Wednesday, September 1, 2021

The Gaming Bucket List

The Player's Bucket List

Some years ago I asked my players what their gaming "bucket list" was. I wanted to know what experiences they would love to have in a TTRPG to help me think up adventure ideas. Mine looked something like this:

  • Have a character who built a castle in a couple of nights using stone shape, wall of stone, and fabricate.
  • Command an epic Star Trek style space battle.
  • Build a frontier Dominion into a mighty kingdom.
  • Set off a Supernova
  • Play a Barbarian that takes a crown by slaying a king.
  • Play a character that invents multiple spells.
  • Play a computer hacker that destroys a war ship or space station with a computer.

Its an exercise I recommend considering with almost any role-playing group. If you are going to play with these players lo g enough, putting the things they are looking for somewhwee in your world can pay off...  So long as you are willing to make them work at least a little to make it happen. 

The GM Bucket List

It was also an exercise I did at a time when I was really frustrated that no one else was stepping up to GM. It was built on wistful "Forever-DM" energy.

Since then I have moved in a very different direction in my gaming. First, I found some online groups where people were willing to take turns running the game. And second, I started looking at the OSR and indie games for something lighter and faster to play.

Now I have stopped worrying about what I want to do as a player. I have seen so many cool games, fun modules, and crazy ideas that I want to try that I instead have a bucket list of games and scenarios I want to do instead.

I recommend looking at your collection and putting this list together for yourself. What do you want to have run before you are done gaming? Right now this is mine:

Even if I don't get to run all of these, I can learn a lot about my tastes looking at these. I am clearly looking for strange sagas the scramble up science fiction and fantasy. I like games where dying is part of the fun on occasion, and I like to stitch a lot of adventures together.

This definitely helps me search for games - and groups - in the future. 

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