Game Wish 44: Picking Games

Perverse Access Memory: WISH 44: Picking Games

How do you choose games to join or to run? What factors influence you: timing, people, system, genre, etc.? Do you weigh different factors for different kinds of games, e.g., online vs. tabletop vs. LARP? Is it a group decision or a decision you make on your own?

It's a long time since I've played in a long-running face-to-face campaign; all my gaming nowadays is either PBeM, PBMB, or one-shot convention games.

At Gypsycon two weeks ago I didn't get to personally choose the games I played in, but got allocated to games based on a best guess of my preferences derived from the PBMBs I play in. However, when I do get to choose the games, either on line games, or at larger public conventions, there are three factors that influence things:

First, if the game premise sounds sufficiently interesting, or is a game system or genre I've always wanted to play but never got round to it, or is game I've enjoyed a lot in the past. When I first started online gaming I joined a lot of games in systems or gameworlds I'd have sitting on my shelf but never actually played, such as Call of Cthulhu, Traveller and Castle Falkenstein. At conventions it's been similar, with games like Hero Wars, In Nomine, Nobilis or GURPS Transhuman Space.

Second is the reputation of the GM. A convention game run by someone like Phil Masters or Mark "L'Ange" Baker, or a PBMB run by the likes of David Edelstein or Maughn Matsuoka is always going to get me interested, especially if it's a genre or system that interests me anyway.

The third is when the GM headhunts me into his or her game, which is a common method of recuitment on online games, especially on forums like Dreamlyrics where there's a limited pool of potential players. It's also happened at conventions where I've been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a GM with an empty slot in his game has seen me wandering around not doing anything.