2017 Year in Review
Another year has passed by. Unfortunately, I have posted little to this blog over the course of the year, for which I apologise. Work, life and a range of responsibilities have often stood in the way, but that is no excuse for not taking the time to sit down every once in a while and type out some thoughts and ideas.
To try and get 2018 off to a better start, I am back to provide a review of 2017 from my own gaming perspective. I also have some ideas for content to help fill the site over the coming year, but I'll get to those later.
Gaming in review
Much like 2016, the past year has been good for gaming. Starting with RPGs, I managed to play roughly 74 sessions across nine unique systems, including our long-running Ars Magica campaign (now in its fourth year!), and my Call and Trail of Cthulhu campaigns. Five systems were new to me, namely Blades in the Dark, Dungeon World, Star Trek Adventures, Monster of the Week, and Tales of the Village. These have given me a new found love for Powered by the Apocalypse as a system, and I hope to try out other PbtA games during 2018. High on that list are Masks: A New Generation, Bluebeard's Bride, and Urban Shadows. However, my favourite new system has to be Blades, which does what it aims to do so very well. A magnificent triumph from John Harper. That said, my favourite roleplaying experience of the year was the play by forum game of Dungeon World that I took part in over on RPG Geek—a simply excellent game formed from the minds of brilliant roleplayers and a fantastic GM. It was also one of my fellow players who nominated me to become the 363rd RPG Geek of the Week.
2018 also saw me complete another RPG scenario, this time for Call of Cthulhu. Those Within was submitted to the Cult of Chaos scenario writing competition in April and was selected as one of the winners. It was very exciting to know that a scenario that I wrote was run at GenCon50 and other conventions throughout the year. It should be available via the Cult of Chaos on the BRP forums soon (although Chaosium has been promising the winning scenarios since September 2017).
Although I attended fewer conventions due to financial constraints, I did manage to get over to the YSDC Games Day, where I ran Those Within. The game was a resounding success and well received by the players, with one commenting that it was possibly one of the grossest scenarios that they had played. I'll take that as a compliment!
Boardgames were also played throughout the year, though somewhat sporadically. I managed to find time to play 45 unique games, amounting to 117 plays over the last twelve months. This sees an improvement over 2016 in terms of total games played. I even got my favourite game, Twilight Imperium, to the table as well. My stand out games for the year, however, were Arkham Horror The Card Game, which is simply excellent as a campaign driven card game, and Gloomhaven, a late acquisition but one with almost perfection in its mechanics and gameplay. Elizabeth and I are looking forward to playing through Gloomhaven's campaign over the course of the year and I can see it becoming a well-played stalwart in by boardgame collection.
Purchases
Oh, the horror. I had said in 2016 that I was going to buy less and play more in 2017. In fact, I believe I ended up buying more, at least in terms of boardgames. Nineteen new games were purchased, along with eighteen new expansions. Despite these expansions mainly being for the Arkham Horror LCG, that was quite a lot. RPG purchases were lower than 2016, with forty-four physical books purchased compared to sixty-six the previous year. PDFs still make up the bulk of my collection, but my digital purchases were also down, most likely due to resisting the temptation of many of the Bundle of Holdings advertised throughout the year (that and I owned most of the resurrected ones already...).
I guess that overall my purchases were down on the previous year. However, I still have several unplayed games and plenty of unread RPG supplements that are piling up. Having only read twenty-two new RPG supplements in 2017, the disparity between use and acquisition is self-evident.
Kickstarters
I continued to back the odd Kickstarter in 2017, with a total of seven by the end of the year. This was much less than the twelve I backed the previous year, many of which I am still waiting on for delivery, not to mention those that are still outstanding from further back (I'm thinking of you, Project Dark). One of the projects I backed in 2017 (Gloomhaven) has already been delivered. Others I am expecting within the coming months (Legacy: Life Among The Ruins and Fear's Sharp Little Needles). I imagine that I won't see the others until later in 2018.
While I still think Kickstarter is an excellent platform for game publication, I am starting to fall out of love with it on a personal level, simply because I fall into the trap of backing products and getting entire lines of games (mostly core books in print and supplements in PDF), which then sit on my shelves and do not get used simply because I have a mountain of other stuff to play and I am involved in three long-running RPG campaigns already. As a result, I am feeling it is more of a benefit to me personally to save my money and perhaps pick a core book up once it is released further down the line. I can certainly put money to good use rather than investing it in a product that will almost certainly see print from a larger publisher now and not be getting a return until 12-18 months down the line. This is one of the reasons I have chosen not to back the John Carpenter RPG this year, but will instead look to buy it when it is on general release later in 2018.
Looking forward to 2018
Again, I hope to see another year filled with gaming. Here's what I am hoping to achieve:
- Write more: I'd like to write at least two RPG related things in 2018. I am currently working on a Call of Cthulhu scenario, which I hope to have completed soon—look out for it via DriveThruRPG and Chaosium's Miskatonic Repository. I am also wanting to write up The Miscellany Society into a pay what you want PDF supplement, which will probably be released via the Miskatonic Repository as well. I plan to include a Call of Cthulhu conversion of Keepers of the Woods in this book too. Finally, I have a scenario called 'Welcome to the Island' in development, which is a homage to a Darkest of the Hillside Thickets song from their album Dukes of Al Hazred.
- Buy less, play more: Ah, yes, the same old mantra. However, for 2018 I have set myself a gaming budget of £50 a month and a maximum expenditure for the year of £500. Plus, NO KICKSTARTERS. It is a pledge I have made as part of the annual BoardGameGeek.com No New Games thread and I am planning to try and stick closely to it throughout the year.
- Read more: I am planning to try and read a minimum of one RPG book a month, focussing on core rulebooks if possible. I am already doing well in January, with five supplements read, and I am working my way through the delightful Fate of the Norns core book at the moment. In addition, I hope to read a minimum of one fiction/non-fiction book a month as well.
- Run and play more new games: 2017 saw Durham, my hometown, get its own games shop. This may have caused an upswing in my games purchases in the latter half of the year, but it has also provided a place to run games and demo systems. With the development of a planned RPG night, which is to start in the next month or so, I am planning to take the opportunity to run more games and try out some of the systems that have been gathering dust on my shelves. Hopefully, I can bring some new players into the fold at the same time.
- Blog more: A no-brainer, really, but I aim to put out at least one post on this site per month. With the pledge to read more books, I will hopefully be able to write some reviews over the course of the year. Plus, I plan to provide some regular content, whether that is maps, dungeon plans, scenario seeds, or simply my thoughts on gaming at the time—whatever happens, content will be forthcoming.
That about rounds off this review of 2017. I hope that when I come back to write my review of 2018 I will be able to reflect on these pledges and know that I gave my very best to stand by them. Here's to a new year filled with games!