2020 in Gaming

Out with the old year, in with the new. 2020 is over. How was it for gaming?

Running Dungeon Fantasy

We had 20 sessions of DF this past year, from session 125 - session 144. That's up from 12 the previous year, and it's one of the best.

Honestly, COVID-19 is what gave us the Felltower-20. It was easier to ensure we had enough people to play with a Zoom and Roll20 based game. Roll20 made it possible, but not easy, and we've had issues with that VTT the whole time. But it did make it possible to play.

We had 10 or 11 different people play this year . . . and we've had multiple sessions with 10 people. Oddly Roll20 allowed for our more casual players to make a commitment to continous play, which is why Wyatt went from "drop in" to "mainstay," for example.

The PCs fought the draugr, again, and lost, again. They had a few empty delves. But they also found the second Bell of D'Abo, and rang its luscious, globular form and penetrated the dark . . . secret of Princess Olivia . . . and had an excellent fight made worse by common delver thoroughness. They also engaged and banished the Lord of Spite in another epic battle featuring things like a "plan" and "tactics" and "staying on target." Varmus, like Porkins, was a casualty, but the job was done.

Playing Gamma Terra

One reason we had so much DF is that we had only one session of Gamma Terra. Our GM is too busy to prep for game, so no game. That sucks, because I really enjoy getting to play.

AD&D

We kept up what's now a tradition of playing some old AD&D modules, too.

We had two sessions of AD&D - two sessions finishing Part I of A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade. This was fun, although the PCs really killed themselves with two moves - standing and fighting in bad circumstances, which might work for superior fighters vs. inferior ones in GURPS DF, but costs resources you can't afford to lose in AD&D, and trying to avoid an "obvious trap" by wasting a lot of time and resources. Still fun, but it was tough to GM at times.

I hope to get in part II of A2 very soon.

Other Games & Gaming

Not a lot. I played some video games - I started and finished Conan: The Cimmerian. I made significant progress on Ultima IV but stalled out because the final dungeon is like a day's worth of work. I finished Might & Magic I and started Might & Magic II but quickly stalled.

I didn't get any books published but I did write an article that'll see publication in the latest iteration of Pyramid. Ironically I had plenty of time to write, but SJG's change in writing policies made it less lucrative for me to do so . . . and then I started working full time and part time again, simultaneously, and that put paid to doing more writing.

I painted pretty close to 0 minis this year. I just couldn't get up the enthusiasm, and some issues with my glasses and hands meant paiting was difficult. Plus, Roll20 made painting a mini and then uploading a picture of it harder still.

I did try to get a short, weekly game going, too. But half the group seemed interested, all had different ideas of what to play, and everyone shot down the ones I could run. Someone else volunteered to run something, got busy . . . and it didn't happen. Oh well.

My goal from 2019 was more gaming and more painting. I got in a lot more gaming, but less painting. So it goes. I hope to keep up the pace of gaming in 2021! It's been enjoyable getting to spend more time gaming with my friends.