Loosing a Level

While I'm on the subject of gaming, I thought I'd talk about the game I ran and the game I want to run.

Not too long ago our Thursday night game's current campaign needed to take an extended hiatus and I decided to step in with a game of my own.  Entitled "Go West" it was a fantasy western setting with a quasi-custom rule-set based off of the Star Wars: Saga Edition rules.  In my opinion, it was a massive failure.
We only did half of the test adventure I wrote, but that was enough to expose enough flaws in the setting, the rules, and my own ability to GM that I declined to finish it.  The players, by all reports, had fun but I did not.  And I know exactly why: I'm too inexperienced.
The rules were custom and thus riddled with problems, I was stumbling over myself trying to keep everything straight, I didn't prep for the game very well, and I didn't know what to do when players came up with unexpected actions.  That last one was the killing blow.
So I decided that I needed more experience as a GM, but Go West wasn't the direction I needed to go.  I needed to step way the fuck back and run something somebody had already written for an established set of rules.  I needed a campaign composed of adventure modules.  And I have one.
A while back I grabbed a bunch of adventure modules that I like plus a mini-campaign that I've always wanted to play and linked them together.  The campaign is called "A Mage's Request" and uses the D&D 3.5 rules but can be easily played with Pathfinder.  The Thursday night crew however, was burnt out on fantasy, and I couldn't blame them.  With the exception of my fiancee and myself, they all had two other games going and both were fantasy games, and so had been all the recently finished games.
So, "A Mage's Request" got turned down, but I still wanted to play it.  Where could I find players, though?  Well, why not use my highschool buddies and play online?  They seemed keen on the idea, I had all the software needed plus a couple of local players (that I have never played with) to round out the group.  My Sunday night game was ready to go!

And then it got left at the altar.  My two highschool gaming buddies couldn't find the time, despite telling me that they had the time.  So I was left with an internet game and only two local players.  And thus the death of "A Mage's Request".  I still hope to someday run it so that I can gain some experience as a GM, but I really don't know when that will happen.  For now I will continue as the player, a role I love and enjoy, and leave the behind the scenes action to those with the experience and knowledge.