Most of the year was either not gaming due to health issues, or the normal short form (1-3 shot) games I usually get stuck running. A few false starts for campaigns, all due to scheduling issues rather than system or people issues, so some hope for the coming year. Also got a few cool new games, most important of which was some horror stuff, which I have always stayed away from cause I'm not a horror fan so I figured I would be bad a GMing it. To my suprise the few games I ran went over really well so much so that a few peeps are working hard on figuring out a schedule for the new year in the hopes of getting a longer campaign going.
Most importantly was my reengagement with the whole online TTRPG space. I was active a few years ago but eventually grew discouraged because of how overwhelmingly D&D 5e oriented just about everyone and everything was. It actually all started with a single YT video that randomly popped up in my suggested list about the newest version of Pendragon (6th) and the creator went on at length about other non-D&D TTRPGs. Slowly over the course of a few weeks I looked back into the forums and YT videos and to my pleasant suprise discovered that the landscape was quite different than it was years ago, with a lot of folks discussing non-D&D TTRPGs!
Even more recently I was even more pleasantly suprised when I finally decided to give Actual Plays another chance. I tried watching Critical Role a few years back but it's just so far from a genuine tabletop experience that I couldn't get into it. To my very extremely pleasant suprise my YT feed suddenly became inundated with suggestions for actual plays. This has had a few side effects, most of which was reinforcing my preferences for games. I tried watching some D&D 5e AP, but wow, I never liked playing minis and grid combat cause I find it boring, but trying to watch it makes my eyes and ears bleed, especially considering that as soon as the minis hit the map (or tokens hit the grid) all description dissappears and it turns into a math game. Trying to watch 15 minutes of that is terrible. I skipped through a few just to see, and wow I can't understand how anyone would want to watch an hour or three. I also tried watching a few OSR AP, and I totally don't understand how folks can still be dungeon crawling after 40 years, it's, so boring. On the other hand I did find a TON of channels that do non-D&D AP, and wow some of them are bloody fantastic! The GMs are smart and imaginative, the players get into character and really put effort into the narrative. It's made me realize that there are probably a LOT more people out there that game the way I do than I originally thought. It's also had the side effect of skewing my YT algorithm so I keep getting recommendations for channels that do lots of non-D&D content, which is totally awesome! Turns out there are a heck ton of folks that are not D&D players just like me! It's definitely made me feel like I'm much less of an outlier than I've thought. So, if nothing else, this year has taught me that I might still be a weirdo, but much less so when it comes to my TTRPG preferences!
