So, about a year ago, I looked at what games I wanted to run next. I was pleased I wrote it at the time as it reminded me what I wanted to play, and I’m even more pleased now to go back and look at it again.

I have played from the list:

  1. UVG. Admittedly, I didn’t play as much as I wanted, but I got a flavour of it, and of the SEACAT engine. I still want to run this, but it can only be as a campaign; I just don’t see the interest in a one-shot. To me that’s a SEACAT one-shot, not a UVG one. In fact, I’m very interested in using Into the Grasslands to use ItO instead of SEACAT.
  2. Hypertellurians! A few times. I really like the setting but, like a lot of OSR, I find it very difficult to balance. I keep an eye on settings for it, but even the official Mottokrosh ones seem to have terribly difficult enemies to fight. Mind you, I always end up making games too easy…
  3. Beak, Feather, and Bone. It’s a bit like The Quiet Year, but with more birds.

That’s about half, which isn’t bad, although I’m feeling guilty about DELVE (and all its variants) and Ex Novo. I think it’s been the happy result of a weekly regular game this year (EIGHT months now‽), there’s been a lot more 5e than last year. The only exception is Humblewood, which I am deliberately not playing as I’m saving it for playing in real life again. I could list a lot of games that I’ve played instead, but that would be repeating the blog itself.

So, what’s the list? In no particular order:

  1. Troika. I’ve really enjoyed playing 5e through VTTs, but now I’m not sure I could play without one! I’m interested in trying something lighter when playing IRL where there’s less fussing about rules. I do not want to stop playing 5e, I still very much enjoy it. I’ve tried Into The Odd, which is another contender. Or there’s Worlds Without Number. Old School Essentials, on the other hand, typically feels like it’s punishing the players for something.
  2. The Black Hack. As above, pretty much. Everyone says this is great, and it doesn’t involve drawing tokens for initiative - but it does involve Supply Dice1 which are equally divisive.
  3. Adventures in Middle Earth. Again. Look, I just do, alright? Get me some Tolkein, although I guess at some point I should look at The One Ring…
  4. Bucket of Bolts. I have the PDF from the Kickstarter, I’m excited to get the book. It looks as good as Artefact, and I like the sci-fi theme of coming up with the story of a ship that passes through many owners.
  5. Some Grant Howitt games. Don’t even mind which! Just something silly.

I started an Honourable Mentions list, but it became “literally everything I own that I didn’t play in the last two months” so I’ve stopped that.

  1. You have, say, a d8 of something, like arrows. At the end of a fight where you use your bow, you roll the die, and if it’s 1-2 then you move to a d6. And so on. ↩︎