I’m attracted to too many lifestyle gaming hobbies.
What’s a lifestyle hobby?
It’s a hobby that basically requires you to devote a lot of time to it, over an extended period.
D&D is my pre-eminent lifestyle hobby. It’s one I’ve been playing now for (eek!) 28 years or so. That’s quite a chunk of my life, when you think about it. I spend about 16 hours a month playing D&D with my friends, and extra time preparing for the sessions, and just reading books and spending time on the internet discussing the game, although I must admit I haven’t been doing so much of that lately, for the incessant and bad-spirited wrangling over 4e is getting me down.
Boardgaming isn’t really a lifestyle hobby. You don’t need to spend that much time with most Eurogames; you can play one, move to the next, and not go back. Sure, I sort of have a boardgaming lifestyle at present – on average, I spend about 20 hours a month playing boardgames with my friend, and extra time writing and reading about them (mostly on boardgamegeek.com, but also a bit on EN World of late).
Some boardgames, however, are lifestyle hobbies. Two of those are BattleTech and Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). Incredibly, both debuted in 1985 – although I’m ignoring Squad Leader and Battle Droids with that assertion. No matter! Both games are ones I became aware of at University; the former because my friends played it; the latter because I saw the rulebook in my FLGS. (You have to buy the rules separately? Weird! Although, also, Cool!)
Over the past couple of years, I’ve finally caught up with both properties. I’ve bought the ASL Starter Kits and from that moved onto the full ASL. (I have the full rulebook, and six of the core modules, in addition to a few scenario packs now). And for BattleTech I’ve been getting the new material from Catalyst Game Labs in their relaunch – I’ve got the Introductory Boxed Set, the Sword & Dragon starterbook, and now, as I seem to be playing it more, I’ve just ordered a bunch of maps and the full “Total Warfare” rulebook.
Mind you, I don’t think I’ll be getting into the miniatures side of the game, but I hope to play a bunch of it.
My lack of desire to paint minis has a large deal to do why I’ve never been involved in that other lifestyle gaming hobby, Warhammer. (or WH40K). Both ASL and BattleTech are childhood interests that have finally been relased. I’ve never felt that about WH, and I don’t really feel the lack of it in my life. Minis? Nah. (The over 2,000 D&D Miniatures I have comeare due a lot more to my love of the RPG than to the skirmish game).
Battletech, ASL, D&D.
Hmm. It’s somewhat hard to fit them all in. (And that ignores the other boardgames I play and the other roleplaying I engage in). I’ve been lucky these past few weeks to get 3 consecutive weekends where I could play Battletech with Rich and Josh – cancellation of D&D and Randy in Canberra at a boardgame convention allowed that.
ASL will probably remain at most a 1/fortnight (and more likely a 1/month) game with Randy.
At least D&D remains on a 2/fortnight schedule.
Too many lifestyle gaming hobbies? Only because I don’t have the time to play them as much as I’d like!
You have no idea how jealous I am of your gaming exploits.
I wish I could get that much gaming in.
I’ve been meaning to ask you, as someone who’s playing the new Classic Battletech… How long does it take to get a reasonably “smart” person up to speed on it (i.e. how long would it take me to train an opponent), and what do you use in place of minis? Cardboard standees? Chits?
I tried to get into Warhammer, but there’s just way too much of an initial investment in both time and money. I think Battletech’s cooler anyways, and I like the idea of being able to finely tune a few units better than working on an entire army.
The Classic Battletech Introductory Boxed Set comes with 2 poster maps and 24 plastic mech figures; for us$40 it’s a complete steal. So, I use those figures for the battles we play.
It took me very little time to get Rich and Josh happy with the basics of the game (although I do act a bit as GM at times, handling the trickier rules). The Introductory Rules (you can download them from here: http://www.classicbattletech.com/downloads/CBT_Introductory_Rulebook.pdf ) are well laid-out and don’t have the complexity of all the options that arrive later, but they cover most of the stuff you need anyway. If you’ve learnt the rules, about 15-20 minutes should allow you to cover the basics with an opponent, and playing with a friend will show them the rest.
You can get most of what’s in the boxed set on the website as free downloads, but it’s good not having to print it out yourself, and the minis make the deal.