Go Out and Get Some!

Remember when you had all the time in the world to game? Remember what it was like to game all weekend long every weekend and still want more? Remember what it was like to game until 3 or 4 in the morning on a regular basis?

All right, for some of you this isn’t a big stretch of the memory functions. For some of you, this is what life is now. For some of you, it’s what life has always been like and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon.

Fine. Have your fun.

But there are those of us who remember these things like foggy dreams of long ago. For some of us, these memories are part of the good ol’ days.

Let’s face it, the older we get the more real life throws at us. It’s harder to make schedules mesh. We’re getting married, having kids, and getting grown-up jobs that pay more than minimum wage. We’re graduating and going to grad school or law school or medical school. We’re moving forward with our lives. Some of us are “out-growing” role-playing games and the weekly pizza-fest. These are not necessarily bad things at all. They can be good things. For one, they prove that gamers as a whole are not complete dysfunctional losers lurking on the outside of society drooling over the half-naked babes and hunks in the game books.

However, as exciting and thrilling as our lives become, a little bit of us is left behind as we find it harder and harder to make time to game or find time to game or find people with whom to game. After all, it’s rather difficult to get to a game with a newborn. It’s hard to find new gamers to game with when you are forced to move to a new city for your job. It’s hard to find new gamers when you lose old, established, familiar players to marriage, kids, and relocation. It’s hard watching your friends “outgrow” gaming. It’s hard.

What can I say? I know what you’re going through. Heck, I’m living it.

So, what do you do when you can’t make the time to game with a regular face-to-face table-top gaming group or can’t find a new gaming group in your new location? How do you get your role-playing fix? How do you feed the addiction? What do you do with all that pent-up role-playing energy?

You game.

That’s right. You game.

I’m not talking about table-top gaming. I’m talking about PbeMs, or Play-by-e-Mail role-playing games. There are literally thousands out there. Thousands of games of any flavor you could imagine. Want to play White Wolf, GURPS, Champions, Torg, Toon, Big Eyes Small Mouth, Star Wars, freeform, and/or AD&D? Want to play but you can’t find anyone who’ll play with you?

They’re out there.

I promise.

Want to play a superhero, a princess, an angel, a toon, a warrior, an elf, a cleric, a mage, a vampire, a hunter, a psychic, or something of your own design?

They’re out there.

I promise.

It’s all just a matter of finding a game, a Game Master who’ll approve your character, and a desire to write rather than speak what your character is doing. (Good writing skills help, but some games over-look poor writing skills in favor of good role-playing.)

It’s a wonderful thing. I promise.

You can find games that post hundreds of messages/moves a day or games that post 2 times a week and are moderated. You can find games for pretty much any television show or movie you’ve ever seen or any book you’ve ever read. You can find games that cross shows/movies/books with each other, across genres even. Imagine Glee, the RPG. I’ve seen the game out there. No – really – I have.

Stop with the excuses and go out and find that game!