Many of my fellow acquaintances run games in their spare time. Dungeons & Dragons, Werewolf, Shadowrun, etc. In the end, I very rarely get in on said games. More often than not with me, the GM tends to claim that they’re full; and then people get tacked on to make the group bigger.

While games like that tend not to last too long (a school year tops), I still feel very let down and sad that I’m repeatedly turned down for games, and I believe I’ve figured out the reason why.

I like to role-play through my games. I like to use wit, or make the description of what my character is doing sound flashy or awesome enough to get by on whatever I’m doing. I purposefully make all the rookie mistakes (“Don’t drink THAT!”) because I enjoy more story, I enjoy random consequences.

But I don’t know the systems very well at all (i.e. memorized rules and stats). I have to constantly be reminded this d10 plus this d6 plus xyz equals… and then I have to do math, which isn’t a strong point of mine. I’ve been slowly getting better, but that doesn’t change it.

Why all the backstory? I think the reason I don’t get invited to games is not because its full, but because I don’t game enough(which is irony because I ought to GAME to get more experience[pun intended]), and therefore don’t understand the concepts of it. You can still play a bumbling, drinks everything character, but if you don’t understand the stats and why things work they way they do, then you’re just holding everyone back from playing. Playing their style, I might add, but still playing.

While GMs claim they want novices for the game, what they’re really looking for (I believe) is someone with a good grasp on the playing system BEFORE they let them into their game.

...now, if only there was a game open to prove myself. sigh Guess I’ll roll for initiative.