# A new door opens means an old one closes?



## sabrinathecat (Aug 28, 2013)

My current job, working at what used to be my favorite restaurant. Started great. Poor management decisions by the owner have me looking forward to leaving for the last 4 weeks. Decided to postpone for a month, because the manager (who I like) would not have been able to handle training 4 brand new people. Between that and a sick kitty (the real Sabrina), I'm done at the end of September. Burned out in 6 months. Can't even eat the food at the place without getting sick--and I used to eat there almost every day.

There have been a few games that I thought should be great, but actual play ruined.

When I was at McGraw-Hill in Berkeley, it was mostly fun. Then they moved to Emeryville (which was actually 2 miles closer) into a building that was just cold, lifeless and sterile. worse, the upper management was on a different floor on the previous building, so their toxic political machinations were kept away from us. At the new building, it was an absolute joy kill. Almost everyone was miserable. And they started outsourcing overseas--treating people in India so well that they were complaining. Yeah, it was that kind of setup. Was glad I left when I did. The whole division shut down except for 4 people within 6 months (not my fault!!!).


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## Janx (Aug 28, 2013)

I think each thing depends on the thing.

I used to work at a big corporation.  Originally, I loved it.  Great people, great work.  Then we got a merger and a re-org, and everybody got split up.  I put in 7 more years as the people got worse and so did the work.

Then I decided to leave and I did.  And some of my work friends moved into my position at the old place.

I'd do lunch with them, and give them advice on how to solve the problems they were facing (or point them at the specification I'd written to solve just that very problem).

Now unlike Rel, I didn't dread having to do old business.  I like solving problems.  I do it for a living.  So my friend's masters were jerkholes.  I got the same satisfaction from solving the problem for my FRIEND, as I did when I got paid for it.

I think it's a matter of outlook and what your positive and negative feelings are attached to.


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## Gilladian (Aug 29, 2013)

Workwise, I've been where I am for 20 years, just about. I've had essentially identical job to what I have now for over 10 years. I love it. While I don't always love my current bosses, the job itself makes up for the occasional miscommunication or disappointment. And I work with great people. 

As far as gaming goes, I've been testing out a new game online - DungeonWorld, while my 3.5 campaign is on hiatus due to moving (my husband and I are selling our home and moving in with my mother). When we get settled in the new place, I hope to start a fresh new campaign of DW and inject lots of new life into my games. It was time. I had tweaked and E6ed 3.5, tried 13th age, tried Next, tried 4e, and none of them fit. I'm hoping DW will fit with my 3 regular players as well as it fits me, and  we'll be set for another 20 years!


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## Herobizkit (Aug 29, 2013)

I've lost touch with any and all passions I used to possess.  Gaming still brings the occasional rush but the times I do game are few and far between.  Online gaming sustains me, but only a handful of games have ever given me a genuine feeling of elation.  

I think that being in my late 30's and still living a life not unlike many mid-20's (no kids, no wife, no ex-wife, no 'career' growth) has made it very difficult to relate to my peers.  I even went back to college to get a Radio Broadcast diploma with hopes of getting into voice work, but I now stand as the last of my class who isn't in industry a year later and I'm nowhere nearly as passionate about radio as I was when I first went to school... kinda like learning 'the truth' about wrestling and being ruined by it.

I guess I'm just lost, because it seems like very little right now is being me any kind of joy. :/


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## Rel (Aug 29, 2013)

That makes me sad to hear, Herobizkit.  If I can help you in any way, please just ask.


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## sabrinathecat (Aug 29, 2013)

Herobizkit said:


> I think that being in my late 30's and still living a life not unlike many mid-20's (no kids, no wife, no ex-wife, no 'career' growth) has made it very difficult to relate to my peers.  I even went back to college to get a Radio Broadcast diploma with hopes of getting into voice work, but I now stand as the last of my class who isn't in industry a year later and I'm nowhere nearly as passionate about radio as I was when I first went to school... kinda like learning 'the truth' about wrestling and being ruined by it. /



It does feel kinda sad when I walk into a class and everyone thinks I'm the teacher.
Don't worry about the no wife/ex-wife: you really aren't missing out as much as you might think.
No kids: same thing. Sounds great in theory. Cats are generally a better investment of your time and effort. And they don't crash the car or have parties.


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## Lord_Blacksteel (Aug 30, 2013)

Two thoughts:
1) Changing careers is a change on an entirely different scale from changing gaming campaigns, to the point I'm not sure there are any insights to be drawn from comparing one to the other. The impact on other people in your life is similarly different. Sure, they're both "change" but beyond that there's very little similarity.

2) If I'm running a game for a group which has acknowledged they can only play one game at a time and another player starts talking up how they want to run a new game, I might view that as someone deliberately sabotaging my game. Now it worked out in this case as the DM was ready for a break anyway, but that doesn't sound especially positive at the first, and I don't think anyone likes being "voted out of the chair". This group might consider running for a set period of time (six months, a year, one school year, one school semester) to avoid the abrupt and potentially unpleasant campaign change experience.


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## billd91 (Aug 30, 2013)

In the Thursday Night group that I play with, we don't typically shelve any game indefinitely. If we're playing something at the time and someone other than the GM has an other idea, we'll discuss it and basically stick in the queue to be picked up at a point in which the current game is ready to stop for a while. Sometimes, we also have a backup game going in case the current main GM is too busy to prep or has a schedule conflict.

