2016 was a busy year, but not totally insane like 2012 or 2013. I got some good gaming in, not as much RPG playing as I would have liked with only the 13th Age game really going strong. The GM for the Strahd game never held another session after two, and we just couldn’t get Runequest/Mythras going again after a couple sessions, though the PVP gladiator game was fantastic.
Board game play was pretty much Dungeon Quest revised this year and shockingly it’s a game that everyone enjoys that has played. What’s more it’s a board game emulation of old school D&D with rapid death from traps, terrible calamities and the like. Who knew? With the GW/FF split, best pick this one up quick-like.
The big game from CMON this year was the Others. We played several times, but while beautiful and well designed, it has the quarterback problem in games with more than two players. There’s just no reason to play it more than two and really this is not a multiplayer game. The lack of connection between scenarios was a bit of a miss as well. For two players though, it’s great. I did not get to play enough Blood Rage (can you have enough?) Dead of Winter, Struggle of Empires, Study in Emerald or Eclipse this year.
My new board game of the year has to go to Game of Thrones: Iron Throne. Great implementation of the Cosmic Encounter rules, let’s hope there is an expansion with the remaining factions! This year, I expected to like INIS a lot, or Scythe but wasn’t really a fan of either. Scythe is a beautiful game (like INIS) but while it seems like a war game, it’s really one of those Keyflower/Hegemony/Francis Drake style point accrual and worker placement games. I’d just rather bust out Eclipse instead of Scythe and Blood Rage instead of INIS.
Video games are going to be biased towards what I am playing at the end of the year here. I just started playing DOOM and it’s quite WOW, I can see why many people have chosen it for the video game of 2016 hands down. Notable games this year include the redux of Master of Orion, Stellaris also in the 4X space pysse genre, I am really digging both Guilty Gear Revelator and Blazblue: Chronophantasma extend as well. Game of the year for video games for me personally has to go to Attila Total War by far. TW games are probably my favorite computer game, and we were at a low low with the original release of Rome 2 and all it’s bugs, but CA has certainly come back from the brink and not only fixed that game but came out with one of the best TW games right after.
2017
I’m working on a few things, including a Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure though it really won’t matter the system (it’s been playtested so far in 5th Edition). I’ve got a Feng Shui adventure that I have written but just need to finish the playtesting. Lastly I’m working on a campaign adventure that I will probably do in Mythras, but maybe Lamentations.
In terms of running games, other than 13th Age, I’ll likely give Dungeon Crawl Classics a go as soon as the 4th Edition book comes from the mail man next month. Really looking forward to that from the Feeder/Flaming Carrot perspective. Must be played with the right group though!
Looking at getting in on a game as a player in FASERIP, which I haven’t played since the 80’s and I wouldn’t mind someone running Strahd in 5E as well, or any of the good big modules.
Let’s start the year off right with a reading of The Shunned House by HPL read by Wayne June.