Every year, after looking back at the previous year, I tend to look forward and try to come up with some sort of plan. It’s good to have a plan. Though my plans tend to be more like the Pirates Code (“they’re more like ’guidelines’”).
Alternating Friday D&D
Since September, my friend Bruce
has been running a D&D 5E Primeval Thule game every other Friday for me and
Amanda and a few other friends. (Before that it was the Masks of Nyarlathotep
campaign using Savage Worlds/Realms of Cthulhu). It has been a lot of fun and I
expect (HOPE!) that to continue for the foreseeable future.
50 Games
I have a lot of games.
I mean a LOT
of games (and that’s just the board and miniature games… don’t get me started
on all the role-playing
games). Now mind you many of those entries on BGG are expansions – and
some of them are single card promo cards and the like… but still a lot of
games. I could play a different game every day of the year and… well… I might
get to play them all (if I used all the expansions). So there are two things I
wanted to do this year: 1) get rid of some games – I’d like to sort through
them and get rid of some of the chaff
(I’ll try to maybe trade them away on BGG, or just sell them at the
ToonCon Auction) and 2) PLAY as many as I can, obviously, but also make sure I
get to play all the ones that I really want to play again (or try out).
To do the second thing I thought
I’d make a list of 50 games I’d REALLY like to play and endeavor to play at
least one of them each week. I thought I’d get the kids to do the same – which
would mean we’d have to play at least three games a week – and we’d all get to
play at least ONE game on our list of games that we want to play. This was
harder than I initially supposed… I sat down and started the list and when I
counted them up I had WAY OVER fifty! (and I hadn’t even gotten to listing the
MINIATURES games I wanted to play – which I’d initially though to include,
because I’ve been feeling I haven’t been playing those as much as I like, and
thought including them would ensure I’d get to play at least a few more…).
So I had to do some paring down.
First of all I took off a few of our “Go To” games – games that we got down and
can play in under an hour – we’ll end up playing those whenever we have a bit
of time to kill – games like Dominion, 7 Wonders, Race for the Galaxy, Love
Letter, Loonacy, Fluxx, Pandemic, the Grizzled, etc. I’m even hoping A Study In
Emerald might slip into this category as the last couple times we played we got
through games pretty quickly!). I also decided something else had to be done to
get some more miniature games in (more on that in a moment) so I canned them
from the list. I also dropped a bunch of games from the list that I know the
kids really like hoping that they’d end up on THEIR lists, so we’d get to play
them anyway.
Here is what I ended up with…
1. Railways of the World (Eastern
United States)
6. London
9. Pax Pamir
10. Pax Porfiriana
11. High Frontier
12. Bios: Megafauna
13. Arkham Horror
17. Eldritch Horror
18. 1775: Rebellion
26. Fire in the Lake
27. A Distant Plain
32. Homeland
33. Illuminati
34. Agricola
35. Popular Front
36. Albion
37. Forbidden Stars
38. Inca Empire
39. Joan of Arc
40. The New Science
42. Puerto Rico
43. Samarkand
44. Secret Hitler
46. Wallenstien
47. Warrior Knights
48. ZhanGuo
49. Paths of Glory
50. A Few Acres of Snow
I'm considering possibly themed months... maybe all the Railways of World games on month, all the Martin Wallace games another month, all the Phil Eklund games, all the GMT games, etc... I was thinking October could be Arkham Horror month... It might help keeping rules straight if playing a series of games with similar rules/mechanics...?
I thought of suggesting the same to Amanda... but then we'd have FOUR games to play each week... that might get a bit daunting.... and, honestly, she probably couldn't be bothered. She'll play any game we put on the table and invite her to play, but she would never seek out new games to play or sit down to read rules. Maybe I could ask her to pick out just 12 - so we play one game she wants to play each month.
I'm considering possibly themed months... maybe all the Railways of World games on month, all the Martin Wallace games another month, all the Phil Eklund games, all the GMT games, etc... I was thinking October could be Arkham Horror month... It might help keeping rules straight if playing a series of games with similar rules/mechanics...?
I thought of suggesting the same to Amanda... but then we'd have FOUR games to play each week... that might get a bit daunting.... and, honestly, she probably couldn't be bothered. She'll play any game we put on the table and invite her to play, but she would never seek out new games to play or sit down to read rules. Maybe I could ask her to pick out just 12 - so we play one game she wants to play each month.
