Nerds’ Year Resolutions for 2020!

With the New Year upon us, the Nerds on Earth crew shares some of their resolutions for 2020. As is tradition, most of these have a grain of nerdiness to them.

Resolutions are often tossed by the wayside by the time January comes to a close. It’s important to set attainable and measurable resolutions to hold yourself accountable. Arbitrary goals aren’t usually as effective as well-defined ones.

For example, instead of setting a goal to ‘eat healthier’, rephrase this to reflect something you can keep track of. That might mean ‘eat at least three servings of fresh vegetables a day’ or ‘consume less than 20g of sugar per day’.

Here’s a look at what we’re focusing on this year!

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Regularly Scheduled Tabletop Gaming

Last year, I set out to track every single play of every single game for the year using BGG’s BG Stats app. That grew tedious and I tired about halfway through – even though the win percentage feature inspired much boasting amongst my crew!

This year, we’re opting for something that is – hopefully! – a bit more manageable. While this resolution may seem like child’s play to many of you, this would be a significant improvement over our performance last year: We resolve to play a tabletop roleplaying game at least once a month.

If our 5e group can’t meet, we’ll get a PF2e group together. Or a Shadowrun group. Or a Lancer group. Or another 5e group! We don’t care, we just want to be super intentional about sitting down to a TTRPG with far more regularity than we did in 2019.

With multiple capable DMs/GMs and a bench of players who love creating characters in their free time, this should be an attainable goal…said every good-intentioned TTRPG group ever…

– Adkins

Playing More Games

My nerdy New Years Resolution this year is to play more board games.

I simply do not have or make enough time to sit down and play board games. Between the responsibilities of being a teacher, a single dad, and a human being in general, it definitely feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get things done.

I also have several other hobbies that consume my nerdy free time. When you look at blocking off 2-4 hours to play a board game, it can seem like a daunting task, if not an impossible one.

However, I am trying to be more mindful for doing things for self-care in the New Year. We all know that board games are fun and can provide great stress relief.

I have a stack of board games that I have purchased over the last two years that have either not been played or have been played only once. It’s time to right the wrongs of years past by no longer neglecting board games.

There are several local gaming stores that host board game nights and demos every week that I’m committing to attend. I have already reached out to a few board gaming friends to see if they need an extra gamer at their tables this year.

2020 will become the year of the board game for me!

– Brandon

Enjoying the Existing Collection

Over the past year, my board game collection has gotten slightly out of hand. This is partly due to having a consistent gaming group, along with my own over-zealous enthusiasm.

Even though 2020 has an exciting slate of new games, I’m going to get back to the basics this year. Our group tends to have its go-to games that we play with consistent regularity. However, I want to show some love to the boxes in my collection that have gathered a bit of dust.

Over the course of the year, I want to play every game in the collection at least once. If there are any games that I don’t end up playing in 2020, then that means it’s time for that one to say goodbye to the shelf. I’ve captured my existing collection from BoardGameGeek, but this applies to new games as well.

This resolution is easily measurable and will give me perspective into how much focus I’m devoting to the games in my collection. Just because something new is released doesn’t diminish the value of existing games. Hopefully, having this intentional focus will improve my appreciation and satiate my appetite for gaming year round.

– Abram

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There you have it, some resolutions from your friends at Nerds on Earth. Feel free to join us on Facebook or Twitter and let us know what you are focusing on this year. Whatever it is, we wish you the best of luck on your personal journey in 2020!