Game Planning for 2025

[First Age]

Fun times planning the games that I might run in 2025. The list is always a malleable soup of ideas, prone to fickle change, but the process of coalescing to an actual game is an imaginationscape(TM) all of its own.

• Traveller is my forever game, and the one that I have played the most in 2024, so I reckon that I might get something substantial to a regular slot in 2025.The inestimable Steve over at Four Letters at Random has, methodically and cogently, eviscerated the second and third books in the recent Mongoose 'Ancients' series of campaign books, leaving me a touch disinclined to jump into that epic series. I have already battled with railroady campaign books in Conan 2D20, and would rather not have to re-orchestrate another big thumper. Maybe the terrific first book in the series, the Secrets of the Ancients, might get some play? I have my eye on something smaller and more manageable
• Symbaroum has always been a favourite. I was running the game when early in its published life. It feels like a time to return to, not least because it is so ably supported in Foundry VTT. I think I could run some of the grimdark material at some fully 18+ conventions, but am cautious as to its suitability at others. I have almost all of it!
• Shadow of the Weird Wizard is on its way to me, as shipping is underway. I will run this online in Foundry, when the premium module is made available next year. In the meantime, I think it would prove a popular option for conventions.
• Dragonbane continues to impress, and there is little doubt it will feature in the schedule. I will run the Path of Glory, and/or, Windheim online at some point. I'm 20+ sessions into running the game in Trudvang and think I now understand it better. Essentially, it is BRP, with familiar Free League design flourishes interlaced. Add significant skill advancements and a few extra Heroic Abilities to starter characters and they start to ascend to an impressive, if fragile, level of power.
• The One Ring (2e) is on my excited to give a go pile. Possibly to be run at a convention or two, though I'd like to run the Lone Lands campaign as a short taste of Middle Earth. It seems clear that Free League do not have any licence to extend the IP to online play, so I would need to custom load the assets into Foundry to make the game as lovely as I would like. I might enjoy that.
• Age of Arthur will hopefully crowdfund in 2025. I have been running it for playtesting a fair bit recently and foresee some more in 2025. I might use the opportunity to revamp the 'Time of the Wolves' mini campaign as part of the crowdfunding.
• I'm fiddling with a game engine called Century, and might get it out for play in 2025. If it goes well I will self publish a small book as a give away for people who play the game.
• SPI's DragonQuest might get an outing, because it is the best RPG of 1981.
• The Gods sword and sorcery RPG is on my guilt list. It is beautiful and evocative, and like to believe that it is more than style over substance. I've written a character sheet in Foundry and put some assets in for a game. Maybe...

Do you do this? It amuses me to look back and see what I thought I might do, what excited the imaginationscape at a particular point in time. I'll be back with the real, as they emerge.

Too many games, and not enough time.

Continue reading...

 

[Guvnor]

My list is:

• Traveller,
• Dragonbane,
• SWADE,
• UBIQUITY,
  • Space 1889 and/or
  • All For One [running the older FGU Flashing Blades adventures]
• They Came From Beyond the Grave,
• D&D,
• 13th Age,
• Doctor Who.

Note that Mythras has fallen off the list - I think Dragonbane is making me feel it's BRP enough and appeals to my old love for Stormbringer and Magic World.

Forbidden Lands hasn't got the top of my list, but maybe solo?

 

[steveh]

Fun times planning the games that I might run in 2025. The list is always a malleable soup of ideas, prone to fickle change, but the process of coalescing to an actual game is an imaginationscape(TM) all of its own.

• Traveller is my forever game, and the one that I have played the most in 2024, so I reckon that I might get something substantial to a regular slot in 2025.The inestimable Steve over at Four Letters at Random has, methodically and cogently, eviscerated the recent Mongoose 'Ancients' series of campaign books, leaving me a touch disinclined to jump into that epic series. I have already battled with railroady campaign books in Conan 2D20, and would rather not have to re-orchestrate another big thumper. I have my eye on something smaller and more manageable

Too many games, and not enough time.

Continue reading...

Thanks for the name check. Note, though, that I think Secrets of the Ancients is great. It's the other two that suck.

As for me, I've got no idea for 2025 yet.

 

[Nathan]

In regards to my future gaming...

