Unfortunately it looks like I will not make it to GenCon this year. The good news is the reason — its very likely I’ll be moving at the end of August. Everything is proceeding as hoped for in the house sale and purchase. We have a signed Purchase & Sale agreement for our current house, which means there is now real money on the line should things fall apart. We haven’t quite gotten that far on the purchasing side, but it’s getting very close.
GenCon aside, I hope this move will have a positive impact on gaming for me. When I started this blog we were still living in our first house. It was a small house, but also a very short walk to the original offices of 38 Studios. This was a golden time of gaming for me. I was running a campaign with friends many of whom were co-workers, and it was very easy for them to pop over to my house after work for a game. We’d crowd around the dining room table and play right up until bedtime. My oddly early schedule has in the past made scheduling games a bit difficult, so hosting things at my house was always preferable as I didn’t have to drive anywhere afterwards before collapsing into bed.
When 38 moved to Providence the game lived on, we just started playing in the office. This was a bit more difficult for me personally, as now I had a 45 minute drive after the game before reaching my bed. Also the bitter irony was that the house we moved to in Medway was much larger, large enough to finally realize my dream of having a dedicated game room. But it was in Medway, far away from pretty much everything, and the fancy game room was used but rarely. Still, 38 provided more players than I could handle and I got to play very regularly.
When 38 collapsed, the game room suddenly became very handy. Everyone in my game was laid off, and having a weekly D&D respite was very welcome. You’d think with everyone suddenly having oodles of free time we’d play all the time. But no, everyone was dealing with the crisis in their own ways, frequently off to go on interviews, prepare for moving, or otherwise just try to cope with the unexpected change. For a while though we kept the regular game schedule transposed here to my house in Medway, and found solace in killing the orcs of clan Chafee.
Eventually though the game petered out everyone drifted away. I got a new job in Cambridge, a painful hour plus drive away. I ran a couple games for folks in the new office but while there was interest there for more, I couldn’t handle that commute after a game and nobody in Cambridge wants to drive out to Medway for D&D. I’ve now been without a game for almost a year.
The new house is half the distance to the office, and I’ve been promising folks I’d run another game at the office once I moved. The new house also has a pretty spectacular space for gaming. Also, it has central AC and a pool, and yesterday it hit 99 degrees outside. So, despite missing GenCon, I’m pretty optimistic about my future chances of having a regular game to play. At least in the summer.
