Games in 2022

So it’s time to look back at 2022 in terms of gaming. I normally leave these posts until January (or very late December), because the year hasn’t finished – but my regular RPG groups have all now finished until January (both games hit a sensible finishing spot). So I’m fairly safe that nothing will change much between now and the end of the year (I will probably play more boardgames).

Freeform Games

Freeform Games had a good year. We haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic, but sales levels are almost back to what they were. I will write more on the Freeform Games blog, in January.

Freeforms

I played or ran 14 freeforms in 2022, which is probably a record for me. This was boosted by attending Retcon in November – a convention I don’t normally attend.

Favourite to run: I think All Flesh is Grass, the second of my first contact games, was my favourite freeform to run. I felt it went better than the first (The Roswell Incident) and the third (Children of the Stars) was unfortunately beset by technical difficulties.

Favourite to play: Smoke and Mirrors, which I played at Peaky, was a delight and my favourite freeform as a player in 2022.

Plans for 2023: Run Messages from Callisto, the next first contact game, and plan the ones after that. I also hope to run The Roswell Incident and All Flesh is Grass at Retcon B in February. This will be the first time I’ve run any of them face-to-face. And attend Peaky, of course.

I also hope to publish in 2023 my book on writing a freeform larp. I’ve been pulling my notes together and laying it out this year, I’m nearly ready to let others see it for comment. I’ll publish it in book form in Lulu (and probably put it on my itch.io page).

Tabletop RPGs

My 2022 top games in terms of numbers were Fate of Cthulhu (16 sessions as GM), Troubleshooters (8 sessions as a player), ALIEN (7 sessions as GM) and Fate Accelerated (7 sessions as GM).

Favourite to run: My favourite games to run were Murder of a Templar (a Desk 17 investigation using Fate Accelerated) and Perfect Organism (my cinematic one-shot for ALIEN), equally. (And very differently.)

Favourite to play: Without a doubt, my favourite game to play was Jon’s Cthulhu Deep Green investigation set in London. We only played a couple of sessions, but they were a delight.

Plans for 2023: I want to get Kingdom and Hillfolk to the table. And if I manage that, maybe even Good Society and a bit of Traveller. I also want to develop an investigation for the Department of Irregular Services – ideally for Liminal, although the current investigation I’m working on (based on MR James’ Count Magnus) feels like Cthulhu Dark would be more appropriate.

With a bit of luck, I’ll also publish Other London: Desk 17, an urban horror setting using Fate Accelerated. (Murder of a Templar will be an adventure.)

Boardgames

The year isn’t over for boardgames yet, but so far I’ve played more games of Wingspan than any other game – mainly because it has a good solo option. Sadly, my family don’t enjoy it as much as I do.

The only new game for my collection was Everdell, which turned up for my birthday. Only a few plays so far – but we’re enjoying it.

Other games

And as usual, I played the usual assortment of video games: too much World of Tanks Blitz, plenty of Star Realms and Race for the Galaxy.

A good year

2022 might have been rubbish in many ways, but in terms of games played, it was great.