Let's Talk About Our Year In TTRPGs

[Count_Zero]

Continued GMing Shadows of the Dragon Queen for 5e.2024, hitting the 1 year mark on the (admittedly monthly) game.

 

[Velderan]

This year was mostly consistent with a PF2e Stolen Fate AP campaign that started near the beginning of the year. We did end up missing or having to cut short some sessions, but we're around 2/3 of the way through the second book so the plan for 2026 is to continue that. Aside from that, we got in a few sessions of a Shadowdark gauntlet dungeon from Cursed Scroll #3. To end the year we're planning a one-shot of Pirate Borg during the holiday break, so we'll see how that goes. The group I run games for is pretty excited by the concept so should be fun.

I think the thing I've figured out at this point is I'm probably going to look at moving on from PF2e when our current campaign winds down. As a system it addresses a lot of what I found lacking in 5e but it ultimately has one of the same issues I had with higher level 5e play: combat takes way too long. The combat is at least more interesting to me, but the thing I think I would prefer at this point is faster combat and the players having more time spent getting creative with exploration and roleplaying. I'm not 100% sure Shadowdark is what I'll end up running once we're done with Stolen Fate, but it's on the short list of things I want to run a short series of adventures with to see how the group I run games for does with it. Depending how well Pirate Borg goes, that will be in the mix as well as Dolmenwood/OSE.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yes, but the players are enjoying it. I admit I'm not yet 100% good with rules so we play a bit fast and loose here and there, but so far the game has been very fun.

It's been a while since I ran a game, but I think in hindsight I was a little too stringent with Paradox when I ran it. But I did love the magic system and the themes of the game.

 

[Voadam]

I started off 2025 with significant health issues that had required me in 24 to drop running my three year online weekly 5e Iron Gods campaign and drop out of my regular now multi decade bi-weekly face to face group where I was a player in a 5e game and also to drop an improv group that was doing gaming stuff. I was able to keep up in the online group as a player as my brother started a new fantasy campaign in a homebrew system with our shorter three hour online sessions but there was a couple periods where even that was too much.

These health issues mostly resolved in the summer and after a recuperation period I got back into gaming as a PC in both my regular online and face to face groups with the face to face one starting a modern X-Files type game using the Cypher System. Possible upcoming work promotion would make significant impacts on my time so I have been hesitant to get back into DMing right now. The improv group might do some one off things next year which might work out for me to join again.

Once I got back into gaming I was pretty frustrated at the regular cancellations of our regular games, a bit more than in the past.

I continued to get stuff throughout the year, mostly PDFs of either old stuff on sale or in bundles (old edition D&D, World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun) or more recent 5e and OSR and assorted weirdness like Forged in the Dark stuff. As a celebration after my health issues resolved I bought myself a physical 2024 5e MM.

I also continued to read gaming sourcebooks usually finishing off reading something cover to cover every month, like the physical 2024 5e PH I had gotten last year or a PDF of the 2e Planeswalker's Handbook.