem with my office at lunchtime D&D games with my coworkers. Mainly, I'm finding it really boring. We're running the Starter Set, which may be fine for a new group of players, but for an old vet like me, I'm finding it excruciatingly plain. My players seem into it, but I most certainly am not. I'm wondering if I can switch them over to Star Wars or The One Ring. Or maybe I could pick up a deep strategy game that plays in less than an hour, like Seven Wonders or something...