Saturday Afternoon Games
While Amanda is out with The
Girl at dance classes on Saturday afternoons I have been organizing games for
me and The Boy to play with various other friends. Generally I’ve run longer
games (2-4 hours). I hope to continue this. This is where a lot of the games on
my list will probably end up being played… which, unfortunately, will likely
mean Amanda and the Girl don’t get to play them… ah well… Hopefully we’ll get
to play a few of the games on The Boy’s list as well!
Skirmish Saturday Night
I think it’s time I brought back
Skirmish Saturday Night and got some miniatures on the table. Actually what I
mostly have in mind is a series of campaigns that could be a series of linked
skirmish scenarios to something more like role-playing… we shall see.
I tried to make a list of games
I’d like to play and sort out how I’d get them all in. As the list grew I
started thinking if there were twelve I could focus on one game each month for
the year… although that would mean only four of each game – which would mean
some pretty short-lived campaigns… then the list ended up longer than 12
anyway…
Some of the Games I definietely
would like to play at least a few times this year include:
Faustus
Furious - using chariots or JET
BIKES!
Maybe even Bolt
Action or Force
on Force…?
I’d really like to set up
campaigns of Frostgrave
and/or Song
of Shadows and Dust. I’ve also been considering running
pseudo-roleplaying games using Fear
and Faith (running Call of Cthulhu adventures) and/or Flying
Lead (possibly running old Twilight: 2000 adventures…?)
Vimy
The whole Vimy project is kind
of up in the air at this exact moment. It probably deserves a completely
separate post. So, more on that in a moment…
Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter
Wargaming Weekend
Originally I’d planned to NOT
have a skirmish campaign this year as I’d hoped to have enough of the terrain
and miniatures done for Vimy to play test it that weekend with a few people I
was hoping might help out with running the game. As that I up in the air at the
moment, so are plans for the Birthday Bash.
My birthday falls on a Saturday
this year, so I’ll definitely be playing games all day – probably all weekend –
it just may or may not be Vimy…
Family Day Weekend
Two weeks before my Birthday is
the Family Day weekend in February
and for the last couple of years we’ve had a weekend of playing
boardgames with family and friends. I’ll probably do the same this year.
Summer Skirmish Weekend Campaign
As I am not planning a skirmish
campaign for February, I thought I might organize one over the summer…? I have
NO IDEA what game I might run or exactly when it might be… just putting it out
there, it might happen. (if there was anybody interested).
ToonCon
As the whole family had a lot of
fun at ToonCon last year, we will very likely all be
attending again this year.
I will also definitely be
running some sort of game (or gameS). I guess I don’t have to decide for sure
for a few months, but some possibilities I am currently considering are
Passchendaele (as it will be close to the 100th anniversary of the
Canadian Corps’ assault on the ridge and the final capture of Passchendaele in
1917) and/or Faustus
Furious with JET
BIKES! (I picked up the game a couple of months ago and it looks like
a RIOT! When Viscount Eric at Gaming
with the Gnomies pointed out the Jet
Bike Construction Kit Kickstarter (which ends in a few days!) I
immediately thought it would work perfectly for racing jet bikes!
Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Vimy Project Update!?
New Miniatures!
12 Days of Gaming (or “What I Did for My Winter Holidaze)!
Posts
That's a plan, that's a lot of games! Good luck with that!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks, Iain! I may not play them all... but hopefully I'll have fun trying!
DeleteSweet Baby Jesus, Carlos, and Ramon. That is an ambitious list!
ReplyDeleteIt is... I'm not saying I absolutely, positively will play every single one... or that I will play miniature skirmish games EVERY single Saturday evening... it's just a goal to shoot for. Trying to be flexible and fun (with a plan), not "WE MUST PLAY THESE GAMES"!!!
Delete"Actually what I mostly have in mind is a series of campaigns that could be a series of linked skirmish scenarios to something more like role-playing… we shall see. "
ReplyDeleteIf you don't already have it, might I suggest you look at the "At the Sharp End" supplement by the Too Fat Lardies. It's basically the campaign book for Chain of Command but most of it is generic enough that you can use it for other rules.
I don't have it. I shall have a look at it. Thanks!
Delete