2024 in Sixty-Two Games

Inspired by this post by Hendrik ten Napel, I’m doing super-short reviews of the sixty-two RPGs I played last year, ordered by the number of times played. Like last year, I completed the Ladder of Insanity by playing ten sessions of ten different games, which is a fun challenge, and sometimes pushes me to play things I might not otherwise look at. So, without further ado, my 2024 in sixty-two games:

1. The Silt Verses (26 plays)

This is a game published by The Gauntlet based on the fantastic serial podcast of the same name where gods are real, and capitalism is still terrible. I played (and am still playing) this more or less weekly with my regular group that’s run through campaigns of similar games like Brindlewood Bay and The between, and it’s been amazing. The game is still technically in development, but it’s 95% there, and I can’t wait to see the final product when it comes out—it’s already beautiful, and I know it’s just going to get moreso.

2. Slugblaster (12 plays)

This is 100% my game of the year—my regular group finished up our campaign that ran about forty sessions in total, and I can’t wait to play again. It’s Forged in the Dark, but boils down a lot of the more fiddly bits of that finely tuned machine into a different machine that’s more playful, more colorful, but equally magnificent. It’s completely bonkers teenage sci-fi with dimension-hopping action punctuated by heart-wrenching drama, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

3. Court of Blades (11 plays)

Another Forged in the Dark game, but this time it’s swashbuckling intrigue and romance between noble houses in a fantasy-ish Italian-ish Renaissance-ish city. The setting is lovingly detailed, the vibes are impeccable, and there’s a ton of material to sink your teeth into, if you enjoy splashing around the lore. The crew structure made it easy to accommodate players dropping in and out pretty well, and I’d be curious to see what a longer run looks like.

4. Trophy Gold (11 plays)

I played a whole bunch of two- to four-shots of Trophy Gold over the year, some in classic dungeon-type style, some in the scifi-horror genre. It’s a recurring favorite of mine, osr-flavored story gaming, and I’ll always jump in a game if I have the time in my schedule.

5. Bump in the Dark (11 plays)

Monster-of-the-week mystery solving in a northern town, Forged in the Dark with some Brindlewood-inspired mystery solving. I played in a campaign of this, then ran a two-shot for another ladder-climber right after. (This was the Revised edition—I think I played a session of this a while back, when it was more PbtA-flavored, and I think that version felt tighter, but this works too!)

6. Heart: the City Beneath (11 plays)

I kind of expected to love Heart, and at the same time was totally unprepared for the experience. In one sense, it’s a straightforward dungeon crawler with some juicy thematic mechanics, but in every other it’s this squishy nightmare the lets players take bizarrely overpowered delvers into this beautifully rotten hellscape, cause all kinds of trouble and chaos, and go out with the most awful bang when it’s all over. I played a bunch with folks from the Open Hearth then ran a four-shot near the end of the year, and it wasn’t enough. I need to play Heart some more this year, but not before I run Spire to really get into it.

7. Mecha Hack (10 plays)

I’ve played a bunch of mecha games in my time, from super-crunchy tactical battles (hello, Lancer!) to poetic dream-like journeys, and the Mecha Hack fits nicely right in the middle there. Based on the equally cool Black Hack, this game let us fight a running battle while dropping through the atmosphere of our target world, hunt kaiju through swamps and cavernous temples, and negotiate tensions between rival factions all while retaining the action-packed giant robot punchy action that we’re there for.

8. Mothership (10 plays)

Speaking of sci-fi horror, this is the current gold standard, right? I ran through a bunch of one-shots with a group on discord early in the year, then ran a few sessions for some friends, and it’s always a super tense and super gross good time party in there.

9. Blades in the Dark (10 plays)

This one’s a bit of a kind-of: we did nine sessions of Stars in the Dark, which is the Star Wars-themed campaign we’ve been playing off an on for a couple of years, and I squeezed in a one-shot of standard Blades at Games on Demand to round it out. But aside from setting, it’s all the same in the end—I know a lot of people have a lot of opinions (both positive and negative) about Blades, but I keep coming back to it for a reason.

10. Trophy Dark (10 plays)

Another standard for me for the last few years, like Trophy Gold, only more doomed. I almost always run this at Games on Demand at Origins, GenCon, and PAXU because it’s an easy sell, super quick to get into, and produces a consistently great (and horrible, in the good way) experience for everyone. I’ll run it at the drop of a hat (I’m about to jump into another session just as I’m writing this, in fact), so if you’re curious, give me a holler any time.

