It’s the end of the year, and what a year it has been. Professionally, personally, and hobby wise it has been a year of change, renewal, and some amount of enjoyable chaos. For all that you’ll have to wait for my 2024 roundups that will be out in January. Right now I’d like to take you through my favourite gaming moments of 2024.
For those not familiar with the site, I do this each year in lieu of a game of the year. I don’t stay on top of the latest games so that sort of accolade or list feels hollow coming from me. What I do instead is look at my year in gaming through the lens of the experiences I’ve had. This gives me permission to talk about games both physical and digital, conventions, people, and whatever else has made my year in gaming.
The Scope of Arcs
All that said, let’s actually start with a game! Arcs is the latest project to come from the design team of Cole Wherle, Kyle Ferring, and Leder Games. This team has a pedigree of Root and Oath behind them. It sees players clashing over a region of space, but it is not a 4x as we traditionally understand it. The action selection mechanism wears the clothes of a trick taker, but it is not trick taking (despite what Leder says). It is a truly unique beast that I will get my head around for a review in the new year.
Arcs comes in two distinct flavours. The base game seems to be, and I can’t give you a full throated opinion yet, a tightly designed battle for supremacy. The campaign is a different game. Coming in a huge box that can hold the core game as well, the Arcs campaign takes you through three connected games of Arcs.
I had the pleasure to play this over the course of a day and the sheer scope was unlike anything I had ever played. You each start with a Fate, a direction for play. This effectively gives you powers and abilities towards getting the most points and taking the victory. Over the course of the game your fate may change depending on how successful you have been over the previous sessions. A narrative is formed between the mechanisms, and above the table, that is truly ambitious. It takes some of the historiographic play of Oath and places it in a game I enjoy a lot more. The result is truly epic.
I give you this summary that a fellow player wrote up of our game to give you an idea of the narrative that emerges.
Three regents sent by the Emperor enter the reach. The first regent reneges on his mission , goes rogue , and sets himself up as a leader of a new fairer society. The missionary embittered by the lack of take up of the new faith learns of a legendary weapon and exacts a terrible vengeance on an unsuspecting planet. The new first regent (this was me) slowly strips the empire of its remaining influence and is the economic power in the nascent commonwealth where people live in peace and harmony. Regretting their crusade the missionary repents and tries to destroy the relics that drove them but the first regent has other plans and razes the Reach of its resources before abandoning his brothers with his ill gotten gains and leaving a defenceless society at the mercy of the Blight.
Bowled over by Balatro
Balatro came out of a one person design team and took the computer game world by storm. It is now available on pretty much every format and deservedly so.
Balatro is a game that wears the clothes of poker, but at its heart is a score attack, combo-tastic deck builder. For details on the game you can go and read my review. It’s one of those games that absolutely possessed me for a while and I was playing it whenever I could.
Every deck I unlocked, every new combo I came across, every brilliant play was an absolute joy, It is a simple game, perfectly executed and polished. It is the sort of game that can only be designed by folk trying new things, not the AAA treadmill that has seen so many companies crumble this year. Maybe something to think on for development studios.
I thoroughly recommend it, just say goodbye to your free time.
Attending Conventions
It has been a really busy year for me conventions wise. At the very start of the year I was unsure I would make even one as I had quit my job in December with nothing to go to. I landed on my feet pretty quickly, and was able to secure some time off from the new gig before I even started. Thanks Sam!
The first convention I headed to this year was Gothcon in Gothenburg Sweden. I had been invited over the previous year, but due to my father falling ill just before hand I chose to stay in Scotland. The committee were good enough to extend the invitation into 2024. My trip involved taking part in the podcast room: running an RPG, taking part in some panels, and generally getting a feel for the Swedish scene.
I couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome and I hope to revisit some year and see the friends I made there this year. I am still in touch with them and hope I can return the favour sometime with hospitality in Scotland. It really is a friendly, and welcoming convention no matter your taste in gaming, or ability to speak Swedish!
Airecon followed hot on its heels. This has become a firm fixture in my convention diary. It is the con where I get to play the most which I really enjoy. I made a load of new friends this year and I hope to catch up with them again in 2025.
It would be a good few months before I headed to my next convention, returning to UK Games Expo for my first time since 2019. I admit I found it overwhelming at first. The convention had grown much larger in the time I had been away and for the first day I found myself trying to find a footing. I had a press pass and pondered what use I could be at a convention with such scale. I settled on focusing on the indie RPG scene, and in doing so found something to hold onto that I could draw people’s attention to. More on that shortly.
Tabletop Scotland is of course the main focus of my convention year. This is a con I am more involved with behind the scenes than any of the others I attend. This year I led some panels at the convention and Jamie and I trotted out another pub quiz. We had a blast doing it and can’t wait to get back to being quiz masters at next year’s convention.
I had two conventions to round out the year. Dragonmeet in London is more an excuse to see friends in the south, but I still enjoyed my time at the convention itself. This is a much more RPG focused convention than others I attend, so it can reveal to me the strange and the wonderful that I might miss amongst the hustle and bustle of a larger gathering.
The TAGS festival in Edinburgh is a new one on the circuit, and is focused on small comic creators and some RPGs as well. It was lovely to go to such a well organised event, and run across some games and companies that I hadn’t heard of. Chatted to some folk, bought a couple of things, and looked forward to its return next year. A great new event in the Scottish and UK scene.
Playing a Role
I am not at the forefront of anything really in terms of games coverage. That’s a choice I made, and am happy with. I don’t want to be on the new stuff treadmill. I do want to help folk find interesting games they may love, no matter the age, or format, of those games.
To that end I have started to cover a lot more RPGs over the last year. First I embraced the idea of a critical read of an RPG text being a useful resource for folk. The proof is of course in the play, and some games will move onto my play pile and get a full review when I’ve had a chance to get them to the table.
The other reason I chose to start doing more RPG coverage is that the state of RPG criticism is dire. There are very few places doing real critical work. There is also a pervasive opinion amongst some sections of the community that you simply can’t review RPGs in an effective way. I want to help change that perception, as it is obviously rubbish.
You can expect a lot more RPG work from me over the next year from reads, to reviews, and maybe even some more guides along the lines of the Blades one I wrote.
Stepping up
My year in gaming was made complete by being given the opportunity to get my writing out to a much wider audience through Tabletop Gaming Magazine. It had long been an ambition of mine to get some of my work in other places. Being paid a little doesn’t hurt either. I don’t expect to make a living from it. I don’t need it to be my job. As a way to supplement my convention budget, it couldn’t be better.
My thanks to Adam Richards who put me in touch with Charlie Pettit, the current editor of the magazine. It has been an interesting experience having an editor. I’ve learnt a lot about pitching and writing for a different audience already. I kicked off with the RPG special they did, writing 4 separate pieces. I’ve since gone on to do some more reviews and get a regular gig looking at the indie RPG scene. I am especially happy with this last one as it means I get to lift up some games out of the ocean of releases every month.
Rounding out
It has been a very strange year for me. I began the year unemployed and with some trepidation as to how the year would play out. It has ended up incredibly busy, but a lot of fun. Having my weekends back for the first time in 20 years has been revelatory. My new job is less stressful than my last one. Although I am working more hours, I am getting paid better and I have a lot more headroom to pursue my hobby. It’s been a fantastic move.
I hope you have all had some great gaming moments from the last year. These experiences are the reason I play games, and I want to hear about yours! Why don’t you come and share them with us in our Discord or in the comments below this piece?
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year when it comes.
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