2013 - What Did I Play?

With the end of another year rapidly approaching, I thought I'd take time to look back on the games that I played, as I line up new games for next year. Next time I'll be posting a summary of the games that I ran.

Games that I took part in as a player :

Dungeon World - This was run by +Michael Bay and through the course of various games I played several characters. It was interesting to visit the "Apocalypse World" engine from a different angle, which will help when I run "Monster of the Week" next year.

Apocalypse World - This time out +Tony Reyes was at the helm in a weird, violent (to be expected) mini-campaign. I played a cult leader who steered the group down entirely the wrong path. This game is always interesting but challenging to play, and I never envy the person who has to run it. They seem to be caught between improvised responses and not being allowed to have much influence in the setting.

Shadowrun 5th Edition - A one-shot demo of a game I'd never got round to trying before. Great setting, but far too crunchy for my tastes. I was definitely the only one at the table who wasn't having a blast, so it can't be denied that Shadowrun has a certain "something".

Mage:The Awakening - I finally got to try a "New World of Darkness" game! I thought it was great, much easier than I'd anticipated. The LARP adaptation of the rules and the tendency to stay immersed in character threw me a little, and sadly my schedule got in the way of staying with the game. I'd feel confident running this myself, but there doesn't seem to be an audience.

Savage Worlds - This was a zombie survival game, absolutely not my ideal setting, but I really enjoyed the system. It had enough crunch to make the combat satisfying, something which I feel is missing in the games that I run. Fun, and great for one-shots.

Fate Accelerated Edition - +Scott Acker ran a demo of this and aside from being a fun session, I came away feeling that I actually understood how the game works...always a good sign in a demo! I'm interested in seeing where Fate goes in future settings.

Old School D&D - +john yorio has ran two sessions of this recently and I played in both. It took me back to my childhood and was good old-fashioned fun. Simple rules, deadly opponents and a really great sense of camaraderie at the table.

So there you have it, a decent selection for the year and I didn't realize how much I'd played until I planned this post! I salute all the people who ran these games. All were excellent gamesmasters and I learned something from each of them to take forward into the games that I run.

Old School Gaming

Last weekend I took part in an old school meetup ran by +john yorio . I know John through some of my own games.He'd played in an "Unknown Armies" one-shot and one of my more unusual "Call of Cthulhu" sessions.

This game was Basic D&D with some Labyrinth Lord modifications. It was a one-shot, also one of the original modules. I couldn't resist the nostalgia and I love one-shot games in general.They're such a great way to get a taste for a game without investing too much in terms of characters and campaigns. Basic D&D was the first game I ever played back in the early 1980's. My next experience was with Advanced D&D 2nd Edition when I ran a Ravenloft campaign in the 1990's, and the only fantasy games I've played since returning to the hobby in recent years have been Dungeon World and Pathfinder.

There was a good turnout for the game. It took a few minutes to put some characters together (though pre-gens were readily available) and it was fun to see how basic and direct the game really was. You could be a Fighter,Magic User, Thief, Cleric, Dwarf, Elf or Halfling. I opted for the Dwarf, as I do enjoy head first characters.

It was a classic dungeon arrangement, with skeletons, goblins,an evil Cleric, hidden doors and traps. The action was fast and quickly resolved...but what was truly special was the headcount. My Dwarf was the first to die, my Halfling somehow made it. Some other players actually went through three...yes,three characters in what was probably a three hour session. The pre-gens came in handy!

All in all it was just simple fun. Everyone was into the game and the spirit of it. Thinking back to how I started running "Call of Cthulhu", I was really tapping into the same thing...giving players the chance to reconnect with an old classic that they hadn't played in years or missed out on first time around.This inspires me to dig out some of the others, like "Paranoia" and "Judge Dredd" (Games Workshop version). It also reminded me how much I love the one-shot/demo format, and I'm seriously thinking about making 2014 a year where I run a one-shot of a different game each month, alongside just one campaign. That would also be good preparation for my stint in "Games on Demand" at Dragoncon 2014...but that's another post :-)

+john yorio has another session lined up for next month and I'm looking forward to that one too. It's good to see the level of excitement around this and he runs the sessions well.