End of the year is coming, so let’s talk about our 2023 RPG year. Was their any great moment? Nice discovery? Projects finally achieved/started?
I had my debut as a GM the last 2 months when I was running the pathfinder beginners box for a few friends of mine. l enjoyed it a lot, although it was a little bit stressful, as I’m socially anxious sometimes, but nonetheless a great experience and I’m already looking into the next campaign I want to run. Probably season of ghosts, but I’ll ask my players what they think of the setting.
Other than that I play in two other PF2E games and really enjoy my characters, although I could work a bit on speaking in character
I would call it year of the one shots, being a big busy IRL (started improv theatre class last year, pretty great but it’s one more evening where I go to bed at midnight letting less room for RPGs) I didn’t wanted to commit to a campaign (well, at least not any campaign) so I played/GMed a lot of one shots/micro campaign (the longest was 5 sessions) with may be 20 session over the year
The good surprises were the Borg series(played Ork Borg, bought Cy Borg) , it’s actually rule light, efficient, and quite modern, not what I was expecting from an OSR, also played and GMed several 10 candles sessions.
Finally played some D&D 5e, it was like 10 years I hadn’t played D&D, still not my cup of tea, but was a fun one shot with a GM doing D&D but different
Pulled back a couple of old games from my shelves just to play a One shot, so fun moment too
Bad year larp wise, not a zero larp year, but just one small game (parlour larp) 40 persons over one night. Many games on my radar got cancelled, feel like many of us were worried about covid restriction leading to cancellation or not actively planning their season
I played a decent amount of 1 on 1 Mork Borg and Death in Space this year. Great for quick one shots
Finally ran Delta Green for the first time but just as a one off quick game, playing through Last Things Last in about 2-3h, introducing a brand new player to RPGs in general. Went great.
I’m putting off reading the campaign book for DG Impossible Landscapes because I’m enjoying the actual play on the glass cannon too much and I don’t want to spoil it for myself
Only managed a couple of sessions of 5e this year, I’m not that jazzed to run it so waiting for my players to be interested! It might never get picked up which I’m fine with.
I ran PX Poker Night for the first time this year. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I’m currently waiting for the print copy of God’s Teeth, which I plan to run.
Right on. I listened to a bit of the rppr play through of it and it sounded quite cool. I’m not a huge fan of their play style but they’re obviously one of the biggest names out there for DG content. I just find the BRP engine and it’s derivatives so fluid, and definitely prefer running non fantasy games. Hopefully will get to do a lot more in 24!
I ran a much of micro campaigns when we were starting to play online during COVID. Its really fun to have a campaign with a set endpoint since you can go hard on challenges and magic items. Can really see how the system works and can stay on focus or theme. I think they are underrated compared to the massive multi-year campaigns.
I only played 2 and one of them I need to give more attention to.
Baldur’s Gate 3, which took like 80% of my entire play time this year.
But I also started Wrath of the Righteous on PS5 but was too burned out by the same gameplay to really give it any time. When I get the itch again, I’m going full bore into it because it is damn good.
No tabletop… My group is scattered to the winds and I haven’t found a new one :(
I GMed the second year of our DnD 5e campaign which runs every other week. We went through the official modules Waterdeep Dragonheist and then on to Dungeon of the Mad Mage. We are currently at the final battle of the 4th level of the dungeon. The heroes will be level 8 after the battle. It’s just such a nice group and I am happy we manage to play for so long without any major breaks.
In my second group which is every other week alternating with the first one we had the GM drop out after a little over half a year mid campaign. I offered to run Pathfinder 2e for the first time and it went great. The party is level 5 now and close to the end of the small campaign I prepared. Maybe 2 or 3 more sessions to wrap up. I made up the campaign myself but set it in the world of Golarion. GMing Pathfinder was a blast and I highly prefer it over dnd now. It’ll be my go to system once the mad mage campaign ends which might well be another 2 years. After my Pathfinder campaign ends another player will GM Storm King’s Thunder which we already got characters for and began to play when I couldn’t make prep work in time since GMing 2 groups is a lot for my schedule.
Lastly I began offering beginner one shots in Pathfinder 2e in my flgs and it’s been absolutely awesome. People routinely buy PF books right there at the store after the session ends which is probably the biggest compliment. The beginner box is great for that.
I’m working on a proper dnd 5e beginner adventure similar to the Pathfinder box since the dnd sets aren’t really beginner friendly at all nor do they have proper matirials at the ready.
All in all I had a fantastic RPG year. I hope things can keep going like this in the future.
I finished my long running 5e campaign.
I then ran the PF2e beginner box for an almost totally new group, and then ran the same group into the Abomination Vaults. They’re up to the third floor now.