Every two weeks, I hop online using Zoom and play for about three hours with the Saturday Night Roleplay group – I know, not the most imaginative name but it does the job. Tomorrow is the next due date and… I can’t play. Family are visiting, we’re out for dinner, and that’s understandable.

But I miss playing nonetheless.

When play gets blocked, I will miss it. I will be missing out on time with friends and the joy that comes from the added value of playing games with those folks. Even though I know it’s a perfectly valid reason to miss a session, I dislike the interruption.

The major reason is that I know that a loss of session usually equates to a loss of momentum. Once I begin to lose momentum with a project there’s a risk things will slow to a standstill. This is the primary cause of games failing – at least for me.

Perhaps that’s a failing of my mindset, a form of contaminated thinking wherein I have come to believe that the loss of momentum will inevitably drain my enthusiasm for a game. As if without playing, my enthusiasm has a natural inertia. I’m not sure that’s how the mind really works.

And yet…

Because the play has been blocked for this weekend, I know I am going to have to focus on picking it up again in another two weeks. For this, I believe the best strategy is to find a point of connection with the game which engages my imagination quickly and powerfully.

Using my mind to imagine the best parts of the game (so far) is the best way to reconnect my enthusiasm. Be it something about the world, the character(s), or the emergent story, once the enthusiasm is engaged, the rest will follow naturally.

Game on!