2016: Year in Review
The year 2016 has come to an end, long may it rest in the dirt. The year was a turbulent one in the grand scheme of things, with some worrying political events (depending on which side of the fence you sit), a seemingly higher level of celebrity deaths than previous, resulting in us losing some great individuals, and numerous tragedies. I imagine that most are glad to see the back of it.
However, this blog isn't about current events. It's about gaming. So let's go over 2016 from the perspective of how it did in terms of games - what new games did it bring me, and what gaming opportunities were available?
Gaming in review
The years was pretty good for playing games. I went to my first major games convention back in April, when I attended Conpulsion up in Edinburgh. I ran Keepers of the Woods there just before it was finally released on Pelgrane Press' website, and it seemed to be relatively well received. I also met Steve Ellis there, who is a lovely chap, and have since bumped into him again at the YSDC Games Day V and Dragonmeet, which were my two other major gaming events of the year. Always a pleasure, Steve! I also ran games at both the YSDC Games Day and Dragonmeet, running Night Floors using the new Delta Green rules at the former, and taking Keepers for a second outing at the latter on behalf of Pelgrane.
Staying with RPGs, I managed to finish one campaign at the start of the year by finally completing The Final Revelation in February. This mini campaign for Trail of Cthulhu was an absolute blast to run and has made its author, Graham Walmsley, one of my favourite RPG writers. His book, Stealing Cthulhu, is also worth checking out for all the amazing advice it provides. The group I was running the campaign for has now moved on to one of much more epic scope - Horror on the Orient Express - which we are running using the new Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition rules.
I've also continued to run Eternal Lies for my other group. We have managed to meet up fairly regularly, although there have been some lengthy gaps between sessions. They are currently about half way through the campaign as a whole, losing one investigator along the way so far, and currently find themselves in a sticky situation in Malta.
Finally, I continue to play in a friend's Ars Magica campaign, which has been running for eighty sessions as of this coming Tuesday. Our magi continue to run around the island of Malmara, dealing with various threats that touch upon the Theban tribunal and nearby Constantinople. Meanwhile, there companions have just returned from a pilgrimage that saw them travel all the way to England, pass through a French civil war, and return home via the help of Mercury himself.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience many new systems. The only new game I managed to play was Fiasco, something that I have owned for several years, but only got to actually play earlier this year. However, I loved it, and my character was left on Mars as the perpetually reincarnated lust object of a warped AI.
Board games also featured in this year's gaming activities, with eighty-nine separate plays according to Board Game Geek. This probably isn't a complete picture of what I've played over the year, as I am infamously poor are logging my plays. However, I get to play regularly due to a gaming group springing up at the library where I work, which meets every Friday. The best board gaming event of the year, though, was my friend Ben's birthday weekend away. Four entire days of board gaming bliss, where I got to play many new games and some old stalwarts, such as my favourite, Twilight Imperium. Unfortunately, me and my wife, previously my main gaming partner, have played fewer games together this year. Life and work have simply gotten in the way of us enjoying what was once a regular pastime for us.
Out with the old, in with the new
The year gone by was also a big year for new gaming purchases. I acquired twenty-three new board game items during 2016, of which sixteen were new games and seven were expansions. Many of the games I bought were shorter games, due to the time constraints at my work's gaming meetup, and most have a one or two-player option, so that I can play them either by myself, or hopefully with my wife. Still, I've managed to get hold of some meatier games this year, with some highlights including Mage Knight, Scythe and Blood Rage. I also picked up the Arkham Horror LCG from Dragonmeet, which is probably one of my favourite games of the year and an absolute blast to play solo.
My board game acquisitions were balanced out by selling some of my collection after moving to our new house earlier in July. A total of fifteen games were sold, along with nineteen different expansions. So overall, 2016 saw a net loss in my gaming collection. However, I feel that I have separated the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and kept some of my favourite games, while those that saw little table time have gone.
With RPGs I might have been a tad over zealous in my 2016 acquisitions, with a total of nearly two hundred new items picked up throughout the year! The majority of these are PDFs, and the high number results from purchases of the excellent value Bundles of Holding, as well as several Kickstarters offering entire back catalogues, such as Unknown Armies, Conan, and 7th Sea. PDFs are a good thing, as I think my wife would have murdered me had I brought home so many new hardbacks (my RPG acquisitions still draw a frowny face from her though...). However, sixty-six of my new acquisitions were physical books.
Such a large amount of new RPG items flooding into my collection does present the eternal problem - when will I have time to read all this material?! I think many gamers do have the problem of buying something now, with the intention of reading it later on because it would be a cool game or provide some great ideas. I have to admit that I have barely made a dent in reading the new material that I have purchased over the year, let alone had chance to run many new games. That is something I hope to rectify over the coming year.
Kickstarters
I want to briefly touch on Kickstarters. I've been backing them since 2013, and have helped fund 47 projects since then. In 2014, I backed nineteen, and since then the average has slowed down to about twelve a year. They focus mainly on RPGs, and I have recently started backing more at just the PDF level, because it is cheaper and because shipping is generally a nightmare.
Of the twelve projects I backed in 2016, I have already received some form of rewards from six of them, and three have fully completed. That is a pretty good showing from a platform that is notorious for delayed projects. That said, there are several projects that I have backed over the years that are long over due, or are taking forever to come (e.g. Project Dark, Paranoia and Lone Wolf). Even this year there have been delays to the release of the new Conan RPG. However, I am pretty patient and I already have a hefty stack of reading material to keep me occupied for the foreseeable future.
Looking forward to 2017
I am hoping to see another year filled with gaming. Here are some of the things I am hoping to achieve in the coming year:
- Write more: In 2016 I managed to get The Keepers of the Woods out into the wild. In 2017 I am hoping to write more scenarios. There is something that I am working on at present, which I have the CoC 7th Edition rules in mind for, that I need to write up. And I would like to help support The Cthulhu Hack with an adventure or two as well. I have plenty of ideas in the little notebook I keep on my desk, so it is just a case of seeing them to fruition.
- Buy less, play more: 2016 saw me buy quite a lot of games and gaming supplements. I would be lying to myself if I said that they were all necessary purchases (none of them are really). Many of the board games I bought just haven't reached the table yet, or have only been played once or twice. RPGs are even worse, as I have bought several new systems that I just haven't found time to play, even as one-shots. So in 2017, I am hoping to limit impulse purchases and try games before I buy. I also plan to play more and get some of those unplayed games onto the table.
- Read more: All those new RPG purchases aren't going to read themselves! So I'm going to try and set myself targets to read more of the books I've obtained, rather than letting them gather dust. Playing more will (hopefully) help with this by forcing me to read new rules and adventures before I run them.
- Meet new people: The conventions I attended in 2016 were great and I got to meet some very cool people and players. I'm hoping to continue attending cons and running games there to get myself out of my comfort zone. But meeting people doesn't have to be face-to-face either. Over on RPG Geek, there is the new Play by Forum initiative that I hope to take part in, first as a player, and hopefully as a GM. That should allow me to get some of those RPGs to the (virtual) table. I've also be toying with the idea of a monthly online game session for one-shots, so may be I will get that established too.
That about rounds off this review of 2016 from the gamer's perspective. Hopefully 2017 has plenty of gaming to bring with it, and hopefully it will just be a better year all round.