Guest Post: At a Gaming Crossroads

[Editor's Note: Dale's back as a guest writer to deliver up some thoughts on gaming crossroads. Welcome back, Dale.]

I’m at a bit of a crossroads in my gaming life.  Y’see, I went nearly a full year without gaming, and I’ve got to say: It really really really really… well again you get the point, sucked.

I finally ran into someone at my new job whom was as big of a gamer as I was.  (Which by the way, gamers ARE EVERYWHERE, and don’t let someone make you believe otherwise.)  So, my collegue invited me to a game he was running at the house of a friend of his.

I accepted the hour long trip, because of my lack of game time, and met up with the group.

It was very mediocre.

They played well together, but there were a few complications (we’ll get to those later).  The first thing I was told, was that the slot I was filling for the game was due to many other players showing up for one game and never coming back.

Mind you, part of the reason I was there, was that I was a ringer character the DM created as an NPC but wanted someone to actually play.

Now the guy who owned the house was a good fellow.  His wife join us in the game, and they both made lunch AND dinner for us.  So as the night started, I didn’t quite understand WHY people weren’t coming back.  Everything seemed to start off fine.

Slowly, as the game progressed I began to realize what the issue was.  The gentleman that owned the house was a bit controlling.  Now I know that I have my own issues, so I’m not going to point fingers and blame, but I realized that if a person played the game with him, they may not enjoy his game style.  He was very much a “to the business” guy, and it left little room for the possibility of something else.  So when it came to situations during the game, when he had nothing to contribute, there were a lot of blank stares.  People weren’t used to full helm control.

Now, I understand every party has got to have a leader, and I have my ideas of a what a good leader is, but, you know, whatever.

So we finished the game, and the campaign that night, and everyone left.  I greatly appreciated the opportunity to game, but realized I needed to the tell my collegue how I felt about it.  My reasoning behind that was the fact that he had been taking people leaving personally. He thought they were leaving because they hated the game.

Since then, I haven’t been back.  I feel like the hour drive doesn’t have a good payoff if I can’t enjoy the game. So now, I’m at a bit of a crossroads.  My collegue is starting up another game and I am excited to play.  I’m just not sure if I should feel guilty.  Would you?  I would appreciate some feedback!