Narrowing the Game Nights Down

 I've been gaming a lot in recent months....too much by a long stretch, as the fun of hanging with friends and supporting my son's desire to run games overwhelms the pragmatism of how much time I really have for fun vs. work and life. Well, I made an important step recently to free up some of that necessary time and have bowed out of my Saturday group for at least the next few months, which will help. I am keeping my Wednesday game going as that one is firmly rooted in the hump day, the least productive day of the week when it comes to "getting stuff done" after work is over anyway, so its good enough for me to continue gaming on that night! Been my main game night for decades now, anyway.

Running just one game a week has me thinking more seriously about what I actually do want to run, though. And despite my prior recent posts musing about all sorts of systems from now and then, I think I've been able to narrow down some thoughts on this significantly: 

First, Pathfinder 2E is a better design and experience than D&D 5.5 in every way. But, it is what my son is running on Friday nights now when he GMs, and for those nights I can attend that is probably enough for me. Plus, a nontrivial chunk of my desire for a break is "fantasy gaming burnout" so I'm trying to reduce the amount of D&D or Pathfinder I run so I can recharge the batteries. 

Second, for game systems which deliberately prompt creative energy I have to hand it to Cypher System. This is a resoundingly smart, creative engine which encourages interesting and fun games. So Cypher is definitely "in."

Third, some of my more traditional choices stand out as obvious preferences that I enjoy running short form campaigns in, therefore providing what I need in the form of a break from long-form campaigning and D&D specifically: Traveller and Call of Cthulhu come to mind right away. Less "traditional" but equally viable are the indie alts for these systems, which are Mothership and Liminal Horror respectively. So all four of these games are viable choices to focus on.

Now to just decide what to run, and when! I think my Wednesday group would be a good sport about any of these systems, but I probably need to at least get the D&D game to a happy pause point (or conclusion) first.