Looking forward to 2025
2024 was a cool year and in this post I hope to go over it a little and also look forward to 2025. I go over the games that I played in 2024 and also look forward to games that I want to play in 2025.
Games of 2024
In short, I played a lot of Pathfinder 2e. I hope to keep playing it into 2025. I still have my Kingmaker campaign going and I think we will keep playing that into 2025. My group is actually moving along at a great pace and we might be able to get fairly close to finishing the whole module by the end of next year. If we do, that would be a massive accomplishment!
I had a 3 shot playing Cypher System. The adventure was completely made by me and was set in one of my favorite universes, Equestria. The My Little Pony universe. It was fairly fun, but I also learned that Cypher system requires a lot of work to make into a playable game. The base system has a lot of tools, but not all of them are usable for every setting. I jumped into making the adventure without really tooling the system to fit the setting and my players suffered for it. Despite this, Cypher system is very elegant and super easy to run. Because of this I hope to run it again next year. However, this time I will be running it in a premade setting with the rules of that setting.
I had a brief Cairn game. It was my first attempt at making a sandbox. Unfortunately, I learned that Cairn alone is to sparse of a system to really hold the attention of me or my players. The game fizzled quickly. If I could do it over again, I would have tried to prepare a little better so I could better describe the world to my players.
Cairn 2e adds a good amount of content and is going to be arriving sometime next year. I already have the Pdfs of the game and I like the procedures it adds. Might be worth a shot. Some especially handy resources include tables to help make factions and regions. It even has tables for making dungeons and forest crawls.
I ran a Call of Cthulu one shot a little before Halloween. The system is elegant and simple but brutal. My players only had one real encounter in the little prewritten adventure I ran. However, one of them suffered temporary insanity and was disabled for a long while. Leaving the other player alone. They thankfully figured out how to banish the demon they faced and ended up surviving. I am down to play some more, however, I dont know how thrilled my players are at the prospect of being taken out of a fight for so long and also playing such fragile characters. Still, as far as horror games go, I can see why CoC is king. The tension brought about from that single encounter was palpable and I think everyone was on the edge of their seats during it.
Games of 2025
For new games, I hope to play a little Cypher System in the form of Tidal Blades. I really like the solar punk world of Tidal Blades and am excited to try playing a game in a setting like that. The book comes with some very evocative art and has adapted the cypher system to fit the world. Saving me from having to do that work. I hope to also try making this little 3 shot a little differently from other adventures I have made. The adventure is going to be made around the goals of the players instead of being environment or big bad based. Could be fun.
I hope to play some Dragonbane at some point. It is getting a lot of love from the community and I can see why! It has unique mechanics while still being simple to understand. The monsters having their own little attack tables is really cool. I really cant wait to try running the sample adventure Free League provides and seeing what monster fights are like at the table.
I also hope to play some Odd-likes. Specifically, I hope to get Mythic Bastionland and Cairn 2e games going. In the case of those games, I hope to homebrew them a little to be set in Equestria. The My Little Pony universe. Unlike DCC, Odd-likes are extremely easy to hack and can really be made to fit any desire the GM may have. On top of that, they usually come with very solid procedures for running and preparing for games.
Fingers Crossed!
Some hopeful games I have in mind: Dungeon Crawl Classics. Specifically, Mutant Crawl Classics. I also have a homebrew of this game going that would set it in Equestria part way written. Unfortunately, the core DCC system can be very hard to homebrew due to the heavy reliance on tables that everything in DCC depends on. I also think the system can be a hard sell for the players I know since it is very chaotic and requires a lot of looking up stuff in tables. It can be fun since no one knows what will happen, but it can also be frustrating to be constantly looking stuff up.
Hyperboria! This cleaned up and modernized version of AD&D 1e comes with a very cool flat earth setting that is floating off of the far side of Saturn and set in the far future where the Sun has turned into a red giant. Its a gonzo sword and sorcery game and the book has some of the coolest art I have seen in a rule book. Unfortunately, this system will be a hard sell because it uses descending armor class. None of my players, or I for that matter, have used Thac0 or anything like that. The book has attack tables for players to look up what AC they hit when they roll the dice, however, again, I dont think my players want to be looking up stuff. The game also uses an old school combat procedure with phases instead of taking turns going down the line. Despite all this, I find myself very curious about these old versions of DnD. They have stayed popular for years and have new content being created to this day. There has to be something there for it to have such staying power.
Far Out
Shadowdark is 5e stripped down to its spooky scary skeleton with a dark fantasy twist. It also happens to be one of the hottest games of this year and likely will remain popular well into the years to come. The amount of community support for this game is crazy and I want to get in on the action! However, time is limited and the extremely fragile nature of Shadowdark characters is sure to be a turn off for my players. Still, if the chance presents itself I would not mind getting a game going.
Public Access and Brindlewood Bay. These Powered by the Apocalypse spooky games have an interesting take on how to handle mysteries in TTRPGs. They could make for a fun Halloween one shot. Tho, they are really better suited for mini campaign play. Monster of the Week might prove better as a one shot game.
Salvage union is a Quest powered mech game with a TON of mech options. The game revolves around collecting scrap to upgrade your mechs and base of operations. It would be interesting to try and play a mini campaign. The large list of options makes it hard to justify trying to play a one shot in this system. Unless I make some premades.
Solo
Wanda will find her way out of the dungeons! As soon as time permits, I will be running a labyrinth. After that, I think I will switch to another system and start up a new campaign. I am thinking of using Mythic Bastionland or Cairn. Alternatively, solo play is a great way to try out and learn new systems. Hyperboria could be a good engine for the game. Dragonbane is also an option.
I hope to run a few of these mini solo campaigns and give wanda some clear goal for her to achieve. Perhaps I could remain in the Colostle but use a different game engine. I really do love the world of Colostle and want to stay within it for a little while longer.