Back to the Keep: Gaming cycles

I've been posting quite a bit lately on miniatures that I'm painting and not so much on roleplaying. I started the blog to put out some of my ideas as I was getting back into roleplaying games. Now that my attention is shifting to include more board games and minis games again, though, I find myself posting more about the latter. The funny thing about that is that I am actually playing a lot more RPGs lately.

I am currently playing a magic-user in an OD&D game every other week. On the alternate weeks from that game I'm playing a fighter in a B/X game. If I can work out getting the rules, I'm also thinking of getting into a Star Wars game on Sundays. Besides playing, I'm still running my Labyrinth Lord/AEC game every other Friday and a B/X game every other Sunday. I've got a ton of different games happening, and I'm constantly thinking of more that I either want to run or play.

Unfortunately, a lot of what I have been developing isn't getting posted because the players haven't fully encountered everything yet. That's one of the problems with running a sandbox-style game - I want to keep the surprising things secret until the players encounter them and that often means they sit for quite a while as the players explore other things. Eventually the players will explore them and I'll post them here, but in the meantime I'll be posting more about other things.

A lot of those other things are going to be about miniatures and painting. I've gotten into a good cycle of late where I paint or work on miniatures for a couple hours in the morning and do most of my development for my RPGs in the afternoon. Almost every day I'm working on something for each style of game. I'm finding that switching back and forth between games and game styles is actually helping me get more things done and keeping me from getting bored.

I know that a lot of people would probably call it Gamer ADD, but I think of it more as my gaming cycle. I spend a lot of time working on RPGs, and I need a break. So I paint some models and work on a miniatures project. I spend too much time painting an army and need a break, so I work on some RPG ideas instead. Constantly moving back and forth keeps me from getting frustrated and lets me move forward with both styles of gaming. It also allows me to spend some time working on all of the aspects of my gaming hobbies instead of feeling like I'm spending tons of time on one aspect and ignoring or sidelining the rest. I get to play all the different games I want, paint miniatures, write, and develop. Hopefully I can keep the cycle going!

Source: http://backtothekeep.blogspot.com/2012/09/gaming-cycles.html

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