Having established my current experiment into running an infinite game – one where we are playing with the primary goal of continuing to play – and also to seek deeper Otherworld-immersion, I am left wondering… what about all these games that I own and which are sitting here – 6 stacks tall – gathering dust?

Some of the books, it is fair to say, are unlikely to ever get played. I probably need to cull them out and give them away (or sell them off). Many games, however, are deeply loved: Traveller, Star Trek, Cypher System stuff, RuneQuest, Alternity; others are important to me: the various editions of D&D, Rolemaster, Mage, among others. What am I to do with those?

Some games are not going to be easy to adapt to my preferring methodology. Cypher is a good example of this because it has player-facing mechanisms that require the player to know their character sheet and numbers – how else can they spend their attributes to improve their chances in tests? Cypher players also roll all the dice. They receive XP up-front in-session too. This does not fit the approach I am taking… but I enjoy the game.

To my mind, I need to accept that not all the games I enjoy fit the preferred approach I am experimenting with. In noticing this, I also reflect on the fact that few players will want to play in my preferred style. So perhaps the answer is to accept that, from time to time, I’ll be offering to run some other games in a more traditional style and in a finite format. I think I can live with that much more easily once the infinite game becomes clearly established.

The trick is to resist the temptation to begin playing other stuff until the preferred game is stable. I might tinker in a solo game but it’s going to be very important to put aside other gaming ideas until the Northern Isles game is running smoothly and has some distance covered and hours logged.

The main point in my mind is to recognise that just because you feel you have worked out what you want the most from your gaming, it doesn’t mean you can’t also enjoy some different play.

Game on!