I've been running Creative Mountain Games at various paces, sometimes grueling and sometimes glacial, for nearly ten years and tabletop gaming since the early seventies. There have been a handful of different web sites devoted to the effort of CMG over this last decade, some more customized than others, some requiring more work, some just causing me headaches due to web bots and spammers. Many people will know of me or heard of CMG because of my presence on various message boards or from conventions or maybe from running across CMG products on the numerous ePublishing eTailer oUtlets. ;-) What I hope to do by migrating my activities mostly to this blog, and the two connected to it, is centralize my presence, perhaps making it a bit easier to get the word out as I gear up for the next phase of CMG operations. In conjunction with the three blogs will be some twitter activity (follow @MarkCMG ) and perhaps with some additional social networking as opportunities and time permit.
I'll also add information here from my own gaming experiences new and old. I attend a handful of conventions every year, as well as numerous gamedays. I do this as a gamer, not as part of the business, since my business activities are online. My schedule at these events is often jam-packed, with gaming slots being filled and bumping up against one another. I like to run games, as well as play in them, and as often as not I will run my own game rules. That is not primarily to sell the game or work the players but rather to observe how they enjoy themselves and adjust the rules for future games.
Much of what you find on this blog over time will be new but I will also be scouring the depths of the archives of my old websites for plums and peaches worth revisiting. I'll try to remember to mark them as older when it makes sense to do so, but I hope to update material and add newer insights to them, too. I'll search around on the myriad of other websites where I have posted and try to bring over some of the better or more interesting gems as I find them. Hopefully, given time, this site will wind up being a useful resource to the gaming community as well as an outlet for my creativity and mouthpiece for my efforts.
I'll also begin going through my own collection of gaming materials, and perhaps borrow an item or two from a friend, to walk back in time with eyes wide open, looking at the gaming material that has influenced me over the years. I'll make some notes and observations where necessary, mentioning things that I found of use in my gaming and sharing other ideas as they hit me. Don't look for full fledged reviews from me, though. I am not a reviewer and find myself loath to wear that hat. One of the main insights I hope to repeatedly illustrate is how one can bring an idea forward or over from another type of game entirely and, in that way, increase the fun and replayability of whatever game you find fascinating. I love boardgames, wargames, tabletop miniatures games, and RPGs, too. I am partial to pre-gunpowder games but do tend to make an exception for games with tall ships, zombies, pirates, and a few other popular gaming elements.
With all that in mind, please do click yourself onboard to follow this blog and follow me on twitter, too. I'll try not to become overly self-indulgent but please also realize that this whole pursuit has been a hobby for me for over thirty-five years and there will be times when I wax nostalgic as much as look toward the future. Don't be fooled, however, into believing that I am just some old schooler. I keep up with the latest materials and trends, I am just less likely to sink a ton of cash into something until I am convinced it is worth it. I like to get a lot of value, bang for my buck, and I hope that I am able to help those who read my blogs to do the same.
