2020 in Review

Generally put, 2020 sucked. But gaming provided a welcome diversion

2020's Top 5

I decided to do something a little different this year and list my 5 most viewed posts.

#5 = MicroBattle Enhancements wherein I discuss the latest version of MicroBattle, featuring the advantage system. I also have a few shots of my 3mm generic battle box.

#4 =Tweedle's Tale wherein I create a character for use with the Swords and Six-Siders RPG.

#3 = RPG Design - Which Dice? wherein I ponder switching to a D12 for my home brew RPG.

#2 = Grom the Goblin Hero wherein I weave the tale of Grom, the goblin warrior who slew a barbarian. The game began as an experiment with a homebrew system that ended when the hero was cut down by a goblin. I then turned the tale around and narrated it from the point of view of the goblin.

#1 = Quest RPG wherein I share my impressions of the Quest RPG. Eventually, I decided against using it. Ironically, it did not feel granular enough in some areas but in others it was too much (e.g. it uses feats)

Interesting that most of those deal with roleplaying.

2020's Trend

I started the year on a skirmish kick. Here I experimented with some slap-together wooden figures.

I then began dabbling with MicroBattle, a set of quick play rules that I developed in 2019. Here I have a go at Micro Marathon.

I went back to skirmish when I discovered a homebrew set called Age of Heroes, which was posted on Lead Adventure Forum. I enjoyed them thoroughly and even adapted them for tank skirmishes.

I then began work on a homebrew light RPG. The tale of Grom (above) was one of my experiments.

Since August, my gaming has been either one of two types:

• Experiments with my MicroBattle rules, or
• Experiments with RPGs (primarily my homebrew rules but I dabbled with Swords & Six-Siders)

Recently, I rather combined the two, using the same base mechanics for both. And this is where my gaming stands as we head into 2021. All in all, an interesting year gaming-wise, at least as far as rules experiments go. Looking forward to more development of MicroBattle next year.

Prognostication Review

Finally, I like to review my prognostications from January to see how well I predicted the future. Let's take a look.

• Skirmish / RPG boxes - while I had my 3mm figures stored in pencil boxes, I did not have any skirmish or RPG stuff so organized. I have since ditched the pencil boxes, but I have adopted a variety of other boxes for all my gaming needs
• Consolidation - As planned, I moved my RPG reports to this blog. Ironically, this has provided a substantial amount of material for this blog in 2020, as I have posted a lot about experiments with a homebrew RPG.
• Fewer Posts - I suspected that I would post less in 2020 but it turns out I posted a bit more. Part of that is due to the consolidation of blogs I mentioned above.
• Indecision - yeah, I really did not stick to a single period during the year. However, as I mentioned above, there ended up being a distinct theme - my work on my MicroBattle rules. The interesting thing about MicroBattle is that it is generic, allowing me to jump around between periods without issue.

Of course, I would never have predicted COVID. Ironically, that really did not affect my gaming given that I play solo extensively.

So there's my 2020 gaming year in a nutshell.