Thursday, January 2, 2014

One of Those Best of 2013 Posts

I did this last year, and thought it might be fun to do it again this year. To make this less of an exercise in navel gazing, I've linked to a lot of the things mentioned, including some freebies :

Best Set of Rules Acquired (and Played):  Tactical Combat WWII Rules This is probably my favorite rule set of 2013 - it's free and it fills a needed spot in my WW2 rules - something for company level engagements. Runner up: Gunstorm! Another great free ruleset, ostensibly for sci-fi but I've used the NPC AI  for troop movement in some WWII games and it's worked quite well.

Best Previously Acquired Rules that Got Use in 2013: Disposable Heroes. I wasn't sold on these at first. But, in the end, they won me over and I will probably play more in 2014.

Best Rule Purchase with an Eye Toward the Future: Pat Condray's Wargaming the Age of Marlborough Something about this thin little rule book excites me about gaming the period.

Best Non-Rules Book Purchase:  Never Unprepared : The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep

 Best Free Non-Rules Download: Gamemastering by Brian Jamison. I got a lot from this freebie and have referred back to it many times. I've used the character background process with my players a few times and the results have been well worth it.

Favorite Gaming Accessory Purchase: B4: The Lost City 

Purchase That I'm No Longer 100% Sure I Should Have Made: Reaper Bones II. I did drop out of the Vampire pledge level, but as I was locking in my final selection, I ended up getting paints and only a handful of minis. The paints will be more useful.

Favorite social game session (run) : The Dungeon of Akban The first social game I've ever run for people who weren't already in my close friend group.

Favorite social game session (played) : DCC at DragonCon

Favorite miniatures gaming session : Tied: Russian Tank Escort with Disposable Heroes/Coffin for Seven Brothers and Playing Gunstorm SciFi Skirmish and a Review

4 comments:

  1. Good list John, I need to check out a couple of those. And when may I ask it the next issue coming out? hmm??

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    1. Hmm - thought I replied and it's not showing up. I have two friends drawing stuff for me, and they are a bit behind. I'm hoping end of January, February at the latest.

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  2. I am extremely happy (and surprised) to see Gunstorm in your list! Your blog is an inspiration, thank you!

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    1. Hi Spacejacker!

      It really is a great game for small unit actions. Even better, the AI has found plenty of use in other larger scale games acting as a solo system for whole units. As long as there is a clear objective it works beautifully.

      -John

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