FLGS

Well, I finally broke down and went back to my local game store today. I needed to find a birthday present for my buddy Pat. (Happy birthday, dude!) I eventually settled on the one book I found that I thought he'd like that I also felt reasonably confident he didn't own. I almost got him a copy of the new World of Darkness corebook, since I know for certain he doesn't own one. So he managed to dodge that bullet. I thought about getting him a Gundam model kit, since I know he's gung-ho into that, but what the hell do I know about model kits? I remember one birth my Great Aunt Shirley (RIP) bought me a Star Wars book, because she knew how much I loved the movies. Unfortunately, it was a kiddie book aimed for a reader about half my actual age at the time. I didn't want to pull a similar move on Pat.

I considered buying myself something while I was there, even though Pat's gift was a bit more than I usually spend. I've had my eye on getting a tube of those giant polyhedrals. It's long been my idea that as the GM I could roll one of those big puppies right in the middle of the table for all to see. That would have a nifty effect if done only at dramatic moments I think, since I usually do my rolling behind a screen. Of the other wares for sale, I just didn't have much enthusiasm for most of them. The huge d20 section failed to trip my trigger; between my corebooks, SRDs, BESM d20, my newly acquired Unearthed Arcana, and a few other items I have more than enough d20 to power a huge variety of campaigns. About the only other thing present that interested me was Ron Edwards' Sex & Sorcery, the latest supplement to his indie magnum opus Sorcerer. But I still need to get the previous supplement, The Sorcerer's Soul. And either way I'm not sure I'll be playing any version of Sorcerer any time in the forseeable future.

But nothing else laying around at the FLGS interested me much. I guess after years of putzing around, collecting various game systems I'm finally starting to reach something like saturation. Are there indie things that would be neat to own? Sure. Can I find supplements and accessories I want for game lines that I like? Yeah. But as I type this I'm even considering taking some RPG products off of my Amazon wishlist. But really, I got the bases covered as far as good things to play goes. Savage Worlds works well as a generic system. BESM d20 looks like a good back-up for that sort of thing. The more I look at it the more I conclude that Mikko Kauppinen's Powergame is my sort of rules-lite rock-em sock-em superhero system. (Heck, I'm have-considering coverting my Heroes Unlimited campaign to Powergame.) If I want to do something gloomy and doomy I have good ol' Call of Cthulhu as well as the aformentioned Sorcerer. For sci-fi I have both Traveller and Star Frontiers. And I think Savage Worlds would work quite well for a Star Wars game. And don't forget all the various incarnations of Dungeons & Dragons on my shelves.

Really, the idea that I need another roleplaying game is completely ridiculous. I have more than enough material to keep me off the streets and out of juvie hall for years. In fact, I only fell off of the "no more systems" wagon because I joined a Savage Worlds game. I can't feel like I'm really in the mix in a campaign unless I own the rulebook. So rather than swearing off new systems completely, maybe I should just limit myself to games I am actually going to play.