What games are you playing during the holidays

[MNblockhead]

So I'm up late waiting for my teenage sons to go to bed so "Santa" can visit.

Santa will be putting the D&D Clue, D&D Trivia Pursuit, and Attack on Titan under the tree, so I'll be playing those tomorrow.

Also, after decades of avoiding Magic the Gathering I bought the "Game Night Free-for-All" set before the holidays so my younger son could teach my older son and I how to play. I've been stubbornly insisting on only playing the green "Boundless Elves" deck until I master it, which has resulted in my sons mostly kicking my ass over the past few days.

I got back into playing Catan when working overseas because a group of my French colleagues are really into it. So I pulled out a set I bought years ago during a sale at Walmart. Realized that the "Family" set is a somewhat simplified version of the game. Still fun enough to play, but I'll probably donate that game and get a proper Catan set. I also bought a proper set of the Werewolf party game to bring back with me to work. My colleagues and I were playing with a self-printed version of the game. It will be nice to have some decent components the next time we play instead of handwritten slips of paper.

During the holidays we generally only play board games in my family. It has always been a holiday tradition on my Dad's side of the family. Don't have any TTRPG players in my family other than my younger son and I and the holidays are 100% family time. I rarely get together with friends over the holidays. Will continue my D&D campaign in mid January. I don't expect my gaming to change much in 2023 other than my years-long campaign will likely come to an end in the next few months and I'm still considering ideas to pitch to the group for the next campaign.

How about y'all? Is gaming part of your holidays or do you take a break from gaming during the holidays? If you do game, what are you playing this season? Will 2023 bring any changes to your enjoyment of the hobby?

Whatever your answer, I wish you all happy holidays and an excellent 2023!

 

[jdrakeh]

Potentially some D&D, but that's iffy. It's hard to get people together this time of year if you don't live with them.

 

[pogre]

All of my kids are young adults - 4 ranging in age from 23 to 17. We play games pretty much every night like Codenames, Exploding Kittens, Chronicles of Crime, Clank, etc. Between Christmas and the New Year we host a mini convention named for an old gaming buddy who lives out on the East Coast. He has not made it back for years, but numerous other friends from around the country make the trek to central Illinois for some gaming.

This year on the schedule we have a Call of Cthulhu RPG game, a silly miniatures game based on West Virginia in 1938 - think aliens versus hillbillies, a long day of WFRP with some mass combat thrown in based on the old Lichemaster adventure by Carl Sargent, a 40K skirmish game with 1:18 scale figures, a Magic the Gathering draft, and a few smaller games. Honestly I look forward to these games more than the actual holiday!

 

[DEFCON 1]

My son got Marvel Fluxx, so we will be playing that a few times this week. I'm sure the family will have a game night one night this week.

I myself have our Pathfinder game Monday night, and then about 10 friends are coming over Tuesday in the morning for two tables of Twilight Imperium, which will last all day.

I also got Assassin's Creed Vahalla, Ghostbusters The Game, and Pentiment, all on Steam. So I'll have to decide whether to install any of them, or keep leveling in WoW Dragonflight.

 

[innerdude]

There's a slight chance my Deep Rock Galactic board game kickstarter will arrive before Jan. 1. That's the one I'm most looking forward to.

Otherwise, my family got me the Pebblebrook expansion for Everdell, which is one of my favorite board games ever. So definitely some of that is in the works.

And maybe some solo Ironsworn.

 

[DeviousQuail]

My brother and I got each other Gloomhaven on the PC so I'm looking forward to that. Otherwise we've got King of Tokyo, Code Names (Disney variant), Machi Koro, and Kingdomino on standby for tonight.

ETA: we have 7 Wonders as well and tonight we might have 7 people to play so that works out.

 

[Charles Lowry]

Scheduled BECMI D&D for one day this week and then will play a 5th Edition session next weekend.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Started the weekend with a gaming session Friday night. We’re winding down our 13th Fleet campaign, which has been a lot of fun. Just an absurd and light-hearted game.

