Year in Gaming 2025

Here we are in 2026, recapping 2025. How was it for gaming for me?

Running Dungeon Fantasy

I GMed 17 sessions of DF Felltower this year.

Session 203, Brotherhood Complex 8 - Raid, Part III - War of the Robots
Session 204, Brotherhood Complex 8 - Raid, Part IV - Mechanical Knights, Gnolls, and Cultists
Session 205, Brotherhood Complex 8 - Raid, Part V - Mopping Up & Pursuit
Session 206, Brotherhood Complex 8 - Raid, Part VI - Exploring & Looting
Session 207, Felltower 134 - Exploring the Gate Level
Session 208, Felltower 135 - Exploring the Air Gate, Part I
Session 209, Felltower 135 - Exploring the Air Gate, Part II
Session 210, Felltower 135 - Exploring the Air Gate, Part III
Session 211, Brotherhood Complex 9 - Chop & Hannari's Excellent Adventure
Session 212, Felltower 136 - Steel Knights
Session 213, Felltower 137 - Looking for Evil Temples in All the Wrong Places
Session 214, Felltower 138 - Into the second GFS
Session 215, Felltower 138 - Into the second GFS Part II
Session 216, Felltower 138 - Into the second GFS Part III
Session 217, Felltower 138 - Into the second GFS Part IV
Session 218, Felltower 138 - Into the second GFS Part V
Session 219, Felltower 138 - Into the second GFS Part VI - Walls or Death

We started off finishing a multi-session epic fight that ran over from 2024 and finished with a multi-session epic fight that almost ran into 2026. Good stuff!

Same crew of gamers as last year, plus we added my friend Freddie. Long story short, he used to play in my games back in high school and early into college. We always stayed in contact even if not closely. He was out for a family visit, we did some BJJ together (he's a black belt, I'm not), and he mentioned wanting to drop in on a game session as a visitor. Lo and behold, we play online these days . . . and now so does he. He's a good match for the group.

I'm also well pleased that Felltower has been seen as a lost cause recently, due to lots of dead ends and "can't win" encounters. So what did the players do? This is going to sound crazy, but they put their big boy pants on and got to work on a couple of the thornier problems - a visit to the Air Gate (profitable!), a run at the steel knights (not profitable), and an epic run at the first landing on the second GFS and the maw of the "Gith" area (profitable, but less than hoped.) That really made me happy as a GM. Yes, these are hard problems to solve, and tough battles to win. But edging around the problem didn't help . . . and a straight-on assault of all three made headway. The Air Gate is an active place with a lot to do - even if only "raid more giant's castles." The knights are a problem but they have a better idea of how big of one. And the Gith are a serious, potentially existential threat when engaged, but rich as can be (even just from their arms and armor - nevermind whatever cash they have.) It suddenly looks target rich instead of an empty hole.

Playing RPGs

None. Not one session. Again. Hmm.

Other Gaming

I played a lot of Battle Brothers this year, after finally pulling the trigger on it. I really like it. I eventually added the Warriors of the North DLC and it's fine but I haven't enjoyed it as much since I added it. We'll see. Maybe I'm just getting used to the new backgrounds.

Writing

None. I might be done writing, basically. The opportunity cost in time is high, and the payoff is not great. A sizeable project can net me less than a week's pay at my day job and take many more weeks to do, and a small project isn't an option without Pyramid around any more.

We'll see. I do enjoy the finished projects, so maybe if I get an opportunity for something special I'll take advantage.




Overall, a pretty good year for gaming.

But, not a good year overall for our game group. We lost one of my former gamers. I still don't feel up to writing a post about that, yet. She'll be missed. She hadn't rolled dice in anger since before I started this blog, but she was one of my old game's regulars. I didn't want to say nothing, but maybe that's enough for the moment.