(It’s gonna get more concise from here on out—we’ve got a lot of games to get through!)

11. Swoop Gangs (9 plays)

My buddy Rich Roger’s drift of 1%er where instead of playing a regular motorcycle gang, we play (naturally) a swoop bike gang on the resort planet of Niamos. Yes, more Star Wars hacks—this won’t be the last one!

12. Tomb Raider (8 plays)

Playtest of the upcoming Tomb Raider rpg by Rae Nedjadi and Evil Hat, in a similar vein as Apocalypse Keys. We had a great time hunting a cursed wolf artifact through the Alps. There’s a lot going on here.

13. Mountain Home (7 plays)

Forged in the Dark again, but this time it’s dwarves forging a new settlement under the mountain, negotiating and jostling with neighboring factions. It’s got cool base-building, a really fun system for exploring and interacting with the world, and, of course, Delving Too Deep. What’s not to love?

14. Brinkwood: the Blood of Tyrants (5 plays)

Revolutionaries fighting literal blood-sucking tyrants, twisted by fae-powered masks and a thirst for vengeance? Where do I sign up? Oh, it’s Forged in the Dark? Well, yeah, duh.

15. Into the Odd (5 plays)

A light, weird OSR classic—I don’t think I’ve had the chance to play Into the Odd before this year, and it’s neat! The new edition looks great, and it’s effortless to pop together a character and get right to playing. We ran through the starter module in the book (The Iron Coral) and a bit of Times That Fry Men’s Souls, which I’d been looking at for quite some time.

16. Cairn (5 plays)

Another dead-simple OSR system—the rules are all online, and there’s even a cool one-click character generator/party manager that made getting my soul sucked out barely an inconvenience, as I had another character ready in literally thirty seconds.

17. Cloud Empress (4 plays)

Ohhh, I want to play more of this. Naussicäa-inspired eco-fantasy powered by the same “Panic Engine” system that fuels Mothership. I’ve got their Land of Cicadas hexcrawl and all the supplemental bits and pieces ready to go, as soon as the calendar clears up.

18. CBR+PNK (4 plays)

Another staple of my Games on Demand tables, a super-stripped down FitD cyberpunk one-shot system that lets you race a group of runners through their Last Big Score. Tight, action-packed, simple to get off the ground, and always a crowd favorite. And the most beautiful product design I’ve seen in quite a while.

19. The Between (4 plays)

I’ve run a long campaign of The Between before, and it’s one of my favorite games in the last few years. I got to play with some new tweaks to the system with Jason, the designer, and it’s still one of the best. I’m really interested to see the final version with all the screws tightened, but it’s already a consistently great time.

20. Mausritter (3 plays)

I ran a campaign of Mausritter last year for my usual group, but never got to play until now! Short pitch: fantasy rpg, only you’re all mice—ostensibly adventurers, but IMHO it’s actually horror. We ran through some of the recently crowdfunded Tomb of 1000 Doors, which has some super neat stuff in there, and I’d love to check it out again sometime.

21. Beam Saber (3 plays)

This was the end of our multi-crew Calazcon mega-game of Beam Saber—several teams of mech pilots and support crew in the same setting, all working towards (more or less) the same ends, with some “legislator” downtime between missions to work out logistics for the rest of us. Super neat, and I’m looking forward to hearing what the other teams did!

22. Deathmatch Island (3 plays)

This is the Squid Game/Battle Royale/all those things corporate horror adventure game from Evil Hat based on John Harper’s Agon. The graphic design is amazing, and we had a good time with it. I’m not sure I really clicked with it overall, but I’d like to give it another shot sometime.

23. Night Witches (3 plays)

I’ve gotten a few sessions into Bully Pulpit’s Night Witches a few times, and it’s a crushing good time. You’re normally playing the female Russian bomber pilots who harassed the Germans in WWII, but this time it was Battlestar Galactica-coded, we basically played Cylon defectors running dangerous missions for the fleet. I wish I could have stayed in the whole run, but life and time intervened.

24. Desperation (3 plays)

Another banger from Bully Pulpit, Desperation is a card-based rpg that flips the script—instead of making up what the characters say, you pick which character says the horrible thing that comes up on the cards you draw. We played the two scenarios that come with it—Dead House and The Isabelle—at BGG.Con, and my friend Mischa and I were inspired to make our own doomed space station deck, which I got to try out at PAXU Games on Demand.

