10 for '10: New Year Gaming Resolutions

Here's hoping everyone has had a great holiday season, and has a debauched and (reasonably) safe New Year's Eve! If you haven't yet, he sure to grab your copy of the 2009 Beyond the Black Gate Compendium. Thanks for all the kind comments on this, I hope you get as much use out of it as I do.

Now on to my top 10 Gaming Resolutions for 2010:

1. More Gaming! While I enjoyed more old-school sessions in 2009 than in 2008, I still would like to get a regular weekly thing going. Optimistically, I've talked to quite a few local old-school ex-gamers over the last year or so, and with a little effort via phone and email, I can probably put something together.

2. More Writing! As I put the finishing touches on the Warriors of the Red Planet rough draft and an as-yet unannounced project (see certain past blog entries for clues!), I hope to get still more projects rolling for 2010. I have to say writing with an old-school ethic has certainly been liberating compared to the d20 projects I've worked on in the past. I've actually had to "re-train" myself to focus on real text rather than rules-crunching, and its been very educational.

3. See Warriors of the Red Planet published! As this gets closer and closer to a form I'm not terminally embarrassed of, I'm getting more and more excited about actually seeing it in print. Partnering up with the amazing Thomas Denmark really raised the bar on this for me, and made me seriously focus on turning what was basically a pet project of house rules for Sword & Planet gaming into something I can be proud of.

4. Convert at least one non-gamer. If you had asked me five years ago whether these great old-school games would actually see a resurgence, I would have had my doubts. I think its fantastic how things have taken off in just the last year or so, due in large part to the hard work of the RC, adventure, and supplement authors, the contagious enthusiasm of so many great bloggers, and the publishers of awesome old-school mags like Knockspell, Fight On!, and Green Devil Face. So here's hoping everyone does there part and brings at least one new gamer into the fold this year to enjoy this stuff.

5. Run a public Demo. I ran a couple of Megadungeon demos this year for friends, and this coming year I'd like to step it up a notch and run some at local cons. Also, 4E has made the local D&D Meetup chapter grow to huge numbers, and they welcome all manner of games, so I'm planning to run a few demos for these guys, too!

6. Contribute to Old-school Magazines. One of the more frequent comments I see on the blog is "you should submit this to (insert magazine title here)", so I plan on doing just that. Thanks for everyone's support and encouragement! You should see my first effort (already submitted) in print very soon...

7. Watch more Cheesy Movies. Since expanding my cable service (and, sadly, my cable bill *sigh*), I've rediscovered my love of cheesy sci-fi, fantasy, and horror flicks, and subsequently rediscovered how much cool stuff is out there to mine for great gaming ideas.

8. Expand my Pulp Library. Thanks in large part to Grognardia's awesome pulp library features and Paizo's wonderful Planet Stories, my appreciation for classic pulp fantasy and sci-fi continues to grow. I hope to post reviews of my more interesting finds here on the blog at least monthly.

9. Talk about Health. Is it gaming related? I don't know, but we all joke about "Gamer's Disease", and it's no secret our hobby doesn't involve a lot of healthy eating/exercise, and many of us are soon-to, or have long-since, passed the dreaded, evil, forty-mark. There have simply been too many health-related tragedies in our hobby in the last few years to pretend there's not a problem. Is there a way to effectively promote healthy living hand-in-hand with gaming? I'm not sure, but I have some ideas, so stay tuned for more on this subject.

10. Help Promote Retro-clones at Game Stores. With Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord in print, I plan on making a point of visiting any local game stores and encouraging ("we wouldn't want any accidents to happen, now would we?") them to get these on their shelves ASAP.

So what are your gaming resolutions for the big '10?