Y is for Your Mission (Should You Choose To Accept It)

I think that, as I approach the end of this blogging challenge, I have thought a lot more about gaming than I have for a long, long time. I’ve been reading other blogs as well as chugging along with mine, and there has been a lot of food for thought over the course of this month. Frankly, I’m a little surprised I actually managed to finish this challenge (my ADD must be getting old 8). In a way though, this has inspired me to “get serious” about gaming again. Firstly, I want to attend a con… a real, honest-to-goodness con. I know there used to be a monthly meeting of the University of Manitoba Gaming Club, because I can remember going there to trade Magic cards (more like, get HOSED on trades of Magic cards by people who had access to the Internet before I did), as well as watching some WH40K games, and playing in one of the most memorable games of my life.

(Okay, I can’t leave that hanging, so here’s another aside: I used to play Blood Bowl when it was still a table top game. At the time, I played the Darkside Cowboys, the Dark Elf team, but I was a little crazy, and I would routinely field a team with TWO chuckers, and a bunch of FAST receivers. My strategy was, instead of going for long bombs, I would have half my receivers and one chucker head to midfield, and the other half of my receivers head for the endzone. Then, I would just lob a pass to midfield, hand it off to my other chucker, and then fire it into the endzone receivers. Seemed simple enough. Anyway, a friend of a friend also played Blood Bowl. He had the Chaos All-Stars, which was basically an UBER-team of all hero-like personalities. He spent a TON of money buying and painting all the distinctive figures, and he has amassed quite a reputation with his team. He used to play every Games Day, and would take on all comers. At the point when I played him, he had a 12-0 record that season, and usually won games by injuring enough of his opponents’ players that their team couldn’t continue. Needless to say, he was confident the Darkside Cowboys would be just another notch on his belt.

Needless to say, I CLEANED HIS CLOCK. His team relied on huge ogre blockers and other tanks that were slow to start, but would steamroll his opponents with devastating efficiency. He used a few fast players to lock down his opponents’ receivers, then won through attrition. But, when he faced the Cowboys, he got mauled. First, the Dark Elves were one of the fastest teams in the league, so I could usually run away from his tanks, thus preventing the “crush”. By running the double chucker offence (which, while unconventional, was completely legal), I left him with more targets than he could cover. I used my team’s speed to stay away from his tanks, running away from his blitzers and blockers, and set up the pass to my midfield chucker. Then, he was caught. The first couple plays, he stuck to my second receiving core – so I just ran the ball in for the score. After that succeeded twice, he started to try and cover my second chucker squad. Then, I would either pass to my sure-handed receivers, hand the ball off, and throw again before he could catch up to me, or I would simply throw the long bomb to the other receiving corps, knowing that even if I missed, the ball would end up on the pitch closer to me than him, so I could just pick it up and scamper in. He had absolutely NO answer for my strategy, and I ended up winning 5 scores to 2, handing him his ONLY loss. And I retired undefeated 8) )

Anyway, back on topic… I know that there’s a science fiction convention in Winnipeg, but there is not a ton of role-playing that goes on (mostly Arkham Horror, tactical boardgames, and CCGs). I suppose I could try to run a game there, but from what I’ve heard about the organizers, they are pretty flaky, and I would rather get some gaming time under my belt before I start running something after years of not running anything. The only other con I know is a WH40K tournament, and the LAST thing I need is to get back into 40K. So, I am establishing a plan… a mission, if you will.

1) I want to attend a con. Not necessarily Gen Con (although that would be nice), but I think I’m going to need to try and find a con somewhere nearby (preferably in Canada, and fairly close by), just to soak up the atmosphere, and maybe get some gaming in.
2) I want to try and come up with a plan to maybe, MAYBE, run a game at a con next year. If they don’t have games to play, maybe I can get a game up. I know a couple of my friends who would play for sure. I was thinking (having seen so many people do it) of running the Keep with LL, so that I could just constantly add new characters as the death toll rises.
3) I want to try and establish… something. Something to promote gaming (not even necessarily old-school gaming). Maybe I can convince the Rec Center in town to give me a night next winter to run a campaign for some of the kids at school. It’s worth a shot.

And I encourage all of you reading this… come up with your own plan. Let’s see if we can’t take the synergy this blogging challenge has created to try and do something to promote gaming again, like the old days. It’s worth a shot.