Let's have a quick look at the past year and see what I've spent most of my time with. As usuall, board gaming is where it's at so let's start there.
Board Games
My top played "board" game (and actually top played game overall) was Star Wars the Card Game from FFG. I got early in the year and played it quite a bit with my friend Anders, who then bought a core set of his own. Then it lay dormant for a while until we picked it up again a few months ago. Unfortunately Anders feels he has had a hard time getting into it and hasn't invested in anything more than the core set. I've played it with a few other friends as well though who seem to like it well enough so I see this game living on in our group.
Notably, Descent has dropped off entirely and was only played once! Of course, this is very much tied to campaigning and after a year of resting I thinkthe heroes might be up for another go. Some other runner ups are Firefly, Earth Reborn, Robinson Crusoe, Panic Station, Archipelago and Twilight Imperium. Some games that I played but regret not getting to play more are Twilight Struggle, Origins: How We Became Human, Battles of Westeros, Powergrid: The First Sparks, Rex: Final Days of an Empire and Pax Porfiriana. But that's what 2014 is for!
Roleplaying games
You know the drill by now, there hasn't been much roleplaying... although there is light at the end of the tunnel! In June we played a couple of short session of Dungen World. This was on a whim after having read through the system and talked about it with a couple of friends. It was a short story about a group of adventurers fleeing from an undead terror into a mine that had found its way into an old tomb. It's a pretty neat system, very flexible, but in a way almost a bit too loose as well. We did have a lot of good laughs though! Hmm... should write about this further on.
And that's it! No more rpgs. However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that I've been expanding my gaming circle, so have more potentials and I've decided to take decisive action and start a game in the next few weeks. More on this in the Future - 2014 post.
Miniature Games
This list is very similar from last year, with X-Wing taking the top place. It's not my favourite miniature game, but the solid rules, easy squadron building and quick playing time (not to mention pre-painted minis!) really makes it the game to reach for when you want something actiony without the hassle of setting up terrain and calculating army lists. The wave 3 releases have been a lot of fun, especially as I've always been a great fan of the B-wing, and the upcoming releases of the rebel transport and blockade runner has me all giddy! I even sat down and used a proper tackle box kind of thing to organize my collection. No more ziploc bags!
Besides these three I've played some Deadzone Beta games and a couple of games of 5150: Star navy. As I'm trying to narrow down my miniature gaming I don't really see this as a bad thing though. Hrmm..
Yepp, that was my gaming in 2013! I've not had quite the same wow feeling this year that I got from High Frontier last year, so there's no clear Game of the Year for me. Had I played Pax Porfiriana more that might have been it, but I don't feel I've grasped it quite yet. I really like Star Wars the card game as it's quick (but not too quick!) to play, makes deck building easy and has some really cool mechanics in it! I also enjoyed Torchbearer a lot - the Burning Wheel system (the Artha system?) really clicks with me for some reason so that was a gaming high point for sure.
In my next post I'll be writing about what the future (hopefully) holds during 2014!
I had the feeling that you had player less Dust W last year but you think that may change?
ReplyDeleteThere were less play during the autumn at least. But I do think it will change once the Achilles beta is over and Battlefront commit to the rules. I'm eager to get some of those Steel Guard, but as I'm trying to get some Deadzone stuff painted I've decided it's better to hold off a bit. :)
DeleteI can't say I got whole lot of board games and card games under my belt last year. I played Eclipse a few times, but mostly I played FFG's Lord of the Rings Card Game and Dominion with friends outside my regular group. During Christmas we pulled out a beaten copy of HeroQuest, mostly for nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteThe only miniature game I played last year was Gripping Beast's SAGA. This game line has been greatly expanded greatly its original release without destroying the game balance. And by the looks of it, SAGA is going strong.
For me year 2013 was the year of one-offs in roleplaying games front. Lots of new games and settings with good amount of games run and played. But most of these were played only once and there are strong indications that they might be played again. Only games to get more than one sessions worth of play were Dragon Age, in which I was a player, and to my little surprise Pathfinder, in which I co-DM'ed a Forgotten Realms campaign with some side quests to planar multiverse of Planescape.
I consider 2013 a great year for the roleplaying hobby in general as we saw some great releases. Numenera, Shadowrun 5th Edition, Werewolf the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, Special edition of RuneQuest 6th Edition, Lamentations of the Flame Princess hardbacks, Dungeons & Dragons older edition reprints and numerous PDF only releases via DriveThruRPG. And looks like the 2014 will be even better.
Lots of roleplaying sounds great! I'm envious. :)
DeleteFor me it's been predominantly board games, but we're currently putting together a new(ish) rpg group and will get started next week hopefully which will be a lot of fun! The plan is to run three or four sessions in close succession and then make a little break for a few weeks before we hit the next batch. Should be fun!
If I didn't have my hands full with Deadzone (and eyeing Dropzone Commander) I might get one or two warbands for Saga. Of course... that would mean getting all kinds of new terrain as well. Hmm...
Sounds like a great year! I also got into X-Wing, and dipped my feet in Star Wars LCG, although I tend to like the theme and mechanics of Android Netrunner LCG a bit better. Frontier and Megafauna look _awesome_ though.
ReplyDelete'Twas was a great year! I only wish we'd played more roleplaying games.
DeleteI think Netrunner is probably the better game (haven't tried it yet though) and has a cooler theme, but my circle of friends are terrified of/apathetic towards deck building and because of this I thought the pod system of SW would at least make it easier for them to put decks together.
I really can't recommend Phil Eklund's games (High Frontier especially) high enough! They are idiosyncratic, but once you've learnt to speak "Eklundish" you will have great experiences playing his games.
My only cripe with Netrunner is that it's only for two players, at least the core box. Don't know if the suppliments add more players as well as cards to the game.
DeleteNope, no extra players added. Netrunner is a pure two player game. It would be cool if more players were possible, however Netrunner is such a pure card game that I think everyone who plays it should invest in his/her own set. Basically, if you get together to play it everyone should bring a deck or two of their own and then you play several games during an hour or two.
DeleteWell, that's my spontanteous thought on the matter anyhow. A friend just bought it so I'll get to try it soon enough and if it's fun I'll likely invest as well.