Looking back on 2012 and ahead to 2013, it looks likely that I'll continue to run four different versions of D&D.
D&D 4E:
My Greyhawk campaign continued its erratic course this year, with the usual run of events causing sessions to be missed. We gained a new player this year, but we're losing Adam. At present, this game is about 20th level, and we're three-quarters of the way through Tomb of Horrors. We also got to play through Logan Bonner's Lost City, which was fun. When the game restarts in the new year, we'll be doing a mix of homebrew and published adventures (mostly homebrew, I expect). The new Essentials maths made a big difference to the feel and enjoyment of this campaign, and I will probably incorporate a few ideas from the recent season of Encounters (War of Everlasting Darkness) as well, to get around the "only big fights" in a session.
I also ran a lot of D&D Encounters sessions this year. It actually was a pretty good year for the Encounters program, and my FLGS regularly got around 10-12 players; I don't think we ever quite got to three tables, but it came very close at times. (Last week, we could have gone to three tables, but we were missing a regular DM so we stayed at two - with the emphasis on story over combat, we were able to get away with it).
Next year, my table of Encounters will probably use the D&D Next rules; I'm not sure if the other table will change as well. Time will tell.
AD&D 1E:
At the end of last year, I started up an AD&D campaign for the Saturday players at my FLGS. It's been extremely successful, although its success caused a couple of other non-D&D campaigns to start up (Rifts, Fantasy Hero), and as a result it dropped down to fortnightly away from weekly. We've still had about 37 sessions in the year. Concentrating more on dungeon-exploration (and combat) than character and role-playing, it's been a lot of fun. It will continue on into the new year, and the group may get closer to completing the overall quest that underpins the campaign. I've enlivened it up by dropping Rappan Athuk (Swords & Wizardry version) into the campaign world as well, just when the players want a change from my dungeon-designs.
As a result of the campaign, the reprints of the AD&D books have been very popular in store, and a few of the players have acquired some of the older printings as well. For the most part, I've only been using the original three books, but the release of Unearthed Arcana next year will prove interesting; I don't intend to include it, but some of my players might insist.
The rerelease of the adventures as well is something I'm looking forward to.
D&D Next:
I'd hoped to run a lot more D&D Next than I did this year; it should have gone into the slot of my Friday (Greyhawk) campaign, but player availability was a big problem. I did run a few sessions, including a couple in a potential "military" campaign, but the rapidly-changing state of the rules was a problem. At present, it isn't a system that's quite there, and it became painfully apparent as we played it.
The addition of D&D Next as an option with D&D Encounters next year will allow me to run a lot more of it; it will be very interesting to see if the players prefer using it or the 4E rules.
Pathfinder:
I hadn't intended to run Pathfinder. I was pretty well burnt out on 3E when 4E came out: I've run a lot of 3E and I'm only too aware of its flaws. However, after the 4E/HPE campaign finished at the end of 2011, my Sundays became free (and Greg was without a campaign to play in). A few of my friends from my FLGS were interested in playing in a Pathfinder game, and one thing I did have was all of the adventure paths that Paizo have published. Now was my chance to use them. Unfortunately, I'd have to use the Pathfinder rules...
Playing the campaigns (almost) weekly has been a huge boon: we finished the Council of Thieves AP in 14 sessions, and we've almost finished Kingmaker as I write - we've had 17 of that campaign, and it'll probably be over in 20. So, 31 sessions this year (starting in March). It's reminded me of the underlying mathematical problems in 3E which I so hope won't be in D&D Next, but Paizo have managed to do a fairly good job with an unstable base.
The good things about Pathfinder - the wealth of character creation options and some excellent adventures (even if indifferently edited) - have been very good, and the players and I have enjoyed them. So, I'll continue with Pathfinder next year, and we'll go outside the Paizo APs to the Way of the Wicked by Fire Mountain Games; that'll probably run from February next year, assuming the final installment comes out before we start; at the rate we go through APs, I don't want to risk it not being available!
So, that's my 2012 in D&D and a preview of 2013. One thing for sure: there's still a lot of gaming to do! (And I haven't even recounted my adventures with other RPGs in 2012...)
