New Year, New Outlook

Happy New Year RPGBN!
After taking a break from the blogging world to reassess some things, I have decided to return to the fold. 

When I last posted I was aggravated and considered not only leaving the RPGBN but to close down this blog all together.Things that were happening here, in my personal life and in the comic and gaming industries were simply getting on my nerves. I took my dissatisfaction to heart and pretty much left this blog sitting cold. Looking back that was a bit of a drastic move to make.

I enjoy blogging, though I admit I'm not as active as many of the other member, and I do like writing about things which interest me. Namely comics, movies, books and of course gaming. So I figured it was about time for me to quit pouting and get to posting.

This year I'd like to try posting more than just reviews and opinion pieces, though those will still be posted just because I like them. I plan to post summaries of the games I run. Granted most of them will be Pathfinder, but I am going to try to fit in a few Mutants & Masterminds, Silver Age Sentinels, AD&D, Hollow Earth Expedition or Rifts adventures during 2010 as I try to coerce my group into genres other than straight fantasy as well as other systems. In a way everyone that reads my blog will be right there with me. Following my group through the ups and downs of our gaming experience. For some this may be helpful or to others it may just be humorous. Either way this will allow and hopefully encourage something I am very fond of, discussion.

You will see posts about adventure ideas I come up with, settings I am working on, how I try to convince my group to try a new system, whether it worked, and then how things went. If you have suggestions for my failed attempts, comments on my successes or even just wanna say hi, feel free to jump right in.  Everyone is welcome.


One thing I may explore this year is my experience trying to learn and relearn various systems. You see during my hiatus I went back and read many of my old game books. Doing so caused me to realize something, I don't know my favorite systems as well as I thought I did. I've been gaming for at least 20 years and honestly found out that I still have a few things to learn, even about old systems.

I've taken a great many of the things I know about my favorite games for granted. Assuming that I knew what I was talking about, until took the time to really read the books and found that sometimes my way of doing things wasn't exactly correct. I blame this on my tendency to throw out things I don't like upon first reading a rule book. Generally, as I've stated here before, I take the parts I like and run the game the way I want. So one of my goals this year, call it a resolution if you like, is to not only thoroughly learn some new systems but to relearn some many of my older games.

I've even decided to go back and relearn AD&D. Partially because of the old school resurgence, and partially out of nostalgia. Only one member of my group  has stuck around since or was even gaming when we made the switch from 2e to 3e nearly a decade ago. To the younger guys it will seem like a whole new system. I'll let you guys know how well I think the system held up or whether nostalgia has made me remember the game more fondly that it deserves.Plus I'll give you the new kids' opinion of the system. That should spark at least one good debate.

So for 2010 I'm going into this new year with a slightly different outlook on gaming and blogging. Hopefully it will be fun for all of us.


 Also I want to give special thanks to my friend Jason James from the Nut Gallery Review for his fill in posts over the past month.