For Christmas, I got the Robin Hood boardgame, so may try and play that this week. The kids are starting to get into video games, and they got some new games, so there’ll be some Xbox for sure.

Edited to add: I also got the Heart of Darkness scenario for the Alien RPG. I’ll likely run that fairly soon, though not for at least a couple months once 13th Fleet ends. Was gonna start a DIE campaign next, but maybe a few sessions of Alien can get squeezed in….

 

[payn]

Some Battletech pick up games and Solaris tournaments. Pretty low commitment which suits me for BT.

Otherwise, between things right now. Looking for a group that wants to do something long term, not fantasy based, and intricate.

 

[Retreater]

We were snowed in and didn't get to travel, so my household tried out Pathfinder for Savage Worlds. We played through Hollows Last Hope in a marathon session. I definitely have opinions, but will need to make a proper Post-Mortem thread.

 

[aco175]

Reindeer Games- what else.

At last though I will likely be playing only my Wednesday night game.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Most of my usual games are still running (Empire of the Petal Throne, Heroes of Olympus, Tales of the Iron League, Neoclassical Geek Revival, B/X D&D) but on top of that I'm finding myself in a large number of pickup games over the holidays - so far I've played pickup games of Mork Borg (twice), CY_Borg, Troika!, and D&D5e.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Nothing special for the holidays. But my weekly non-woke Flames of Freedom campaign will continue uninterrupted. Session #26 tomorrow!

 

[corwyn77]

Last Wednesday and this, our regular Encounters game.
Last Sunday, Dec 18, at long last, I restarted my Dungeon Fantasy (GURPS) game, last played pre-covid. Off yesterday - for some reason my players all couldn't make it - but we'll continue New Year's Day because we're all nerds and will not be hung over. Left off with them in the middle of a dungeon full of Dragons, ironically.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

WoW Dragonflight with the wife, Laybrinth with the family, and running at least one short D&D adventure with the kids (time to do the obligatory "clean out the giant rats from the tavern basement" adventure, although I'm thinking I might have everyone snowed in there during the holidays, adding some urgency to the extermination proceedings).

 

[Ulfgeir]

Well we will play a one-shot in City of Mist today. We made characters yesterday.

 

[Arilyn]

I got Monster of the Week for Christmas. Eager to give it a spin. Somehow I didn't have this game sooner.

 

[uzirath]

My son (13) kicked off his winter break with an all-day 5e game with some friends. I usually run a GURPS variant with the family or with one of my adult groups. My wife gave me the Tales From the Loop RPG, so I’ll be reading that and running a session in the next few days. A student gave me Carcassonne before break and we’ve been playing it quite a bit. (I’ve heard of it for ages, but this is my first time playing. Great game.) Finally, we played Ravine for the first time a few days ago. Had a lot of fun, but the game went home with family from afar. Now we have to buy another copy to try it again.

It’s safe to say that it’s a gaming holiday around here!

 

[Ulfgeir]

Well, today we did play City of Mist. It was a bit strange (the game itself is strange). We will finish the adventure sometime next year.

I realized that both that game and Urban Shadows 2e (at least the quickstart) had certain group mechanics that I am not entirely sure fit that well with the games as such (if I understood them correctly). It felt like they were included because other games using the PbtA-engine have them, and not because they serve the game; it was the mechanical connections between characters. I understood it that they were included to create drama between the characters. I have nothing against drama between characters if that is what the game is supposed to be about (Good Society: A Jane Austen rgp, and Pasion de la Pasionés). Here it felt a bit contrieved though, and the character-making took much longer than it ought to, and we even skipped some parts to be able to get to play. And I am not saying that as someone new to narrative games.

I get the feeling from both City of Mist and Urban Shadows 2e, that they are intended for relatively short campaigns.

 

[aramis erak]

How about y'all? Is gaming part of your holidays or do you take a break from gaming during the holidays? If you do game, what are you playing this season? Will 2023 bring any changes to your enjoyment of the hobby?

Sat and Sun groups not meeting due to holiday, but Wed group continuing L5R.

Whatever your answer, I wish you all happy holidays and an excellent 2023!

Same!