I trust you have had a good year, and also a good year of RPG gaming? At an end of year reflective mood, I thought I’d give my 2022 RPG year in review, with the highs and the highers. As background it is worth noting that I retired (early) at the end of March. I think I’m one of the people that the government is trying to get back nto the workplace so that I can be economically more useful. My pension income is taxed, so I suppose that’s something, but by now, nine months on, I’ve become accustomed to the low money, stress light personal time. This change to a hopefully lengthy Act III has also enabled some more carefree RPG gaming, which was certainly part of the plan.
We all have kept a spreadsheet log of our gaming year? Right?
With this in mind, I have had a bumper year of games, both in terms of session count and high quality fun experiences. With only an occasional misstep, the headline count is a record 115 sessions in the year, spread over grand campaign arcs and bursts of convention play. It’s unlikely I could have sustained such a volume whilst working and home life combined, but seems now to be an achievable and sustainable number.
Three games have dominated my 2022 schedule, and all of them are of the D&D persuasion. The D&D 4th Edition (29) campaign has run throughout the year and continued to delight, with occasional Con4eR online play thrown in. I’ve waxed lyrical about this version of the dragon game on my YouTube Channel. The Heroic Tier will be fully explored in this campaign, with us heading towards a finale during the early part of 2023.
The Curse of Strahd campaign (25 this year), ably run by Dom, is something like three years of play in, and has sprawled into one of those mega campaigns that I very rarely get to play. The character arcs have been interesting and the adventures have built to a dramatic conclusion, which we are about to play in early January. The game has been very good, and though I have not found the 5th Edition to stand up especially well compared to others in the broader family, it has provided a solid enough framework for play. I’m looking forward to the denoument and the space to start up new adventures in other realms. Nathan is also running a short series of adventures, which will run into January 2023. I shall have fun in and around Neverwinter too.
Finally, Pete has been running occasional Pathfinder 2e (15), a ‘D&D family’ game that I always hugely enjoy. A flexible, balanced and powerful version of the big game that has a modular approach with a lot of optional extensions. The core game sings along smoothly. I like how this particular game has a simple setup, allowing us to focus on some tactical map adventure in what looks to be the opening scenes to an old fashioned megadungeon. Much ribald chat, good friends, and good old uncomplicated fun.
(A quick D&D aside that I got to play some Castles & Crusades set in Dark Sun on the Dungeon Musings YouTube channel. It’s a cleverly put together and enjoyable early D&D style game with slick modern mechanics. I’d happily play much more.)
I wonder if the D&Ds will dominate my play space so much next year? We’ll come to 2023 planning in a moment, but I think they will fade after the first couple of months, with only the Pathfinder continuing. Other games will take their stead, and wonder if these will provide similar long term campaign play.
It has been a year of considerable gaming highlights, branching out into new places. A resolute desire to get Trudvang Chronicles off the shelf for some actual play, paid off with some convention play, which for all my nervous front loaded talk of over complex combat system options still delivered some good fun at the table. Some players were even scurrying off to see if they could find copies. Sadly the print availability for this now ‘IP sold’ game will languish in dusty stock cupboards and second hand market. I think the PDFs will only be found in the digital equivalent. My collection isn’t complete, but I think I have the PDFs before Riotminds rushed off to other things.
This loss has brought further happiness. The underlying system for Trudvang is the much respected Drakar Och Demoner, a Swedish developed game since 1982, based originally on Chaosium’s Magic World. It thus has much of the BRP ancestry along with much development over many versions since. The rights to this passed to Free League, who have now successfully (of course, it’s them) Kickstarted a new version of the game with an English translation. This is my most exciting system development of the year. A lightweight high fantasy game that has all that I like of BRP simplicity, with lavishly infused Free League design gives you a really fun play experience. This is probably the Draka Och Demoner version that plays easier at conventions, whilst having plenty about it for long term play. At time of writing I have run two sessions, both of which went down well, and will be running a family follow-up in a couple of days. The family game was riotous fun, and I am busting to play again. This game is going to get so much play in 2023!
Cepheus Deluxe has also featured this year. This is now my Traveller base, and one I plan to run more of in 2023. Lightened and honed it does everything I could want for a 2d6 system space opera. An unexpected and highly affordable big hit that eclipses Mongoose Traveller 2e, as much as I love what Mongoose is doing with the IP. A recent Bundle of Holding has netted me a displacement tonne of their recent titles on PDF. So much that there will be a lifetime of play with it. Traveller, in any guise, will have to work hard though, as my SF gaming already has strong competitors that have muscled to the top of the priority stack.
