At last count, I had over 200 board and card games, including various expansions and such that comes out for them. As for RPGs, I have well over 100 books for a large variety of systems.¹ And, on top of that, I’ve been purchasing RPG PDFs for quite a few years now,² and I think I have twice as many PDFs as hard copy books, though I haven’t counted those up in quite some time.

The saddest thing of all, though, is that I don’t have anywhere near the time I would like to play all this stuff. It’s a happy yet sad problem. Anytime we³ head out to visit family or friends, I usually load up a milk crate with a small selection of games, in the hopes that I may be able to sit someone at a table and play something. My wife supports this, thankfully, as this hobby is very social.

Actually, it was one of her long-time friends⁴ who first got us into this whole “Eurogaming” thing years ago. They would do the same thing whenever they came⁵ to our house. We could always count on them to bring a new stack of games they’d found. They introduced us to Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Carcassone, Evo,⁶ etc. We also always had to play a number of games of Euchre.

These days, my gaming addiction is fed when I go to the International House of Johnson, where lives Overlord Johnson himself, his lovely wife, and his young apprentice. We meet every two weeks and play, well, anything. These days, we’re in the midst of a Savage Worlds RPG game set in Roger Zelazny’s Amber, and GM’d by none other than Overlord Miller himself.

But, damn, I wish I could game more than that. Why? Because I want to play Exalted. I want to play True20. I want to play Mutants & Masterminds, D&D 4e, Burning Wheel, Untold, Star Wars Saga, Pathfinder, Fantasycraft, Fireborn, Legend of the Five Rings, Alpha & Omega, etc.⁷

I want to play Descent, Battlelore, Arkham Asylum, Cosmic Encounter, Age of Conan, Dominion,⁸ Pandemic, Race for the Galaxy, Smallworld, Keltis, Tomb, Wasabi, Titan, etc.⁹

Thankfully, my gaggle of gosslings are getting to the age where they’re interesting! Yes, old enough to read and write and count. Thus! Old enough to game! Yes, I can pull out Settlers of Catan and play with my two oldest sons and the wife. I can pull out Battlelore and wage war on my oldest son. I can toss down some Munchkin and backstab and steal to my heart’s content.

Well, usually. They still have to do their schooling and chores. And I have my own honey-do list to work off. But, thankfully, I can usually toss in one, maybe two, more game nights into any given month with just my family.

Haha to all you people that stood in shock and wonder when I said I had six little shin-kickers. Little did you know that I was training my own “next generation” in gaming!

But, damn, I wish I could game more…

1. Keep in mind this counts for all the D&D 4e books and Star Wars Saga books, etc.
2. Curse you, RPGnow.com!
3. The Gaggle of Gosslings, as it were.
4. Hyun Joo and Jason Zuck, for anyone that may know them
5. Usually after a 3-5 hour drive. Yes, they lived a fair distance away.
6. If you haven’t played Evo, by the way, you really, really need to. Let me know when you want to play, and I’ll come over with my copy in hand.
7. And yes, I have all of these. Sick, ain’t it?
8. Another must play, by the way. MUST!
9. Again, yes, these are all in my collection.

Starring: Craig Olejnik, Lisa Marcos, Ennis Esmer, and Colm Feore

So, this one came in under the radar, probably due to the simple fact that the wife and I don’t catch mainstream or even cable TV, and thus miss out on most of the “Coming Soon” kind of ads for new shows. We were looking for something new to watch on Hulu (have I mentioned my addiction to that site before?), and came across “The Listener.”

Now, this one seemed interesting. Premise was centered on a guy with the always awesome power of telepathy, and how he used it. Turns out that he’s a paramedic in, and this one is refreshing, Toronto! Toronto. As in Canada. When’s the last time you watched a show based in Canada. This in itself felt neat and new. Add to it the rather unknown actors (unknown to my wife and I, at any rate) and some solid writing, and this show quickly captivated us. Craig Olejnik is great as the lead with Ennis Esmer as his “sidekick” partner in the EMS rig. Toss in the general eye-candy of Lisa Marcos, and you’ve got some fun. By the way, Lisa Marcos’ character is Detective Charlie Marks. Though, I think I prefer Ennis’ character, Oz, calling her Detective Delicious. I may have to use that in my next RPG.

We spent the last few nights catching up on all of the first six episodes (still available on Hulu as of this writing), and we’re hooked. The show’s been added to my subscription queue, and we’ll be watching this one on a weekly basis. Let’s see if NBC let’s it ride for more than one season, shall we?

This series Seriously Doesn’t Suck.

Starring: Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, and Saul Rubinek

My wife and I caught the pilot to this new SyFy series thanks to Hulu (it’s the best way to watch television) last night. And I have to say we both thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were fun and believable. The plot had enough little twists that we didn’t guess the end at the beginning. Plenty of special effects to enjoy but they didn’t overwhelm the show. And, like Eureka, it had an element of just pure fun amidst the weirdness.

All-in-all, we’re both looking forward to following this show each week.

This show Really Didn’t Suck.