RPGaDAY 2024 Review

RPGADAY 2024 Review 

Well, that was fun! 

It's been an interesting experience, and helped me think about what I play and why. It may even affect what I play in the future, particularly relevant with D&D 24 looming.

I'm not really surprised that I sound like an old school Grognard, but it's refreshing to see that I've mentioned more than just D&D and Call of Cthulhu. I like to think that I've dabbled in a few lesser known titles, though I've been reading a few other entries, and there are some truly obscure games out there.

I've definitely come to some sort of understanding of why I play games, and what sort of games are likely to appeal to me. 

Despite no longer being in the world of work, time seems as precious as ever, and inevitably I have to compromise when it comes to RPGs. 

In the past I've run several different games on different nights, using different systems (running D&D in both 4E and 5E was a challenge). I can't really do that anymore. The cognitive load is greater than I want to give these days.

I've realised that I don't enjoy a game if I feel I'm lost in the rules. I know that I might make poor choices within the game, but I want them to be my poor choices, not just because I don't understand the details of the game rules.

I appreciate that there's bound to be a period when I'm learning a new game, but, much as with my wargaming, I'm wary if something new comes along. Do I already have a game that does the same sort of thing? If so, is it worth learning something else new?

I've also realised that I like playing in games where the players act as a group to achieve a goal. I'm all for personal goals and motivations, but I've a personal dislike of games that set the players against each other. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this style of game, just that they aren't for me.

And if I'm playing a fantasy game, I want it to feel heroic. 

Honourable Unmentioned 

I realised that I've played quite a few different games over the forty plus years that I've been roleplaying, and many of them haven't been mentioned. 

Here's a list of the ones that I can remember.

So, in no particular order;

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 

Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game 

Runequest

Fiasco

Shadow Chasers (and various other Polyhedron magazine games)

GURPS

Tunnels and Trolls 

The Arduin Grimoire (or is this just a D&D supplement?)

Dragon Warriors 

Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying

Basic Roleplay System (the OSR clone)

Traveller

True d20 (the Pulp version, not the Mecha version. I regularly get asked to run this again)

Microlite d20

Warrior Cats 

SAGA roleplaying system 

Star Wars (the WotC d20 version)

STOCSlite

Maelstrom 

Lone Wolf (RPG based on the game books)

TORG (both versions)

Empire of the Petal Throne 

Beneath the Sands (devised by a fellow player/GM at the FLGS)

MERPS

Maybe some of them will get a mention next year.

#RPGaDAY24

Lidl Hobby Drill

Just a quick post to mention to UK readers that Lidl are currently selling a pin vice and drill bit set for under £6.

The forty bits range in size from 0.06 mm to 2.5 mm and there are left and right handed bits for each size!

I can't vouch for quality, but that's a lot of drill bits.

Wingspan

The MEGAforce was down to just two this week, but we ploughed on and tried Grim's latest game, Wingspan by Stonemaier Games.

The end game

How to Win

The aim of the game is to have the best collection of wild birds, measured by a value given on each bird card, plus a couple of personal goals drawn randomly at the beginning (one of mine was to try and get lots of birds with eggs on their cards at the end of the game, Grim was collecting birds with small wingspans, nominally passerines). There are also changing goals each round for extra points, and some birds have the ability to cache food or 'tuck' other bird cards - presumably they predate them or perhaps mob them and drive them off.

Game Play 

Each turn players take it in turns to either play a bird card in the relevant habitat (costing food, and potentially eggs), collect food (randomly rolled with special dice in the 'bird box/feeder' dice tower) from the forest, lay eggs from the grasslands or draw bird cards from the wetlands. Doing any of these last three actions also triggers abilities that any birds played in that habitat have.

The game is played over four rounds, each consisting of a number of turns, initially eight, reducing by one each round.

Stand outs 

The action economy system is great. Using small cubes to gain actions, but losing one each round really focuses you on your endgame.

The 'bird box/food tray' is a fun addition. Not completely necessary, although you do need to differentiate between food dice available and those which have been claimed, which it does admirably. Fortunately it does fit in the game box simply by separating the tower from the tray.

Minor grumbles

We found the starter deck, designed to help new players learn the game with four pre determined turns of the first round, more of a hinderance than a help. But we've learned that lesson, and we'll probably not use them with future new players.

For a game with an ecological focus, there's a lot of plastic. Plastic eggs, plastic trays for the various components.  There has been a move towards wooden or card components in many games recently, that would have been appropriate here.

And being an American game, the birds are all North American birds, though some birds do have a wider range than just North America. I'd like to see a more international supplement.

*EDIT* apparently there is a European supplement, along with several others.

Overall 

There's more to the game than my brief description, and initially it seemed rather complicated, but by round three we were pretty sure of play and were building strategies. 

I'm certainly looking forward to playing again, hopefully with the rest of MEGAforce, although it did play very well as a two player game.

I'll place this firmly in A Tier, with the understanding that this may move up or down slightly with repeated play.