In the pipeline:

• I'm about to begin an Empires Rising online campaign using BRP.
• I'm putting together a group for a future face to face The Witcher campaign.

I would love to try to run or play in 2025:

• The Broken Empires
• More Doctor Who
• Dragonbane
• The One Ring

 

[First Age]

Thanks for the name check. Note, though, that I think Secrets of the Ancients is great. It's the other two that suck.

As for me, I've got no idea for 2025 yet.

Updated the blog. Maybe Secrets will be played?

 

[Pual]

It looks like I’m going to be playing Starfinder in 2025 when our long running heroes/space 1889 game pauses.

I could also be playing 4e D&D when the 5e game I’m running finishes.

 

[Pual]

Updated the blog. Maybe Secrets will be played?

You could always run the original version of twilights peak first.

 

[Guvnor]

Secrets of the Ancients is great.. I ran it all the way for you Graham about 13 years ago, mind

 

[Darran]

Darran’s Games for 2025


Tales from the Loop - This is my forever game. Halfway now through my third on-line campaign of the game I play every Sunday evening. Just had a brand new player join this week as well!

Alien - This is my convention and board game cafe game. I have eight scenarios already for this with me adding the final touches on my ninth scenario Alien: Remus.

Vaesen - Hoping to continue my on-line campaign in the New Year with the new content from Fria Ligan.

Blade Runner - I really need to run this at some point. I want to use the Casebooks from Fria Ligan but i do have an idea for my own casebook too.

Electric State - I hope to get this game going in the New Year too. The game just oozes potential and with the TV show coming soon it might even prove popular?

OutGunned - I’m intrigued by this game so i might just take it up. Try some pulp action gaming.


I’ve not got any fantasy gaming here, but I’m getting an itch to play.

I’m developing game system using factors of d12 so i might play test it with a fantasy setting.


I do have several scenarios developed and written for several Fria Ligan games, so I hope to add some polish and get them published with the Fria Ligan Workshop. I just need to find the time.

 

[Sablemage]

I'm feeling a need for focus in 2025, so lots of mashed up Savage Worlds/Traveller for me.

I had a much longer list, including 5150, All Things Zombie, Mongoose Traveller, Old School Essentials, and Shadowdark, but I don't think any of them will make it into this coming year.

I'm not entirely sure what's come over me, consciously intending to stick to one game (alright, two) for the whole year. I hope I'm not growing up.

 

[MartinP]

2025? What happened to 2024?

Priority 1 will have to be the Victorian Mars steampunk games I've been running at cons for years, which I'm preparing to publish as The Great Martian Tripod Race (with thanks to Simon Burley and apologies to HG Wells). Maybe I'll be able to organise a campaign with the Edinburgh RP Haven crowd.

I'd like to write a new Traveller scenario for con play, although I'm not sure if I want to do another 5FW Sword Worlders military game, or go back to the 'independent archeological salvage crew' that have provided so much fun.

I got the Dragonbane starter set for my birthday, so I might run that out at RP Haven for a quarter.

D&D 5e (2014 edition). Well. It's not my favourite game but there is something magical about introducing new people to the hobby, and D&D is the gateway drug of choice. Might be a beginners campaign at RP Haven or taster sessions at a music festival, but I'm sure it will happen. Also, there are mutterings about running an Adventurers League Epic for charity at RP Haven at some point.

There are a whole bunch of indie games that I want to play, so I'm going to try booking out some of the Edinburgh Indie Gamers sessions on the calendar. I've not managed a single session so far this year, although I might make the last in November.

As a follow up to that, I have a couple of little games that I'd like to play test, so those would also be good for EIG sessions. I might try one or two at Contingency if I get them ready in time.

Games on Demand. Thanks to Dave Wright's generosity we've had a great time running the on demand tables at Tabletop Scotland the last two years, but with the welcome number of extra GMs this year it became apparent that more advance organisation is required to avoid high blood pressure. It's game planning, so it counts, right?

Things that probably aren't going to make it into 2025:

• Girl by Moonlight, another birthday present, I played the play test material but I don't know who I would play this with long term.
• D&D 2024 edition. I don't want to think about how much I've spent on the 2014 edition, I'd like to get some more value out of that, please.

 

[Guvnor]

I don't want to think about how much I've spent on the 2014 edition, I'd like to get some more value out of that, please.

