In the craziness of the Holiday Weekend, this post was due to run on Friday, but was not able to be posted in time. Nevertheless it is presented for your review.

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In keeping with the season, I wanted to come up with a list of things that I am thankful for in my gaming life. It’s not that I am not thankful for all the other things in my life: family, career, friends, but seeing that it is Friday, I wanted to keep this post focused on gaming. In general, I am thankful for being a gamer, as gaming has been a great way for me to meet friends, socialize, and keep my mind sharp. This year, I am thankful for the following gaming things….

My Iron Heroes Campaign

2007 was the second year of my Iron Heroes campaign, “The Throne Of The Demon King.” This year the players continued their quest to gain power against the Demon King to liberate their lands and save humanity. My players: Dr. J, Sargon, and Spenser, were excellent this year. Their enthusiasm showed at the table and outside of the game. The campaign had a number of important revelations that expanded the scope of the struggle the campaign. In addition, Sargon rotated out his Assassin, Tabris, for his new Arch Wizard, Severis. I have high expectations for this game heading into 2008 and fully expect that this will be at the top of my list again next year.

GenCon

2007 saw the 40th Anniversary of GenCon, and I was fortunate enough to be there again. As always, GenCon was a blast. For the second year, I was part of the GM-Fu panel discussion, which was well received and a lot of fun. I also had an opportunity to meet members from the Treasure Tables Forum in person and shared a few drinks with them at The Ram. I also played two great RPG sessions: a Burning Empires game, and an Iron Heroes game. I had a great time playing in the Lunch Money tournament. However, the best moment was my “fanboy” moment when I had my picture taken with Gary Gygax: the master responsible for D&D, GenCon and everything that followed.

Green Shirts

“The Green Shirts” are my group of friends who all attend GenCon. We wear custom-embroidered green and black bowling shirts for the duration of the Con. This year there were 13 of us in attendance. It is a fun time, as we get together from Buffalo, Danbury (CT), Chicago, and Indianapolis. We spend our days at the convention center, playing games, shopping, and hanging out. Then at night we head to my brother-in-law’s house, where he cooks all manner of pizza, calzones, and panzerratti until we cannot move. I love the camaraderie of being at GenCon with the Green Shirts, as we hang out in the mornings having our coffee at the Hyatt or bumping into each other on the convention floor and giving our traditional greeting, “Hey, nice shirt.” Going to GenCon is fun, but having a banner to rally under makes the experience that much better.

My Creativity

This goes hand in hand with my Iron Heroes game, but I am very thankful for my continued creativity this year. This not to brag, but rather to acknowledge that creativity has its highs and lows and that I have been quite fortunate to stay in a very creative pace while crafting my Iron Heroes game this year. I have worked hard to keep my creative edge honed this year, and I have been very cognizant of the best times to engage in creativity and knowing when to switch to simpler tasks. I hope that my creativity will stay with me throughout this coming year and that it may help to create an even greater year of gaming.

My Gaming Group

My Iron Heroes group is one part of a larger gaming group, in which I play. My gaming group has been in existence for 13 years, and now resides in my basement, where we meet weekly to play in one of three different campaigns. I am fortunate to be part of a group that plays weekly and that gives me an opportunity, twice every 3 weeks, to be a player in a game, which gives me the downtime I need to stay creative, and the player perspective that helps me to hone my GM skills. I look forward to Sunday nights when I head down to my gaming room and toss some dice, make some bad jokes, and hopefully bash some bad guys.

All in all, it has been a very good gaming year. I am thankful to still be playing RPGs, and I am looking forward to what the new year brings. So, what are you thankful for in your gaming life?