Favourite Gaming Moments 2023

It is a tradition for writers, podcasters, and YouTubers to look back at the year that was and make lists. Lists of the good and the bad. Menus of failure and success. Last year I went a different direction and enjoyed it so much I decided to make it my new tradition. I want to talk about my favourite gaming moments of 2023, be that around the table or on a screen. 

Discovering Knizia

I can’t really name a game of the year but I can name my favourite designer. The man of hundreds of designs, Dr. Reiner Knizia. Due to my work on Cult of the Old I have been revisiting older designs including some of the good doctor’s. High Society is a new favourite and I am eagerly awaiting the reprint of Modern Art. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of the Devir version of Tigris and Euphrates which I am looking forward to getting to the table after having played it a fair amount on BGA. 

Recording Cult of the Old

Cult of the Old is my new project with Matt Thrower and Nate Owens where we look at older games and put them into a modern cultural context. It has been such a pleasure to talk with such well informed commentators. We don’t always agree on the titles we cover but we always have a great chat about the positives and negatives of any game we look at. Season 2 is in the works and I can’t wait to get it out to you all. 

Running Agon

The Agon campaign I’ve been running featured in last year’s roundup and here it is again as it wrapped up this year! It was a game full of heroic action, tragic loss, redemption, triumph, and sorrow. It was fantastic and my players really brought their best to the table. 

At the end of it not all the heroes made it home. One took a place amongst the Fates. One was sent to Hades. One had their legend immortalised in the stars and two lived out their lives as heroes remembered increasingly dimly as time went on. I have honestly not had a bad game of Agon and I will no doubt be revisiting the system this year with Deathmatch Island coming out. 

Playing Odyssey Aquatica 

My friends Guy Milner and Gary Bowerbank started their own YouTube channel called Unconventional GMs. The idea is to show that you can run a great game in a couple of hours. 

I was invited to join a game of Odyssey Aqautica, an adaptation of the Agon system. It saw our group taking on the mysteries of the ocean in 70/80s style. It was with the group I had originally experienced playing Agon with and it was brilliant to be back in their company and telling tales of exploring the unknown. 

Attending Airecon, Tabletop Scotland and Dragonmeet

At the end of last year’s list I had let you all know about the conventions I was looking forward to. Due to some family illness I did not get to Gothcon but I did manage to get down to Airecon. 

I’d been planning to attend Airecon for a few years and it was great to finally make it down. Got to meet up with Adam Richards from Punchboard for the first time! Caught up with Guy Milner. Met Gavin and Sara-Jayne Jones, Gavin is a fairly active member in our Discord and involved with demoing for Ravensburger in the UK. Met Tim Clare (who I would later interview!). Played loads of games, ate well, and generally revelled in the hobby. It was great. 

Tabletop Scotland saw The Giant Brain team getting more involved than before. With The Unlucky Frog hanging up their hats, we took on the pub quiz! Iain Chantler made a return to help out Jamie and I with running the show and we had a blast. I was nervous about getting it right as we had never done anything like this, but everyone seemed to have a good time, we had some decent prizes, and all our technology worked out! 

While that was the highlight of Tabletop Scotland, we also got to play loads of games, meet some folk from the Discord and see lots of cool games, and passionate gamers.

Finally at the end of the year I got to go and visit a friend in Southampton and attend Dragonmeet in London. This was a con I went to regularly before 2020 but hadn’t been down to it since then. It was great to see folk I hadn’t in a while and meet Matt Thrower in real life!

Going to conventions isn’t for everyone, but I really enjoy seeing a diverse group of people playing all sorts of games. It gives me hope for the future of the hobby. 

Interviewing fantastic people

I did not maintain the level of interviews that I did in 2022. I was full of good intentions but work was being stressful and I was feeling fairly stretched over the course of 2023. However, I did get in a few interviews and they were all excellent. 

At the start of the year I interviewed Lin Codega who had broken the OGL story on Gizmodo. They gave us a great breakdown of the situation and went on to report on various controversies in the tabletop gaming world over the course of the year. Lin would be fired by Gawker, the company that owns Gizmodo, towards the end of the year. Idiots. 

The Cardboard Edison award is one we have always followed. A competition for unpublished games that helps folk work out how to pitch projects and get some attention on their work, all with mentorship from some established names. I spoke to the winner Sabrina Culyba about their game Diatoms. It was a great chat with a new designer and an insight into how the award process is structured. 

Tim Clare came over to the GB HQ for a chat about his book Coward: Why we get Anxious and What We Can Do About It. It was a fascinating talk about anxiety, gaming, and Tim was very honest about his own mental health and how gaming has affected it. I could have talked to him for hours! 

Finally around the Spiel des Jahres time Oliver Kinne from the Tabletop Games Blog, and current co-host of Brainwaves, had secured me an interview with Martina Fuchs. Martina is one of the judges on the current panel for the Spiel des Jahres and I am really grateful to her for chatting with me. It was a great insight into some of the intent behind the Spiel des Jahres and the differences in how it is seen from Germany and from the rest of the world. 

Diving once more into Hyrule

The latest instalment in the Legend of Zelda series came out this year, Tears of the Kingdom. It was a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild that I had enjoyed but not as much as I hoped. Despite that I bought this because I couldn’t help myself. 

You should go into Tears of the Kingdom knowing as little as possible but I was sold very early on. One of the first things you do in the game is dive off a floating island into the world below and it is a moment of wonder and fear, filled with possibilities of exploration. It was a great experience and I wrote up my thoughts on it (as mild spoilers as possible within).

Looking Forward

2023 was a weird year for me overall. I have some lovely gaming memories to look back on but the year was a bit of a stressful one. Towards the end of the year I made the decision to leave my job, with nothing lined up to go to. I’ll be ok for a while money wise which is a very privileged position to be in, but the move still comes with some trepidation. I’ve stepped into the unknown a little and I don’t know how it will affect my output on the site. 

Saying that leaving my job has already made me feel a lot less stressed and seen me putting pen to paper again, which you are reading right now! I’ve been invited to attend Gothcon again, and I am really looking forward to that. I’ve been playing more games and starting to write about those. I am intending to go back to the UK Games Expo this year and may attend Airecon again, though both will depend on any new job of course.

I am looking forward to what 2024 will bring, despite being unsure of the outcome. I’ve needed a change for a while and it feels good to have made that decision. I’ll be posting an update on the state of the site next week and what you can expect from it over the course of the year. 

Happy New Year to you all, and all the best for 2024.