Ring out the old...

It's the last week of 2021, and time for an annual assessment of the year passing in preparation for the year to come.

In gaming terms, this year has gone well overall. We managed to finish up a three year campaign for Princes of the Apocalypse. There were some odd moments in the final encounters, but it was nice to wrap everything up in a neat little package. We did try to tie everything up with some "sunset stories" to wrap up everyone's stories, but it was mostly theater.

Wrapping that game up allowed us to start Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, which has been very entertaining so far. It's basically the same group, with one less player, but we've been able to resume playing in person at the game store. These two aspects have allowed for a more relaxed interaction, so the game feels more alive.

The long-running game suffered from a lot of issues over the years, mostly too many players for most of the run, then too long online because of COVID. I've had a lot of fun playing online, but its not for everyone. With almost two years in person and 6-8 players for most of that time, switching online was a major shift in a game that already strained at its bounds. Still, we had a good group at the end, and were able to make it work out.

The new game has developed at a slower pace, and concentrated on playing the situations out without instantly resorting to combat. It has been fun to look for ways to avoid fights and explore using skills and other resources. There is an impatience in some of the play that is irritating, but not to the point of breaking the game.

Our other game, The Ghosts of Saltmarsh, has been going nicely (when it goes… we seem to get on a good run, then miss several sessions in a row). We've finally made level 4, and survived a couple of epic battles. There is a lot in this game that is improvised, which is fun, but it seems to slip into combat easily and works really well.

For our home games, we managed to push the desert game through a major point, basically finishing up the quest with the monastery. That involved an epic battle as well, but the game has stalled out since. We've toyed with other scenarios, and fought a few battles, but can't seem to get any game running consistently.

I finally restarted the online game for Tomb of Annihilation, and we got three or four sessions in before the usual fall distractions interrupted everything. Again, it's in a lull and needs to get rebooted again. We're only about two sessions from entering the final dungeon area. Once we get in there, it will be easier to keep the story going, I think. Ryan also expressed interest in returning to Storm King's Thunder. That would be fun, but I'd need time to pull it together. I think it would run smoother now though, after so long away from it. It would just mean extra time prepping it to run.

We've gotten distracted in the last two months by Traveller, a sci-fi game. It's been great fun building characters, but we haven't gone past that and a few skirmishes yet. It really comes down to the usual concern that we have with most of our games, everyone wants to play, but no one wants to run the game. That's a hard way to run games.

It's been fun and active this year, game wise. I think the new year will offer many opportunities for even more fun. What is going to prove pivotal is finding the motivation to start right out of the gate with Tomb of Annihilation and Traveller. We're in good spots with each game for capturing interest, but need to take action with them. I've begun getting flickers of ideas for other D&D adventures, but nothing has fully coalesced yet. Ideally, I'd like to start finishing off some of the adventures I've developed, with a mind toward publishing them online.

But next year's concerns will merit their own discussion in a future post looking forward.