25. Lady Blackbird (2 plays)

Another classic, what can you say? This is one of my go-to intro games for folks new to the hobby, or wanting to break away from the big ampersand. I got one session in with an in-person group of locals at a new game store in Austin, and one virtual session with some of the usual gang online. Finally got a chance to play the titlar Lady Blackbird, which was a hoot!

26. Depths Unfathomable (2 plays)

I hopped into a couple of sessions of a playtest campaign of this game from Thomas Manuel on the Open Hearth. You play a crew of salvage divers in a flooded post-apocalyptic world, and although I jumped into the middle of an ongoing situation, I had a lot of fun. I think this project has been shelved, but its spirit lives on in This Ship is No Mother.

27. Psi*Run (2 plays)

Man, I love this game so much, and the core mechanic is a thing of beauty, but I almost never have the opportunity to get it to the table, and when I do, there’s often kind of a clunky start while we figure everything out. This time we played as Jedi on the run during the purge instead of amnesiac superheroes, and that locked us in immediately.

28. Holdfast Station (2 plays)

Played a couple of one shots of this tight little game about a community of asteroid miners, with some BoB type mechanics. This is another one that was sweet to dip into, but looks like it will really shine with a longer play run, so I hope to be able to do that this year.

29. Shadowdark (2 plays)

You’ll notice there’s no 5e on this list. Look around, there’s so many other things to try out, and it kind of sucks all the air out of the room. But Shadowdark, hell yeah. One solid little book with everything you need to play, simple but immensely readable layout, compatible with all sorts of dungeoneering material, and there’s a free quickstart that has pretty much everything you need. Torches only last for one hour of real-world time, and that kind of sets the tone, right?

30. Firebrands MF0 (2 plays)

Another Baker jam that I love to death, and have such a hard time getting into play. The frame of three factions tussling over limited resources in their mechs, combined with some really sweet intimacy and adventure, all done through a a set of cool little mini-games. Need to do this more, soon.

31. Bite Marks (2 plays)

This is a PbtA werewolf game, focusing on pack politics and relationships. It does pretty much what it says on the tin. Had fun, but I’d like to dive in deeper.

32. Outgunned (2 plays)

A cinematic action RPG that focuses on teams of hard-hitting hot shots. Quick and dirty and not as light as you’d think, but a real good time. Again, this was a Star Wars hack of the core game, but it’s super skinnable by design, so it worked fantastic.

Okay, we’re down to the single plays—time to go faster!

33. Lancer (1 play)

The finale of a campaign from 2023, I just adore the tactical crunch of this mech fighter. The system is fantastic, and I’d love to do it again sometime.

34. Master of Sword (1 play)

This is a quick little solo game from Jason Morningstar that I took out for a test spin. A very modern spin on the (dry, but thorough) En Garde, I enjoyed my brief time with it quite a bit.

35. Troika! (1 plays)

I ran a fill-in game of Troika! using the Acid Death Fantasy setting book—a dune-flavored psychedelic desert of doom. Pretty nasty, but fun.

36. Fatigue Museum (1 play)

This was a larp at Chaos League’s International Larp Festival Online. We played curators of the eponymous museum, mostly just talking about the exhibits based on how tired we were of everything.

37. ViewScream (1 play)

God damn, ViewScream is so good. Designed for online video play, you’re a crew in a spaceship that is in real bad shape, and you’re all fucked. I want to play this again so bad.

38. Dead Belt (1 play)

A solo sci-fi game from A Couple of Drakes where you play a desperate shipbreaker/scavenger. I think it’s Carta-based, so it’s like that, and the graphic design is super grabby.

39. The Hunted (1 play)

Chris Bissette is infuriatingly good at this stuff. This kind-of-Forged in the Dark horror one-shot is just so tight and terrible and I want to do it more.

40. Eat the Reich (1 play)

Rowan Rook and Deckard’s full-color monster mess of vampire Nazi hunters is nasty, splashy, and irresistable. Another one that I’d love to get on the table a whole bunch more, because fuck Nazis.

41. Masks of the Masks (1 play)

We did an intro session of this Pasiónes-based superhero game heavily inspired by the Watchmen comics. Didn’t get to finish playing through—sessions were canceled—but I’m intrigued.

