3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars: I ran two 2-hour sessions of this back to back at Gencon. A great morning dumb shoot-em-up game with added military hilarity.
Apportionment: I ran this at Gencon for a total of six players, probably the theoretical minimum the game supports. Through a mistake that was totally my fault, I mishandled the delicate negotiations, turning what seemed like a done-deal for a peace settlement, and probably doomed Sirai to another generation of war.
Blades in the Dark: Ran a short two session game. This is a game that takes some getting used to. Certainly something I’d try again.
Burning Wheel: I ran a few sessions of a “Burning Italy” game set during the plague. It didn’t quite work out- a botched resources roll bankrupted the entire party.
Call of Cthulhu: I played a one-shot. I don’t particularly care for the BRP system, but the GM had done a lot of research and the characters were based on actual historical people, which was pretty cool.
Carolina Death Crawl: I facilitated a four player game of this at Gencon. It was totally brutal. I loved it.
Conclave: I ran two sessions, one at Forge Midwest and one at Gencon. This one is almost ready to go!
Crowdfund Dungeon: The annual Forge Midwest Crowdfund Dungeon, using the Itras By engine. In 3-D.
Deadlands Classic: I played in a several month campaign of this. The system has some very warty bits but more or less holds up- it’s still much more interesting than the rather bland Reloaded version. Good fun.
Dungeon Crawl Classics: I ran a oneshot of this (using the Scenic Dunnsmouth adventure), and played in a oneshot at Gameholecon. Always fun.
Dungeon World: At a Christmas get together with my family, my sister and I conspired to get my parents to play DW. It was a great success, with my mom saying “well if you’re not going to try to steal the ivory horn, I’m going to,” and “why don’t we play another hour?”
Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition: I ran a Tomb of Horrors one-shot. They won! (Because they didn’t find the final crypt.)
Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition: Played one session of this. Decided not to go back.
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: Easily my most played game of the year- finished up a several months long Curse of Strahd game, and recently started running a Tomb of Annihilation game.
Ghost Court: At Gameholecon I ran a small session of this for a very small playgroup of four players (including myself), but we rotated roles of Judge, Court, Plaintiff and Defendant, and it worked very well.
Kagematsu: I ran Kagematsu at Games on Demand at Gencon. Great fun, introduced it to a bunch of new players.
Mermaid Loves Bigfoot: I played a Kappa looking for love in this LARP at Forge Midwest. I didn’t find it with the Nymph, but I hit it off with Old Shuck (a dog that kills pedophiles. Who doesn’t love dogs that kill pedophiles?)
Monsterhearts: At Minnesota Longcon, I played in an excellent multi-session game of Monsterhearts with a lot of really great people. One of the best games of the year.
NSDM: I played three sessions of the National Security Decision Making Game at Gencon. I got a prize for my play as one of the branches of the Pakistani Muslim League, using casual corruption to funnel government funds into my own wallet. I would have done better if I hadn’t gotten caught.
Powered by the Apocalypse World: I ran a session of my satirical game about game designers at Forge Midwest.
Ryuutama: Colin ran a short campaign of this- maybe four sessions or so? A very charming game. I played a jam maker.
SCUP: I ran a short game set in Medieval Italy during the Plague. A continuation of the Burning Italy campaign. Still didn’t quite work.
Shock: Social Science Fiction: I ran a very short one-shot at Gencon for Games on Demand, really more of a teaser of the game, and ran another one-shot for the Fastcast gang.
Sig: Manual of the Primes: I ran a two session game- character creation and adventure, that highlighted the weirdness of the setting, but didn’t quite come together.
Sign: The game where you play Nicaraguan children learning sign language. I played a one-shot at Gameholecon. One of my favorite games of the year.
Smellementary: I got to playtest Eric Farmer’s game about dog detectives wearing hats at Gameholecon. It is just what it sounds like.
Stars Without Number: I joined a campaign of this and played a few sessions at the end. We did the thing and got home!
Swords and Wizardry: I played in a multi-GM campaign for a few months. It was an interesting experience. I wish the groups and players were a little more fluid- it seemed like the subgroups ended up gelling together and there wasn’t a lot of movement from one party to another.
The End?: I played a T-Rex politician. We got to sing the National Anthem of Dinosauria. (Forge Midwest)
The Laundry Files: Colin ran a short game of this- I enjoyed it, playing a lawyer specializing in occult contract law, and the adventure turned out to be about a potential breach of contract between humanity and the deep ones, but any fun that was had was driven by interactions between the players and was in spite of the adventure and the system.
The Watch: Joe Beason ran a great oneshot at Chicago Games Day. Wish it were longer.
Timewatch: I played a oneshot of this at Gameholecon. I saved time. The GM was very excited about the game, which was great, but didn’t have the best ability to pace things for a con slot, so it really dragged in places, and we had some players who wanted to investigate every little thing, rather than move on to the next plot point.
Traveller, 1st Edition: I played in a several months long game of this. I did not die during character creation. I learned a few things about the system- attributes are pretty much worthless, skills are where it’s at. This is a game that started out very sandboxy, but narrowed into a railroad, possibly due to the fact that we had a limited number of sessions for the game.
Traverser: I got to playtest this game by Paul Czerge. Looking forward to more of this one!
Uncharted Worlds: I ran the first few sessions of a game that fell apart due to scheduling. Still, it was pretty cool.
Unknown Armies: I played a truly surreal session of this at Gameholecon, where all of the characters were children and trapped in some sort of time loop.
Verdant: I played Tim Koppang’s game in development at Chicago Games Day. It was like David Lynch presents The Scarlet Letter.
Willow Rants 