For example, right now, we're playing a Mass Effect game based on the SWSE rules and working our way through a substantial story arc based on ME2. But we also have the backup D&D 3.5 game in which we rotate GMs and play relatively short adventures for when the Mass Effect GM has been too busy on a work deadline to prep. Before the ME game, we were playing Torg and Dragon Age, which followed the 4e game we finally decided to give up (with the possibility of converting it to Pathfinder at a later date). And the current ME GM has also hatched a campaign idea set in the Forgotten Realms involving Zhentil Keep that we may eventually use D&D Next rules for (and the supplements he'll be basing it on are all 2e). This is also the same group for which I've run a long standing "Classic Modules" campaign of 1e modules converted to 3e - though I doubt we'll pick that campaign up again any time soon since I feel it has lived up to its purpose of testing out 3e while also giving younger players a chance to play through some serious classics (Keep on the Borderlands, Ravenloft, Slaver series, Giant series, White Plume Mountain).

So, I guess, when it comes to gaming and campaigns, I don't really subscribe to the theory that when a door opens, another *must* close. Sometimes it does, but quite often it does not and we circle back around to play some more. It helps if the GMs involved simply like to play lots of different games because we're usually pretty good about handing off the GMing spotlight in order to get a chance to play on the other side of the screen. It also helps if the campaigns planned are somewhat episodic because that makes it easy to reach closure on the current episode as well as easier to pick up again once the sequel is ready.


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## Janx (Aug 30, 2013)

Lord_Blacksteel said:


> Two thoughts:
> 1) Changing careers is a change on an entirely different scale from changing gaming campaigns, to the point I'm not sure there are any insights to be drawn from comparing one to the other. The impact on other people in your life is similarly different. Sure, they're both "change" but beyond that there's very little similarity.




true enough.

Not only that, in the work place, when management brings in the Change consultants or the free copies of Who Moved My Cheese, they're forgetting one important thing.

People hate having changes inflicted on them without any say or involvement in the decision.

People don't get mad when THEY choose a new job.  They get mad when management forces a different job on them.

Generally speaking, players are probably part of the campaign change in the gaming group.  So they are more likely to not be suffering from Forced Change Grumpiness.


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## billd91 (Aug 30, 2013)

sabrinathecat said:


> Don't worry about the no wife/ex-wife: you really aren't missing out as much as you might think.
> No kids: same thing. Sounds great in theory.




While I would agree that the experience of being a parent isn't necessary and people should be satisfied with their choices to have or not have kids, I have to say that "kids: same thing" isn't really true. Having kids and what I get out of them is something I had never experienced before. It's a really profound difference from having a spouse or being the child of your parents.

I'm not saying that there's something wrong with you if you miss out on having kids. It's an entirely valid choice to not have or raise children. I'm just saying it's really not the same as anything else.


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## sabrinathecat (Aug 30, 2013)

Yeah, I just think the culture is way too worked up with the glory of procreation (while stigmatizing sex). That somehow it is an essential part of life, and by not having it, you are missing out on a vital part of your contribution to life. There are somewhere between 6 and 8 billion people on the planet, and rising.


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## TarionzCousin (Aug 31, 2013)

Did this thread take a left turn somewhere?


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## Richards (Sep 1, 2013)

I'm running my Wing Three campaign, and it's the longest-running campaign I've ever run.  One of the PCs has just made it to 19th level, and another isn't far behind.  We only get to play every 4-6 weeks or so, and I still have at least 6 adventures "in the hopper," ready to be run.  (There could still be a few more besides that, but I've already been writing specific adventures to tie up some of the loose ends that remain.)

But we've already decided what our follow-on campaign is going to be: the same game world, advanced 20 years into the future.  My players have all been deciding what kind of PCs they want to run in this next campaign, and coming up with their names (and in some cases, their ties to the PCs/NPCs in the current campaign).  I've already decided on a cool "hook" to the campaign that should keep my players guessing and give them a cool "Aha!" moment many adventures deep into the new campaign.

So I find myself in the odd predicament of enjoying my current campaign, but eager to kill it so I can start up this new campaign.  But we're at levels we've never reached before in the current campaign - my son's conjurer just became a half-fire elemental, and is eager to try out his new fire-based powers, for example - so it'll be kind of bittersweet to put it all behind us and start over again at 1st level.

It's not a perfect analogy, but using your "door" terminology, I'm both eager and reluctant to close a door so I can open another door.  Fortunately, since I intend on tying this new campaign into our current one, I think the two doors in question are to two rooms next to each other with an adjoining door between them.  

Johnathan


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## Herobizkit (Sep 2, 2013)

TarionzCousin said:


> Did this thread take a left turn somewhere?



Kinda, and it's my fault.  I weighed in on "life" more than "the game".  I'm mostly frustrated at the fact that as time is passing, the things I enjoy bring less and less enjoyment, but I also lack the drive to try new things.  I'm not upset that I don't have a wife or kids... what upsets me is that I choose to squander my relative freedom because I am now 'too wise' to take crazy risks.

Sounds a little like griping, a little more like a refusal to grow up, I guess... :/


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