Part 1: A New Year Resolutions for RPGers

This is it. Your time to shine and make the kind of New Years Resolution worthy of not just the coming New Year, but the new DECADE.

I don’t know about you – but when I first started thinking about this, my initial thoughts were NOT ones of empowerment; instead, I was fairly positive I was going to miss the boat on any lofty goals worthy of a decade to skip right on past the anxiety that trying to live up to them would cause.

I imagine you, dear reader, understand some of that energy. If there’s one thing I love about the community of RPGers – it’s that we all tend to have similar internal quirks which lead to PERFECT senses of humor about such things. Many of us tend to be a little more introverted vs extroverted, and anxiety around functioning in a very bright and noisy world is something I’m glad I know I’m not alone with. 😊

However, there are also reasons why we play adventurers in our precious spare time, and I would say that is because we are. In the day-to-day, we embody the same spirit of “we can probably tackle this” which we infuse our games and storytelling with. You cannot play anything that you are not, at least in some small sense. So the truth is, you have the wild heart of an adventurer even if you are currently living in an apartment in the heart of some city or suburb working far too many hours at a job which is not very exciting. 

Given that small and wonderful fact, I know you, like me, have also tossed around the idea of a decade-worthy growth goal/resolution which you, with your great heart, could be proud of in SPITE of the more practical parts saying (perhaps rightfully) ‘this is madness’.  

Let’s ignore those parts for now and instead ask ourselves: what is a growth goal worthy of the coming decade?

Ignore the peripherals that we hear touted as lofty goals, being thinner, or muscley-er, digging up more time in the day to accomplish more things, or taking more time out during the day to accomplish LESS. Achieving once and for all that ONE thing you’ve been wrestling with the past year, or vow to no longer let that ONE thing bother you any longer.

Resolutions are, more often than not, fraught with expectation and pressure.

I’d like to propose a different kind of resolution, one that is softer, more nurturing, still requiring a bit of growth to accomplish, but one worthy of the reward of trying.

That resolution is one of Fellowship.

Fellowship

Fellowship is something we could likely use some development on (I sure could) especially if we want to have that unicorn of a D&D game that lasts for years because of everyone’s commitment. Or if we want that group of friends which lasts for decades as we age together and still game.

Perhaps you have that already, and if you do then I would amend the suggestion to: ‘nurture your fellowship’ to this idea.

If you are like me, I struggle with the consistency of building a fellowship. I have many, many wonderful friends, and I have many, many valid reasons why it is difficult to consistently get together given our various lives and schedules.
However, if there is one thing I’ve learned this past year in somewhat profound ways, it’s that we genuinely thrive as humans when we allow life to flow through us in spaces that encourage us to support and be supported by others.

Another thing is that we tend to prioritize the things we genuinely want.

For me, when I think of what it would mean to grow my fellowship over the next decade, I’m not talking about superficial friendships. It’s this bigger, scarier idea of finding those people who are the Samwise Gamgee's, the Arwen's, the Gandalfs and the Boromir's to this crazy journey called life. People who I would genuinely like to have deep friendships with which can weather all sorts of adventures life tosses our ways. People who see life a bit like I do, an adventure inspiring growth and change, not a serious of unfortunate incidents.


And this is my resolution not one worthy of a mere year, for Fellowships are often not forged in a year (unless of course, a year is all you HAVE in existence remaining);

This is a resolution worthy of, and likely requiring, a decade to accomplish.

How am I planning to do that? It’s a great question and one I’ve put some thought into – I’ll be releasing the next part of Championing the Fellowship over the coming week. I hope you check it out and if you like it, please send it to your friends so they can read as well.

We all need more fellowship in our lives 😊 Thanks for being a part of mine.

 - Christa