I genuinely think the compatibility is just fine as a GM.

 

[MartinP]

I genuinely think the compatibility is just fine as a GM.

Oh yeah, I don't doubt that. I see that the Adventurers League are phasing in the three new core books one by one as they are released, which certainly speaks to a lot of comparability.

My issue is I have to spend £100+ to buy the 2024 core books, and that expenditure invalidates the six core+expansion books I've already paid for (ok, I think a big chunk of the expansion books will remain valid content, but not all).

Having only gotten into 5e in the last 2 years I'm still amortizing the cost of the 2014 edition.

 

[Nathan]

In regards to my future gaming...

In the pipeline:

• I'm about to begin an Empires Rising online campaign using BRP.
• I'm putting together a group for a future face to face The Witcher campaign.

I would love to try to run or play in 2025:

• The Broken Empires
• More Doctor Who
• Dragonbane
• The One Ring

I should have added Outgunned to my love to try and play list.

 

[Brass Jester]

Hopes of getting a FTF group together again are still a faint smudge on the Ringworld horizon so it's still going to be solo Games: -

Traveller - carry on in the Neutral Zone
SWADE - Thrilling Tales (1930 pulp) and Tales from the Dominions (Beasts and Barbarians)

New:
Would like to try Dr Who (either 2D20 or Timelord) as never managed to get it to run as a FTF but as a Solo should work quite well

Also might try a modern (well, 1960-1970) secret agent based on The Man from UNCLE (James Bond RPG or something else - no ideas yet.)

 

[Nathan]

Would like to try Dr Who (either 2D20 or Timelord) as never managed to get it to run as a FTF but as a Solo should work quite well

I know Time Lord still has a small cult following. Are you planning on doing your own 2D20 version of Dr Who?

I’m running James Bond again in November.

 

[MartinP]

I should have added Outgunned to my love to try and play list.

Outgunned is alright. Certainly worth a shot (pardon the pun), as long as you make sure everyone understands the genre tropes it's working with.

We made the mistake of trying to fight the Big Bad when confronted with him at the end of act 2, whereas we were only supposed to fight him in act 3. Sadly the adventure offered an almost impossible chance of defeating him, so of course we went for it. We hadn't internalised the 'James Bond always gets captured' trope.

 

[Guvnor]

long running heroes/space 1889 game

Is that an 1889 game using HERO?

and Shadowdark

YES, quite a few of us need to try that.

Having only gotten into 5e in the last 2 years

Sorry, but of an ouch.
I think it may only be the new PHB you need. In fact maybe only the Basic Rules since they have all the revised core rules in.

I’m running James Bond again in November.

Hopefully for me.

James Bond always gets captured' trope.

My Doctor Who players seem to have got that.

 

[Polar Blues]

I am not much of planner, at least when it comes to gaming. I think I'd like to run more Savage Worlds, Mutant Chronicles or Day After Ragnarok most likely, but my group isn't too keen on it Savage Worlds. I'd have to take my chances of something like Roll 20, but I don't know. I still struggle a bit with the rules.

I did recently run an ICONS one-shot for my group which went really well. I love the superhero genre and ICONS just suits my style of GM so well. I can certainly see myself doing more of it and quitely been prepping and setting aside a few scenarios wait for the right opportunity.

But I guess my most ambitious plan would be to redo the illustrations on my games. I've made a lot of progress in this area. Did an part-time illustration course, got a qualification, learned how to work with vector at and even provided a set of chapter header illustrations for new new, upcoming edition of "The 23rd Lettter", a roleplaying game that has been around since the late 90s. Redoing all the artwork is a big job, and I'm doing other illustration related stuff at the moment, but I can start around the Christmas holidays, see how it goes.

 

[Newt]

"Plan, What Plan? I'm making this up as I go along" - Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Oh, go on then.

Main one for 2025 I think I'd like to spread my wings and try a bunch of games I've had on my shelves for a long time, such as Cartel, Spirit of 77, Fate of Cthulhu, Dungeon Crawl Classics (via the wonderful Operation Unfamathoble), and even Unknown Armies 3rd edition

That and the usual D101 suspects as ongoing campaign games. Currently on Season 3 of OpenQuest Thursday and approaching mid-season of Reboot the Future, which have been running on and off for four and two years, respectively .