Another game has brought me multifarious delights: Blackbirds. I am a bit of a Dungeon Muser groupie, participating on his Discord server and watching some of his YouTube streamed content. He is one of the most proficient and prolific GMs out there, somehow also holding down a high power career too. I have been added to the roster of players, with an open invitation to join in to streamed games as there is availability. Kevin has kindly sent me a physical copy of the huge core rulebook and I’m playing some sessions in his ‘Blackbirds of Yule’ Christmas holiday event. The CST timezone presents my GMT some challenging 2am starts, but it is truly worth it. The game is a dark fantasy, riven with hope. A setting wheer the gods are slain by Oligarchs, whose current apeothis to usurping dominance is blighting war wracked land yet further. As the final three Fates were slain, shards of Fate splintered across the world embedding in those that would rise up to bring hope and change: the Blackbirds. Zweihander powered, with lots of elements from systems that I like, delivers a very good fantasy game, dripping with atmosphere and adventurous play potential.
I’ve managed a good round of face to face conventions this year, in a conscious push to get back out there after the pandemic times. My initiation to Owlbear and the Wizard’s Staff and Grogmeet were wonderful opportunities to meet up with many of the gaming family and have a good old natter and do what we do. I hope I can find my way back to both in 2023. Garrison conventions continue to re-establish themselves as we assess attendance numbers. They look to be back and we shall continue to run them. I want to call out Remi’s Bladerunner game at Furnace. We had a great time with a top group of players. Remi ran a great game!
Continuum was my first ever convention, back in the day. That it runs in the University halls where I lived as a child only adds to the reminiscent joy of the event. I managed to run three games, two of which were my own Tripod system. The Friday night one was a riot of at least 8(?) players due to a scheduling confusion. It was such incredible fun. So much laughter and rocking roleplay. Tripod’s light and flexible mechanics effortlerssly supported the session and gave a platform for the characters to demonstrate their worth. Old Continuum friends, young players, an eclectic blend that brewed magic for an evening. It has been etched in the annals of my most memorable games ever. I am smiling as I type.
There are many play highlights. Somehow I always manage to put out a fun Infinity 2d20 game, despite the weight of the crunchy system. It might say more about the excellent players I was lucky to attract, but nevertheless, that monster heavyweight has such a mass of cool ideas, factional setting and action thumping mechanics that the gravity pulls in great play into its singularity. More to come…
I’ve managed to get a couple of short RPG books published under my new ‘First Age Entertainment’ banner. A Cepheus Deluxe adventure persuaded me that I could use Affinity Publisher with sufficient basic expertise to publish a print product on DrivethruRPG. Tripod, ‘TRaits In Pools Of Dice’, my small narrative roleplaying game was also published, simplifying and improving on my ten years old Wordplay. Thanks for Dom for persevering with the layout for that book. I have finished the first draft of a second edition of my Heroic Fantasy, a Black Hack based high fantasy game. I like the changes and hope to get the game out after some playtesting in early 2023. This one I plan to have available both on DrivethruRPG and as part of the Playrole Creators Programme.
It was a particular Continuum delight to be greeted by Mark Galeotti with a very early copy of Gran Mecccanismo, his clockpunk fantasy in Renaissance Italy. So gratifying to see the Tripod engine being picked up and honed for a separate creative work. I will miss Continuum next year, but hold out some hope that I’ll get a game of it run by the author at some point.
Online play will continue to be the means by which I play. There will be as much face to face play as I can manage. Perhaps a regular Dragonbane game running at Patriot Games, or at a pub in Crookes? I will have conventions and a playtest series too. Family gatherings will continue to explore the Dragonbane adventure series. When it comes to online, I use Role and Foundry (hosted on Forge). I would like to get all my games onto Role. I think this will depend on the development path they take and how they prioritise. In practice this is going to take a couple more years. This would be a conscious decision to emphasise audio visual connections, light tools and minimal to no system integration. A lighter expectation on what the VTT should be doing, but leveraging the play environment and tools that Role offers. I will keep a weather eye on others as they develop
I have already blogged about my plans for 2023. On further reflection, and In summary,I think Dragonbane, Infinity 2d20, Coriolis, Trudvang, and concluding D&D4e will all get me GMing. The Mythras based Comae Engine might stretch me to experimentally explore through play. Conan 2d20 was my only campaign misfire, due to some scheduling difficulties. It happens. The campaign is still all loaded in Foundry VTT, so maybe it will get an outing. I think Dragonbane and Coriolis will, in particular, see a lot of my GMing and play.
I shall play Pathfinder 2e, possibly the 13th Age playtest, a few of Nathan’s 5e and a couple of concluding Strahd 5e sessions. With perhaps some Con4eR D&D4e, that is likely to be where my D&D subsides for 2023. I hope to join some other games from my close gaming family. It is conceivable that I am sucked into some OneD&D play at some point, but I already have a lot on!
It’s going to be a great year ahead, diverted down unexpected otherworldly pathways full of magic and adventure. All the best to you as we head into a 2023 that will be full of friendship and wonder!