Auld Lang Syne 2019

          Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,

          and never thought upon;

          The flames of Love extinguished,

          and fully past and gone:

          Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,

          that loving Breast of thine;

          That thou canst never once reflect

          On old long syne.

At this time of year we naturally look back on the past months and even the past years at what has occurred in our lives and the world, at our gains and losses. We particularly remember what no longer exists among us beyond memories, to enable the spirits of these things to live on by various acts of commemoration.

Humans forge their own significance to their individual lives, their families, their communities, and even larger entities. Our perceptions and meanings form our realities; this affects the scope of our commemorations of things past. For some their awareness reaches only a little beyond the mass media’s tedious reflections at this time of year, beginning even before the yuletide holidays with constant lists of those who passed in the last year or, worse yet, annoyingly ubiquitous “Top 10 of the Decade” lists for every subject imaginable. The flood of such easy content can overwhelm us, distracting us from more pressing news and dire action.

Holiday Gaming Failures

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another

with no loss of enthusiasm.”

– Winston Churchill

In my earliest days in adventure gaming I tried desperately to recruit my cousins, particularly when our families gathered at the holidays. As kids cousins often fulfill the role of natural playmates, especially when close in age as my cousins were. We’d indulged in traditional board games when we got together, but roleplaying games seemed a bit more advanced; although we often had plenty of time together, the interest and focus just wasn’t there. It certainly didn’t help that the adventure games available to us at the time were probably more complex than our age group. The holidays – with their gatherings of friends and family – seem ideal times to introduce non-gamers to our hobby; yet our ambitions often fall short.

Thankful for Thanksgiving Gaming

 The winter holidays seem the ideal time to indulge in fantasy and games, a subject I’ve covered before here at Hobby Games Recce (“The Season for Fantasy” and “Share Gaming during the Holidays” come to mind). This year we got an early start, with some games played over the extended Thanksgiving holiday to keep us entertained. So while we looked forward to turkey and stuffing and all the trimmings on the dinner table we spent some time around the gaming table trying some new games and old standards to pass the time with friends...and get in at least one solo game to continue testing a new system. It reminded me how grateful I am for tolerant family, game-ready friends, and the online contacts who feed me new inspiration.