How was 2009? MJ Harnish’s gaming in 2009 inspired this post. 😄
Hagfish Tavern – the *Rise of the Runelords* campaign started in December 2008 and was going strongly in 2009. We had an intermezzo with *Secret of Smuggler’s Cove*, continued the campaign until some players complained that it was too tough and they felt they didn’t really have an in-character motivation to fight ogres. So we had a second intermezzo written for a party two levels below current party average with *Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale*. We’re slowly returning to the campaign, however. This is my Monday game and it’s firmly in Paizo’s hand. It went from weekly to biweekly at some point because some of the players didn’t want to play every single week. In a way that relieves me of some reading pressure, but on the other hand it also takes out some of the drive. We replaced two players: One had started a family, the other spent weeks and months visiting his girlfriend in the states. And there’s still a player on the waiting list. Amazing!
Campaign:CityoftheSpiderQueen City of the Spider Queen – when Hagfish Tavern went biweekly, one of the players volunteered to run *City of the Spider Queen* by James Wyatt which he didn’t like since it was a big combat fest and we moved into the *Silver Marches* by Ed Greenwood and Jason Carl (both adventures by Wizards of the Coast). It was a fun romp from level 10 up to 13, but then a little kid arrived on the scene and the DM had to drop a game...
Campaign:CityoftheSpiderQueen City of the Spider Queen
Montags in Zürich – when *City of the Spider Queen* was canceled I had a second biweekly Monday slot to fill and decided to give all the small games a chance. I was ashamed of all the unused rule-books on my shelf. I started looking for people interested in one-shots and two-session games. And surprisingly, I found some! We really liked *Spirit of the Century*; I didn’t like how *Blossoms are Falling* (and *Burning Wheel*) went; I liked *Western City*; the others tell me that *My Life With Master* and *Legends of Middle Earth* are very cool. Legends of Middle Earth will in fact replace *Rolemaster* in our Middle Earth game! We also playtested *Death Frost Doom* using *Labyrinth Lord* which was ok but not mind blowing. I’m looking forward to some Warhammer RPG 2nd edition and many more strange and weird games. We have a long list of systems we want to try.
list of systems we want to try
Alder King – still my favorite game on two Sundays every month. We use D&D 3.5 and the *Lenap* map of the *Wilderlands of High Fantasy*. There’s hex crawling, players setting goals, Entourage Approach, and soon we’ll have a mass battle. The success of this campaign is giving me thoughts regarding the Monday game and all the Paizo material I’m subscribed to. I love having the Pathfinder Adventure Paths and Modules, but if I’m not reading them (because I might end up playing them), and I’m not running them (there’s not enough time!), and I’m not liking them as much as the organic campaign I’m running in my Sunday game – then perhaps I should consider canceling my subscriptions? I don’t want to do that. But the seed of doubt has been sown.
Golden Lanterns – we’re still playing in the Shackled City adventure path! It’s a monthly Sunday game, so it’s crawls along at a snail’s pace. We’re approaching the end, however. I don’t know what James is planning to run for us in 2010. He’s a big Paizo fan, so I expect *Second Darkness* or *Legacy of Fire*.
Kaylash – I started a (Mongoose) *Traveler* game. I’m still not sure I whether I like it. I think my main problem is that I lack role-models for good science fiction adventures. I’m improvising a lot. We also treat trade and routine skill checks for hyper jumps as part of the regular game. We’ll see where that goes.
Grenzmarken – the West Marches style game I’m in will end in a few sessions. It has been great fun and it has shown me that you can run a campaign with more than ten players. You just need to make sure that there are never more than a handful of players at the table. In this campaign sessions often went as follows: players come together, get a mission from the DM, small fight, big fight, loot, and return to base. Somehow the campaign was never really player driven. We’ll see what Peter has in store for us next. I heard it was going to be Warhammer RPG 2nd edition with a strong online/wiki component.
I also played some *Battle Lore*, some *Iron Tide*, some *Pandemic*, and some *Bang!* I’m looking forward to some *Race for the Galaxy* and *Dominion: Intrigue*. I was unable to convince a friend to try De Bellis Antiquitatis.
I didn’t play through *Fable 2*, didn’t play through *Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion*, bought *Dragon Age: Origins* and played it a lot at the end of the year.
My wishes for 2010:
1. I want to run a B/X D&D campaign using *Labyrinth Lord* rules.
2. I want to run a *Swords and Planet* campaign in the vein of Carcosa, Planet Algol, or Savage Swords of Athanor
3. I want to run a Babylonian, Assyrian, *Swords and Sorcery* campaign, possibly based around XP1: The Spider-God’s Bride.
My interest in roleplaying games was rekindled [HomoLudens three years ago], and it hasn’t collapsed, yet! 😄
#RPG #Games #Life #Retrospective
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
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Just saw Robin’s post about his top games. 😄
Robin’s post about his top games
– Alex
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Don’t forget the spider queen sessions.
– Sektat 2009-12-29 23:57 UTC
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Absolutely. That was a crazy game. 😄
– Alex Schroeder 2009-12-31 23:57 UTC