Running At Capacity

Running At Capacity

A little history before getting into the core of this post.

Ha! You wish my history was as much fun as Histeria!

I've written before about how I quit Armada twice before deciding to stick with it. In short, it was the Armada community that encouraged me to keep playing. I had multiple opponents so I wasn't just getting my ass kicked all over the place by my same one buddy, they introduced me to new ideas, and they shared swag and insight with me. By the time I got into the STL Armada scene, it was Damien running the show. He set up events and campaigns, encouraged people to play, taught...all the good stuff. He was also the most skilled person in our meta and it wasn't close. He was also the player who always traveled out of town for bigger Armada tournaments. Besides the Armada stuff, he's just a funny and smart guy whose company I enjoyed. We got along well.

But Damien moved on from the game and there was a bit of a vacuum in our community at the time. We were short on players, events were mostly non-existent, and we weren't getting any new Armada stuff from FFG. At this point, I obviously wanted to keep the local scene going, so I tried organizing some stuff. We had incredible support from a couple of our FLGS (shout out to Game Nite and Miniature Market for the love they showed -and continue to show- us Armada players!) and though our events were generally small, they were consistent. We had open play humming along decently well and there were enough of us that we even had a local Armada blog for a minute. But COVID came along and slowed all of that down, despite new releases from FFG.

As we came out of COVID (to the extent that we have, anyway), our community started to grow again. Then it exploded. We suddenly had 8-10 people at a tournament on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, and it wasn't even the same people every time! And better prize support drew out more folks more regularly, but still. It was pretty great. I say "was" like it's past tense, but it's not - this is still going on, y'all. And I couldn't be prouder. But here's the sad truth (and don't worry - there's a bigger positive on the other side of this "sad truth!"): I have played maybe 8 or 9 Armada matches since Adepticon back in March. Maybe only one X-Wing match.

I miss playing both of these games with any regularity so much! But I've just been running at capacity for awhile now, and that has only increased in the last two months since I took on a new job. I've been focused on my family as well as what steps I wanted to take professionally in the wake of leaving the theatre company I founded. I've focused on my personal relationships. I have been volunteering and regularly recording a podcast that covers a lot of pop culture ground, oftentimes requiring some research in preparation. I have been working on my own game designs. It's just been a lot going on everywhere all at once.

I know, I know, I need to get to this. I swear it's on my list because I really want to see it, but I told you I've been busy!

So I haven't been playing Armada or X-Wing. I still haven't gotten to any Kill Team. It's been frustrating, to say the least. I had decent-sized gaming plans: a Root charity tournament that I could spin into an annual event, some Armada campaigns, a big SW game-themed weekend that could draw in Midwest folks beyond the greater St. Louis area...

In fact, that last thing was supposed to happen this weekend. But it's not because I dropped the ball. I really thought I could pull it together, but it just kept slipping down my list of priorities, I procrastinated on making it happen, and now it's not happening. And let me tell you: what a waste. Oh sure, it can still happen in the future, but right now, the weather is perfect for short roadtrips and the holidays haven't hit yet. AND there are no official Armada events happening at this exact moment. It was the right time. And it was a waste and a shame because I know I've been running at capacity. To be clear, there's nothing wrong with admitting you're at capacity! But in order to do that, you need to, you know, admit it. Out loud. And to other people for whom you've set up expectations.

We've got a truly outstanding Armada community that contributes prize support, have stepped up to judge even the most casual of tournaments, and help each other out whenever possible. Game Nite and Miniature Market have both been wholly supportive of our endeavors and our having not one but two places to play where they stock products for our game is everything. I'm proud to be a part of that community! But this was the perfect time for me to call on those folks and pull this event together instead of thinking I'd do it myself when I should've known I wouldn't be able to pull it off. I've got so much going on that I can't even make it out for a casual game or keep to a regular TTS match schedule with my buddy Josh in NC. It sucks, but I've got some current priorities and I'm sticking to them. They're important to me. And gaming is too! But I just don't have the balance where I want it. And, again, that's okay! But now is the time to call on the folks in the community to pull together some events.

I finally tagged my friend Chris this morning about setting up events moving forward. And sure enough, he was incredibly gracious and thoughtful about helping with that burden. He'll surely engage some other Armada folks so that he's not carrying it alone. Which gets me to the guts of this post (even though the history took longer; sorry, y'all. I get wordy. But you should've known that by now, so really, this is your fault.): build your community so it becomes self-perpetuating. Build it so it takes care of itself!

I wrote a little bit about bringing new people into the gaming hobby here. It's not all applicable to Armada, but some of it is.

Full credit for this to David Kantrowitz, because I'm gonna use it CONSTANTLY.

It's nice to run the show sometimes. It's nice to feel appreciated and be able to shape the community in which you'd like to play. But the problem with building that community in such a way that you're always trying to do everything yourself is that when you come up short, it impacts the community and not just you. It might turn some folks off. Or even simpler than that: you'll miss out doing the thing you love when you're unable to put it all together yourself. Check yourself to make sure you're not being possessive of your role in that community. It may not even be intentional! I sure wasn't intentionally holding onto it all. I thought I was doing everyone a favor by just running with stuff. But I'd been offered help several times. Why not take it? Probably because I hadn't *needed* it before. But things have changed and right now, I just can't run point on the community events.

Bottom line? Well, there are a couple:

• Ask for help when you need it.
• Accept help when it's offered.
• Foster a community that can absolutely function, grow, and thrive without you.

And guess what? Those three things are applicable to more than just gaming!

You really shouldn't miss this one if you enjoy sitcoms at all. Hilarious.

There's so much more upside to a gaming community than "I have people to play this game with." Don't be afraid to take advantage of all that entails, y'all. The postscript here is that even though I felt like crap this morning, that STL Armada community of which I'm so proud? They had their tournament anyway because people stepped up when I wasn't up to being there. Good stuff.