42. Cohors Cthulhu (1 play)

Call of Cthulhu, only in Ancient Rome. A bit of trad crunchiness, and not really my speed, but I know some folks love it. It’s not bad, just not for me.

43. Hit the Streets: Defend the Block (1 play)

I’ve played this a bunch with Rich Rogers, and I don’t remember which incarnation this single play was, but I’ve never had anything less than an amazing time with it, so check it out.

44. Dallas (1 play)

Yes, that Dallas. It’s an RPG based on an evening soap opera published by a wargaming company in the 1980s, and… it’s not bad? The rules are a bit impenetrable for modern eyes, but there’s a great game in there somewhere.

45. Moonlight on Roseville Beach (1 play)

A queer game of mystery solving and cosmic in a groovy resort town. Look at this thing, it’s gorgeous.

46. Corp Borg (1 play)

Mörk Börg, only in corporate hell. Pretty much exactly what it sounds like, so if that sounds like your thing, you’re in luck.

47. Lost in the Glow (1 play)

This was a playtest of a post-apocalypse FitD game we tried out at BGG. Promising, and I’m looking forward to seeing what becomes of it.

48. FIST (1 play)

Another one that needs more play over here. Gonzo superpowered secret agents fighting against chaos, a fun blend of PbtA and OSR sensibilities, and more cool tables to roll on than you’ll ever need.

49. Supervillain Heist (1 play)

This was a playtest of Nick Wedig’s non-linear story game about supervillains planning, executing, and recovering from a heist. I had so much fun with this one—it’s not available anywhere, but I got the files from Nick, and I’m definitely going to throw this one down every now and then.

50. Dialect (1 play)

A storytelling game where an isolated community develops and then slowly loses a language to colonialism. I’ve been wanting to try this piece of gorgeousness for a while, and it’s lovely.

51. Magical/Girl (1 play)

A magical girl Lasers and Feelings hack. Fun time!

52. Endless Quest (1 play)

This was a play-through we did on stream of one of the old TSR choose your own adventure books. Absolutely ridiculous, would do again.

53. Kingdom (1 play)

Another world building game from Ben Robbins (of Microscope) that we did a quick playthrough of at Games on Demand. I’d like to take some more time with it—there’s some good stuff in there.

54. Lovecraftesque (1 play)

This is basically Black Vault, the game. A gmless story game where you guide a single protagonist through a tale of cosmic horror, following a really cool story structure, with some awesome tools for collaboration. I just got the second edition deluxe boxed set from their kickstarter, and it’s going to get a lot of love in the coming years.

55. Against the Monster (1 play)

A Descended from the Queen monster hunting game. Prompt-based, if you know For the Queen, you get the idea.

56. Dreaming the Devil (1 play)

Wow. This tight three-player game about a witch being tried for their “crimes” is so intimate and intense. I’d had my eye on it for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. I’d love to try it again, but in a little while.

57. Olympus (1 play)

Thomas Manuel’s reskin of Dallas where we played greek gods fighting over powers, mortals, and all the usual olympian drama. It was play by post, and was cut short by logistics.

58. Sahara Expedition (1 play)

We spent a week in the actual Sahara Desert at a Lovecraftian larp with about eighty other seekers of forbidden knowledge. This would be a whole long story by itself, but yeah. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.

59. Wanderhome (1 play)

A pastoral wandering-around rpg about animal folks doing their animal folk thing. I was a bee herder!

60. The World We Left Behind (1 play)

A lovely world building game about exploring an alien planet. You get to mark up a deck of cards as you discover the world—we played online, but I’d love to do it again in person.

61. Roguelike (1 play)

A playtest of my duo storytelling game about classic fantasy heroes, based on an improv show that my buddy Ryan and I put together a few years back. I’m getting the zine version together as we speak, and I even made an ASCII art tarot deck to go with it, so I may have gone a bit overboard.

62. Swords Without Master (1 play)

Finished the year with an absolute unit of a game from Epidiah Ravachol. This is another one that I love so much, and don’t get to play enough of—there’s a lot of its DNA in Roguelike, as you might gather from the name. You can find it in Worlds Without Master, Issue 3, and I suggest you do so immediately.

Whew! That took longer than I expected! It’s already the end of January, and between the time I started this and finishing, I’ve already played another seventeen games, in nine different systems (which puts me at Rung Three, lol). This is just a super brief skim of a full year of great gaming—here’s looking forward to many more!