Gamer ADD and Me

First off, I hate the term Gamer ADD, but since it's in common usage I'll use it too. I am as susceptible to it as any other gamer out there and as the guy who is usually the game master my only outlet for gamer ADD is to usually play a board game or a wargame. I know that if I don't take the occasional break from DMing I'll just suffer from burnout and need to take a break eventually anyway, which can lead to the death of a campaign if it's not addressed promptly and efficiently.

Now, I am not saying that my OA game is anywhere near burnout stage for me as a DM, we've hardly begun. Most of the players actually want more game time, but I can't reasonably schedule the OA campaign for more often than every other week because the older adults that are playing the game that have families need to be able to spend some time with them. However, when Dalton was at the house for a couple of days for the Halloween film festival we talked a lot about gaming and maybe setting up a game for the off weekends, for those of us that don't mind sacrificing the extra time. He's 18 and has lots of spare time. My whole family is here gaming with me. I don't think it'd be a great idea for me to run another game myself, although if push came to shove, I would; but my lovely wife suggested that she had a pretty cool idea for a Star Wars campaign set during the Old Republic era.

So, I jumped on that opportunity. She doesn't GM much, but when she does it's usually pretty memorable. It saves me from GMing another game, which keeps my burnout level down. I love Star Wars, because I was seven (almost eight) years old when it came out, so, like most men of my generation, I have a fixation on it that is nearly religious :) Seriously though, I have heard Star Wars referred to as the Viet Nam of my generation; while I think that's more than a little hyperbole, it certainly did help to shape my generation, I am one of those people that agree when they say that George Lucas reintroduced the concept of Good vs. Evil and the Heroic Journey to western culture. That said, I am no Lucas fanboy, I am pretty sure that almost everything he has said was his master plan about Star Wars since the release of Star Wars in 1977 has been pure unadulterated BS; BS that he, sadly, has come to believe is true.

I also used to think that Jedi was the weakest Star Wars film and that Ewoks were the worst thing to happen to the Star Wars universe; then George made the prequels and proved that he hated the fans, his own early work and, apparently, everything but money; but that's just my opinion. Hell, it's probably our fault, we begged him for more Star Wars films, despite the fact that he hadn't made a decent movie in decades; then we were shocked by the steaming pile of shit that he delivered unto us. We should have known The Phantom Menace would suck when he made the special editions of the original trilogy, I am still pissed about Greedo shooting first- it changes the entire character of Han Solo. That said, I still went to see the damned prequels in the theater and I still bought the damned prequels on DVD when they came out. My kids loved them. My dad loved them. Maybe it's me.

I didn't like the Star Trek reboot either, although it took me a while to figure out why; but that's a rant for another time. I really didn't plan on ranting about movies at all today, it's my daughter Ember's birthday, she's 14 today and she's my youngest. Maybe that's what brought out the cranky old man in me today.

Anyway, here's some stuff I got in the mail today-




These two Star Wars modules I looked for on EBay as soon as Mona said that she was willing to run a Star Wars game, I figured I should strike while the iron is hot, even if she doesn't use the modules as written (which seems unlikely, since she is leaning towards a version of the D20 Star Wars), there are bound to be plot ideas, NPCs, maps and other stuff she can mine them for. I was actually pretty impressed with how quickly they arrived, since I only ordered them on the 1st.


These pictures aren't actually all that great, they are Ratling Heroes and Goblin Leaders, I bought them both for use with my OA campaign, despite the fact that I haven't actually used any miniatures yet, I may in the future. The Ratling Heroes actually would make good Goblin Rat miniatures, I could have used them last time we played.