Cheers!
D&D 4E:
My Greyhawk campaign continued its erratic course this year, with the usual run of events causing sessions to be missed. We gained a new player this year, but we're losing Adam. At present, this game is about 20th level, and we're three-quarters of the way through Tomb of Horrors. We also got to play through Logan Bonner's Lost City, which was fun. When the game restarts in the new year, we'll be doing a mix of homebrew and published adventures (mostly homebrew, I expect). The new Essentials maths made a big difference to the feel and enjoyment of this campaign, and I will probably incorporate a few ideas from the recent season of Encounters (War of Everlasting Darkness) as well, to get around the "only big fights" in a session.
I also ran a lot of D&D Encounters sessions this year. It actually was a pretty good year for the Encounters program, and my FLGS regularly got around 10-12 players; I don't think we ever quite got to three tables, but it came very close at times. (Last week, we could have gone to three tables, but we were missing a regular DM so we stayed at two - with the emphasis on story over combat, we were able to get away with it).
Next year, my table of Encounters will probably use the D&D Next rules; I'm not sure if the other table will change as well. Time will tell.
AD&D 1E:
At the end of last year, I started up an AD&D campaign for the Saturday players at my FLGS. It's been extremely successful, although its success caused a couple of other non-D&D campaigns to start up (Rifts, Fantasy Hero), and as a result it dropped down to fortnightly away from weekly. We've still had about 37 sessions in the year. Concentrating more on dungeon-exploration (and combat) than character and role-playing, it's been a lot of fun. It will continue on into the new year, and the group may get closer to completing the overall quest that underpins the campaign. I've enlivened it up by dropping Rappan Athuk (Swords & Wizardry version) into the campaign world as well, just when the players want a change from my dungeon-designs.
As a result of the campaign, the reprints of the AD&D books have been very popular in store, and a few of the players have acquired some of the older printings as well. For the most part, I've only been using the original three books, but the release of Unearthed Arcana next year will prove interesting; I don't intend to include it, but some of my players might insist.
The rerelease of the adventures as well is something I'm looking forward to.
D&D Next:
I'd hoped to run a lot more D&D Next than I did this year; it should have gone into the slot of my Friday (Greyhawk) campaign, but player availability was a big problem. I did run a few sessions, including a couple in a potential "military" campaign, but the rapidly-changing state of the rules was a problem. At present, it isn't a system that's quite there, and it became painfully apparent as we played it.
The addition of D&D Next as an option with D&D Encounters next year will allow me to run a lot more of it; it will be very interesting to see if the players prefer using it or the 4E rules.
Pathfinder:
I hadn't intended to run Pathfinder. I was pretty well burnt out on 3E when 4E came out: I've run a lot of 3E and I'm only too aware of its flaws. However, after the 4E/HPE campaign finished at the end of 2011, my Sundays became free (and Greg was without a campaign to play in). A few of my friends from my FLGS were interested in playing in a Pathfinder game, and one thing I did have was all of the adventure paths that Paizo have published. Now was my chance to use them. Unfortunately, I'd have to use the Pathfinder rules...
Playing the campaigns (almost) weekly has been a huge boon: we finished the Council of Thieves AP in 14 sessions, and we've almost finished Kingmaker as I write - we've had 17 of that campaign, and it'll probably be over in 20. So, 31 sessions this year (starting in March). It's reminded me of the underlying mathematical problems in 3E which I so hope won't be in D&D Next, but Paizo have managed to do a fairly good job with an unstable base.
The good things about Pathfinder - the wealth of character creation options and some excellent adventures (even if indifferently edited) - have been very good, and the players and I have enjoyed them. So, I'll continue with Pathfinder next year, and we'll go outside the Paizo APs to the Way of the Wicked by Fire Mountain Games; that'll probably run from February next year, assuming the final installment comes out before we start; at the rate we go through APs, I don't want to risk it not being available!
So, that's my 2012 in D&D and a preview of 2013. One thing for sure: there's still a lot of gaming to do! (And I haven't even recounted my adventures with other RPGs in 2012...)
Cheers!
