I remember the days when I would learn a new game virtually every week. We all bought new games that we were excited about, and we would stumble through a lesson plan and delivery each week.

One year I learned a new medium weight game 42 of 52 weeks...

I have no idea how I did it. Was I coasting at work or what happened cause I'm learning a new game maybe seasonally now (and I still have a backlog of unplayed stuff and I haven't purchased much as a result). The trade there is I'm really digging into a game much more now, and that has been a focus for a while, but someone mentioned at game night the other week that it seems like we have become stale.

I say all of this as I crack open the scanned documents to learn Advanced Squad Leader for a game this coming weekend and look ahead at prep for CircleDC...

Sure, that's head and shoulders above what I was doing, but even the simple stuff on my shelf has a backlog (I have a copy of Kardinal & Konig in shrink still and that was like 4 years ago when a friend came back from Germany).

@grayson I feel this. Life got busier and there was less time and energy for learning new things. Plus I have seen enough systems now to want to explore specific ones more deeply.

That being said, ASL is not a light lift...

@sirideain
That's a fair take and I appreciate the perspective. I may try and fold a new game in once a season for the public group, and it's not that I haven't done anything new; we did Border Reivers this winter among others like Spots.

(Separately, yeah. That's why I started tinkering with it last night for a Sunday session)

@grayson I mostly bring out the smaller things like trick to the public gatherings at this point. Those are small enough that it doesn’t take much effort to try new things.

Have you played ASL before or is it at least Starter Kit?

@sirideain
I've never played but yeah, it's the starter.
@grayson I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. I haven’t played but I have heard enough to have thoughts. Definitely one I should try at some point even if I don’t think it is one I would invest in. Glad it is starter kit for you. That is at least manageable.
@sirideain
Yeah. Someone else in town has the set so I'm just along for the ride. They have played once before but it's been a long time so we are effectively starting from scratch.

They do a bunch of games with me and I've always wanted to try it if for no other reason than to gain that cultural reference. Who knows, maybe it resonates.
@grayson I get. I do feel that I need to try it at some point as well.