I've talked to friends about this phenomenon for years, in a sort of tongue-in cheek, complaining, sort of way (which I've never really heard anyone else talk about), and, recently, a friend heard me mention it, and named the concept after me.
Hawkwinter's Paradox:
"The likelihood of the game you want to be a player in existing is inversely proportionate to the likelihood that you will get to be a player in that game"
Which is of course to say - generally speaking, if there's something specific you want to play, you won't be able to find anyone else running it. You'll have to run it yourself. And now you don't get to play. Because everyone else is either "Running what they want to run", or "Running what They wish they could play."
Back when I first pondered this conundrum, I came up with a hypothetical solution: "I just need to find someone who would run the kind of game I want to play, and set up a quid pro quo relationship where I run the kind of game they want to play! Easy!"
However, I have never met such a person or formed such a quid pro quo relationship.
Now I'm thinking if that's something I want, the only way to get that is to find someone I'm confident could and would run such a campaign for me, likely through a paid arrangement over the internet. I haven't taken the plunge to attempt such a thing, but apparently there are some DMs for hire such as the guy from the youtube channel DawnForgedCast, and his services are apparently in demand.
I dunno. Maybe one day I'll try hiring someone else to run the games I want to play. Otherwise: "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
In other news, I recognize this blog has been inactive for a bit over a year now. This year's been an exhausting mess, and a lot has happened. I hope to bring the blog back up and running late this fall, alongside some other projects.
