I was consumed with the OPG when I was a kid, partly because even then I knew a lot of AD&D was bogus, and partly because one every trip to the FLGS I saw all these gorgeous games that I knew must be doing something cool and different. And, thanks to my obsession, I discovered games like RuneQuest, Champions, and V&V — games I still cherish to this day.

And, speak of fuck all these games and pretty Euro-RPGs, I was just looking at Degenesis (which I didn’t even know was out in English, but it’s got Ennie noms) and after a brief and intense bout of lusting, I closed the browser tab and moved on. So pretty, but so emo and so much setting to read that I was all like: Fuck if I am ever going g to get this to the table. (That and it’s $110.)

Also, more often now I think: “What’s really selling me on this game? The art? The setting?” And, in response, I ask: “Is this game doing anything cooler than I could make up on my own?” I like buying pretty things as much as the next guy, but I am also getting so sick of being a consumer. I have a staggering amount of games in my basement — and the is after purging the stacks of d20 stuff I bought that basically gathered dust, depreciated, and then got sold.

“A lifetime of successful experiments seems like a better way to go than a lifetime of failed experiments, you know?”

Agreed.