Not Enough Time

It's not my shelf, but I've got a similar collection of stuff. Across several shelves and boxes.

There are so many good things out there in the gaming world. And there are so many things I missed out on the first time around. And there are so many games I would like to read, to try, to house rule, to convert, to run, and to play.

But I just don't have enough time. I don't.

Even if I gave up on Real Life, which -- of course -- I won't and can't.

So it's time to review all the things that I spend my time on in this hobby of mine and see what things I should be spending my time on.

The Short List
News and Feeds
Well, first and foremost I do enjoy hearing about the latest and greatest news and controversies about the hobby. I'm fascinated by the emergence of the Indie RPG, and the developments in the 3.5E / OGL industry space (especially Pathfinder, Castles & Crusades, Stars Without Number, True20, etc.). I'm fascinated by FATE, and all this stuff spurred on by stuff from OSR enthusiasts.

So feeds and blogging and news sites will be important.

Systems
I'll have to narrow down the systems I try to learn, and have some favorite go-to systems if I ever get to run games again. On the list right now are:

• For the fantasy genre, I tend toward the D20-inspired branch of systems, I'm looking at Castles & Crusades and True20;
• For the supers genre, I'm looking at Hero System, M&M, and either Icons or BASH;
• For the SF genre, I also look at the Hero System, EABA, and True20.

Of course, I do like reading up on new systems. But I will have to limit it to a certain number a year. And currently, one of those slots is taken up by Cortex-Smallville.

Settings
I always want to learn more about settings I like. But I really have to temper it somehow. After all, even if enjoy the exploration of various aspects of a setting -- at some point it becomes tedious, or boring, or more simply, enough.

For example, D&D 3E's Forgotten Realms main sourcebook, plus the Lords of Darkness book were enough for me. Other books were nice to have (Faiths and Pantheons and Magic of Faerun, for example), but the fleshing out of other areas started to become too much.

Also, I'm not a total slave to canon either -- I like to retain key elements of settings but would prefer to have space to insert my own ideas into the world.

Right now, my favored settings include: the iconic DC Universe & the iconic Marvel Universe, Forgotten Realms 3E, Mystara, Blue Planet, Fading Suns, Babylon 5, and the meta-setting of Call of Cthulhu (which includes 1890s,1920s, and Delta Green).

Runners up include Eclipse Phase, SF settings like Lightspeed that allow combining Star Wars and Star Trek elements into it, and city-based mini-settings like Lankhmar, Thieves' World, and Freeport.