2024: Games Played

If there’s one TTRPG maxim I’d like to shout from the rooftops, it’s that we should play as many games as we possibly can. There’s no point half-assing this hobby – to paraphrase Ron Swanson, you have to whole-ass it. And one of the ways to take a solid look at your own game consumption is to keep a record. So, I’ve checked my 2024 games spreadsheet, and the stats are in – 89 game sessions played in 2024!

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The Numbers

Looking at the systems run, I’ve played 55 different game systems – which I’m really pleased with! There’s so many exciting games within the hobby, I’m proud I’ve managed to play – and run – so many of them.

51 of these sessions are face to face, which points to a healthy convention scene – since I laid down Go Play Leeds I’ve not really had a regular face to face outlet. There’s a local club I’ve just discovered though which I’ll try out – who knows, I might get more regular play from that.

40 of my sessions I’ve been a GM (or the main facilitator in the case of GMless/GMfull games). This is about right for me – I usually aim for 50% GM, 50% player ratio, so 45% will do for me. If you’re keen on getting better at GMing or playing, doing the other is the best way to do it – different perspectives help!

Looking at session length, I average at 2 hours 32 minutes. Again, probably what I expected. 3 hours for me is the ideal for a face to face session, and 2 hours for online, and on Unconventional GMs we’re trying to hit sub-2 hrs every time we record. More, shorter, games are much more to my taste – and it means you can get more sessions in too.

The Highlights

The game that I played most sessions of in 2024 was The Silt Verses, the Gauntlet’s incredible Carved from Brindlewood adaptation of the podcast. This was at a weekend-long Longcon event in Sheffield, and it was a fantastic experience. The intensity of playing one game for a full weekend, with all the focus and push of a convention play, makes them real highlights. One of my greatest gaming experiences ever was a Longcon run of Dracula Dossier, and this is right up there as a similarly epic experience – shout out to the GM and my fellow players!

Surprisingly, my second most featured was Delta Green – a game I’ve never GMed and I never really think is quite my thing. I’ve enjoyed all the sessions, though – and I think 2025 is the year I actually run it. I’ve been lucky to have excellent GMs (Keepers?) in my games, thus avoiding the things that usually do my head in in investigative games.

I’ve got a 7-way split for 3rd place, with the following games all played for 3 sessions:

• The One Ring – the conclusion, at the start of the year, of a great short campaign kicking the dust off the wheels of 2nd edition
• Call of Cthulhu – this was a three-part run of Regency Cthulhu on the channel which you can watch here
• Feng Shui 2 – a series of one-shots at various places, including getting to run it for the designer Robin Laws!
• Pendragon – great that it’s got a new edition – again, maybe 2025 I’ll actually run it instead of just being a player
• Dragonbane – really great new/old system that manages to be super simple and effortless but also give some nuance and danger
• For the Queen – this remains one of the best ‘pickup’ games I’ve played, again with sets of players with various experiences
• Mouse Guard – this was, years ago, the very first game that I ran at a convention (not the best choice to start with, I’ll be honest); 2024 saw me return to it, and it’s just as great as it always was – expect more of this.

The 2025 Plans

69 of my 89 sessions were one-shots, which I guess is to be expected given how much convention play, and the focus on Unconventional GMs as mostly one-shot games. I think I’m missing a bit of campaign play in there – it’d be great to get 8 sessions or so of one game in – maybe 13th Age 2nd ed when it lands, or a published adventure – I’m a big fan of remixing those big campaign books, as regular readers will know.

I’ve got a fair few games that I’m really excited for – but I’ve covered some of them previously. I also want to actually run some Call of Cthulhu, and even Delta Green this year. I’ve long been quite particular in how I like investigative games to go, and I’ve probably played enough now to actually make it work from the GMs side of the screen.

I also think that I’ll be doing more solo gaming in 2025. There’s so much good stuff out there, and it’s a great prep tool – or just a workout to get ideas for group games. I probably need another worksheet on the spreadsheet to track it, though, don’t I?