2013 Goals: The Officially Sanctioned Version

As I try to learn from what worked for me and what didn't this last year, I've settled on the following four goals for 2013, three I've mentioned before, but the first is new:

Save a Dead Tree Project - This is actually one of two challenges posed over on the Wampus Country blog (follow the link). Essentially, you pledge to try and make use of those rule books, modules, source books, etc. that line the shelves but have never been properly used. In the words of Erik from Wampus Country himself, "This is a throughout-the-year challenge, to utilize and repurpose the stuff I already have. "  I think it's a fantastic idea - this year alone I acquired a number of sets of rules, history books, zines, modules  and rpgs that I've made no use of yet, not to mention items from previous years, Space: 1889 and The Soldier's Companion, I'm looking at you.

New wargaming setup - I plan to use 2' x 4' MDF painted in some inexpensive shade of green paint that screams toy soldiers and game playing at the expense of realism. Home Depot sells the MDF pre-cut in a pack of four, so I will paint three and grid one side on three of them with a 6" grid, and a dot in the center of each space so I can also use it as a 3" grid. The fourth may serve as a makeshift desk with some saw-horses. For gaming, they will be placed on the kitchen table or my desk/table and stored in the closet when not in use. Other items include hills, felt for forests and fields, and some balsa strips for roads.

Paint 2x per month, at least 60 minutes a session - I don't want to set a figure goal, but I do want to make the time to paint. Figure goals, I have learned, end up overshadowing game playing even when I'm really inspired to play. The result is either a game session sullied by some guilt about not painting or a painting session that I am not wholly interested in, and the painting suffers for it.

Run an old-school dungeon crawl for my local RPG meetup group - I've had the pleasure of playing three different systems with this group this year and I would like to return the favor. I will probably run this with Labyrinth Lord and using a published module.

In addition to goals, I have some projects I'm working on that I'd like to make some progress on. What that means exactly, is open to interpretation.

The Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge - Simply put, take everything you got under the tree for Christmas and try to mash something from all of it into one game/set of rules/scenario/module/etc.

A WWII PTO campaign - I'm leaning towards using the campaign system included in Nuts! War Against Japan.

A three battle mini campaign for the GNW Russians and Swedes using Scenarios for Wargamers or Programmed Wargame Scenarios.

A VSF campaign that returns us to the island of Helvetica. I am thinking that it will start with the two sample scenarios presented Soldier's Companion, and utilize those rules to fight the battles, but feature Riesling and lizard-folk, not British and Martians.

Finally, I will do something to celebrate the centenary of H.G. Wells's Little Wars. A chance read through this on Project Guttenberg is largely responsible for why I wargame, if not how. I may try to tie this in to the 70th anniversary of Kursk and fight a 1/32 battle in the backyard. To .that end, I've located and ordered a used copy of SkirmishCampaigns Red Guards at Kursk.

I will continue my delves into the Ever Expanding Dungeon, of course, but that is already running and in place and will serve as a regular outlet for my dungeon crawl needs and experiments.

And speaking of, I'll probably have one more post for this year to follow - a write up of the most recent sessions.

In the meantime, in case that falls through, Happy New Year and thanks for reading!