Power Word Resolution

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Like it or not, it's the time of the year when we reflect on the past and make plans for the future. Often this means resolutions. Sure, there are the typical resolutions. You promise yourself to avoid the temptations of gaming snacks (yeah, right!), exercise more (break out that Wii or Kinect), and quit your favorite nasty habit (yet again). But what about gaming resolutions? Have you thought about any of those yet? Well, to get you in the mindset, here are a few from around the office.

Game more! An impromptu poll around the office showed this was the most popular gaming resolution at Paizo. While we're surrounded by games every day, and some of us play in more games than our families might like, we're always hungry for more.

Mark Moreland wants to play more systems in the New Year, and he is not alone. That's always a goal here. If you couldn't tell, we all have a geekish curiosity about games in general, especially RPGs, and are always willing to play whatever game a brave and patient GM is willing to run.

As for running games, there are many of us who are looking to start new campaigns in 2011. Hyrum Savage wants to get his "The Dregs" campaign off the ground. It's something he brainstormed with Owen Stephens a couple of months ago. The premise is that everyone in the group was kicked out of their former adventuring group for being, well... not very good at adventuring. That's right, we're all going to playing the scrubs. Abilities are generated with 3d6s going straight down the line on the character sheet. I've already rolled up my stats: Str 11, Dex 7, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 6. While I don't expect my fighter—Muckle the Chucklehead—to live very long, I do expect the game will feature much telling of bad jokes and laughter, not necessarily in that order.

I'm trying to finagle my way into running a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign. I know this will come into conflict with my wife's resolution of not have me run another campaign, but I've already started collecting miniatures for this game, so that's bad news for her.

Almost all of us are looking to be more productive in our geekery come 2011. Crystal Frasier is looking to release more Pathfinder and Mutants & Masterminds PDFs, and many of us want to get ahead on our multitude of projects, both at work and on the side. Everyone in the Tuesday minis-painting crew is hatching grand plans for next year's painting. I'm sure that group's ranks will swell at the start of 2011 when folks who are sorely behind on their minis painting (Bulmahn!) will make the effort to turn over a new leaf in the New Year.

Some of our resolutions are just downright odd. One of James Sutter's resolutions is to continue to spend James Jacobs's Sandpoint games yelling things like "BLOOD FOR THE BIRD GOD!" and "THE DARK LORD COMES!" every time his character, Kirin, sees a seagull. That and the well-meaning (but maybe futile) goal of not being the flakiest person in whatever game he's playing. Good luck with that, Sutter!

What about you? What gaming resolutions do you have for the New Year? Talk back at us on the Paizo messageboards and don't get upset if we end up stealing some of your resolutions as our own.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Pathfinder RPG Designer